Flesch Reading Ease

A readability formula developed by Rudolf Flesch in 1948 that rates text on a 100-point scale based on average sentence length and average number of syllables per word. Higher scores indicate easier-to-read text: scores of 60-70 are considered suitable for a general audience, while scores below 30 indicate university-level difficulty. In accessibility, Flesch Reading Ease and its derivative the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level are among the most widely used automated readability measures for evaluating whether content meets plain language or cognitive accessibility requirements. However, these formulas only measure surface features of text and cannot assess meaning preservation, comprehension, or whether simplification changes actually help target readers such as people with cognitive disabilities or low literacy skills.