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How do dyslexic fonts like OpenDyslexic[0], Eulexia[1], and AlphaSymbolic[2] fit into all of this talk on normative typesetting ? And the internal rift of Open

How do dyslexic fonts like OpenDyslexic[0], Eulexia[1], and AlphaSymbolic[2] fit into all of this talk on normative typesetting ? And the internal rift of Open Source latent to this discussion, with fonts like Dyslexie[3] ? The underlying question here is the need to expose and enhance accessibility around typefaces and metanotational typefaces. I believe that we should not design to our demographic, because how do we truly know? Rather we should make it possible for our demographic, whoever it is, to preferrentially set typefaces to their cognitive and aesthetic needs, to shape the stage of reception. I say this primarily for the fact that many designs I do come across in websites, once I apply a font like OpenDyslexic using browser extensions, for instance, those designs fail, become distorted, elements shift about, become hidden or obscured, etc. Adding to that: what about color? Contrast? Do certain fonts work better on inverted or otherwise? I want to ask: What if that Higgs boson article had been set in OpenDyslexic? I run a similar experiment on my own blog[4], where I set a font tailored for dyslexics as the primary font (with hooks to change contrast and to set AlphaSymbolic in the "sticky footer"): I receive similarly negative responses. Does our industry even have the conceptual layout to meaningfully ask these types of questions, and does it have the economic and aesthetic infrastructure to initiate and sincerely act upon whatever answers and strategies we decide upon? [0]: http://opendyslexic.org/ http://opendyslexic.org/ [1]: http://antijingoist.github.io/Eulexia/ http://antijingoist.github.io/Eulexia/ [2]: http://antijingoist.github.io/AlphaSymbolic/ http://antijingoist.github.io/AlphaSymbolic/ [3]: http://www.studiostudio.nl/ http://www.studiostudio.nl/ [4]: http://webjournal.nerdfiles.net/the-semantic-web/ http://webjournal.nerdfiles.net/the-semantic-web/

porker 13y ago
All I can add is my partner is a dyslexia teacher and assessor, and we tested those fonts on a range of pupils when building her latest website. None aided our sample. Dyslexia is a very broad definition, and I can imagine they could work for certain types of dyslexia but not others.
- thenerdfiles 13y ago
  I'm curious to know the scope and concrete findings and anecdotal findings/reports of your tests. What was the nature of the literature/content on the website? Longform? Marketing? Blurbs? Did you test for memory? Comprehension? Speed? Aside from aiding, did the fonts hurt comprehension? Hurt readability?
  - porker 13y ago
    There were no concrete findings - these were informal tests in a field where concrete findings are nigh-on impossible. The website is a mix of marketing and longform, advertising dyslexia services. Often it's read by the parent of a dyslexic so there's two audiences to address. Of the dyslexics we tested with, all found the fonts hurt readability and they were seeing individual letters (instead of words) more than they were with a standard font (Source Sans Pro). The parents we also tested found the 'Dyslexic' fonts very hard to read. So for our small sample of children it didn't help, and in this situation wasn't worth pursuing. Most of these children IIRC find a coloured overlay is all they need to read acceptably; colour and contrast is another thing I'd have liked to test but there's only so much you can subject children (who aren't your own) to!

porker 13y ago

All I can add is my partner is a dyslexia teacher and assessor, and we tested those fonts on a range of pupils when building her latest website. None aided our sample. Dyslexia is a very broad definition, and I can imagine they could work for certain types of dyslexia but not others.

thenerdfiles 13y ago
I'm curious to know the scope and concrete findings and anecdotal findings/reports of your tests. What was the nature of the literature/content on the website? Longform? Marketing? Blurbs? Did you test for memory? Comprehension? Speed? Aside from aiding, did the fonts hurt comprehension? Hurt readability?
- porker 13y ago
  There were no concrete findings - these were informal tests in a field where concrete findings are nigh-on impossible. The website is a mix of marketing and longform, advertising dyslexia services. Often it's read by the parent of a dyslexic so there's two audiences to address. Of the dyslexics we tested with, all found the fonts hurt readability and they were seeing individual letters (instead of words) more than they were with a standard font (Source Sans Pro). The parents we also tested found the 'Dyslexic' fonts very hard to read. So for our small sample of children it didn't help, and in this situation wasn't worth pursuing. Most of these children IIRC find a coloured overlay is all they need to read acceptably; colour and contrast is another thing I'd have liked to test but there's only so much you can subject children (who aren't your own) to!