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Subject:"Writing for Dyslexic Readers From:Twyla Beth Lambert <tlambert -at- AIG -dot- VIALINK -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 16 Jun 1997 10:12:08 -0500
I recently had a student in my class with severe dyslexia. Having never
learned much about this issue, I asked him to educate me a little bit.
I would like to give you the information I now know, and then ask you a
couple of questions.
Here are some of the salient points:
* Many people are currently diagnosed with dyslexia. I can't recall the
numbers and can't find any useful numbers on the Web today, but my
student's number seemed significant. One site did say that men are 8x
more likely to have dyslexia than women.
* Color can also adversely affect dyslexics (if they also have the Irlen
Syndrome, which is apparently fairly common among dyslexics). My
student gets puking sick if he has to read black type on a yellow
background, and black on white is nearly as bad. He says that what is a
"good" (i.e., readable and non-puking) color combination varies by
person.
* Lighting is also a significant factor, with flourescent lights making
their lives miserable--the blinking thing really makes them sick or
drives them nuts (depending on the severity of the dyslexia).
* Dyslexia does not just affect reading--it affects everything they
see. To demonstrate, my student held a piece of paper in front of me
and began moving it up and down--"Can you read it?" Then he added side
to side motion, so that the page was moving in an irregular circle--"How
about now?" THEN, he added forward/backward motion. He says this is a
pretty accurate representation of how his entire world looks.
*Dyslexia comes in various levels of severity and various
manifestations, with the diagnosis and reading problems complicated by
color, light, and environment.
QUESTIONS:
Does anyone know anything about how to write/layout documents or (more
to my point) Web pages so that dyslexics can more easily read them? Is
there any reading research that can help? Due to the variety of possible
good-for-one/bad-for-another layout choices, it seems virtually
impossible to really design a page that is completely
dyslexic-friendly--but is there some common guideline we could follow to
optimize comprehension and lessen fatigue/frustration for _most_
dyslexic readers?
And finally, does anyone have the percent-of-population statistics that
I couldn't find, so I know the likihood of having dyslexics in my
audience?
Thanks,
Twyla Beth Lambert
Mailto: tlambert -at- aig -dot- vialink -dot- com
******
"Big words bother me."
- Winnie the Pooh
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