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Affordability of Easy Read

Purpose

Understanding the affordability of Easy Read is essential to diagnosing why organisations — despite legal and ethical obligations — fail to provide Easy Read consistently. Cost is the primary structural barrier to Easy Read adoption at scale. Naming it as a concept makes it addressable.

Scope

The affordability of Easy Read is relevant to all organisations that communicate in writing with the public, and particularly to organisations with obligations under the Accessibility Charter. It is especially significant for smaller organisations, community groups, and NGOs with limited budgets.

Components

  • Human powered translation cost: typically hundreds to thousands of dollars per document, making routine Easy Read provision financially impractical for most organisations 

  • Selectivity constraint: when cost is high, organisations can only translate one or two documents into Easy Read per year and must be highly selective 

  • AI powered translation cost: a fraction of the cost of human powered translation, making Easy Read financially viable for everyday documents

Outputs

A determination of whether Easy Read is economically viable for an organisation's communication needs, and an understanding of what changes when the cost barrier is removed.

Relationships

Authority and Intellectual Property

The framing of affordability as a structural barrier to Easy Read access is part of the broader accessibility and disability rights discourse. The cost figures cited reflect industry practice in Easy Read production. Not proprietary.

Version control

First published:

17 June 2026 at 12:44:48 pm

Last reviewed:

27 June 2026 at 9:40:21 am

Pricing

Pricing

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