Answer the question in the first sentence
Picture a town website with a page titled "Water Service." The first paragraph explains the history of the municipal water system. The second paragraph describes the treatment process. The third paragraph lists the members of the water board. The fourth paragraph mentions that bills are mailed on the first of the month. The fifth paragraph, halfway down the page, contains a link to pay online. A resident who arrives at that page wants to pay a bill or report a leak. They do not want a history lesson. They scroll, skim, give up, and call the office. The clerk answers the same question six times that morning.
Readability is not about vocabulary. It is about structure. A page that does not answer the question in the first sentence forces the reader to hunt. Hunting takes time and effort. For a resident with a cognitive disability, with low vision using a screen reader, or with a slow connection on a phone, that effort is a barrier. Burying the answer is an accessibility failure. The fix is editorial, not technical. Rewrite the page so the first sentence contains the action or the answer. Move everything else down or delete it.
What residents actually come to do
Most visits to a town website have a single purpose. Pay a water bill. Find the date of the next planning commission meeting. Download a burn permit. Report a pothole. Check the hours for the recycling center. The visitor already knows what they need. They do not need context or background. They need a link, a phone number, a form, or a one sentence answer.
A page that opens with three paragraphs of preamble assumes the reader will keep reading. Most will not. They will scan for a link or a keyword. If the page does not have clear headings, short paragraphs, or bold text on the important part, the scan fails. The visitor leaves or calls. The page has wasted their time and created work for staff.
The test is simple. Open the page. Read the first sentence. Does it answer the question or provide the next step? If the first sentence is "The Town of [Name] is committed to providing quality services," the page fails. If the first sentence is "Pay your water bill online using the link below," the page works.
How to rewrite a page that buries the answer
Start with the action. If the page is about paying a bill, the first sentence should say "Pay your bill online" and link to the payment portal. If the page is about meeting schedules, the first sentence should say "The city council meets the second Tuesday of each month at 6:00 p.m. in the council chambers." Everything else comes after.
Next, cut the preamble. Delete the paragraph about the town's commitment to transparency. Delete the history of the department. Delete the list of staff members unless the page is specifically about contacting staff. If the information is required by statute or policy, move it to the bottom of the page under a heading like "Additional information." Most readers will never scroll that far. That is fine. The readers who need the additional context will find it. The readers who came to pay a bill will already be gone.
Use headings to break up the page. If a page covers multiple topics, each topic should have its own heading. "Pay your bill" should be one section. "Report a service problem" should be another. A visitor using a screen reader can jump between headings. A visitor skimming on a phone can scroll to the section they need. Without headings, the page is a wall of text.
Finally, test the page by reading only the first sentence of each section. If you can understand what the page offers and what to do next, the structure works. If you are still confused, rewrite.
Where this fits in a site audit
When I audit a town website for accessibility, I check color contrast, alt text, keyboard navigation, and form labels. I also check readability. A page that meets every technical requirement but buries the answer in paragraph four is still inaccessible. Readability is part of cognitive accessibility. It is also part of plain language requirements under federal and state law.
Rewriting pages for clarity does not require a developer. It requires someone who knows what residents actually ask for and is willing to delete everything else. I can do that rewrite as part of a WCAG audit or as a separate project. The result is a site that answers questions instead of explaining itself.