Common Mistakes in Easy Reading: How to Improve Your Content for Better Accessibility

If you write anything meant to be read — newsletters, help articles, lesson materials, or a blog — you have a responsibility to make it easy to read. Accessible content is not a nice-to-have; it is the difference between a message that lands and one that quietly loses its audience. Yet most writers repeat the same avoidable mistakes, often without realizing it. Here are the common errors that make content harder to read than it needs to be, and concrete ways to fix each one.

Want expert help putting this into practice? EasyReading can guide you through it.

Mistake 1: Writing sentences that never end

Long, clause-stuffed sentences are the most common accessibility killer. When a reader has to hold five ideas in their head before reaching the verb, comprehension collapses. This is especially punishing for readers with dyslexia, cognitive load sensitivities, or anyone reading on a small screen.

The fix is mechanical and reliable: cut long sentences in two. Aim for an average of around 15 to 20 words, and let some sentences run much shorter for rhythm. After drafting, read each sentence and ask whether it contains more than one idea. If it does, split it. Your meaning survives; your reader's patience does too.

A useful diagnostic is to count the commas. A sentence with more than two or three commas is usually doing the work of several sentences and should probably become several sentences. This is not a rule to apply mechanically to every line, but as a flag for revision it catches a remarkable share of the passages readers find heavy.

Mistake 2: Hiding the point at the bottom

Related: easyreading - Complete Guide to Simplified Reading and Learning.

Many writers build up to their conclusion as if telling a story, burying the key takeaway under paragraphs of context. Readers online rarely reach the bottom. They scan, decide within seconds whether a piece is worth their time, and leave if the value is not visible.

Lead with the point. State the main idea in the first sentence of each section, then support it. This "front-loading" structure — sometimes called the inverted pyramid — respects the reality that people skim. It also helps readers using screen readers, who navigate by jumping between headings and opening lines. A reader who catches your main point in the first line and decides to keep going is far more valuable than one you spent three paragraphs slowly warming up, only to lose them before the payoff arrived.

Mistake 3: Neglecting visual structure

A wall of unbroken text signals "hard work" before a single word is read. Content becomes dramatically more approachable when it is visually chunked, yet writers routinely publish long undifferentiated blocks.

• Break content into sections with clear, descriptive headings.
• Keep paragraphs to a few sentences — three or four is plenty.
• Use lists for anything sequential or itemized, as this passage does.
• Bold the occasional key phrase so scanners can catch the essentials.

Structure is not decoration. It is a navigational aid that lets readers of all abilities move through your content at their own pace.

Mistake 4: Choosing complicated words to sound authoritative

See also: Expert Advice on EasyReading: Enhancing Accessibility and Comprehension.

Writers often reach for elevated vocabulary and jargon, believing it signals expertise. In practice it signals distance. "Utilize" is not smarter than "use"; "facilitate" is not clearer than "help." Every unfamiliar word is a small tax on the reader, and taxes add up.

Prefer the plain word unless a technical term is genuinely more precise. When you must use jargon — because your audience expects it or no simple equivalent exists — define it on first use. The goal is not to dumb content down but to remove effort that adds nothing. Clear content reads as confident; convoluted content reads as insecure. Consider that the writers most admired for authority — the great science communicators and explainers — are almost always the ones who use the simplest possible words for complex ideas. Simplicity, done well, is the strongest signal of mastery there is.

Mistake 5: Ignoring the mechanics of accessibility

Beyond the words, content lives in a format, and that format can quietly exclude people. Writers who care about readability sometimes forget the technical layer that determines whether everyone can actually access the text.

• Missing alt text: images without descriptions are invisible to screen-reader users. Describe what the image communicates, not just what it shows.
• Poor contrast: light grey text on white looks elegant and reads terribly. Ensure strong contrast between text and background.
• Vague links: "click here" tells nobody where a link goes. Make link text describe its destination.
• Tiny or fixed font sizes: let text scale, and never assume everyone reads at your comfortable size.

These are quick to fix and dramatically widen who can benefit from your work.

Mistake 6: Never testing with real readers

The deepest mistake is assuming that because content is clear to you, it is clear to everyone. You know what you meant, so you cannot judge how it reads cold. Writers who skip testing keep shipping the same blind spots.

Build a simple check into your process. Read the piece aloud — awkward spots announce themselves the moment you stumble. Run it through a readability score to catch sentences that drift too complex. Best of all, hand it to someone outside your field and watch where they hesitate or reread. Their confusion is data, not criticism.

A short checklist before publishing catches most problems: Is the main point in the first line? Are sentences short? Is there structure to scan? Are the words plain? Does the format work for assistive tech? Have real eyes seen it?

Improving accessibility is rarely about grand redesigns; it is about removing dozens of small frictions that accumulate into a barrier. Every sentence you shorten, every heading you add, and every jargon term you replace makes your content reach further. Publications like EasyReading treat these fixes as a baseline rather than a bonus, and any writer can adopt the same standard starting with their next draft. Clear content is not just kinder — it is more effective, because a message only works if it is actually read.