Assessment of the readability of online texts related to specific learning disorder

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the readability and content of texts on specific learning disorder published on Turkish websites. In the study, the first three hundred websites which were accessed by writing three main word groups (dyslexia, learning disability, specific learning disorder) to the search engine in July 2019 were evaluated. Of these, chat and forum sites, commercial sales sites, the sites that contained advertising, video and pictures only and less than 10 sentences of information, and news sites that do not contain information about the disorder were excluded. One hundred and two websites remained after the exclusion criteria were applied. Websites are classified according to their makers. The readability values of the texts were calculated using the Atesman and Bezirci-Yilmaz formulas. The contents of the text were compared according to the subject headings. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of readability values. The readability values of the groups were found to be at the level of undergraduate education. As a result, in our study, it was observed that the readability of websites prepared for specific learning disorder was low. It was thought that this result may adversely affect the awareness about the disorder and may reduce the possibility of early diagnosis and treatment in children. [Med-Science 2020; 9(1.000): 114-7]

Keywords

• readability
• specific learning disorder
• dyslexia