Bold Stroke: New Font Helps Dyslexics Read

[n2doc]

Dutch researcher designs distinct characters into "Dyslexie" to make it more difficult for dyslexics to rotate, swap and mirror letters and numbers
By Jennifer Nalewicki

READY TO READ: Unlike other readers, dyslexics have a tendency to rotate, swap and mirror letters, making it difficult for them to comprehend what they’re reading. Some dyslexics even see letters as suspended 3-D animations that twist before their eyes. Dyslexie is designed to correct this.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/slideshow.cfm?id=new-font-helps-dyslexics-read

[BlueJazz]

1. Sounds like a doog solution.

[BadgerKid]

2. Seems vaguely like Comic Sans font.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_Sans

[DCKit]

3. Being a bit dyslexic myself, I believe there are several different "flavors" of dyslexia.

Regardless, if this helps even a few, I'm all for it. However, I don't think any one "code" is going to match the mind. I have no clue what they were going for there.

Myself, I learned to read in context. If this could turbocharge my reading, I'd be kicking the ass of that guy on "Criminal Minds".

Regarding my own issues, I can't keep a checkbook balanced to the penny... I need a large cushion to ensure I won't overspend - balancing to the penny (or dollars) is totally beyond me.

I got over the letters, but I've still got issues with numbers.

[mopinko]

4. i hope you can install this on your computer.

i have a friend who is having an awful time adapting to computer use because of his dyslexia. be good if computer companies licensed this for a system font.

[MineralMan]

5. This looks good. There are fonts for dyslexics already

available. Someone mentioned Comic Sans, and that's one that seems to work, too. Here's a rundown of what's available for computer users now. Some are free:

http://www.dyslexic.com/fonts

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Damn, I wondered about that! One of my former students told me ...

that she had trouble with letters that were mirror images, or nearly so -- b vs d, p vs q, etc. Made me wonder if letters in italic fonts (where mirror symmetry is broken) would cause less confusion. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to ask her -- this didn't come up until after the term ended, and I didn't see her again.

(ETA -- this would be an easy experiment to perform, just get a text from the Gutenberg project and try viewing it in italic font. BTW, italic type was originally introduced because it was supposedly easier to read in small font sizes than other typefaces in use at the time.)

Since this is done by modifying another font, I'll bet that this could be made a 'style' option like bold, italic, etc. Very hard to provide copyright protection, particularly if the creators only tried to copyright that one font. Mac programmers, get busy! :)

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. Interesting comment posted following that story:

What a disappointment this article is.

I have been following this story for several months and the justification for the hype for this typeface is very, very weak.

The "research" consisted of 21 "dyslexic" college and graduate students, compared to 22 "normal reading" students.

The master's thesis is silent on how the researcher validated the participants' dyslexia diagnosis. The university is in Holland -- how does the Dutch educational establishment test for dyslexia?

The master's thesis research also only compared the new font, Dislexie, to one other font, Ariel.

So:
Very small number of subjects.
No independent validation of participants' dyslexia diagnosis.
No replication of the reading accuracy study by an independent researcher.
No cross-comparison with any font other than Ariel.
No subjects younger than 19 years old (such as earlier readers, ages say 7 to 10)

And here it is being promoted on Scientific American. The type designer must be ecstatic -- this will surely be a boost for sales of this font (which I believe is about $1,200 for schools to purchase).

I expect more rigor from Scientific American on reporting on research.

[craticdemo]

8. Cool.