Title: Accessible Reading
Author: Tessa (they/them), AuRise Creative
Published: <strong>June 2, 2022</strong>
Last modified: March 30, 2023

---

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![](https://ps.w.org/accessible-reading/assets/banner-772x250.png?rev=2735973)

This plugin **hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress**.
It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when
used with more recent versions of WordPress.

![](https://ps.w.org/accessible-reading/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=2735973)

# Accessible Reading

 By [Tessa (they/them), AuRise Creative](https://profiles.wordpress.org/tessawatkinsllc/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/accessible-reading.2.1.1.zip)

 * [Details](https://xho.wordpress.org/plugins/accessible-reading/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://xho.wordpress.org/plugins/accessible-reading/#reviews)
 *  [Installation](https://xho.wordpress.org/plugins/accessible-reading/#installation)
 * [Development](https://xho.wordpress.org/plugins/accessible-reading/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/accessible-reading/)

## Description

Your brain reads faster than your eyes! We humans have an internal dictionary of
learned words and reading the first few letters can be enough to recognize whole
words.

Bionic Reading® is a new method facilitating the reading process by guiding the 
eyes through text with artificial fixation points. As a result, the reader is only
focusing on the highlighted initial letters and lets the bran center complete the
word. In a digital world dominated by shallow forms of reading, Bionic Reading® 
aims to encourage more in-depth reading and understanding of written content.

Learn More about [Bionic Reading®](https://bionic-reading.com/).

This WordPress plugin is not a product of Bionic Reading®. It was developed by an
independent and disabled developer that wants to bring more accessibility to the
digital space. This plugin uses the official Bionic Reading API to generate accessible
text so an [API key](https://aurisecreative.com/accessible-reading-api-key/) is 
needed after plugin activation. Free and paid plans are available.

## Screenshots

 * [[
 * The frontend of the post page with the accessible reading button toggled on
 * [[
 * The frontend of the post page with the accessible reading button toggled off
 * [[
 * Plugin settings screen

## Installation

There are three (3) ways to install my plugin: automatically, upload, or manually.

#### Install Method 1: Automatic Installation

Automatic installation is the easiest option as WordPress handles the file transfers
itself and you don’t need to leave your web browser.

 1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
 2. Navigate to **Plugins > Add New**.
 3. Where it says “Keyword” in a dropdown, change it to “Author”
 4. In the search form, type “TessaWatkinsLLC” (results may begin populating as you
    type but my plugins will only show when the full name is there)
 5. Once you’ve found my plugin in the search results that appear, click the **Install
    Now** button and wait for the installation process to complete.
 6. Once the installation process is completed, click the **Activate** button to activate
    my plugin.
 7. After this plugin is activated, see below for additional instructions for setup.

#### Install Method 2: Upload via WordPress Admin

This method involves is a little more involved. You don’t need to leave your web
browser, but you’ll need to download and then upload the files yourself.

 1. [Download my plugin](https://wordpress.org/plugins/accessible-reading/) from WordPress.
    org; it will be in the form of a zip file.
 2. Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
 3. Navigate to **Plugins > Add New**.
 4. Click the **Upload Plugin** button at the top of the screen.
 5. Select the zip file from your local file system that was downloaded in step 1.
 6. Click the **Install Now** button and wait for the installation process to complete.
 7. Once the installation process is completed, click the **Activate** button to activate
    my plugin.
 8. After this plugin is activated, see below for additional instructions for setup.

#### Install Method 3: Manual Installation

This method is the most involved as it requires you to be familiar with the process
of transferring files using an SFTP client.

 1. [Download my plugin](https://wordpress.org/plugins/accessible-reading/) from WordPress.
    org; it will be in the form of a zip file.
 2. Unzip the contents; you should have a single folder named `accessible-reading`.
 3. Connect to your WordPress server with your favorite SFTP client.
 4. Copy folder from step 2 to the `/wp-content/plugins/` folder in your WordPress 
    directory. Once the folder and all of its files are there, installation is complete.
 5. Now log in to your WordPress dashboard.
 6. Navigate to **Plugins > Installed Plugins**. You should now see my plugin in your
    list.
 7. Click the **Activate** button under my plugin to activate it.
 8. After this plugin is installed and activated, see below for additional instructions
    for setup.

#### After Plugin Installation and Activation

 1. Visit [Bionic Reading® on Rapid API](https://aurisecreative.com/accessible-reading-api-key/)
    to get an API key. Free and paid versions are available.
 2. Navigate to **Tools > Accessible Reading** to add the API key to your settings.
 3. Optionally modify the fixation and saccade to suit your preferences.
 4. Creating a new post or updating an existing one will generate the accessible content
    for that post. Once a post has accessible content, a toggle button will appear 
    on the frontend for site visitors to use.

## FAQ

### Why do I need an API key?

This plugin uses the [Bionic Reading® API](https://aurisecreative.com/accessible-reading-api-key/)
to generate accessible text and it requires each user to have a unique API key.

### I have an API key, how do I use it?

You can set the API key for the plugin in two ways.

The first way is adding it in the plugin settings. While logged into WordPress, 
navigate to Tools > Accessible Reading and then under the Settings tab, you’ll see
a text field for API Key to copy/pase it into. Press the Save All Settings button
at the bottom.

The second way is defining the `ACCESSIBLE_READING_API_KEY` constant variable in
your `wp-config.php` file and setting it’s value to your API key. For multisite 
installations, this will set all of those sites to use the same API key. Example
usage:
 define(‘ACCESSIBLE_READING_API_KEY’,’your-api-key-goes-here’);

### What is the `accessible_reading` shortcode and how do I use it?

The `accessible_reading` shortcode allows you to add accessible text with a toggle
switch anywhere on your WordPress website. To ensure your shortcode’s accessible
content is automatically generated, a user with `edit post` capabilities must preview
the page using the shortcode at least once while you have enough API requests for
the day.

To use it, simply wrap the text you want to make accessible with the shortcode while
also adding an `id` attribute. For example:
 [accessible_reading id=”foo”]This content
will become accessible![/accessible_reading]

This shortcode will also add the toggle switch to enable/disable the accessible 
content automatically, so if you’re using it in multiple locations and want just
one switch, set the `hide_toggle` attribute to `1` to disable it like this:
 [accessible_reading
id=”bar” hide_toggle=”1″]This content will become accessible but **without showing
a toggle!**[/accessible_reading]

This shortcode saves it’s content to a post’s meta data, so if you’re using it in
a global area of your website like your header, footer, or sidebar, you should assign
the shortcode a post or page ID to save it once to avoid saving it to every post
or page it’s visible on like this:
 [accessible_reading id=”david” post_id=”23″]
This content will always save and pull it’s accessible content from post ID 23[/
accessible_reading]

If you want to temporarily disable the automatic processing without removing the
shortcode, you can set the `disable` attribute to `1` like this:
 [accessible_reading
id=”bowie” disabled=”1″]This content won’t be accessible, nor will it have a toggle.
_Yet_.[/accessible_reading]

### What is the `accessible_reading_toggle` shortcode and how do I use it?

The `accessible_reading_toggle` shortcode allows you to add a toggle switch anywhere
on your WordPress website. To use it, simply place the self-closing shortcode anywhere
on your WordPress website. For example:
 [accessible_reading_toggle/]

### What is the `accessible_reading_content` shortcode and how do I use it?

The `accessible_reading_content` shortcode allows you to add pre-made accessible
content anywhere on your WordPress website that a toggle switch will display when
turned on.

To use it, wrap the accessible content with the shortcode. For example:
 [accessible_reading_content]
<span class=”bionic-w bionic”><b class=”bionic-b bionic”>Lor</b>em</span> <span 
class=”bionic-w bionic”><b class=”bionic-b bionic”>ips</b>um</span> <span class=”
bionic-w bionic”><b class=”bionic-b bionic”>dol</b>or</span> <span class=”bionic-
w bionic”><b class=”bionic-b bionic”>s</b>it</span> <span class=”bionic-w bionic”
><b class=”bionic-b bionic”>am</b>et.</span>[/accessible_reading_content]

You can optionally add additional HTML classes to the outermost wrapper by setting
the value to the `classes` attribute. If setting multiple classes, they should be
separated by a single space. For example:
 [accessible_reading_content classes=”
custom-class-1 custom-class-2″]<span class=”bionic-w bionic”><b class=”bionic-b 
bionic”>Lor</b>em</span> <span class=”bionic-w bionic”><b class=”bionic-b bionic”
>ips</b>um</span> <span class=”bionic-w bionic”><b class=”bionic-b bionic”>dol</
b>or</span> <span class=”bionic-w bionic”><b class=”bionic-b bionic”>s</b>it</span
> <span class=”bionic-w bionic”><b class=”bionic-b bionic”>am</b>et.</span>[/accessible_reading_content]

### What is the `accessible_reading_original_content` shortcode and how do I use it?

To complement the `accessible_reading_content` shortcode, the `accessible_reading_original_content`
shortcode allows you to add the original content that a toggle switch will hide 
when accessible reading is turned on.

To use it, simply wrap the original content with the shortcode. For example:
 [accessible_reading_original_content]
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.[/accessible_reading_original_content]

You can optionally add additional HTML classes to the outermost wrapper by setting
the value to the classes attribute. If setting multiple classes, they should be 
separated by a single space. For example:
 [accessible_reading_original_content 
classes=”custom-class-1 custom-class-2″]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.[/accessible_reading_original_content]

### I’m adding this plugin to an existing website, can I use this to automatically generate content for posts in bulk?

Yes! In the plugin settings (Tools > Accessible Reading), you’ll find the “Bulk 
Update” tab. There you can configure a bulk update. Starting a dry-run first will
tell you how many API requests will be used and approximately how long it will take.

This feature uses the WordPres CRON to reduce your server’s load and respects your
plan’s daily API limit to prevent overages. If your bulk update uses more than what
your plan allows, it will automatically schedule to continue the next day, so larger
websites may take a few days to complete.

### Is this the official Bionic Reading® WordPress plugin?

No, this WordPress plugin is not a product of Bionic Reading®. It was developed 
by an independent and disabled web developer that wants to bring more accessibility
to the digital space. However, this plugin uses the official Bionic Reading® API
to generate accessible text. If you pay for a premium API plan, that money goes 
toward the official makers of Bionic Reading®, not this plugin developer. If you
want to support this plugin developer, [donations are appreciated](https://just1voice.com/donate)!

## Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

## Contributors & Developers

“Accessible Reading” is open source software. The following people have contributed
to this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ Tessa (they/them), AuRise Creative ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/tessawatkinsllc/)

[Translate “Accessible Reading” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/accessible-reading)

### Interested in development?

[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/accessible-reading/),
check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/accessible-reading/),
or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/accessible-reading/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/accessible-reading/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).

## Changelog

#### 2.1.1

**Release Date: October 9, 2022**

 * Fix: clearing out toggle customizations show default settings in preview
 * Fix: The default width for the toggle button being set to 10px is fixed
 * Fix: API request tracker is now more accurate and resets after 24 hours or a 
   successful API request
 * Update: moved the API counter out of the “Bulk Update” tab in settings to under
   the logo image for better visibility
 * Update: renamed the `inc` folder to `includes` for consistency with my other 
   plugins
 * Add: introducing the `ACCESSIBLEREADING_VERSION` constant variable

#### 2.1.0

**Relase Date: September 27, 2022**

 * Feature: Backend settings now includes options for customizing the text, colors,
   and width, of the toggle switch button
 * Fix: fixed a bug where it wasn’t correctly looking up user capabilities

#### 2.0.1

**Relase Date: September 26, 2022**

 * Fix: Renamed the “lang” folder to “languages” for consistency and updated references
   in code and plugin files.
 * Fix: Addressed spelling errors in readme

#### 2.0.0

**Relase Date: September 25, 2022**

 * Feature: Added ARIA attributes to the frontend toggle switch button to be ADA
   compliant and better compatible with screen reading devices
 * Feature: Added the `accessible_reading` shortcode that requires an `id` attribute
   to generate accessible content anywhere on the website
 * Feature: Added the `accessible_reading_toggle` shortcode to display the toggle
   button anywhere on the page
 * Feature: Added the `accessible_reading_original_content` shortcode to display
   the original text that gets hidden when accessible content is toggled on anywhere
   on the page
 * Feature: Added the `accessible_reading_content` shortcode to display accessible
   content that gets displayed when accessible content is toggled on anywhere on
   the page
 * Feature: Added a button on the settings page to disable the automatic toggle 
   button on post content. Only recommended if using the shortcode elsewhere in 
   the template.
 * Feature: CSS and JS resources are only loaded on posts and pages that use this
   feature to improve your site’s overall performance
 * Feature: Added language translation capabilities (if you’d like to help translate
   this plugin into more languages, please contact me at tessa@aurisecreative.com)
 * Language: Added translation for frontend toggle switch for websites set to German(
   de-DE)
 * Language: Added translation for frontend toggle switch for websites set to Spanish(
   es-ES) and Mexican Spanish (es-MX)
 * Fix: Updated the post-processing code to help prevent content from being divided
   in the middle of a word or sentence
 * Fix: Updated the API request tracker to be more reliable by using the data returned
   from the most recent request

#### 1.3.4

**Release Date: September 18, 2022**

 * Text: Updated author name and links due to rebranding as AuRise Creative!

#### 1.3.3

**Release Date: August 17, 2022**

 * Fix: Fixed the bug that prevented the “Toggle Switch Default Setting” from saving
   on the Settings page.

#### 1.3.2

**Release Date: August 16, 2022**

 * Fix: Fixed a fatal error that tried to call a function that did not exist. [Support Ticket](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/activation-not-possible-issue-with-php8/)

#### 1.3.1

**Release Date: June 23, 2022**

 * Fix: set debug flag to false

#### 1.3.0

**Release Date: June 23, 2022**

 * Feature: added a plugin setting to set a default option for the toggle switch
 * Feature: added a metabox to manage post-level settings
 * Feature: added dropdown in post metabox to set the default option for an individual
   post
 * Feature: added dropdown in post metabox to exclude individual post from processing

#### 1.2.0

**Release Date: June 17, 2022**

 * Feature: Posts with the character count longer than your Bionic Reading® plan’s
   API character limit are processed in chunks, allowing them to be fully processed
   instead of being cut off
 * Feature: The bulk updater has been moved into it’s own tab in the WordPress dashboard
 * Feature: The bulk updater also displays how many API requests your website has
   used today
 * Feature: The bulk updater also includes a dry run option

#### 1.1.0

**Release Date: June 16, 2022**

 * Feature: added the bulk updater feature! Now you can process your posts in bulk
 * Bug: the Bionic Reading® API has a character limit for processing. This will 
   be addressed shortly.

#### 1.0.5

**Release Date: June 2, 2022**

 * Fix: resolved bug in minified javascript file

#### 1.0.2

**Release Date: June 2, 2022**

 * Fix: frontend CSS edits
 * Fix: minified CSS & JS assets

#### 1.0.1

**Release Date: June 1, 2022**

 * Major: First release to the public!

## Meta

 *  Version **2.1.1**
 *  Last updated **3 years ago**
 *  Active installations **30+**
 *  WordPress version ** 5.8 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **6.2.9**
 *  PHP version ** 5.6.20 or higher **
 *  Language
 * [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/accessible-reading/)
 * Tags
 * [accessibility](https://xho.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/accessibility/)[accessible](https://xho.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/accessible/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://xho.wordpress.org/plugins/accessible-reading/advanced/)

## Ratings

No reviews have been submitted yet.

[Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/accessible-reading/reviews/#new-post)

[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/accessible-reading/reviews/)

## Contributors

 *   [ Tessa (they/them), AuRise Creative ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/tessawatkinsllc/)

## Support

Got something to say? Need help?

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/accessible-reading/)

## Donate

Would you like to support the advancement of this plugin?

 [ Donate to this plugin ](https://just1voice.com/donate/)