[skrebbel]

I really don't get this vibe. It's not like this is some potentially-harmful fake medicine, or an expensive scam.

From the very top of the page:

> If you like the way you are able to read this page, and others, then this typeface is for you!

Even if that's a "yes" for only 2% of dyslexics, then isn't that good enough? Why can't a reader decide for themselves whether they find that page easier to read than most?

[powersnail]

> Even if that's a "yes" for only 2% of dyslexics, then isn't that good enough? Why can't a reader decide for themselves whether they find that page easier to read than most?

If a drug cures 2% cases of cancer patients, with absolutely no downside, it wouldn't be a cure for cancer. It would be incredible, but still it cannot be claimed to be a cure for cancer.

The name and branding all suggest the font to counter dyslexia generally. That would be ridiculously misguiding if it only helps tiny fraction of dyslexia. Is it a helpful invention? But it's far from what the branding promises.

Of course readers can decide for themselves whether it works for them or not; but a misleading branding is still misleading.

[prox]

I don’t see this website claiming anything bold or misleading, the intro paragraph is very modest, and there is a HN commenter who already feels its helpful. And you don’t go around naming your domain opendyslexiafontbutforonlysomedyslexics.org

I don’t see the misleading part tbh.

[doctor_eval]

No, but if there was a free and completely harmless drug that cured cancer in 2% of cases then you’d definitely give it a shot if you had cancer.

I mean the website itself is written in its own font, it’s gonna be pretty clear to a dyslexic if it’s gonna help or not.

[elmo2you]

I have dyslexia (or slysdexia), and I do get this negative "vibe". If fact, I get it very well.

Over the years I've seen my share of these "fonts for dyslectic people". I often looked at them with high hopes, only to feel disappointed by how not a single one had any significant effect on me. Sure, most of them looked clean and tidy (but so do many other fonts), and there sure are other fonts that make things a hell of a lot worse (although maybe not as much is some might think).

Time and again, I find the claims associated with these fonts just falling short (if not totally bogus). Actually, from my personal experience I find this the whole concept, that a font will significantly impact or solve this problem, rather preposterous and maybe even insulting. Even to a level that it sounds mostly like irritating marketing snake oil, at least to me. I'm not saying that these fonts have not been made with only the best of intentions. Maybe they all are. But their presentation certainly ruins that for me.

From my own experiences, I simply can't agree with what all of these fonts claim to do (at least not more than what many other, more commonly used, fonts already do). But the assumption that this problem can be fixed with a font, annoys me most of all.

Even if it does help some people, it may also do a huge disservice to everyone for which it does nothing, while claiming or implying how it should improve their situation too.

After many years of receiving my own share of: "why don't you just read properly", please consider me edgy and easily triggered on the subject.

#end-of-rant

[doctor_eval]

I’m sorry for your experience but dyslexia is not a singular condition and not everyone responds to the same stimuli.

OpenDyslexia has been a godsend for our family. I’m sorry it doesn’t work for you. I also know someone who found that coloured lenses helped her, but it made no difference to us.

Like most things in life, YMMV.

[elmo2you]

Please, don't get me wrong. I'm not sure if you did, but it appears that you might have.

I do not really have any personal issue with my condition. Everyone who needs to know does, and it's never a show-stopper for anything essential in my life.

I do sincerely thank you for your sympathy/empathy, but it's not something I actually need. I've learned to live with and around dyslexia a long time ago, rather similar to how somebody with a physical handicap since birth no doubt would.

I honestly would not be surprised if it's a complex condition indeed. I would be even less surprised if different conditions ended up being classified under the same moniker, just because they share superficial symptoms (for this is how our healthcare systems function, especially for most mind related topics). I'm not having any issue with that either.

However, what pisses me off, is when people claim to have a solution that just isn't. I don't think it's just me. I know (quite) a few more people with dyslexia, but I don't recall any of them ever having any significant benefit from any of these "special" fonts (beyond comparing them to fonts that probably would confuse most "ordinary" people too).

I would honestly like to hear from other people with dyslexia, if there is even a single one among them that had a real significant benefit from any of these fonts. Because so far, I have never met one.

I again would like to stress that these efforts may nonetheless be pursued with nothing but good intentions. Still, as the saying goes ... the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Only to illustrate the principle, but certainly not to imply that the effects are even remote comparable: the colonial missionaries who came to "spread religion and culture" to the "savages in the new worlds", did often have sincere intentions (yet extremely misguided and wrong on so many levels, as most sane people today will instantly agree with). Even though the example is extreme, I hope it helps to understand why I have an issue with "doing good" for the wrong reasons in general. It has a remarkable habit of ending up more harmful than good.

[doctor_eval]

Sorry, I made a few comments on this thread and naturally you wouldn’t have seen all of them.

One of my family members has dyslexia and this font changed their life.

[xondono]

The problem is that most people aren't dyslexic.

My first impresion of this is that it might be a good idea to add a button to my blog changing the fonts with this one for accessibility.

Aside from the obvious cost to me (and limited benefit to others), implementing this might make me more resistant to doing something else that actually helps.

[1f60c]

A problem arises when a people think using this font will solve all accessibility problems, without consulting with people with dyslexia.

[kerkeslager]

Well, there are 55 donors on Patreon donating $332/mo. That's not nothing. The deception doesn't have to be intentional to be harmful.

[doctor_eval]

I am really struggling with this attitude. Why in gods name would people donate if it didn’t help them?

It’s reading. You know if it helps you or not because suddenly the words stop swimming around.

[kerkeslager]

> Why in gods name would people donate if it didn’t help them?

Because they think it helps other people?

[dathinab]

$332/mo of "can disappear at any time" donations aren't much at all.

There are WAY easier ways to do scams earning much more with much less effort.

Plus even if it does not reliably help dyslexic people, if it helps or is liked by the people who donate it's not a scam at all, even if the since behind it turns out to be incorrect.