BRITISH DYSLEXIA ASSOCIATION
98 London Road, READING RG1 5AU
Tel: Helpline 0118 966 8271
Tel: Administration 0118 966 2677
Fax: 0118 935 1927
e-mail(Helpline): info@dyslexiahelp-bda.demon.co.uk
e-mail(Admin): admin@bda-dyslexia.demon.co.uk
Web Site:  http://www.bda-dyslexia.org.uk/

X09. Dyslexia-reader-friendliness.  Aug. 1999.

How do dyslexic people like reading matter to be presented?
Dyslexic people and those who work with them made the following points:

1. Writing style.
Short simple sentences. Shorter documents. Short chapters.


2. Font styles and sizes:
 
12+ sans serif fonts.  Arial is preferred. 
Comic Sans is liked with its round a's and plain g's. 
Arial Rounded MT Bold and Sassoon fonts were also suggested
and Homerton on Acorn computers.

Research found that dyslexic adults preferred 14pt with 1.5 line spacing. 
Walker S (1992) How it Looks. Typographic and Graphic Communication, University of Reading.



3. Presentation and layout:

1.	Ragged right edges. (The one point agreed by everyone.)
2.	Numbered Bullet points rather than continuous prose.
3.	Boxed and indented sections to break up the text.
4.	Wider spacing between characters, words, lines, paragraphs. 
5.	Two spaces between sentences.  Wide margins.
6.	Plenty of headings.
7.	Emboldening; coloured text for high-lighting.
8.	Not starting sentences at the ends of lines.
9.	No capitalisation or underlining. 
10.	There were mixed views on italics and on use of columns.
11.	Coloured paper, no consensus on colour, some preference for cream. 
12.	(Sunglasses or coloured overlays, tinted glasses or contact lenses may help some readers.  See BDA leaflet X01 Eyes.)



4. For computer users:

Greater awareness of the options for screen displays, printing and web browsers.
e.g. Windows users can try: 
Start/Settings/Control Panel/Display/Appearance/Item
Choose 'Window', Choose 'Colour.
Start/Settings/Control Panel/Accessibility Options, especially Display.


Dundee University has done a project and is now developing software to enable users to configure their computers easily for background, foreground, text colours, font size and style, spacing between paragraphs, words and characters.
http://Mc_006.mic.dundee.ac.uk/www/

See also: http://freespace.virgin.net/peter.hill7/dyshelp/index.htm

For text-reading software to operate helpfully the following are recommended for paper documents (which might be scanned into a computer) and for web sites: 
I. stops after headings. 
II. numbered bullet points. 
III. not words in capitals. They are read out letter by letter.
IV. as few 'signs' as possible, especially brackets and slashes.
V. as few abbreviations as possible. 

5. Web sites.
Many of the points above can be applied to web sites.
In addition:
a) Navigation should be easy.  A site map is essential.
b) It should be possible to access downloaded web pages off-line,                  
	to print them out and to copy and paste from them.
c) Frames can confuse, and such pages are not always available off-line.
d) All contact details and full e-mail and web addresses should be shown.        
	Then printouts with postal/phone details can be sent to non-internet users           
	and internet addresses can be quoted in documents.
e) Graphics and tables look nice but may take a long time to download.
f) Contents links should show which pages have been accessed.
g) Some users prefer black/dark blue print on a pale blue/yellow background. 
	Some websites offer a choice of background colours.
See: http://www.dyslexic.com/rational.htm

A group of dyslexic students at Bangor University made a plea:
 "Would BDA campaign to get anyone
writing on OHPs or black/white boards
to use print, not connected writing."

(c) BDA. Registered Charity No. 289243. Company Ltd No. 1830587.
Copies may be made provided the source and date are quoted and the content is unchanged.  08/09/99.