Introduction

The pleasure of reading is something that people deserve to have, regardless of whether they have a disability or not. One neurological disability that really affects the ability to read is Dyslexia in which the brain processes information differently, thus making it difficult for a person to read accurately. The good news is that there have been numerous studies that allow us to create a format that improves readability for dyslexic people. 

The format of text, either digital or printed, can have a huge impact on the readability of dyslexic people. The formatting can include font family, font size, font colors and spacings of lines and letters. A study titled “Dyslexia and Fonts: Is a Specific Font Useful?”, observed the fluency rate between Times New Roman and EasyReading font for people with dyslexia and found that the reading fluency rate was improved with the use of EasyReading font. 

Defining Dyslexia

British Dyslexia Association (UK) defines dyslexia as a difficulty of fluent and accurate reading along with spelling skills. The human brain works differently for dyslexic people and it processes written information with inaccuracy. One of the most common conditions within dyslexia is seeing letters move, making it difficult to concentrate and read. 

Challenges faced by individuals with dyslexia

Considering the fact that our education system is majorly based on a written curriculum, it makes it very difficult for students with dyslexia to survive. Even on the internet, the most authentic information is provided in written form in terms of research papers and articles. That being said, there is a dire need for written information to be presented in such a way that it is accessible to people with dyslexia. 

Role of fonts in readability

Font Families play an important role in making the written text accessible by dyslexic readers. Since Dyslexia is not a visual disability, it is the disability of confusing letters and sounds, font families that have similarly styled characters can be more confusing. The most common example is the confusion between the letter b and d. Specialized font families for dyslexic readers make sure that there is a clear indication between similar looking characters. 

Research findings on font readability for dyslexic individuals

Some interesting research findings on font readability for dyslexic individuals include a comparison of accuracy and fluency between Times New Roman and EasyReading font families. In this research, 54 children with a diagnosis of dyslexia were in a clinical range when using Times New Roman and only 27 children were in a clinical range with the use of EasyReading. 

The dyslexia specific font characters were kept heavier on the bottom to create a feeling that they won’t get rotated. These included OpenDyslexic and Dyslexie. Rello and Baeza-Yates (2013) measured eye-tracking recordings of Spanish readers with dyslexia (aged 11–50) and found that OpenDyslexic did not significantly improve reading time nor shorten eye fixation. The masters thesis of de Leeuw (2010) compared Arial and Dyslexie with students and found Dyslexie did not lead to faster reading, but did help with some dyslexic-related errors.

Recommendations on Fonts for Dyslexia

With all the studies conducted on dyslexia, it has been established that dyslexia is not a visual impairment or disability. It is a language based difficulty with the brain due to which an individual is not able to assign words to phonics. It also includes having difficulty with verbal memory and verbal processing speed. Considering that, having huge and heavy font sizes is not the solution. The best font based solution would be to use standard font families that have minimal distinctions between each character and appear less crowded along with around 35% of the character width as letter spacing. 

The above discussion narrows down the font families to be used and here are some that are believed to be effective for dyslexic students:

1. EasyReadings

2. Comic Sans

3. Dyslexie

4. OpenDyslexic

5. Arial