Simple Accommodation for Dyslexic Students

Dyslexic-Friendly Fonts, Who Knew?

I recently received an email about Dyslexie font and decided to explore it a bit. I had not previously known of fonts specifically designed to aid dyslexic students with their reading. When I checked out the website, I immediately noticed a big difference in the font's appearance. For me, it was actually difficult to read large quantities of text that used the font; however, I imagine that is how dyslexic students feel every time they try to read anything. With the Dyslexie font specifically, once you add the font to your computer, you can use it in most programs that allow you to choose a font such as Microsoft Word and ActivInspire. Additionally, students can find extensions in the Chrome Web Store that allow them to view web pages with a dyslexic-friendly font instead of the normal font.

Let's look at some samples of fonts:

Here is a font that students typically encounter.     (Arial 14 font)

Here is a font that students typically encounter.            (Times New Roman 14 font)

Here is a font that students typically encounter.             (Calibri 14 font)

Does It Help?

While the difference in the font is rather evident, I wanted to test the font with some students that I know have difficulties due to dyslexia. I printed out a sheet of paper much like the sample fonts above (minus the font labels) except that the sample sentence said something to the effect of, "Is this font easier to read?" 

TEST #1--The first student to whom I showed it, immediately responded by asking if this was a trick question. When I stated that I genuinely wanted to know his answer, he looked confused and pointed out that the dyslexie font version was obviously easier to read. I printed out the day's notes using the font, and he said it was a lot easier to copy the notes that way.

TEST#2--I showed a second student the sample sentences, and she also agreed that the Dyslexie font was much easier to read. When I gave her the dyslexie version of the notes, she proclaimed that it was probably the first time she ever really just looked at words on a page and could read them instead of  first seeing letters and then decoding everything. 

Chrome Extensions

The company that created Dyslexie font has an extension in the Chrome Web Store; however, I did not manage to make it work successfully on my Chromebook. It is supposed to allow users to alter the font on web pages in terms of color, font, and size. For more information about Dyslexie font click here.

OpenDyslexic is the extension that I successfully added to my Chromebook and instantly changed web page fonts. This extension has an on/off button, so you can switch back and forth between dyslexic-friendly fonts and standard fonts. Check out the pictures of my Google Classroom page with the extension off (standard) and on (dyslexic-friendly). What a difference!

  Another extension that I found is called ForceFont. Adding this extension allows you to set the default font on all the pages you view. This can help students who have spent years looking at the "regular" fonts and prefer something like Arial or Tahoma because that was the only option they had previously. The extension is quite easy to use and can be turned on and off if you so desire. Check out the screencast that shows the text changing on the page below.

Books!

I also learned that some books are now published in dyslexic-friendly fonts. Strawberry Classics is a collection from Barrington Stoke/Stokes Books that includes a number of classic works of literature. 

Conclusion

I had no idea that a simple font change could make such a drastic difference! I am very glad that I found out about the fonts; I just wish I had known about this sooner. Since the fonts generally add more white space to a page, notes and handouts appear longer, but that seems like a small price to pay for helping students read more easily. This is a very easy fix that could really help our dyslexic students.