This is a DRAFT resource that supports Working Drafts of WCAG 3. Content in this resource is not mature and should not be considered authoritative. It may be changed, replaced or removed at any time.
🔙 WCAG 3.0 (Silver) Guidelines (Clear words)
Method: Clear Words
Platform
- All
Technology
- All
Summary
Clear words help create more accessible content for people with cognitive and learning disabilities. Use words or phrases that are most-frequently used for the current context, unless it will result in a loss of meaning or clarity.
How it solves user need
Using clear and common words makes content easier to read and to understand.
Outcome
This method supports the outcome: Common clear words
Detailed description
Clear and common words: Use words or phrases that are most-frequently used for the current context, unless it will result in a loss of meaning or clarity. This includes not using abbreviations, words, or phrases, unless they are the common form to refer to concepts for beginners. Where word frequencies are known for the context, they can be used. An example would be the Merriam Webster 3000 Core English Vocabulary Words.
Even languages with a small number of users have published lists of most-frequent words (such as Hebrew). If there is a natural language that does not have such a list, algorithms exist that calculate these lists for languages, or for specific contexts. Testing content against these word lists can be done manually.
Define unusual words: It is best to define technical or jargon words in context so that the user does not have to navigate away from the text to a glossary in a different location. There are a variety of possible solutions for defining words in context, including the use of a pop-up definition.
Provide a glossary: A glossary is typically an alphabetical list of terms related to a given set of content.
Dependencies
None
Test for common words
- Unit tested: By paragraph of text or other media.
- Test Tools: Use a common word list for your language. The list should be at least 3000 words long. Use a tool like Simplewriter.More research is needed on the list size.
- How the individual units will be scored using a 0-2 rating:
- 0 - uses undefined technical or jargon words
- 1 - uses common words and includes a glossary (at the end of a document that the person has to navigate to and back from)
- 2 - uses common words and defines unusual words in one click and one click return
Test Procedure
- For each section of text (paragraph or greater) look for technical words or jargon
- Are technical or jargon words defined...
- In a glossary that needs to be searched
- As a single click to display the definition and a single click to return to the word in context
Expected Results
For each unit:
- There are no undefined technical or jargon words (Rating 2)
- Uses common words and defines unusual words in one click and one click return (Rating 2)
- Uses common words and includes a glossary (at the end of a document that the person has to navigate to and back from.) (Rating 1)
- Uses undefined technical or jargon words (Rating 0)
Holistic Tests
- Still to be developed. We will include this in a future working draft.
Status
first draft
Change Log
- first draft (2020-09-20)