Internal Validity in Experiments for Typefaces for People with Dyslexia
In recent years, designers claim to have created typefaces that help people with dyslexia, but what evidence supports these claims? We look at studies involving these fonts to see evidence for or against them. The studies try to be scientific, but lack in
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Norsk Regnesentral – Norwegian Computing Center, Kristen Nygaards hus, Oslo, Norway [email protected]
Abstract. In recent years, designers claim to have created typefaces that help people with dyslexia, but what evidence supports these claims? We look at studies involving these fonts to see evidence for or against them. The studies try to be scientific, but lack internal validity; i.e., the studies don’t eliminate the possibility that something else could explain the result. We provide a short summary of the studies and why they do not provide internal validity. Keywords: Dyslexia · Typeface · Font · Typography · Design
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The Rise of Typefaces for Dyslexia and Their Current State
Many people have problems reading. The Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) found that over one in ten Norwegian adults can be classified as weak readers [2]. Adults in this group suffer from dyslexia or other reading and writing disabilities. To reach weaker readers, experts recommend presenting written information in alternative forms, such as audio or other forms of visualization, but it should also be readable. This means presenting information in easy-to-read language, but it can include basic typographic information, such as the selection of typefaces (popularly called fonts) the size of type, line length, and line spacing. Since 2000, several fonts have been designed with the goal of aiding people with dyslexia. The dyslexia fonts include Zwijsen Dyslexiefont, Lexia Readable, Slyexiad, Dyslexie, OpenDyslexic, and Moore; this does not include fonts that have been recom‐ mended by dyslexia organizations. This paper only looks at typefaces that have published studies (Slyexiad, Dyslexie, and OpenDyslexic). Slyexiad was created by Hillier for his doctoral thesis [9]. The font is based on research on adult dyslexic readers. It’s available as a serif and san serif version. Hillier used methods from psychology and user-centered design to create and test the font. His idea was not to use standard typographical design as that targets non-dyslexic readers [7]. The final font has larger letter spacing, larger x-heights, and longer (in comparison to x-height) ascenders and descenders. Dyslexie (Dutch for dyslexia) was created by Christian Boer as part of his thesis in 2008 [14]. Boer designed his font to make the letters dance less. This includes changes
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 K. Miesenberger et al. (Eds.): ICCHP 2016, Part II, LNCS 9759, pp. 335–338, 2016. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-41267-2_47
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so that the letters do not look the same mirrored, a larger x-height, and more spacing between letters. The font has been updated a few times, and a license is required for educational or commercial purposes, but a style is available free for home use. There are 17 mobile apps and one educational program that use Dyslexie. Abbie Gonzalez designed OpenDyslexic by modifying Bitstream Vera Sans, a font available under an open source license [5]. Gonzalez created the font beca
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