About the Readability Widget

Through our Readability Widget, we aim to expand the accessibility and readability of the Libraries website. It's a way to provide readability improvements that some users, but not every user, will find useful. For instance, some users find black text on a white background (our default) to be the most readable, whereas others would prefer text against a warm-colored background (a feature in the widget). This widget may particularly benefit those with reading disabilities, but it may also be useful to a wide range of users.

A page about photography open on a smartphone, with a Readability tab tucked into the bottom of the page
The same page, with the Readability widget open and the Warm Background feature selected. Other features: hide images, open dyslexic font, and highlight links.

The pilot phase of the Readability Widget project began in 2022. We designed and tested the widget right here at the Libraries.

Acknowledgements: We thank Jordan Birkner (class of 2023) for her expertise and recommendations, which led to the creation of this widget.

Send us feedback

We’d love your feedback on the Readability Widget, especially if:

  • Something’s broken
  • Something works in an unexpected way
  • You have an idea for a new feature

Please email us at group-lib-webteam@ncsu.edu, or you can submit accessibility feedback anonymously.

Use it on your website

The widget is open source (see Github repository), so you can adapt it for another website. 

(Note: This widget alone will not make your website accessible; it is intended to be additive. We recommend that you ensure your site is WCAG-compliant before adding this widget.)

More resources

This widget is only available on the main Libraries website, so if you're looking for similar readability features that you can use on other websites, check out our other readability resources.