Are you excluding your audience? Part 2

In this second blog in our accessibility series, we’re turning our attention to written copy – how it can exclude audiences without us realising, and what more accessible writing looks like in practice.

Marketing copy shapes how your audience engages with your organisation. 

But when language becomes too complex, it can exclude new audiences and reinforce assumptions about who arts and culture are “for”.

The way you talk about your organisation and your events can determine whether an audience member feels welcome enough to continue their journey with you, or if they feel excluded. That’s why it’s important to check the readability of your copy regularly.

Acceptable benchmark for accessible writing

A widely accepted benchmark for accessible writing is Grade 8/9 on the Flesch–Kincaid scale, which equates to a reading age of around 13 years old. However, aiming lower is often more inclusive. Readability data indicates that around 15% of the UK population has an average reading age of 9 – 11 years, meaning a significant portion of your audience may struggle with more complex text. 

There are many reasons for the variation in reading ability. It can be related to disabilities, differences in educational opportunity, socio-economic factors, or English not being someone’s first language. Stress, fatigue, and cognitive load can also affect how easily someone processes information. 

Writing in plain language is not about simplifying your content, it’s about removing barriers so more people can engage with your organisation.

Solutions:

• Write shorter sentences
• Use simpler vocabulary
• Avoid double negatives 
• Get to the point quickly

Tools to check readability:

• Hemingway
• Readable
• Grammerly 
• Microsoft Word 
• AI writing tools – When used with caution, AI tools such as ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and LanguageTool are handy to proofread and check the readability of any text. 

Focusing on readability can shift how you communicate with your audiences and help you reach people who might otherwise feel excluded.  This is especially important if audience development is a key goal of your marketing campaign.

Get more tips on writing for your website and general plain language advice in our resource here.

Next, we will look at how digital ticketing systems can become unintentional barriers and what a truly accessible booking journey looks like.