Language, Readability and Flashing Elements.

Readability focuses both on the way the web page has been designed as well as the content. Some research has shown that those who show a reluctance to reading online feel there is an impact on comprehension levels so clarity, layout with good use of white space and style are all important

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Text blinking, flashing and other fast moving animations can also problems for those with photosensitive epilepsy as noted by Epilepsy Action

The use of different languages across a website or on a single page has an impact of text to speech users or those using screen readers unless the coding used informs the assistive technology that another voice is needed so that pronunciation is not affected

Method

It is easy to see whether an item is flashing or blinking and causing distraction. The test can be completed manually. Try to work through a whole site as there may be many pages with different types of flashing content – it is often the advertisements that blink. If you have concerns download the Trace Photosensitive Epilepsy Analysis Tool (PEAT)

To view flashing content take a look at the Lings Cars website that also offers examples of clutter, animation, music, mixed fonts and much more.

Checking for Readability in terms of being able to understand content may depend on the aim of the website. There are online tests with scores for the number of complex multisyllabic words used in sentences as well as sentence length based on the Fog and Flesch Scales as provided by Juicy Studio.    An article on Medium offers Tips and Tools for Improving Your Content Readability Score.

Changes to the language on a page can be carried out with an automatic web accessibility checker such as WebAim Wave. "The language of a web page must be identified with the lang attribute on the element. This helps ensure that a screen reader will present the content using the appropriate language vocabulary, intonations, and pronunciation" (Webaim).

Advice