For kidsPara niños
Kids who fall behind in reading by third grade often stay behind. Thirty minutes a week with the same patient buddy changes that more than any app.Los niños que se atrasan en lectura para tercer grado muchas veces se quedan atrás. Treinta minutos a la semana con el mismo compañero paciente ayuda más que cualquier aplicación.
Programs for childrenProgramas para niños
All free. Ask at your child's school office or call us to sign up.Todo gratis. Pregunta en la oficina de la escuela de tu hijo o llámanos para inscribirlo.
School year · six schoolsAño escolar · seis escuelas
One volunteer, one child, thirty minutes a week at school. Same buddy all year.Un voluntario, un niño, treinta minutos a la semana en la escuela. El mismo compañero todo el año.
Mon–Thu · 3:30–5 PMLun–jue · 3:30–5 PM
At Kings Canyon Library. Tutors help with reading homework first, then everything else.En la biblioteca Kings Canyon. Los tutores ayudan primero con la lectura y luego con lo demás.
June–August · 12 stopsJunio–agosto · 12 paradas
A school bus full of free books visits parks and apartment complexes every week of summer.Un camión escolar lleno de libros gratis visita parques y apartamentos cada semana del verano.
Third Thursday · 5:30 PMTercer jueves · 5:30 PM
Supper, a bilingual story and reading together. Every child takes home a book.Cena, un cuento bilingüe y lectura juntos. Cada niño se lleva un libro.
Coming upPróximamente
Oct15
5:30 PM · Tulare St
Pozole, a story read in both languages, and a pumpkin book to take home.Pozole, un cuento en los dos idiomas y un libro de calabazas para llevar.
Oct24
10:00 AM · Kings Canyon Library
Get every child in the family a free library card. Bring proof of address, any kind.Saca una tarjeta de biblioteca gratis para cada niño. Trae un comprobante de domicilio, cualquiera.
Nov19
5:30 PM · Tulare St
Kids and parents write a short letter to someone they're thankful for.Niños y papás escriben una cartita para alguien a quien le agradecen.
Dec12
9:00 AM · Calwa Park
Three free books for every child, plus hot chocolate.Tres libros gratis para cada niño, y chocolate caliente.
Nothing in that category this month.
A parent's viewLa voz de una mamá
My son used to say he hated reading. His buddy, Mr. Dylan, let him pick books about trucks. Now he reads the truck books to his little sister at bedtime, and I listen from the hallway.Mi hijo decía que odiaba leer. Su compañero, el señor Dylan, lo dejó escoger libros de camiones. Ahora le lee los libros de camiones a su hermanita antes de dormir, y yo escucho desde el pasillo.
QuestionsPreguntas
Retired teachers, college students and neighbors. Every one passes a background check and six hours of training.Maestros jubilados, estudiantes universitarios y vecinos. Todos pasan una revisión de antecedentes y seis horas de capacitación.
No. Any child who would enjoy reading with a grown-up is welcome, though we give priority to kids their teachers refer.No. Cualquier niño que disfrute leer con un adulto es bienvenido, aunque damos prioridad a los que recomiendan sus maestros.
Yes. About a third of our buddies are bilingual, and we have books in both languages.Sí. Como una tercera parte de los compañeros son bilingües, y tenemos libros en los dos idiomas.
Design notes
ReadWell teaches adults to read and write, in English and in Spanish, and pairs children with volunteer reading buddies. Many visitors read with difficulty, so the site itself had to be easy to read before it could be anything else.
Lexend was developed from reading-fluency research to reduce visual stress for struggling readers, which makes it the honest choice for a literacy charity rather than a stylistic one. Body text is Atkinson Hyperlegible at 18px, drawn for the Braille Institute so that letters people commonly confuse never look alike. Both carry Spanish accents and the ñ properly.
The deep teal is the cloth of an old library binding, and the yellow is a highlighter pen: the most-used tool in every one of our classrooms. The ground is a very pale green-gray rather than white, which cuts glare for readers with dyslexia. In dark mode the teal lifts to sea-glass so headings stay calm, and the highlighter stays bright.
A two-tier header puts class times, the phone number and 'Se habla español' above the main menu, because the first question most adult learners have is 'when, and can I call someone?'. The language switch sits in that strip and changes the whole page at once, never mixing two languages in one paragraph.
The home page opens with three doors: one for an adult who wants to read better, one for a parent, one for a would-be tutor. Asking an adult to admit they struggle to read is a big moment, so their door comes first and its wording is as plain and private as we could make it.
"Sign up for a class" is the main action, because a class feels ordinary, like signing up for a gym. Parents get "Get a reading buddy", and donors are asked to "Buy a learner's books", a gift people can picture.
Adults learning at kitchen tables and in small classrooms, children reading on sofas and floors. No graduation caps and no sad close-ups. We chose photographs where the learner is doing the reading, not being read to.
Short sentences throughout, at roughly a fifth-grade reading level in both languages. All text passes WCAG AA in both themes, and links are always underlined or styled as buttons, never signalled by color alone. Forms ask for the minimum: a name and a way to reach you.
Every text pairing is checked against WCAG 2.2 in both themes.
| Pairing | Sample | Ratio | WCAG |
|---|---|---|---|
| Body text on page | Aa | 15.19:1 | AAA |
| Body text on cards | Aa | 16.67:1 | AAA |
| Secondary text | Aa | 5.54:1 | AA |
| Links | Aa | 6.84:1 | AA |
| Button text | Aa | 7.5:1 | AAA |
| Accent label text | Aa | 12.44:1 | AAA |
| Text on dark bands | Aa | 15.19:1 | AAA |
| Muted text on dark bands | Aa | 8.01:1 | AAA |
| Text on brand bands | Aa | 7.5:1 | AAA |
| Muted text on brand bands | Aa | 5.0:1 | AA |
| Pairing | Sample | Ratio | WCAG |
|---|---|---|---|
| Body text on page | Aa | 15.47:1 | AAA |
| Body text on cards | Aa | 13.79:1 | AAA |
| Secondary text | Aa | 6.95:1 | AA |
| Links | Aa | 9.13:1 | AAA |
| Button text | Aa | 9.7:1 | AAA |
| Accent label text | Aa | 13.2:1 | AAA |
| Text on dark bands | Aa | 16.72:1 | AAA |
| Muted text on dark bands | Aa | 8.48:1 | AAA |
| Text on brand bands | Aa | 9.7:1 | AAA |
| Muted text on brand bands | Aa | 5.77:1 | AA |
Designed by Greater Purpose Web. Names, people and events are sample content.