
OpenStreetMap for the dyslexic - thinkingemote
http://www.osm4dys.org/
======
velox_io
As a dyslexic person, this actually makes things worse. I have a hard time
reading caps, I believe it's because the characters have the same vertical
positioning so there are less visual cues to go on. A similar thing with serif
fonts, I understand that the tails are meant to aid readers, but I just find
it as additional noise.

Switching that font to lowercase doesn't help much (didn't see the link at the
top of the page initially, not until I went back to the page in fact). That
font feels like my monitor is badly in need of calibration. I get that they're
adding a horizontal rule to aid readers to follow each line, but it just looks
weird! Maybe things would be different if I grew up with it. Plus I've put in
tonnes of time and effort reading 'normal' fonts.

Pro tips:

-Line spacing greatly helps things (things get cryptic when it's removed).

-Small fonts make things harder to read (right now my browser is at 150%, have a 43" monitor so why not). I generally increase the font 20% (even when I have no eyesight problems).

-Contrast! Bright coloured/ contrasted backgrounds (such as black on red) make make things much harder to reader to read (I left that typo in, brain was still thinking about harder and read (er... did it again here) at the same time)). Feels as though there's too much info coming in simultaneously. Similar with black on white, but not as bad. That could just be an ADD/ ASD thing (there's a surprising amount of crossover) as I literally hate the white from some LED bulbs (10k+) - it's piercing.

-Avoid overly long paragraphs (tend to get a little lost in the wall of text).

Dyslexia is a funny thing, it affects people in different ways to different
degrees (a friend of mine is a bank manager, yet he can barely write a text
message). It's taken me a while to develop strategies, such as: I read any any
[duplicate word] text I write at least three times, yet I still have errors.
Often sound words in my head as I write, and some words I constantly get
wrong. Such as 'field', have to remember it as 'fI-elD' (hard i at the start)
- Kind of ironic as the secondary school I went to had field in its name
(luckily it was embossed on my jumper:D) and now I constantly work with
databases. At school my literacy was appalling, at college it was embarrassing
(with tutor corrections on every line), wasn't on uni/ after that I started to
get a handle on things. In my thirties I still feel I'm improving, people
often judge intelligence in people's ability to write. I'm sure some of my
teachers would bet good money that I'd never be able to touch-type (although
I'd be lost without spellcheck).

If anyone knows a text reader that isn't a pain in the a __(able to read a
paragraph or article, and not follow my cursor as I change applications). I 'm
all ears! ;)

~~~
gnicholas
> _If anyone knows a text reader that isn 't a pain in the a (able to read a
> paragraph or article, and not follow my cursor as I change applications).
> I'm all ears! ;)_

Do you mean a text to speech reader, or a reading tool that helps with
dyslexia more generally?

~~~
velox_io
Mainly to read articles/ ebooks (I take more in that way), but also to
proofread what I've written as things still slip through spell check.

I'm not that bothered about speech to text, as products I've tried in the past
often end up more cumbersome than the problem they solve. I might try again as
the has been an explosion in machine learning recently, so maybe technology
has advanced to be more natural & accurate.

~~~
gnicholas
For articles/ebooks, I'd put in a plug for BeeLine Reader [1], which I created
originally for use as a speed reading tool but learned is very helpful for
many people with dyslexia. We are currently doing a couple studies with
accessibility researchers to better understand how it helps and for which
specific populations. Any feedback would be appreciated!

1:
[http://www.beelinereader.com/individual](http://www.beelinereader.com/individual)

You can read Kindle books using our iPad app and browser extensions (via the
Kindle Cloud Reader). Both tools also work for news articles or arbitrary
websites.

------
tomxor
> DYSLEXICS FEEL BETTER WHEN: ... SAME COLORS REPRESENT SAME THINGS, FEW
> INFORMATION ARE ON THE SCREEN.

I was identified as being "dyslexic" as a child, I had difficulty learning to
read - but at some point I had an "aha" moment that I still remember very
clearly even though I was very young: _" english is full of completely
illogical inconsistent nonsense, it's largely just a memory game combined with
a bunch of very subtle rules"_, but of course as a child no one ever
explicitly tells you this, I can only assume most people either just grok that
or put up with it unconsciously without effort. As soon as I realised this it
was much easier to progress and also more generally modulate my natural
tendency to look for the _assumed_ presence of logic and consistency in other
systems created by humans - basically the "accepting random shit" filter that
the majority of people seem to have by default, I don't think I could have
carved my own career into the obscurity of computers and technology without
that skill that others seem to just have, but it's also handy to maintain my
original perspective because it helps me see flaws, weaknesses, inconsistency
etc in designs very quickly.

The above list reminded me of this, and although I wouldn't say it's "wrong",
I am pretty sure everyone has a preference for those attributes: consistency
(same colours representing the same things) and only relevant info on the
screen etc - so in short perhaps it's just that dyslexics are more sensitive
to bullshit and poor design, but being one doesn't make me an expert.

[EDIT]

Alternate hypothesis: I'm not dyslexic and was misdiagnosed, after all there
is a whole multidimensional spectrum of non-neurotypicals and dyslexia sounds
like a pretty arbitrary category.

~~~
slg
>I was identified as being "dyslexic" as a child, I had difficulty learning to
read...Alternate hypothesis: I'm not dyslexic and was misdiagnosed... dyslexia
sounds like a pretty arbitrary category.

It isn't arbitrary, but the definition is so broad that it is almost
meaningless. It isn't even a category of disorders that are grouped by
symptoms, they are grouped by how those symptoms manifest themselves when
trying to read. Basically you have dyslexia if you have trouble reading or
learning to read, have normal intelligence, and don't have any vision issues.
Therefore the only real way to be misdiagnosed with it is if there is some
other more specific undiagnosed disability that impacts intelligence or if
there is some undiagnosed vision problem like not identifying a child needs
glasses. It also means it is possible that taking a different approach to
learning "cured" you of your dyslexia.

~~~
tomxor
> It isn't arbitrary, but the definition is so broad that it is almost
> meaningless.

You are absolutely right, "arbitrary" wasn't really what I meant.

> It isn't even a category of disorders that are grouped by symptoms, they are
> grouped by how those symptoms manifest themselves when trying to read.
> Basically you have dyslexia if you have trouble reading or learning to
> read... Therefore the only real way to be misdiagnosed with it is if there
> is some other more specific undiagnosed disability that impacts
> intelligence...

I've always been deeply suspicious of broad labelling through analysis of
fairly non-specific cognitive symptoms. Even with the consideration you
mention: excluding other physiological and neurological factors.

Reading the various definitions of different forms of dyslexia now which
suggest certain causes - I don't feel like any of them applied to me. I think
the failure in these attempts of classifying neuro-type or whatever is the
expectation for little variation, and I don't mean in terms of a so-called
"spectrum" I mean because the brain is incomprehensibly complex to us, is a
composite of all kinds of "skills" that are subtly different in each
individual, this is what I mean't by a multidimensional spectrum. It seems to
me that even while trying to identify very specific manifestations of a
symptom it's going to be easy to mix up completely separate underlying causes.

------
LegendaryPatMan
The three most helpful things for me as a dyslexic are;

1\. Highlight the text I'm reading. That text is HORRIFIC when highlighted so
I can follow what I'm reading 2\. Make my window thinner so my eyes have less
travel distance from left to right. It's harder for my eye to wander to other
lines etc 3\. Line spacing! For the same reason as above.

This site doesn't do 3, 1 has overlapping font with highlight making it harder
to read and I think does a poor job of 2...

Like this honestly makes me feel like I'm a kid again and my mam is telling me
something she read in some stupid magazine that's taking advantage of her
desire to be a good mother. She wants to help me but the advice in the
magazine about curing dyslexia with Angostura bitters isn't going to work and
feels like a cruel joke played by whoever wrote that article... Just like that
incident, there was ZERO evidence and the about section of the site has ZERO
evidence as to whether any of this works

------
GunlogAlm
Regarding the font used, OpenDyslexic, there isn't actually any evidence it
helps readability (apparently): [https://s-e-o.org/which-font-is-best-for-
dyslexic-users-the-...](https://s-e-o.org/which-font-is-best-for-dyslexic-
users-the-science-reviewed/)

------
Insanity
Interesting choice of font. Does the font help with reading it to the
dyslexic? For me it makes it actually harder.

(I get that all-caps might help, but that font?)

EDIT: Apart from that, it's a cool idea though

~~~
BugsJustFindMe
Are you sure that it's the font and not the clearly non-native English making
it harder to parse? For me the font is ugly but still just as readable,
whereas the hallmark signs of an ESL writer were definitely noticable.

Also the abysmally loose kerning and undifferentiated leading make everything
run together into a scattered wall of text, which probably doesn't help.

~~~
rjmunro
I've put up a couple of PRs to fix some of the English and the line spacing.
Preview here: [https://rjmunro.github.io/osm-for-the-
dyslexic.github.io/](https://rjmunro.github.io/osm-for-the-
dyslexic.github.io/)

I hope they merge them as it looks a lot better to my (admittedly non-
dyslexic) eyes.

------
liotier
Considering the existence of a two-years old thread at
[https://www.reddit.com/r/openstreetmap/comments/4i5o1h/osm_f...](https://www.reddit.com/r/openstreetmap/comments/4i5o1h/osm_for_the_dyslexic/)
this prototype is at least two-years old.

~~~
thinkingemote
I believe the project is at least 2 years, but the web map at
[http://www.osm4dys.org/viewer/](http://www.osm4dys.org/viewer/) is newer. At
the very least, I heard about this recently.

------
neom
As someone with severe dyslexia I hate this font so much. It's so damn ugly
and it HARDLY works (for me it's < 10% better). If someone could design an
elegant front weighed so that an internal drop shadow can help the mind render
the character more easily and accurately in 3D space, that would be a god
send.

~~~
eat_veggies
Have you tried BeeLine reader?

[http://www.beelinereader.com/individual](http://www.beelinereader.com/individual)

~~~
Gikoskos
Damn this idea is really cool and works for me. I wish I knew this site
existed much earlier

~~~
gnicholas
Fun fact: BeeLine Reader was launched via a Show HN!

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6335784](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6335784)

------
nicklovescode
Hey everyone - I'm working on a book reader that allows you to read text while
it annotates using Wavenet.

I have dyslexia and I've found that I can read so quickly with high retention
using this method, and having specialized software for it is nicer.

It might help anyone here who suffers from the same thing that I do.

Email me at cammarata.nick@gmail.com if you want to be an early user!

------
fredley
It didn't work zooming in past city-level for me, I'm guessing that's a
limitation of the prototype?

The flags were an interesting choice instead of country names. I can see how
this could be easier to parse than denser country labels, but it does required
knowledge of flags.

Other than that is the main difference just the use of the dyslexic font and a
reduction in label density?

~~~
thinkingemote
I think they just have data in Switzerland and Italy. It get's down to
neighbourhood level, but not any closer.

------
BugsJustFindMe
On Android 7.0 I can't get past the about screen. It says to click somewhere
but I've clicked everywhere and nothing happens.

~~~
thinkingemote
try to long-click the icons. I had to do that on my laptop anyhow, it's
strange.

------
tartrate
It's funny how the site misspells "dyslexics" twice.

~~~
chrismatheson
ironic maybe, but quite possibly the author is dyslexic themselves and made
the mistake easily? I can say from personal experience its never funny for the
author.

------
SwingingShips
Nice

