
Dsxyliea - geon
http://geon.github.io/programming/2016/03/03/dsxyliea
======
AceJohnny2
This reminds me of the meme that went around a few years ago (dear god,
2003!?), claiming that Cambridge researchers showed that you had no trouble
reading scrambled word text:

    
    
      "Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe."
    

Of course, it later circulated that you could absolutely make hard-to-read
scrambled text, it really depended what words and how scrambled.

Anyhow, because the Internet is magic, an _actual_ researcher from Cambridge
has since posted a more thorough examination of the phenomenon, with counter-
examples and proper citation:

[http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/people/matt.davis/cmabridge/](http://www.mrc-
cbu.cam.ac.uk/people/matt.davis/cmabridge/)

~~~
mchaver
I would guess part of the reason why native speakers (and probably fluent
speakers) can read that text is because of linguistics probability (Bayesian
probability). Humans seem to use probability of phrases to fill in blanks in
speech/reading.

For example, if you see/hear the phrase "I am" there is a pretty high chance
that the next word is one of the following: an adjective, the person's name,
a/an or here because of syntax. Or if someone says "would you like a cup of",
you can guess that the next word is likely some sort of liquid because that is
what goes in a cup. Similarly, you can sometimes finish other people's
sentences because of probability.

The word scrambling breaks down, as mentioned in the link, with ambiguous
words where changing the order makes it look like another word and unfamiliar
words.

~~~
marincounty
I don't know why most people can read scrambled words. I have no proof to what
I am going to propose.

I had a horrid time learning how to read. I had a worse time learning how to
spell.

It all changed around the end of 3rd grade. What changed! I just memorized
what the words looked like visually. You could misspell a word/words, and it
didn't matter. I was looking at what a word looked like visually. Even now, I
have no problem understands typos/misspelling, and never see the need to
correct someone.

I have a feeling there are many people out there who are reading like myself.
I don't know, just have a feeling. I do transpose letters in in writing, but I
don't think I'm I have dyslexia.

Once I realized my process of reading, I caught up to the other kids. I say my
process. It's probably everyone's process. I really don't know. All I know is
the way I was taught to read was useless. I was never taught how to memorize,
other than route repetition. Route repetition didn't work for myself. Even
today I know what 8 X 8 is by visualizing the 64.

It looks like most of you breezed through high school, and college. So you
don't need to know what helped me.

What helped me in learning was visualizing. In college, I took notes once. I
tried to make each page look visually different. I usually drew doodles, or
detailed drawings all over the pages. For instance, when I needed to
memoririze all the parts of the Femur bone, I drew the bone on the page and
labeled all the areas I needed to know. Even years later, I can bring up that
page in my head. And no, I don't have a idetic memory. It's just the way I got
through school.

I definetly had a learning problem. The specialists at the time offered no
help.

I got off topic, but if you have, or know of a kid who's not keeping up in
school, pass on this visualization method. It's simple. You don't need to pay
for a course. It's easy concept.

(By the way, I'm still not a natural reader. I'm not the guy who can just pick
up a book(fiction), and zip through it. I find myself losing my place on the
page. I sometimes need to put my finger on the line I'm reading. My mind
starts to wander. Although, if the author is a skilled writer, like Nabrakov;
I have no problem getting through the book?

I don't have this problem when reading most non-fiction? It could be I just
don't like a lot of fiction?)

~~~
stephengillie
°°°[ This sounds much like an ancient method for politicians and other public
speakers to remember their speeches in the days before paper and literacy were
so common - they would visualize their speech as a house, and every topic is
another room. Giving their speech was as simple as waking thru all the rooms
in the house they imagined. ]°°°

>>>[ Do words of different colors help you visualize the differences? Like how
some IDEs highlight a languages keywords or italicize comments? ]<<<

===[ Also, have a visual reminder of this comment. ]===

~~~
Aissen
Actually, this has a name in neuro-psychology: Method of loci
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci)

It's actually fairly ancient, and unfortunately not studied enough.

~~~
digitalengineer
Except.. it is! By a fairly 'ancient' group of men: "I want to make clear to
you is that such memory training techniques are not new. Whether used by
actors, students, public speakers or Freemasons, some techniques go back to
antiquity. Before the invention of printing, when manuscripts had to be copied
by hand, writing materials were scarce and expensive, and many could not read
and write, a trained memory was a valuable asset. Thus, ancient orators, aided
by teachers of rhetoric, taught techniques enabling orators, politicians,
priests, and others to memorize large amounts of material in great detail."

[http://www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/memory-
freemasonry.htm...](http://www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/memory-
freemasonry.html)

~~~
Aissen
It is in fact studied, and I admit my "not studied enough" remark is indeed,
wrong. There were about 150 papers citing method of loci since 2015:
[https://scholar.google.fr/scholar?as_ylo=2015&q=%22method+of...](https://scholar.google.fr/scholar?as_ylo=2015&q=%22method+of+loci%22&hl=en&as_sdt=1,5&as_vis=1)

------
possibilistic
This is uncannily similar to my own personal experience with ADHD. Instead of
words appearing scrambled, though, my focus during reading is drawn to random
words within a text. I might skip to a new sentence or jump down a few
paragraphs; it's entirely arbitrary. This process usually continues forward
and back, resetting every few seconds. The longer I read something, the worse
the effect becomes. It takes a lot of effort to get through things sometimes.

Whatever this effect is, it is somewhat lessened by adequate sleep, a low-
sugar diet, and prescribed medication. It never completely goes away, though.
I have good days and bad days; even at my best, though, working through long
texts, papers, or technical literature will eventually cause my mind to
wander. Whatever this is (I blame ADHD), it's prevented me from ever being
able to _enjoy_ reading literature or long-form journalism. It's a pity, too,
because I enjoy the content. The task itself is just too mentally stressful.
Reading is, sadly, a form of labor.

It's weird, because skimming comes easily. Visual forms of information are
also incredibly easy to digest.

Do others with ADHD have a similar problem with this?

~~~
el_benhameen
Wow, that sounds very familiar. I find that when I try to dive into long
texts, even (especially?) those that I find very interesting and which I'm
intent on finishing, my mind wanders off onto wild tangents within a few
paragraphs. When I find something interesting that sparks another thought,
I'll trail off on that thought instead of filing it away for later. I'll
continue to read the words without even realizing that I'm not absorbing any
of the content, which means that I'll sometimes need to re-read a passage
three or four times. It's incredibly frustrating. You're right that skimming
is surprisingly easier, though. I find that if I try to blaze through a
passage and read only some of the words, my recall is often _better_ than if
I'd tried to read at my normal pace. Less chance to focus on something else.

I used to love reading books as a kid, but I started with the above somewhere
around high school. I think that the steady stream of novel (and thus
exciting) information available on the internet has had an detrimental impact,
but of course that can't be all of it. Still, I've lately been trying to limit
the quantity of information that I _attempt_ to take in by, say, opening only
one or two news articles or HN links (instead of every one that looks
interesting), and I've felt more clear-headed since.

May I ask when you put a name to the problem and started with medication?

~~~
creamyhorror
Exactly the same problem here as both you and GP comment: my eyes jump around
paragraphs quickly scanning for keywords/phrases to hook into. And if it's an
interesting passage, I can't get very far without my mind drifting off on my
own tangent, and I end up having to re-read a few times like you.

I also find reading tiring even though I can read quite fast, because I want
to read each sentence properly, so I keep going over the text. It's a little
obsessive-compulsive I guess.

Is this common with ADHD?

------
oib
Ugh, as someone with dyslexia, it's nothing visual, so trying to visualize
being dyslexic is an exercise in futility.

You know those "drunk" googles that distort your view? They certainly make it
harder to walk, but they in no way make you feel drunk...

Try explaining someone what it feels like being on LSD... you can't.

Telling people that letters jump around is an easy way to dismiss people whit
out having to do a lengthy and tiring explanation that likely wont be
understood anyway.

I do appreciate the effort that went into this, and that people try to
understand, but I don't think this particular experiment is helpful, because
people will get the wrong idea about what dyslexia is.

Edit: Arzh is right in that I'm being a bit harsh/dramatic here, so I made
some small changes.

~~~
dbbolton
I am dyslexic, and just for some background info I have uncorrected 20/20
vision but my symptoms are exacerbated by comorbid ADHD. I'm sure everyone
experiences it differently, but the image on the left is a pretty close
approximation of what I often see when trying to read from a page:

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Dyslexic...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/DyslexicVision.png)

Say I was reading the line "...as well as other perceptual tasks." I would
insert words from inside the "circle" so it would appear to me like "23 other
reading tasks" or something (often times it will make no sense, which is my
cue that I need to re-read the whole thing).

Other times I might just read a word like "presidental", then look back at it
and suddenly it says "prudential" as if it changed when I wasn't looking at it
(and I'd _swear_ I knew it said 'presidential' the first time).

Writing and typing are a whole other can of worms that I won't open here, but
suffice it to say that I've never experienced the dancing letters like in the
OP.

~~~
deelowe
uhh... I'm sitting here wondering if I'm mildly dyslexic. I often swap letters
around when typing, read words that aren't there, leave words out, etc... I've
always had this problem and just assumed I didn't proof-read well enough.

Is there a test for mild dyslexia? How would one know for sure? Should I care?
I doesn't bother me much other than people thinking I have terrible grammar
and reading comprehension skills.

~~~
ntpeters
I'm also interested if there is some sort of test. I find myself doing many of
these things when I read long passages.

One other thing that is very common for me, but I'm not sure if it is related
to dyslexia or not, is that I will frequently either forget the next word I
was about to say or say the wrong word without noticing. An example of the
latter would be if I am filling the dishwasher I'll say that I finished the
laundry, or I'll refer to shaving in the morning as mowing. These happen to me
on an almost daily basis.

~~~
cistern
This frequently happens to me. A few times a conversation if I'm not focusing
solely on the conversation. It's interesting that the words switched are often
related: in your example, mowing is another form of cutting protruding fibers
aka shaving.

------
slg
There are a variety of different forms of Dyslexia, so I can't speak for
everyone. However, this doesn't resemble my own personal form. I would be
curious to hear from other Dyslexics to see if this is anything close to their
experience.

The way I usually explain my variety is that my brain is trying to read faster
than it can physically. I have no problem reading words (which seems to be
what this code is focusing on), the problem is my brain is already moving
forward and the word I _read_ is often not the word written on the page.
Sometime I can make the contextual correction in my head while other times I
have to reread the sentence to make any sense of it. In that instance, I can
understand the "jumping around" description as I can read a sentence for a
second time and suddenly my brain will see a different word than it saw the
first time.

~~~
lettergram
I have a genetic condition which makes my corpus callosum (the part of the
brain that connects the two halves) small(er).

This leads (as described by my doctor) both halves processing data and then
having trouble syncing. I don't really know if that's true or not. However, it
runs in my family (we have taken genetics tests) and it turns out that's why
we are neither right or left handed, and we all have various issues related to
spelling, geometry, etc. We also have an increased risk of schizophrenia and
alzheimer's, but increased IQ according to studies.

For me it manifests itself mostly dyslexia. My brain gumbles words, and I
don't realy left to right directly, I pretty much read a sentence and have to
put it together in my head. Spelling is awful, and thank god for spellcheck, I
can't remember names randomly or other words for things. The weird part is
adjectives and pronouns are fine. I just have an issue with nouns if I cannot
see an object.

The other day, I had to describe a toaster to my wife because I couldn't
remember the word "toaster". Same goes with countless other things.

My grandfather, mother, and brother all have this issue. However, it did
manifest differently for each of us. For my brother he can't think in 3
dimensions very easily. My mother has Dyslexia and my grandfather can't
spell....

~~~
thenipper
I have a similar thing. When i did the battery of SPED tests in elementary
school they mentioned something about the two halves not communicating as
well. What you talk about not remembering names really strikes a chord with
me. Interesting to know what its called. Not that i'm sure I have the same
thing but definitely seems similar.

~~~
slg
If I ever found the time, it might be interesting to revisit some of those
tests as an adult. I haven't really spoken to a professional expert about my
Dyslexia since I was diagnosed at 8. I doubt I could really articulate what I
was experiencing at the time and nearly everything that was mentioned to me
has long been forgotten. I'm sure going through the same process as an adult
would offer some interesting insight.

------
matthewcford
Having dyslexia, I would say this is rather extreme, I can't speak for
everyone but reading isn't like this for most dyslexics.

Usually it is a pair of letters being swapped, or numbers order reversed. They
don't jump around/change randomly, you just misread it.

[http://dyslexia.learninginfo.org/symptoms.htm](http://dyslexia.learninginfo.org/symptoms.htm)

The new font for dyslexics also goes into this some more:
[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-font-helps-
dys...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-font-helps-dyslexics-
read/)

~~~
mgrennan
Dysgraphia is a part related to dyslexia.

This can be a problem, b d p q 9, W M N, O 0 o e, E 5 S R B and more.

~~~
thenipper
Did the parent originally talk about dysgraphia? Because while I have pretty
serious dysgraphia I'm not really dyslexic. While related they're pretty
significantly different. One of my best friends growing up had dyslexia and
with my dysgraphia we always joked about being one 'normal' person.

~~~
mgrennan
No. At age 60, when I was 12 they really didn't have a name for any of this.
For years my school records had be as retarded. It was not until I taught
myself calculus and trig in the 8th grade that my parent new something was
wrong and sent teaching specialists at OU. They a used the word dyslexia. This
was all very new in the 60s.

------
ALee
Fun fact: Dyslexia in Chinese is anatomically different than Dyslexia in
English - so you may be dyslexic in English, but function fine in Chinese:
[http://www.economist.com/blogs/analects/2014/09/dyslexia-
chi...](http://www.economist.com/blogs/analects/2014/09/dyslexia-chinese)

------
obeone
According to Alice Wellborn, a dyslexia expert of some note: Many years ago,
researchers believed that dyslexia was a visual perceptual problem - that it
was based in how a person saw letters and words. Now we know for sure, through
brain imaging studies, that dyslexia is a problem in the language system of
the brain, not the visual system.

Dyslexia is the result of a significant weakness in the phonological
processing system, or how a person's brain understands and can use the sound-
based reading "code". A dyslexic reader has difficulty cracking that code.

Here are some important facts about dyslexia:

Dyslexia is based in how a person's brain functions. The brain structure is
normal - the glitch is in the wiring. Fluent readers use a part of the brain
for reading that dyslexic readers do not use. This means that reading remains
a slow, laborious process for children and adults with dyslexia.

Dyslexia is not related to a person's level of intelligence. Many children and
adults with dyslexia are gifted, highly accomplished, creative people.

~~~
viraptor
However some kinds can be corrected like visual problems. I know a guy with
dyslexia who uses very specific, slightly tinted (towards green) lenses in his
glasses. I can't remember what else was different about them, but basically
they were very personalised and had the effect of slowing down the eye
movement over the text. (as in, it forced him to track the lines normally
instead of jumping around) Based on chat experience, they made a lot of
difference.

------
krschultz
Shameless plug: if you know anyone with Dyslexia or other learn & attention
issues, send them to [https://www.understood.org](https://www.understood.org).
It's a non-profit with many free resources for people trying to overcome these
challenges.

~~~
ntumlin
My father has trouble reading despite being really smart otherwise, and
unfortunately it's gotten him to think he's not smart. I'd love to show this
to him, but my only concern is that everything is geared towards parents to
help their children, and I don't want to demean him with that. are there any
similar resources geared towards adults?

~~~
krschultz
Try the International Dyslexia Association, they have branches all over:
[http://eida.org/ida-branches/](http://eida.org/ida-branches/)

------
patio11
For extra fun, imagine you're reading in a language where the characters look
like 紫 and sometimes the lines decide to wiggle like Medusa's hair.

~~~
ALee
posted above, but it's different for Chinese speakers than English people with
dyslexia: [http://www.economist.com/blogs/analects/2014/09/dyslexia-
chi...](http://www.economist.com/blogs/analects/2014/09/dyslexia-chinese)

------
Alex3917
I actually don't have much difficulty reading this, with the exception of a
couple technical terms I wasn't familiar with. There was a similar thread a
while back with a couple different fun examples, albeit designed to show how
we read based on the shape of words (not spelling) rather than to demonstrate
dyslexia:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=222459](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=222459)

~~~
SamBam
You didn't have trouble reading it, because the author deliberately kept the
first and last letters the same, and referred to Typoglycemia,
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typoglycemia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typoglycemia),
which has shown that you can (often, not always) mix up the internal letters
and the works are still very legible.

In doing this, I think the creator was specifically trying to make a
Typoglycemia simulator, not a dyslexia simulator, since the original quote
said nothing about the first and last letters remaining the same.

~~~
geon
You can't really simulate Typoglycemia, since it isn't a condution, but a
phenomenon.

But yeah. I wanted the effect to be somewhat distracting while still readable.

------
randomgyatwork
This is certainly a cool effect, but as someone with dyslexia I've never
experienced text like this.

------
alexcasalboni
If you are wondering about the JS code:

[https://gist.github.com/alexcasalboni/ba7c99fb3484579c0dad](https://gist.github.com/alexcasalboni/ba7c99fb3484579c0dad)

------
bobisme
Maybe this is important, not because it an accurate representation of
dyslexia, but because it can simulate the effect of it. I could read
everything pretty quickly and accurately except for some of the longest words,
but I got this feeling of my brain's CPU overheating. At the end of the
article I was frustrated and tired. I wanted to stop reading. This is coming
from someone who probably reads tens of thousands (or more) of words per day
of articles, emails, comments, and source code.

------
jv22222
It would be great to be able to dyslexiafy any page on the internet (both with
and without animation) then a lot of folks could use it to explain the various
versions/intensities of the condition.

For example, therapists could use the tool to help parents understand what
their kids are going through.

Edit: Of course, this assumes that this is a useful tool to really help people
understand dyslexia, which I am not able to judge.

------
mostafaberg
I wonder how something like [http://spritzinc.com](http://spritzinc.com) would
work for a dyslexic person ?

It basically gives you a single word at a time to read, would that make it
easier for a dyslexic person to read bigger text if it was split into smaller
one word chunks ?

~~~
lucb1e
Good question, makes me curious as well!

------
mgrennan
Can you understand this? Why do we complain about spelling?

Eye have a spelling chequer, It came with my Pea Sea. It plane lee marks four
my revue Miss Steaks I can knot sea.

Eye strike the quays and type a whirred And weight four it two say Weather eye
am write oar wrong It tells me straight a weigh.

Eye ran this poem threw it, Your shore real glad two no. Its vary polished in
its weigh. My chequer tolled me sew.

A chequer is a bless thing, It freeze yew lodes of thyme. It helps me right
all stiles of righting, And aides me when eye rime.

Each frays come posed up on my screen Eye trussed too bee a joule. The chequer
pours o'er every word Two cheque sum spelling rule.

------
sbassi
The demo is enlightening, but the text is not telling to more important thing
about dyslexia: The main problem is not the difficult to read (that is an
issue of course) but the social implications for the people with this, when
parents, teachers and pairs believes the kid can't read because is dumb or
lazy. Self esteem goes to the floor and also impact in performance even in
thing not related with reading. So awareness that this is a real issue (and
not that is lazy) and that the kid has to make a lot of effort to catch up is
very important to help them have a better future.

------
hammeiam
Some quick thoughts on the code:
[http://pastebin.com/hYiB01RH](http://pastebin.com/hYiB01RH)

First, the isLetter function is both wrong and unused.

Second, messUpMessyPart is suboptimal. Rather than using a while loop to
generate random numbers until a < b, why not do something like `var nums =
[rand, rand].sort(); a = nums[0]; b = nums[1]`. There's still the case where
a=b, but maybe you just run the function 2/10 times instead of 1/10 to
compensate for that case.

------
Your_Creator
This may help some people who deal with this problem.

[http://www.anlp.org/how-could-nlp-help-
me.php?cscid=11](http://www.anlp.org/how-could-nlp-help-me.php?cscid=11)

[http://www.anlp.org/files/dyslexia-
strategies_33_153.pdf](http://www.anlp.org/files/dyslexia-
strategies_33_153.pdf)

for those who are having extreme difficulty, you may want to let your computer
read that to you.

best of luck to all, I hope this makes a difference for someone.

------
bosdev
If anyone would like to try this on more websites, I wrapped it in a quick
Eager app:
[http://preview.eager.io/dyslexia/](http://preview.eager.io/dyslexia/)

I also modified the source to not use jQuery in the process:
[https://github.com/zackbloom/dyslexia/blob/master/script.js](https://github.com/zackbloom/dyslexia/blob/master/script.js)

------
ecobiker
What tools do people use to get around dyslexia? I recently realised that most
auto-correct and spelling correction tools breakdown for dyslexic people. The
challenge for them is that they know how a word sounds but takes more time
than usual to recollect the spelling. The recommendations suggested by
standard spell checkers are way off the mark in those cases. Any
recommendations would be appreciated.

~~~
krschultz
Check out [http://www.atdyslexia.com/web-based-
tools/](http://www.atdyslexia.com/web-based-tools/) or Talk Typer (Chrome
extension)

~~~
ecobiker
Thanks for the link! Seems like a good place to start.

------
stegosaurus
I'm guessing this is supposed to do something? Expecting the letters to jumble
themselves or similar.

Doesn't work for me on either Firefox or Chrome desktop.

~~~
geon
Any error messages in your console?

~~~
stordoff
It could be a HTTPS error - jquery is loaded over HTTP, so blocked on the
secure page.

Replacing

    
    
        <script type="text/javascript" src="http://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.0.3/jquery.min.js"></script>
    

with

    
    
        <script type="text/javascript" src="//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.0.3/jquery.min.js"></script>
    

should enable HTTPS as required AFAIK

~~~
geon
Thanks. Fixed.

~~~
stordoff
The Disqus.com comments are still blocked on the secure version of the page
(disqus.com/embed.js is loaded via HTTP only), but the main functionality
works fine now with HTTPS Everywhere enabled.

------
ninjakeyboard
The attempt at simulation of dyslexia is thumped by the fact that the brain
can read fairly fluently when the letters are mixed up. [http://www.mrc-
cbu.cam.ac.uk/people/matt.davis/cmabridge/](http://www.mrc-
cbu.cam.ac.uk/people/matt.davis/cmabridge/)

Still, this is a cool and share-worthy article imo :)

------
mlkmt
I have a mild suspicion that my 4 year old niece may be dyslexic. She can read
and write all the letters and their sounds, but she can't seem to tie the
sounds into syllables, not even the simplest ones. She is not being pressured
into reading, she just liked it up to this point. Is there any tell-tale sign
I should be aware of ?

~~~
flatline
While I don't know anything scientifically established about childhood
development, from my extensive and recent exposure to 4 year olds this sounds
100% normal.

------
samstave
Wow, could you use this plugin to effectively DRM a document?

This may be a stupid question...

Assume you wanted to ensure non plagerism, just use this this to make it such
that each visitor is given a random version of the document which the human
mind can read but will be tough as hell to copy/paste phrases or paragraphs?

~~~
geon
> ensure non plagerism

That would be interesting. You could fairly easily write an automatic spell
corrector though. Just replace each word with the most likely anagram as
scored by a Markov chain.

I imagine you could do random word substitution with synonyms. By this
"watermark" you could identify the source of a leaked document.

------
tremguy
Somehow i just don't get why this is so popular? Someone care to elaborate on
what i may have missed? As far as i understand, it doesn't even simulate the
real life condition very well, as some dyslexia sufferers here have pointed
out.

------
SandersAK
Pretty interesting stuff.

What was strange for me is that I had no problem reading 90% of that at the
same pace as I usually read except for word I have never seen before.

I tend to speed read contextually skipping over words entirely. Maybe a bad
thing now that i think of it...

~~~
mgrennan
That's interesting. I once ask a friend who speed reads to read his book to
me. He said no because if he did he wouldn't be able to understand it himself.
He said he read in ideas or pictures. He explained speed reading was like
watching a movie. If he would have to explain what he was seeing or read every
word and that was more work then he could do and follow along.

It was at this point I understood how different people read differently.

------
afandian
Reminds me of a thing I made. Requires a mouse.
[http://afandian.com/moreover/alide-in-
wonnerlanc/](http://afandian.com/moreover/alide-in-wonnerlanc/)

------
geon
For extra fun, try looking at the JS source in Chrome devtools.

~~~
stordoff
Not sure why, but that 'bothered' me way more than the original article. I
could read the text of the Wikipedia article without too much of an issue, but
as soon as I saw the code all I could think was "This is wrong, and oddly
unsettling".

------
geekamongus
I went to this site with NoScript on, and it took me 5 minutes and a trip back
to these comments to figure out that something was supposed to be happening.

Is there a name for that?

------
itsnotvalid
Funny thing is that the text is still very readable (slower, but still
readable) to me. I think it should be much worse for people who have the real
problems...

------
yummybear
"Frok it on Ghitub"

------
antilketan
I think it would be possible to train a model (and present it as an app for
people with Dyslexia) that cancels out the jumping letters. It is kind of like
superimposing two waves which has a coherent text, that most of us see, as the
product.

~~~
rcthompson
You're making a lot of absurd assumptions here. You're assuming that this demo
is a completely literal representation of what dyslexics experience, which is
unlikely, and you're assuming that there is some predictable pattern to the
shuffling, which there isn't (check the source, it's just randomly choosing
words and then randomly shuffling their internal letters).

~~~
antilketan
It is a thought and has nothing to do with how this particular entity has been
implemented. What I got from the post was that dyslexic people see
words/letters differently than us. And _maybe_ there is a way to balance that
out with deterministic _enforced_ shuffling (edit: don't take _shuffling_
literally). That is why used the word "train". I don't think anyone except a
person with dyslexia knows what the "patterns" are, if any. The patterns could
be different for every person too.

------
Jemm
Great thing about poor vision is I can read this without problem

------
horsecaptin
I wonder if people with dyslexia can read things rendered with the dyslexia
app like normal people can read normal text. That would be a trip!

~~~
mgrennan
For me it depends on how it is done. If the application just displaces the
same letters. No, it's still hard to read. If the app substitues letters that
look alike (dpqb) then I can read it just fine.

------
yev
funny thing, if you will look in the page source, he is changing the google
analytics script as well

------
kator
I don't know about other dyslexics but this not what it feels like to me. For
me the words don't move they're just different. The letters are often swapped,
I could stare at a word for a long time because I can't quite tell what it is.

I even looked at the title of this and thought it was spelled right but then
something inside my head said "look again". When I went to the site the
problem is the words move rapidly and the changes are too obvious. The
challenge with my dyslexia is that the words have changed before I see them in
subtle ways that trip you up when you start reading.

A couple of things I've noticed:

* Handwriting is ok for me if it's printed but cursive is almost impossible for me to read.

* Using light fonts on a dark background really helps a lot, when I switched my ipad kindle to black background and white font my reading speed went up almost 20x. It felt like I was part of the human race finally and understood what people meant by a "quick enjoyable read".

Accidently my work on computers started on old CRT terminals where the fonts
where light and the background was dark. Green screens and Orange screens were
awesome I was most productive on them. Over time I got sucked into the windows
white background and found myself lost again. I literally at one point thought
I was loosing my ability to code and that my writing and reading was getting
worse. At some point I would ssh into boxes and use vi because I felt more
productive, over time I realized the reason was the ssh client I was using was
like the old CRT terminals and had black background with colored foreground
fonts. Once I figured that out I changed everything I can to this format of
dark background and never looked back.

I've also noticed as I get tired my dyslexia really kicks in, I start to ask
my wife "Is this word spelled right?" and even with spell check I second guess
it's suggestions because the words don't "look right". It's strange I can't
tell you the letters are swapped or not, I just feel like cognitive dissonance
has kicked in.

Dyslexia is hard to explain, if you've ever had that feeling where you were
talking along and all of a sudden couldn't remember the name of an old friend
or something and your train of thought just collapses on this one issue, maybe
even you find yourself embarrassed or a feeling of tunnel vision falls over
you. This is exactly how I feel, stupid, what's wrong why can't I read this
word, I must be an idiot. I've struggled with this feeling all my life, it
permeates my life and I have to battle it almost daily. I know I'm not stupid,
but growing up unable to read like my classmates and having teachers tell me
I'm an idiot did not help much on this front. I think the hardest thing about
dyslexia is that until you know you have it and until others believe it you
end living in this horrible self doubting and self deprecating world convinced
there is something wrong with you and that you're an idiot. This is the secret
pain of dyslexia...

I was told in High School that I could never be a programmer because my short-
term memory and dyslexia would make it impossible for me to be successful. I
was devastated because I was already coding in BASIC on a TRS-80 Model I and
having so much success, for once I had found a thing I could type wrong things
into over and over and not be judged. Then when I got it right it would just
"work". No judgement, no "SYNTAX ERROR AGAIN YOU IDIOT". For the first time in
my life I felt accepted and smart, I could code for days and build amazing
things. But, being told I couldn't do it killed me, I spent days in a haze and
then one day it hit me. The person who told me that was the idiot, not me,
they weren't programming, I was already doing it, and better than anyone at my
entire school. So luckily for me I ignored that and went on to enjoy 35 years
of being in technology, writing any language I desire and mastering anything I
put my mind to.

In the end dyslexia is just a thing, like all of us we are dealt a hand of
cards in this life from random genetic expressions to accidents and horrible
people who put us down while we are growing up. It's up to us to overcome, to
push through and make the best of all the tools we were given in that random
lotto and try very hard to learn along the way and hopefully find some love
while doing it all.

------
agumonkey
My new salt generator.

------
myohan
The disabling aspects of Dyslexia are correctable and can be overcome.

~~~
csours
Feel like backing that up with some actual information or resources?

------
ArtDev
This is not dyslexia. It is both a curse and a gift.

It is extremely misunderstood. This only makes that point more apparent.

Dylexia is a gift, once you understand how to adapt.

This project is quite stupid.

~~~
fabulist
I'd be very interested to hear more about how it is after one has adapted.

~~~
cmdrfred
I for one tend to flip numbers around in my head so I never rely on them. This
turns out is a good way to make sure that any mathematical calculations you do
are correct as I am always double and triple checking them. Einstein also had
it and it might of aided him in the same way.

------
Dysanovic
I wrote a Chrome extension which demonstrates Typoglycemia by scrambling the
words on whatever webpage you are on. It's similar to the OP's webpage but
does not produce a constantly changing page of words.

You can find it here: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/word-
welter/ahmpgo...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/word-
welter/ahmpgoebcklpogmobamdjliigbncofep)

------
gilescope
(First post so apologies if i've not got the rules right). As a dyslexic
myself I'd like to know if any other dylexics speed read and if they do, do
they do it by default. I hear myself reading and thus the speed is the speed
of someone talking. I found
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11162927](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11162927)
interesting and wondered about the crossover with dyslexia. Personally I
suspect there are a few different flavours of dyslexia - I don't have words
move about for me. What I would love to see is a spellchecker done correctly -
remembering arbitrary spellings is hard because they are arbitrary. I want a
spell checker that tells me the word is wrong and shows me which letters I
should be adding / subtracting to get the right spelling. Autocorrect just
holds me back from being a better speller. I'm also convinced I'm a much
better developer for having dyslexia - far more leftfield than most.

