

A Typeface Designed to Help Dyslexics Read - saidajigumi
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2014/11/10/christian_boer_s_dyslexie_is_a_typeface_for_dyslexics.html

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robert_tweed
What stands out to me is the apparent "quirkiness", which could be compared to
Comic Sans.

I built a website a few years ago that used Comic Sans, quite correctly. How
can that ever be so, you ask? It turns out that children under 10 are more
likely to engage with content presented in Comic Sans than "plain" fonts.

Seeing this, I can't help but wonder if someone could design a quirky, "fun"
font specifically to appeal to children, which incorporates the same ideas
used here - perhaps exaggerated even further. Undiagnosed dyslexia is a
significant cause of children falling behind at school, so there's a lot of
potential benefit in getting that design right and then producing learning
materials with it.

As is, this could even be used as an simple test for dyslexia, by A/B testing
quizzes of roughly the same difficulty, presented in different fonts. Children
whose scores differ significantly should be given a more thorough test for
dyslexia.

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saidajigumi
I've recall some prior attempts along these lines. This one is distinguished
by having some research backing up its effectiveness:

 _Boer says that independent studies[1] from the University of Twente and the
University of Amsterdam back up his claims that Dyslexie helps both children
and adults with dyslexia to read faster and with fewer errors._

I wonder how far the typeface optimization approach can go towards helping
dyslexics?

[1] [http://www.dyslexiefont.com/en/dyslexia-
font/research/](http://www.dyslexiefont.com/en/dyslexia-font/research/)

