http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/design-architecture/dyslexie-font-designed-t
o-help-dyslexics-read-write/4110?tag=nl.e660

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Dyslexie font designed to help dyslexics read, write

By Mary Catherine O'Connor | February 13, 2012, 8:01 AM PST




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Most of the 15 to 20 percent of people in the United States who have a
language-based disability suffer from dyslexia, a condition that makes
reading and comprehension difficult. Those who suffer from dyslexia often
transpose or rotate letters (a b becomes a q; an n becomes and u), and they
have difficulty differentiating letters that look similar, such as i and j.
Those who suffer from severe dyslexia might even see the letters moving, or
in three dimensions, as they try to read them. All of these factors greatly
impede the speed and clarity with which they can read.
 


A Dutch graphic designer and dyslexic, Christian Boer, developed a font
specifically for dyslexic readers. It's designed to make letters more
distinct from each other and to keep them tied down, so to speak, so that
the reader is less likely to flip them in their minds. The letters in the
font are also spaced wide apart to make reading them easier.
 
Boer introduced an English language version of the font, which is called
Dyslexie, late last year. It's available for purchase, in either English or
Dutch, from Boer's website. The font can be used on either the Mac or
Windows operating system, but not on devices such as iPads. However, a
software company called LingApps says it will soon offer an assistive
reading and writing application for iPad that uses Dyslexie.
 
Boer created the font as part of his thesis at the University of Twente (he
has since graduated). He says the font's effectiveness has been twice tested
- once in an informal way among eight dyslexic students he did not know, and
later as the subject of a formal, scientific analysis as part of another
University of Twente student's thesis. In each study, results suggested that
the font helped. Participants said the font allowed them to read for a
longer time and with better comprehension, compared to other fonts.
 
A number of U.S. schools are now using the font, says Boer. But there's not
yet been any major study by a educational system or government to gauge the
font's value in teaching young dyslexics how to read.
 
If you're dyslexic (or even if you're not) and are interested in whether it
works, you can check out the Dyslexie website, which uses the font, of
course. And check out Scientific American's deeper dive into the project,
which includes a link to a Dyselxie version of the article, so you can
compare it to the magazine website's font.
 
And for details on how Boer made the font, check out this video:
 

Via: Scientific American
 
Related:
 .Arkitypo: A beautiful history of typography presented in 3D
 
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