[giberson]

A few questions for dyslexics:

1) Is it consistent? Do you have have trouble with the same letters/letter pairings? Or do different words tend to have different effects?

2) Normal readers tend to read the "word" and not the individual letters. Do/Can dyslexics do the same? As an example, if for instance dyslexics commonly were to transpose the "o" and "u" combination "ou" to "uo" I'm wondering if dyslexics read the jumbled "yuo" immediately as "you" or, does dyslexia prevent you from even recognizing the pattern and you have to laboriously read "y" "u" "o", transpose "o" and "u" and recognize "you".

The reason I ask is because I'm curious if such a typeface might actually be hurtful to dyslexic readers. While the typeface is easier to read for dyslexics I wonder if using such a type face for initial reading education would have a side effect. When the reader switches to non dyslexic type faces, %99.99 the rest of all digital type, they will have diminished capacity for reading those texts (more so than having learned to cope with the frequent errors of those type faces)?

In other words, might the best solution to be educating dyslexics by recognizing they may see different or multiple letter patterns for certain words and simply train them to recognize each possible version of those letter patterns?

IE. Here's a vocabulary sheet for Johny, a non dyslexic child:

    "mouse" - a small four legged mammal.
    "house" - a building you live in.

The same vocabulary sheet for Mikey, a dyslexic child.

    "mouse", "muose" - a small four legged mammal.
    "house", "huose" - a building you live in.

Granted I'm very ignorant of this disorder and I may be over simplifying it. But my ultimate question and I don't mean it to sound cold or callous, but might it be better to focus efforts on teaching dyslexics to deal with it?

[rickmode]

Question 1

I find the font easier to read, but I became and avid reader after getting diagnosed and given private reading lessons in the 2nd grade (circa 1977). I suspect I retrained by brain with constant reading from that point onward.

By contrast, my sister who is 11 years older didn't get diagnosed young, and still struggles to read. Though she can read these days, she has a strong preference for audiobooks. When studying, she listens at 3x to 4x speed. Crazy fast. For personal reading she uses 1x to 2x.

Today here's what I can see (and since this is self reported, take it with a grain of salt):

a. I'm a slow reader compared to other avid readers. I read much faster than people that don't read often; I read about half as fast (or less) as my college friends that are avid readers.

b. For sentences or paragraphs displayed briefly (as happens in movies or TV shows), I get so worried about finishing the sentence, I often can't finish in the time the wording is shown. (So in this case I'm guessing I'm much slower than average.) I'd guess this is "test anxiety" [1]. Taking tests as a kid was torture. Example, I was relaxed taking my SATs and got 1250 (did it in one shot), for my ACTs, I was distracted and buzzing around in my head, and scored below the 50 percentile.

c. Answer "right / left" question is not automatic. I always have to think. I imagine pointing from my shoulder through my arm in the direction I'm thinking. (Perhaps every one does this.) I just know there's a small mental pause.

d. I struggle with unfamiliar but initial concepts or names. For example, when learning object-oriented programming, it took a bit for me to grok class vs object. Usually this forces a deep understanding, which in the end is great, but can be a slow learning process.

Question 2

I certainly read by whole words today. The problem (major difference) with dyslexics is the process of learning to read. When learning to read, dyslexics read in "chunks" and by word shape - basically seeing the word as whole, not the individual letters. I recall the uneven scanning. I also recall thinking "who the heck are these other kids learning this?" because I could see no rhyme or reason. AFAIK, kids normally clearly see the letters making up the words. I needed intense phonics training to "get" this.

Education (phonics training) is absolutely critical. Your "mouse"/"house" examples are exactly the kinds of intense flashcard things I went through. Day after day, card after card.

The Dyslexie font should be complimentary. I seriously doubt it would be a substitute. Many fonts explicitly emphasis readability - Dyslexie attempts to increase legibility for a non-standard brain type.

I think the font rocks, and I've love to get my hands on the font to live with it for a while.

[1] https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Test_anxiety

[jerf]

"When learning to read, dyslexics read in "chunks" and by word shape - basically seeing the word as whole, not the individual letters. I recall the uneven scanning."

I've wondered if dyslexia could be mitigated/cured by modifying a text reader to pulse the letters in sequence, thus giving the brain something to latch on to. Perhaps tie it in with an eye tracker. Gradually, you could reduce the strength of the pulse until they are reading normally, perhaps maybe. This idea was based on a theory that I heard that dyslexia may fundamentally stem from a timing issue in the brain; well, perhaps we could train that directly.

I have nobody to try this on, though, so I haven't done anything with it.

[ams6110]

Answer "right / left" question is not automatic. I always have to think. I imagine pointing from my shoulder through my arm in the direction I'm thinking. (Perhaps every one does this.) I just know there's a small mental pause.

Interesting, I have that problem as well, also with compass directions (I often have to visualize a map to be sure I know whether I want to go "east" or "west" on a road. Also mentioned elsewhere on this page I transpose numbers a lot. I have no trouble reading though, and was a fairly avid reader when I was younger (don't have time for pure reading for pleasure much these days).

[wizard_2]

I'm going to say no. I'm dyslexic and dysgraphic and I deal with it, but it's only after many years of practice and by doing most of my writing on a keyboard. (I'm still not so good with written numbers.)

The best way I've heard it explained is that the word CAT doesn't look like a cat. A quick google search found this. http://dyslexiavictoria.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/dyslexic-pr...

"Also the alphabet is a type of abstract concept that Dyslexics have a frustrating time trying to learn because unless the letters are part of a word they don’t mean anything other than sounds. Dyslexics need concrete real images that can be connected to symbols such as words and numerals. “C – A – T” are sounds but do not bring up any images of real things. The word “CAT” however can be imagined."

Showing a kid the wrong spelling will only confuse them. (Writing was already confusing.) I was told growing up that my mind was trying really hard to find a cat in the letters, it flipped them around, held them upside down, put them on top of each other, and nothing looks like a cat. You don't actually see anything move (common question) but I used to stare at words trying to make sense of them. I don't know enough about cognition to tell you actually how it works.

I think if you can short circuit some of these wasted cycles it might help dyslexic kids pick up on what reading and writing actually is a bit faster. I'd give the font a try but they're using some sort of vector JS based font rendering (Cufon) and I don't know how to get that back to a ttf. But I doubt it would have much of an effect on myself anyway as I've learned how to read and write a long time ago.

Just my 2c

[quicksilver03]

That resembles what I, as a colorblind person, feel about colors. For me "yellow" or "green" are just definitions that other people make up, and they change the definition all the time. I cannot see any relation between an object and its "color" property.

[TechNewb]

As a dyslexic, what you say is interesting. I think this font is a step in the right direction, for at least causing greater awareness. But I would like to try and read a short story in it, and see if it helps.

A dyslexic does not necessarily know that they are reading something wrong, and spelling can be extremely difficult. Words like 'pleasant', are still extremely hard words for me to spell. So I don't think teaching Mikey multiple spellings would make it any easier for him to spell, but at least he would have a greater understanding of what's going on.

I use text-to-speech technology to read most material on the internet, and find that that helps the most for me right now.

[l0c0b0x]

My dyslexia becomes more noticeable when reading large paragraphs. I love to read, even though I have to re-read paragraphs (sometimes more than 3 times). Some font types, of course, do help so this is something that I look for every time I have to read something.

I've been reading like this since I can remember. I feel my brain is working double-time TRYING to decipher whats in a text, and while making sense of it... it's a bit annoying if you think about it, but you learn to live with it.

Now, the experience in reading is the same experience I get when I go to watch a movie in 3D, which I hate! (with a passion)