Frequently Asked Questions

Cascade reshapes the structure of a sentence using line breaks and indentation to align subjects and verbs and show how clauses and phrases relate to the words they modify. It doesn’t rewrite, edit, or summarize a single word; it changes how a sentence is presented, not what it says. Think of it like a pair of eyeglasses that make written language easier to see clearly.

No. Reader modes strip away formatting, and simplification tools rewrite content to make it easier. Cascade doesn’t touch the words at all. It only adds structure.

Cascade was built as a reading layer to support all readers, regardless of age, reading ability, or native language. We partner with platforms and publishers to bring this technology anywhere and everywhere people read, and we provide tools directly on our website so individual readers, educators, and parents can start using Cascade right away.

English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish today, with Mandarin in active development. (Character and usage limits vary by product. See the full FAQ.)

Cascade is privacy-first by design. It processes text structure only and does not store the underlying text. On the personal-data side, it collects only what’s needed to operate, like basic usage behavior, plus an email address only if you contact the team or sign up for updates, and it does not read form or password input or sell user data.

Cascade is backed by multiple studies across age groups and reading profiles, published in peer-reviewed journals. See the Research Portfolio.

Yes. The “See Cascade” page lets anyone paste in real text and watch it reshape instantly, right in the browser. There is no signup or install required.

Cascade reshapes the text on any page you’re reading — aligning subjects and verbs, indenting clauses and phrases underneath — so the structure of each sentence is easier to see. The words don’t change; how they’re arranged does. Want to see it first? Paste your own text into See Cascade and watch it reshape in real time.

Yes. Free to add and free to use, available now for Chrome.

Add it from the Chrome Web Store and create a free Cascade Reading account — an account is required before you can convert pages. A Welcome Guide walks you through your reading preferences. After that, any page converts with one click.

Cascade works only with the text already visible on the page you’re viewing. It doesn’t read what you type into forms or password fields. We collect only what’s needed to run the extension: your account email and basic usage data. We don’t sell your data. Full detail is in our Privacy Policy.

No. Cascade reshapes text after a page finishes loading, the same way a reader-mode or ad-blocker extension works — and you can turn it on or off for any page in one click.

It works on most text-heavy pages — articles, documentation, email, and long-form reading. Some highly interactive, app-like sites aren’t supported yet.

Yes. Individual teachers can register a free account and be ready to use it in minutes with no training required. Schools or districts can access Cascade under a license agreement.

• Cascade Reader: a free-form tool that instantly reshapes any text you type or paste.
• Cascade Explorer: the same tool with added educator features: it layers parts-of-speech and grammatical-structure highlighting on top of the reshaped text, making word relationships and function visible at a glance.
• Cascade Passage Library: a set of narratives and passages built around 4th- and 5th-grade CKLA topics, spanning seven reading levels. It’s included with the same free account and pairs naturally with either Reader (general reading practice) or Explorer (grammar instruction). You can share passages with students by URL or by sharing the HTML version of a passage.

No. Cascade never rewrites or summarizes content. It only changes how a sentence is shaped on the page.

By making sentence structure visible, Cascade gives both groups a scaffold for spotting how words relate to each other.  See the Research Portfolio for a peer-reviewed study demonstrating the value of Cascade for ESL readers.

Cascade Reader and Explorer support up to 2,500 characters per conversion. You can paste text copied from a PDF, ePub, or other formatted document, but carried-over formatting can sometimes disrupt how the text reshapes.

For Cascade Reader, use the copy button and paste the text where you want it, or print the page as a PDF. For Cascade Explorer, copying and pasting won’t carry over the grammar highlighting. To keep those visualizations, save as a PDF instead.

Individual sign-up stays free, but a school or district-wide rollout goes through Cascade’s Education solutions team. Have your school reach out directly. Cascade also runs pilots for teams and organizations.

Yes. Cascade has conducted rigorous research which has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including two separate longitudinal studies following 4th and 5th graders and a University of Illinois eye-tracking study of 80 adult readers. See the Research Portfolio.

Yes. The extension is free for any individual, so students can use it for homework and personal reading whether or not their school has adopted Cascade. If you’re a teacher, start on our For Educators page.

Yes. Four in five adults with ADHD or dyslexia preferred Cascade Format over traditional text. See the Research Portfolio.

No. Cascade only reshapes how a sentence is presented (line breaks and indentation to show structure); it never rewrites, edits, or summarizes the underlying text. Think of Cascade like a pair of eyeglasses that make written language easier to understand.

Cascade collects only what’s needed to operate like basic usage behavior, plus an email address only if you contact the company or sign up for updates. It doesn’t read form or password input, and Cascade does not sell user data.

Point their teacher to the free individual educator sign-up (ready in minutes, no training required), or, for a school- or district-wide rollout, have the school reach out through Cascade’s contact link.

The “See Cascade” page lets anyone paste in real text and watch it reshape instantly, with no signup or install required, so you can see exactly what reading would look like in Cascade Format.

Cascade integrates via a simple API (endpoints for JSON, HTML, or plain text), a browser extension, or a direct platform embed, depending on your use case. See Integration for the full detail. Reach out to the Cascade team if you have questions about integrating Cascade with any of your products or systems.

Three response options: JSON for structured metadata, HTML for ready-to-render markup styled with your own CSS classes, or plain text.

Authentication is handled through OAuth client credentials. The API returns standard HTTP status codes (200, 401, 422, 500) so failures are easy to detect and handle.

Yes. Requests are limited to 32,000 characters. In practice, submissions should be a sentence or paragraph length at most with multiple calls used to complete longer passages.

No. Cascade processes structure only and doesn’t store the underlying text. You retain control over your content.

Any content type, from news articles to legal contracts to scientific papers. It’s live today in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish, with Mandarin coming soon.

Cascade is a reading layer that benefits readers of all ages and levels, wherever they read. It makes AI-generated content, search results, and documentation easier to understand, not just easier to produce.

Shipping Cascade as part of your own product’s default experience requires a license agreement. Our goal is to create the easiest path for your users to benefit and for your team to implement. The cost and model depends upon the nature of the application and implementation, ranging from license fees to royalties.

Yes, Cascade sets up pilots for teams and organizations evaluating an integration.

Request API access directly from the Integration page, or reach the team through the Contact page. It routes you to the right conversation, whether you’re evaluating Cascade for a team or a platform integration.

The extension is free for individuals. If you want to make Cascade part of your product’s default experience — a browser, a reading app, anything shipped to your own users — that’s a license, not a download. Get in touch.

Decades of reading research point to syntax as the backbone of reading comprehension. Cascade’s scientific team has built upon that foundation by conducting rigorous research which has been published in peer-reviewed journals. See the Research Portfolio.

Yes. Cascade’s research has been rigorously reviewed by independent experts through the peer-review process, and received a top rating following a Johns Hopkins review of our methods and approach.

Research spans children to adults, native and non-native speakers, and neurotypical and neurodivergent readers, including two longitudinal studies following 4th and 5th graders and a University of Illinois eye-tracking study of 80 adult readers.

In a study of 200 adults with ADHD or dyslexia, 4 out of 5 preferred reading in Cascade format, and 73% of dyslexic readers and 70% of readers with ADHD found it easier.

Yes. Studies showed comprehension gains of +11% for Mandarin-speaking and +5% for Korean-speaking readers of English.  See the Research Portfolio to learn more.

No. Cascade doesn’t convert text to audio or support braille output; rather, its focus is cognitive accessibility.

No. Cascade is a standard reading option available to everyone. There is no diagnosis, disclosure, or accommodation request required.

Yes. 13 patents issued, with more pending, covering Cascade’s reading technology in the US and internationally.

The Research Portfolio page collects Cascade’s published and ongoing studies in full.