Our Commitment
Accessibility
Last updated: August 1, 2026
Reading access is not a feature. It is the purpose.
Why Reading Access Matters
Reading is how people access accumulated human knowledge — ideas, information, connection, opportunity. When the way text is presented creates unnecessary friction for a reader, the cost is not just a harder reading experience. It is a narrowing of what that person can access and do.
Cascade was built on a founding belief: the way written language has been presented for centuries was shaped by the constraints of print technology, not by the needs of readers. When those constraints no longer apply, the format can be shaped around the reader instead.
Everyone benefits from that. Some readers benefit more than others — and that distinction is not incidental to what we do. It is central to why we do it.
This Website
cascadereading.com is designed and built to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level AA — the current international standard for web accessibility. We are committed to ensuring that all visitors can access, navigate, and use this site regardless of how they interact with it, whether through a screen reader, keyboard navigation, voice recognition software, or other assistive technology.
We conduct ongoing reviews of the site and welcome feedback from anyone who encounters a barrier or difficulty. If something on this site is not working as it should for you, please contact us.
Accessibility feedback: research@cascadereading.com
What Cascade Does — and What It Does Not
Cascade makes the syntactic relationships within text more readily visible to the reader. It does not rewrite, simplify, summarize, or translate. The author’s words are unchanged. What changes is how the structure of those words is presented — making visible what was always there, so readers can perceive it with less effort.
This is not remediation. It is a better format.
Who Benefits — and What the Evidence Shows
Reading in Cascade benefits all readers. The reduction in cognitive friction is measurable across reading levels, ages, and languages. Some groups show particularly strong responses — and their experience is one reason Cascade’s accessibility commitment is grounded in evidence, not aspiration.
Neurodiverse readers
In a study of 200 adults with ADHD or dyslexia who read in both Cascade and standard formats and reported their experience:
4 out of 5
Preferred reading in Cascade
73%
Dyslexic readers who found it easier
70%
Readers with ADHD who found it easier
70%
Reported greater reading confidence
These outcomes were not produced by a specialized tool built for this population. They were produced by a better default reading format — one that happens to serve readers whose needs traditional typography has consistently underserved.
Non-native language readers
Reading in a second language compounds the cognitive demands of reading itself. The research shows Cascade reduces that friction measurably:
+11%
Comprehension gain — Mandarin-speaking readers
+5%
Comprehension gain — Korean-speaking readers
Time to measurable comprehension gain
100%
Students reporting Cascade helped them understand Spanish text
That last figure comes from a university Spanish program in which students read all semester assignments in Cascade. The benefit extended to grammar comprehension, vocabulary acquisition, and confidence — not only raw comprehension scores.
How It Works in Practice
Cascade is an optional reading layer. Readers choose to engage with it; it is not assigned or imposed. Because it requires no modification to the underlying content, it can be made available to all readers without identifying or routing anyone differently.
- No disclosure required. A reader does not need to identify a diagnosis or processing difference to access Cascade.
- No accommodation request. Cascade is a standard option available to every reader in the same way.
- No separate version of the content. The same text, structured differently — preserving the integrity of the original while reducing the friction of the presentation.
A neurodiverse employee reading a compliance document, a student with ADHD working through a reading assignment, a non-native speaker navigating a global platform — each can access Cascade as a standard option. The benefit is universal. The decision to use it is individual.
Language Coverage
Cascade is available today in English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian. Mandarin is in active development.
Cascade is built on language infrastructure that maps syntactic structure across 70 languages. Global reading accessibility — for readers in their own language, not only in English — is a founding ambition, not a future aspiration. Patents have been issued in eight countries, including Japan and South Korea, with additional patents pending, reflecting a commitment to global reach from the outset.
What Cascade Is Not
Cascade is not a screen reader. It does not convert text to audio, support braille output, or address visual or motor accessibility needs. We respect the assistive technology tools that serve those needs and see Cascade as complementary to them, not a substitute.
Our focus is cognitive accessibility — the experience of reading text on screen and perceiving meaning within it. That is the specific dimension of the reading experience Cascade was built to improve.
Our Commitment
We are early in a long journey. The evidence we have built represents a foundation, not a destination. We will continue to develop the research base, expand language coverage, and work with communities who understand accessibility from the inside — not as a compliance obligation, but as a measure of what technology can genuinely contribute to human potential.
“We see the potential in every reader. Cascade is dedicated to shortening the distance to its expression.”
Accessibility feedback and questions: research@cascadereading.com