Dyslexie is a
typeface/
font
In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design.
In mod ...
that was designed with the intention of mitigating some of the issues that
dyslexics
Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, ...
experience when reading. As many of the twenty-six letters of the
basic Latin alphabet are visually very similar, the typeface emphasizes the parts of the letter that are different from each other.
There is no evidence that the font aids reading, neither in those with, nor without, dyslexia.
Creation
The typeface was designed by
Dutch graphic designer Christian Boer in 2008 while he was majoring in
graphic design
Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...
at the
University of Twente. He had himself struggled with dyslexia for much of his life.
In an interview, Boer stated that he came up with the typeface after a difficult final he was studying for. Its creation was an attempt to keep the characters from appearing to spin around, a symptom often reported in dyslexics. Boer related this to the way most people think in words: dyslexics cannot stop seeing letters differently just as non-dyslexic people cannot stop thinking in words.
Font
Dyslexie uses a heavier line thickness to emphasize the bottom of most characters. This is to try to 'anchor' the letters since some people with dyslexia may see letters either moving or in three dimensions. Since dyslexics tend to get b, d, p, and q mixed up, it also emphasizes a slight slant downwards on the curvature of the letters. Letters such as c or e may gape slightly more, or slump slightly in one direction. Also, in letters such as n or h, the font slightly elongates or diminishes the stem on the letters. So the letter h would have a longer line, and n would have a lower line. In addition, the font also thickens or
bolds capital letters and punctuations, so that it is easier to identify when a sentence starts or ends.
Research
Research does not suggest that the font is beneficial in aiding reading.
Neither children with or without dyslexia read faster or more accurately with the font. It was also not the preferred font of the children tested. Data suggested that the font a child prefers is probably the most effective for them.
No research to date has found a statistically significant beneficial effect on reading for dyslexics from any font specifically designed for dyslexia.
References
{{Reflist
See also
*
Dyslexia interventions
Management of dyslexia depends on a multiple of variables; there is no one specific strategy or set of strategies which will work for all who have dyslexia.
Some teaching is geared to specific reading skill areas, such as phonetic decoding; whe ...
Dyslexia
Sans-serif typefaces
Typefaces and fonts introduced in 2008