United Nations Focuses on Improving Learning Outcomes to Benefit Business and Society This week the United Nations marked the 75th anniversary of the signing of the U.N. charter. Leaders gathered virtually to address challenges and issues facing our global community. The UN site notes, “The UN is marking its 75th anniversary at a time…
Forbes reports Low Literacy Levels Among U.S. Adults Could Be Costing The Economy $2.2 Trillion A Year The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy engaged Gallup to estimate the cost of adult literacy to the US economy. Gallup estimates that low levels of adult literacy could be costing the U.S. as much $2.2 trillion…
Variable Fonts Deliver New Possibilities for Enhanced Readability Readability Begins with Typography While not widely recognized beyond the research community, typography design is a foundational element of reading performance. Research demonstrates that readers respond differently to changes in character shape and spacing. These typographical features are fixed in the static fonts we use today,…
Hacks to Improve Readability The term “hack” entered general English language usage with a new sense of “solution” or “work-around,” as in the phrase “life hack.” A Readability Hack is a work-around that provides an improved reading experience today, in advance of a full set of Readability Features being implemented in a reading app.…
KPMG Community Impact Grant Awarded to Readability Matters Honoring and celebrating a spirit of giving, KPMG Community Impact and the KPMG U.S. Foundation, Inc. teamed up to launch a new Community Impact Grants program. KPMG employees were encouraged to nominate nonprofit organizations for grant consideration. The company received over 1,400 submissions for Community Impact Grants…
Readability Matters at the Adobe Education Leader’s Summit Marjorie Jordan, Readability Matters Founder, joined partners Rick Treitman of Adobe, Ben D. Sawyer of the University of Central Florida, and Shelley Rodrigo of the University of Arizona to present their collective readability work at the virtual Adobe Education Leader’s Summit. The Adobe Education team and…
An Instructor Guide Engaging and Motivating College Student Readers through Customizable Reading Text Interface Jenae Cohn, Ph.D., Kathy Crowley, and Marjorie Jordan In higher education today, students access materials for learning in a variety of formats, from print textbooks to e-books, and PDFs. Given the importance of digital environments for delivering core college course…
Increase Readability, Reduce Cognitive Load Freeing Working Memory for Processing Meaning Meaghan Crowley-Sullivan, M.Ed., M.A. How does Readability Affect Cognitive Load, Fluency, and Comprehension? Research studies have shown a direct connection between reading fluency and comprehension. Individuals who process and recognize words quickly can determine the meaning and engage in critical thinking skills faster…
Take our 5-Minute Tests at the Virtual Readability Lab The Virtual Readability Lab, an online tool provided by Adobe, the University of Central Florida, and Readability Matters, allows adults to participate in 5-minute reading tests. These tests determine the font or character spacing that help readers read faster or enjoy reading more. The testing…
Can we Accelerate Adult Reading? At the June 2020 virtual Vision Science Society conference, Shaun Wallace presented the results of a collaboration between Brown University, Adobe, and the University of Central Florida. The team studied the impact of fonts on reading effectiveness with the goal of investigating individuation compared to the universality of fonts…