RE: warning about Dyslexia - was "Typeface for Dyslexia in Henry Winkler childrens book"

Neil,

 

Thank you for sharing this perspective!

 

 

* katie *

 

Katie Haritos-Shea 
Senior Accessibility SME (WCAG/Section 508/ADA)

 

Cell: 703-371-5545 |  <mailto:ryladog@gmail.com> ryladog@gmail.com | Oakton, VA |  <http://www.linkedin.com/in/katieharitosshea/> LinkedIn Profile | Office: 703-371-5545

 

From: Neil Milliken [mailto:n_milliken@hotmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 4:53 PM
To: lisa.seeman
Cc: Joshue O Connor; Katie Haritos-Shea GMAIL; public-cognitive-a11y-tf@w3.org
Subject: Re: warning about Dyslexia - was "Typeface for Dyslexia in Henry Winkler childrens book"

 

There has been a lot of stuff about dyslexia friendly fonts over the years starting with comic sans, read regular and most recently with open dyslexic and dyslexie.  There are various claims made as to their efficacy.  

This study would appear to show that they are not as effective as they claim.

http://www.luzrello.com/Publications_files/assets2013.pdf

 

As a dyslexic person I find myself reacting very negatively to them not just because they are portrayed as a panacea but because they are not to my taste. They are very clunky and unattractive.

 

On a (screen) tablet,pc or phone I have a preference for well spaced highly legible text on a just off white background as I find that the glare from pure white slows me down. Other people will have other preferences.

 

The article below is a good balanced read from a typography point of view.

 

http://www.commarts.com/Columns.aspx?pub=6950 <http://www.commarts.com/Columns.aspx?pub=6950&pageid=1785> &pageid=1785

 

It's commonly accepted amongst the UK dyslexia community that sans serif fonts are preferable on a screen see the British Dyslexia Association pages:

http://bdatech.org/what-technology/typefaces-for-dyslexia/

 

However layout contrast and font size are at least as important if not more so than the font choice. Configurability and personal preference are therefore key.

 

Signage fonts generally are designed with legibility and intelligibility in mind and there has been a lot of research into creating good ones.  

 

The award winning gov.uk <http://gov.uk>  uses a signage font "New Transport"

https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2012/07/05/a-few-notes-on-typography/

 

And a personal favourite of mine (including the research) wayfinding sans

http://ilovetypography.com/2012/04/19/the-design-of-a-signage-typeface/

 


Kind regards,

 

Neil 

This was sent from my iPad


On 11 Feb 2014, at 16:49, "lisa.seeman" <lisa.seeman@zoho.com <mailto:lisa.seeman@zoho.com> > wrote:

A warning about  Dyslexia - there is a huge amount of stuff out there with very little empirical evidence that it helped more then some random case and they are often based on misunderstandings about what dyslexia is. (When I was young it was colored glasses.) There are a lot of desperate people out there who will pay for any hope.

I am going to suggest that any new info, especially if it might be a fad, gets sent to the people  writing up about that user group and added to the wiki if relevant. You can also check what is already on the wiki. (Otherwise the list will be swamped by double or triple sources.)

Of course if you feel a link might be very important and is to credible research then send away. It is more important that we get all the research out there then we over edit ourselves and miss truly good ideas.

All the best

Lisa Seeman

Athena ICT Accessibility Projects <http://accessibility.athena-ict.com/default.shtml> 
LinkedIn <http://il.linkedin.com/in/lisaseeman/> , Twitter <https://twitter.com/SeemanLisa> 



 


---- On Tue, 11 Feb 2014 17:54:37 +0200 Joshue O Connor <joshue.oconnor@cfit.ie <mailto:joshue.oconnor@cfit.ie> > wrote ---- 

 

Katie Haritos-Shea GMAIL wrote: 
[...] 
> I was just watching KathieLee and Hoda (from the Today show in the US). They 
> were speaking with Henry Winkler (Fonzie from Happy Days TV show). He (a 
> dyslexic) wrote a book for kids using a type developed/inventer by a 
> Norwegian father that uses weighted type. This is for dyslexic children, but 
> apparently the type face is much easier for all users to read. 
> We need to find out what typeface this is...... 

In the same vein, in case you haven't seen this one from the University 
of Twente, Netherlands. [1] 

HTH 

Josh 

[1] 
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/dutch_studio_designs_typeface_font_help_dyslexic_readers