Thursday, February 28, 2013

Fonts for Dyslexia

I was introduced to some fonts that were designed for dyslexic brains to make reading easier. I have yet to try these fonts with the gentleman I am tutoring who has dyslexia, but I thought I would share these resources in the interim.

The first font is called Dyslexie, and it looks like this:


To learn more about Dyslexie typeface, visit their web page: http://www.studiostudio.nl/lettertype-dyslexie/. This font is not free of charge, but it appears that they have done their research on why their font was designed the way it was.

The second font is called Open Dyslexic, and it is a free and open source typeface. It was created by an individual who has dyslexia. I pulled a sample paragraph displaying the Open Dyslexic font from the "about" page of the website and included it below:

Open Dyslexic is created to help with some of the symptoms of dyslexia. Letters have heavy weighted bottoms to indicate direction. You are able to quickly figure out which part of the letter is down which aids in recognizing the correct letter, and sometimes helps to keep your brain from rotating them around. Consistently weighted bottoms can also help reinforce the line of text. The unique shapes of each letter can help prevent confusion through flipping and swapping.

(Open Dyslexic font is available for free download at http://dyslexicfonts.com. Thanks to the developer, Abelardo Gonzalez, for offering this free resource!)

If anyone has success with these fonts, or fonts similar to these, feel free to comment!

Free Online Speed Reading Tool

I have blogged before about learning strategies for reading faster and speed reading, as well as optimal silent and oral reading rates--both of which have proven to be popular posts. In that light, I was recently introduced to a free online tool called Spreeder, developed by 7-Speed-Reading. The objective of this tool is to help improve reading speed and comprehension. This tool could be used to help students practice reading at a faster rate, helping them to avoid the sub-vocalization that often occurs in their reading which, in turn, slows reading down.

To use the tool, first, paste the text you'd like to "speed read" into the box.


Then, select from a drop-down menu the settings you'd like to use. Settings include the number of words you would like displayed on the screen at a time, words per minute, background color, etc.


When you click "start," the text will flash across the screen at the rate prescribed in the settings, allowing the reader to read the text at that designated reading rate.