I just read Jakob Nielsen’s article on Lower-Literacy Users.

In summary, the article said that around “30% of Web users have low literacy” and that “improving websites for lower-literacy users can also help higher-literacy users.”

Of course, Nielsen said that some sites are targeted towards high literacy users, which is fine, but the majority of sites out there could see improved usage and user satisfaction if they were to simplify their content.

The main and most obvious advice is to simplify the text: use text aimed at a 6th grade reading level on the homepage, important category pages, and landing pages. On other pages, use text geared to an 8th grade reading level.

But by doing things like this, are we just dumbing down America?

According to Fred A. Baughman Jr. MD, we are. In a 1996 article The Dumbing Down of America” he wrote:

we have participated in their dumbing down–in lowering the bar. We have gone along to the point that we accept that half or more of our children are incapable of age-appropriate literacy, and that the schools can be expected to do no better. We have gone along to the point that what they tell us is age-appropriate literacy, is hardly to read at all.

It seems that instead of expecting greatness from Americans, we make excuses for them not achieving greatness.

Instead of creating webpages with language above a person’s reading level, to challenge them, we create webpages with language below their reading level, maintaining the status-quo.

If you think that this may be pushing people too far, above what they are capable of, check out this test for 11-year-olds from 1898.

How could it be that 11-year-olds in 1898 were expected to know more than most 30-year-olds in 2005?

It was Confucius who said, “If you shoot for the stars and hit the moon, it’s OK. But you’ve got to shoot for something. A lot of people don’t even shoot.”