Dyslexia is a developmental neurobiological condition which is lifelong and highly hereditary.
While it primarily affects reading and writing skills, dyslexia is not related to visual processing. Dyslexia is a condition which impacts phonological processing – the distribution and patterning of speech sounds used to express meaning.
Dyslexic people may struggle to process and remember information they see and hear, which can affect learning and the development of literacy skills, as well as things like organisational skills.
It is estimated that around 1 in 10 people in the UK are affected to some degree; that’s millions of children and adults. If you don’t know someone with dyslexia, the chances are you will have heard of at least one of these people:
- Albert Einstein
- Agatha Christie
- Keira Knightley
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock
- Pablo Picasso
Dyslexia isn’t a barrier to greatness, but it is an obstacle to reading. What can we do to lessen this?
Actions for designers
Website layouts should be consistent across related pages. Avoid trying to fit too much information into a restricted space.
Align text content to the writing direction of the language (e.g. left for English, right for Arabic) rather than using justified text alignment.
Allow users to focus on the content without the distractions of animated advertising banners, autoscrolling carousels, and popup or fly-in promotional messages.
Typefaces and typography
There is a lot of anecdotal evidence around the use of specific typefaces for people with dyslexia. Some typefaces that are mentioned are OpenDyslexic, Dyslexie, Comic Sans and Atkinson Hyperlegible.
Dig a bit further and you will find some people with dyslexia who find these typefaces unhelpful and some who find them beneficial. That shouldn’t be surprising; any group of people affected by a particular disability is not a monolith. It will consist of individuals with differing – sometimes competing – needs, which ultimately reflects the human experience.
Rather than focusing on typefaces specifically for dyslexia, designers should consider broader typographical guidelines to improve accessibility when deciding on a typeface to use. I will highlight a few here:
Choose a typeface suitable for the brand and the audience
A serif font may be more suitable for a brand with a more formal style and messaging.
What is the expected reading experience for people? Longer sessions of reading may be made easier by using a serif font. People who are learning to read, or with a lower reading ability, may benefit from a sans serif font.
Favour typefaces where individual letters are easy to distinguish
Sometimes a typeface offers very few visual cues to differentiate between an uppercase “I,” a lowercase “l,” and the number 1.
It’s better when letters like “b” and “d,” or “q” and “p,” have their own distinct shapes, rather than being the same character but mirrored.
Lowercase “a,” “c,” “e,” and “o” can start to look very similar for some people if the shapes are too closed. Capital “O” and the number 0 can also be hard to tell apart in some typefaces.
Finally, it is recommended that ascenders are visibly taller than capital letters in a typeface. Ascenders typically include the upward strokes found in letters such as “b,” “d,” “f,” “h,” “k,” “l,” and “t.”
Consider whether the typeface has enough letter spacing
Letter combinations such as “ol,” “lo,” or “vv” can be harder to decode if there isn’t enough space between them.
Test in context and with real copy
Doing so will give a much clearer idea of how well the content will flow and whether the styles support the required tone of voice.
Actions for developers
Use semantic, valid HTML
This should always be the starting point when developing an accessible website. Some dyslexic people find it helpful to use text to speech software while reading digital content. Screen reader output is drastically improved when the underlying code is semantic and robust.
Honour individual preferences
People can set their own font preferences for their web browser(s). Details on how to do this will obviously vary, but are readily found with an online search. AbilityNet offers guides on how to make devices easier to use.
As developers, it’s important to manage things like line height, word spacing, letter spacing and font size with relative units that will respond to changes to browser settings. Avoid using fixed units like pixels (px) and points (pt) that do not respect people’s custom browser settings.
Avoid using accessibility overlays, which can interfere with technology that people are already using.
Accessible authentication
We shouldn’t force people to remember things from previous pages or earlier steps. Provide reminders and prompts to help people through processes, and allow copy and pasting into authentication fields such as passwords.
Actions for content creators
These can be summarised as follows:
- Keep content short, clear and simple
- Use headings and lists to break content into smaller, easier to read sections
- Use bold for adding emphasis, rather than italics or underlines
- Don’t write long passages of text all in capitals
- Use static images and diagrams to support text
- Consider providing content in a range of formats, e.g. text plus video or audio, so that users can choose their preferred access option.
You can find out more about creating content in an accessible way in our guide to accessible content.
Dyslexic people are your colleagues and they are your customers. We’ve shown you some of the ways you can make adjustments to your communications to improve accessibility and inclusion. If you want to talk about accessibility in more detail, get in touch.