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Background
A large-scale study in the US[1] estimated that over 42% of the adult population is at a Basic or a Below Basic Level of Prose Literacy. The study showed that a large section of the population may have difficulty in comprehending moderately dense prose. Being aware of the problems faced by the common person, many states in the US have mandated that documents intended for a mass audience must be made 'accessible'.
Many organizations use the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score to ensure that documents intended for a mass audience are roughly at the 8th-grade level. However, it must be kept in mind that a document may have several sentences that are extremely complex and still have an overall score of approximately 8th-grade level. Furthermore, some documents may have low Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scores but contain some sentences that cannot be processed by individuals with low Working-Memory spans (as shown on the preceding page).