A Readable Font for Dyslexia Sufferers

Abelardo Gonzalez is a developer whose name may soon become well known to people with dyslexia, especially once they download his open source font and begin using it to help ease their struggle with reading. He has entitled this revolutionary new font, OpenDyslexic. It is free and you can download it as an extension for Chrome or Safari. iOS users can download it with a free web-browsing application. A number of third party applications also incorporate this new font.

So how does it work? The letters are all heavily weighed at the bottom. This holds the letters in their place. The ideas is to anchor each letter in place so that a dyslexic person’s mind cannot flip, rotate, swap, or otherwise confuse the lettering. For someone suffering from dyslexia, this may help them enjoy reading for the first time in their life.

OpenDyslexic also has italic and bold capabilities. The key to keeping OpenDyslexic readable for dyslexic individuals, even when using italics, is that the slant is not very strong. It is just enough to set the words apart without negating the weighting effect. You can even use bold and italics together, and it should still be readable.

If you use the OpenDyslexic extension in either Safari or Chrome, the extension automatically will convert all website text to the more easily readable font. If you use apple products, you can download OpenWeb, which is a free browser for iOS. Using this app you can also get the OpenDyslexic font.

Dyslexia does not affect every one in the same way. Because of this fact, the effectiveness of the font may vary for different individuals. If you struggle with dyslexia, give this app a try. It is available from the OpenDyslexia website. You can even try a couple of free classic books in the font, which are available on the site as well.

If you struggle with dyslexia, it is worth a try.