‘Readability scores suck.’

‘People who use them are doing the wrong thing.’

‘These scores are worthless and people just aren’t listening.’

Okay—I hear that—but here’s the thing: if someone has started using readability scores, that means they’ve opened a door.

I don’t want to stand at the threshold and launch at them with a list of all the reasons why the scores are flawed.

I want to walk through that door, sit at their table and chat with them over coffee.

'You’re using readability scores? That’s great—because that means you care about making your communications more inclusive and accessible. That’s not true of everyone, and I’d love to hear more about that…'

'What was it about readability scores that appealed to you?'

'What effect have they had on your work? What effect did you hope they’d have on your work?'

'Have you thought about the other ways you might land your words more inclusively?'

'Sure—I can give you some examples to explain what I mean…'

I want to praise them for their decision to use a metric they believe to be valuable.

I want them to feel good about the steps they’re taking on the journey towards more inclusive and accessible communications, remembering that we don’t all move at the same pace.

I want to build on the foundation they’ve shown me, not tear it down.

I want to help them move beyond readability scores and engage with these issues more holistically.

So, sure—that might mean we touch on the forthcoming ISO standard on plain language as a useful tool should they need a rubric to guide them or a metric to demonstrate value to their organisation…

But the plainer the language, the harder the words that hurt—our habits of harm—land.

Which means we’re going to talk instead about inclusive language.

We’re going to lean into discomfort and talk about how our words can have unintentional effect—and we’re going to talk about how we can try to choose those we use more carefully.

Because if someone’s using readability scores, they’re showing me they’re already trying to do words differently. To do better.

I want to celebrate that and help them take the next step.

[First published as a LinkedIn article on 19 January 2023]