theamerican.org
readable
C Acceptable. Readable, but working against you
Loading speed is diagnostic only; it does not affect this grade or search ranking.
| Subject | Weight | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Interruption | 35.71% | 100 |
| Readability | 28.57% | not scored |
| Accessibility and keyboard | 21.43% | 73 |
| Stability and weight | 14.29% | 19 |
This letter rests on 71% of the grade. Readability was measured but is not scored here. We have not measured an article for this site. Homepages, listings and other non-article pages can make our typography measurements reflect navigation rather than prose. The numbers are below; the letter leaves them out until we have measured an article. How this is worked out.
- Largest paint
- 0.9s
- Paywall
- none
- Ad requests
- 9
- Tracker requests
- 18
- Page weight
- 6.3 MB
- Readability
- not measured
- Accessibility
- 3 automated checks failed (3 serious)
- Green hosting
- not measured
- Measured
- 2026-09-01
Observed interruptions
Ad and tracker counts above are network requests, not counts of visible ads or separate companies. They do not affect the interruption score.
Assessed 1 sampled page. The largest detected ad area was 0% of a sampled viewport. No qualifying obstructive prompts were detected.
This is a sample, not a promise that the whole site has no interruptions. Ad detection can miss formats and content outside the sampled view. Older scans did not check visibility or overlapping ad rectangles as thoroughly. The score uses the strongest observed deduction, so one panel is not penalized under multiple names. How interruptions are scored.
The type, and who can use it
Measured on 1 rendered page; latest measurement 2026-09-05 — no article measured yet. Every number is a mechanical fact about the page, not a judgment of its design.
| What | Measured | The bar |
|---|---|---|
| Body type size | not measured | 16px, the browser default |
| Characters per line | not measured | 45–90 |
| Line height | not measured | 1.5 (WCAG 1.4.8) |
| Text contrast | not measured | 4.5:1 (WCAG AA), 7:1 (AAA) |
| Text column | not measured | at least 45% |
| Reflows at phone width | yes | WCAG 1.4.10 |
| Dark mode | no | noted, not scored |
| Automated accessibility checks | 3 automated checks failed (3 serious): aria-hidden-focus, nested-interactive, select-name | WCAG 2.1 A and AA, via axe-core |
| Keyboard | no trap; focus visible on 90% of stops | never trapped, always visible |
| Structure | main landmark, 1 h1, no skipped heading levels | a main landmark, one h1, no skips |
| Alt text | no content images | every content image |
| Reader mode | parses | parses (Firefox’s Readability) |
Automated accessibility checks catch an estimated 30–40% of real problems, so “no automated violations detected” is a floor, not a certificate. We never say “accessible”. How these are scored.
Measurement dates
Oldest evidence 50 days old. At least one subject is due for rechecking (30 days or older). Dates refer to the evidence, never the card rebuild.
- Access and interruptions:
- Readability and accessibility:
Measurement history
Newest 2 saved observations. Each describes a sampled page at that time; older, failed or held observations do not override the current reviewed card. Raw automated findings may have been superseded by later review or detector replay. No previous grade is inferred.
Read dated observations
- — Readability and accessibility observation; prose source blocks; phone overflow not observed
https://theamerican.org/
Evidence source: readability-top5000.jsonl · observation 938720220dfc - — Access observation: pass
https://theamerican.org/
Evidence source: verdicts-top5000.jsonl · observation 11442613f62b
How we know
| Pages rendered | 1 |
|---|---|
| Site verdict | errors dropped; majority of remaining; ties to the stricter verdict; active reviewed exclusions override admission |
| Figures shown | numeric measurements generally use medians; interruption costs, overflow, keyboard traps and accessibility failures retain the strongest observed finding |
| Cited by | 1,331 encyclopedia articles |
Think this is wrong? It may well be — the measurements cover only a handful of pages. Any reviewed admission decision and its dated evidence are shown above. Re-measurement on request is not built yet, so there is no button here that would do anything. When it exists it will be free and it will be on this page.