The VOICE Framework.
Five dimensions. Twenty five characteristics. One shared language for describing whether a communication works.
When a message is ambiguous, people who process language and tone differently pay first. They reread, rehearse, and sometimes never reply. Measurement exists so that cost is visible, not left to individuals to absorb in silence.
VOICE was synthesized from 93 peer reviewed studies on cognitive load, reading comprehension, plain language, and communication accessibility. Each characteristic is defined, weighted, and observable.
Developed by UniquelyND, the framework provides a structured, repeatable approach to a problem that has historically been addressed through intuition alone. The framework does not tell writers what to write. It describes what makes messages work, so writers, models, and organizations can talk about the same things and improve them.
Five dimensions of communication accessibility
Communication accessibility is not a single attribute. It is the interaction of multiple factors that together determine whether a person can find, understand, and act on a piece of communication. The VOICE Framework organizes these factors into five dimensions.
Visibility
Can people find and access the communication?
Visibility evaluates whether the target audience can locate and access the communication through channels they actually use, in formats they can consume. A perfectly written policy that lives in a SharePoint folder nobody checks fails on Visibility before any other dimension is relevant.
Characteristics assessed include channel accessibility, format availability, findability, and distribution effectiveness.
Orientation
Can people understand what is expected of them?
Orientation evaluates whether the communication makes its purpose and required actions clear from the outset. The reader should know within seconds what the communication is, why they are receiving it, and what they need to do. When orientation fails, people read entire documents without understanding why they were asked to read them.
Characteristics assessed include purpose clarity, action specificity, expectation setting, and contextual framing.
Inclusion
Does the language welcome all cognitive styles?
Inclusion evaluates whether the communication assumes a single neurotype or accommodates cognitive diversity. This goes beyond avoiding offensive language. It examines whether sentence structures, tone, idioms, implied social cues, and assumed background knowledge create barriers for people who process information differently.
Characteristics assessed include cognitive load, assumed knowledge, tone neutrality, and cultural and neurological inclusivity.
Clarity
Is the message unambiguous and concrete?
Clarity evaluates whether the core message can be understood without interpretation. Ambiguity is the enemy of accessibility. When a communication can be read two ways, neurodivergent readers are disproportionately affected because they may lack the social context cues that neurotypical readers use to resolve ambiguity unconsciously.
Characteristics assessed include specificity, term definition, instruction precision, and ambiguity reduction.
Execution
Does structure and formatting support comprehension?
Execution evaluates whether the visual and structural design of the communication reinforces the message rather than working against it. Poor execution can undermine excellent content: a clearly written policy formatted as a wall of text becomes inaccessible through structure alone.
Characteristics assessed include layout logic, heading hierarchy, visual chunking, emphasis usage, and whitespace effectiveness.
From dimensions to a VOICE Score
Each dimension is evaluated through a set of weighted characteristics. The framework currently includes 25 characteristics distributed across the five dimensions, each with configurable weights that can be adjusted by content type.
Composite score
Dimension scores combine into a single composite VOICE Score on a 0 to 100 scale. The composite provides a quick benchmark.
Dimensional breakdown
The dimensional breakdown identifies where to focus improvement: not just that a score is low, but why.
Diagnostic, not pass or fail
A VOICE Score is not a pass or fail grade. It is a diagnostic tool designed to make communication accessibility visible and trackable over time.
Interpreting a VOICE Score
A VOICE Score represents the overall communication accessibility of a specific piece of content at a specific point in time. It summarizes the communication characteristics LINA observes in that content. It does not predict how any particular reader will respond.
Compare across content
Comparing scores across content types within your organization reveals where accessibility is strong and where it falls short.
Track over time
Tracking scores over time shows whether your communications are becoming more or less accessible as your organization evolves.
Benchmark peers
Benchmarking against cohort averages (future capability) will allow organizations to understand how they compare to peers in their sector and size range.
Rescore after change
No score is permanent. Content can be rescored after revisions to measure the impact of specific changes.
Building credibility through transparency
We are working with research institutions and enterprise organizations to validate the framework’s reliability, predictive validity, and applicability across content types and organizational contexts. We welcome inquiry from researchers and practitioners interested in contributing to this work.
Learn about research partnershipsVOICE Framework FAQ
What is the VOICE Framework?
The VOICE Framework is a proposed framework for measuring communication accessibility across five interdependent dimensions (Visibility, Orientation, Inclusion, Clarity, and Execution), producing a single composite VOICE Score alongside dimensional analysis.
What is a VOICE Score?
A VOICE Score is the single composite accessibility score from a per-assessment audit using the VOICE Framework. It is paired with dimensional analysis that identifies specific areas for improvement.
Is the VOICE Framework an industry standard?
No. The VOICE Framework was developed by UniquelyND, built from research, and is undergoing independent validation. It is a proposed framework designed to do for communication accessibility what WCAG did for web accessibility, not a universally validated industry standard yet.
Put it to work
Ready to help validate the VOICE Framework?
Join as a founding partner helping shape the framework, or request a free assessment of your public site.