Easy English vs Easy Read. What's the difference?
- Embrace Access
- Jan 23
- 3 min read
Easy Read vs Easy English: what’s the difference?
If you’re looking to convert or translate documents into Easy Read or Easy English, congratulations! Demand for accessible information is growing fast.
In Australia, the terms Easy Read and Easy English are often used interchangeably. They look similar. They use similar design features. They serve the same broad audience.
So… is there actually a difference?
The short answer: sometimes, but what matters more is quality.
Here’s what organisations need to know.
Easy Read and Easy English: why the terms overlap
Easy Read originally developed in Europe and the UK, where it is supported by legislation and formal standards. UK Easy Read often includes longer sentences, fewer images, and longer documents, and assumes stronger reading skills.
In Australia, Easy English emerged to support people with higher communication and literacy support needs. It used simpler words, shorter sentences, more images, and fewer ideas per page. It was also pitched as a tool to be read alongside a trusted support person.
Over time, Australian practice has shifted. Many providers now use 'Easy Read' as a the preferred term to describe work that follows Easy English conventions. As a result, the two terms are now widely used to describe the same type of accessible document.
This is why you’ll often see suppliers advertising Easy Read translation, Easy English translation, and Easy Read conversion services — while producing documents that look and function in similar ways.
There is no single “perfect” easy format
People often ask: “Which is better — Easy Read or Easy English?”
The evidence is clear: no single accessible format works for everyone.
People experience reading difficulty for many reasons, including intellectual disability, autism, ADHD and dyslexia, stroke, brain injury or dementia, and limited English or interrupted education.
“Low literacy” is not one thing. It involves attention, memory, language, processing, and visual understanding. Because of this, accessible information works best when it is tailored to the audience — not forced into a rigid template.
This means differences between suppliers are not automatically a problem. What matters is whether documents are designed for a clearly defined audience, based on evidence, and tested with people who actually use them.
What actually makes an Easy Read document accessible?
Whether a provider calls their service Easy Read or Easy English, high-quality accessible documents consistently include:
end-user involvement (co-design, user-testing)
very simple language
short sentences
clear page layout
white space
meaningful images
reduced length.
At Embrace Access, our Easy Read translations are written at approximately a Grade 4 reading level, with a strong focus on one idea at a time, two-line maximum sentences, images chosen with people who have lived experience of reading support needs, and professional oversight by certified practising senior speech pathologists.
If you’re procuring Easy Read or Easy English, ask this:
Because Australia has no national Easy Read standards, quality depends on the supplier.
Before commissioning an Easy Read or Easy English translation, it’s worth asking:
What reading level do you write at?
How long are your documents?
Do you follow sentence-length rules?
Do you involve people with lived experience?
What qualifications sit behind the work?
Accessible communication isn’t created by software or templates. It comes from specialist skills, evidence-based methods, and genuine co-design.
The bottom line
In Australia, Easy Read and Easy English are increasingly the same thing in practice.
What matters most is not the label — it’s whether your documents are truly easy to understand, designed for the people who need them, and translated and converted using best-practice accessibility principles.
If your goal is real inclusion, the question is not “Do we need Easy Read or Easy English?”
The better question is: Who are we creating this for — and how do we make it genuinely accessible to them?
Learn more with our Easy Read vs. Easy English Factsheet for organisations procuring Easy Read and Easy English document translations
We’ve created a free factsheet that unpacks this topic in more depth, including what actually makes Easy Read accessible and what to look for when procuring an Easy Read or Easy English provider. Download and share it with your team or decision-makers to support better procurement, stronger accessibility outcomes, and genuinely inclusive communication for people with reading support needs.
