Readability

How ScanGov measures the readability of your content.

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ScanGov measures how easy a page is to read using two established readability formulas:

• Automated Readability Index (ARI) — estimates the U.S. grade level needed to understand a page, based on characters per word and words per sentence.
• Flesch-Kincaid grade level — a similar grade-level estimate, based on syllables per word and words per sentence.

Plain language matters for government sites: content written above a general reading level is harder for residents to understand and act on. Readability is one of the checks under the Usability indicator.

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