Abstract:

Reading can be a considerable challenge for those – children or adults – who have been diagnosed with dyslexia. Alternative approaches, for instance, the adoption of digital technologies or other communication modalities – such as oral, acoustic – have been proposed in the last few years, to improve the experience mainly in the field of education. Nevertheless, visual artefacts – books, written or printed materials – remain the primary tools in the pedagogical field. So the transmission and acquisition of knowledge are still deeply connected with typography, that means the visual translation of speech or the visualisation of abstract thoughts.

The paper introduces a recent experimental study aimed at understanding if and how typography and fonts design can influence or help dyslexic subjects in reading tasks. Exploring and comparing state of the art both in font design and previous studies already conducted in the field, the study investigates three main aspects. The first phase of the experimental study was aimed to understand if the font used in the layout influences the reading performances according to previous studies and literature review. In the second one, the focus was concerned if adopting font families intentionally designed for dyslexic subjects help them to better perceiving and understanding texts. In the third step, digital devices and printed paper have been compared to understand if different supports impact the reading performance.

The research project involved both people with dyslexia and non-dyslexics subjects in the experiment aimed to measure the ability of users to recognise words and no-meaning-words. The tests were based on the comparison of eight different fonts divided into two categories. The first group was composed by sans/serif fonts traditionally considered "good" and often used in publishing or online field (Times New Roman, Simoncini Garamond, Verdana, Futura, Comic Sans). The second cluster included OpenDyslexic, EasyReading, Biancoenero intentionally designed and optimised for people affected by dyslexia. The experimental sample is therefore composed of two sans-serif with a low legibility rate, two serifs, and classic typefaces, and handwriting font. Test have been presented both on paper and on digital devices. Performances have been assessed according to measurable parameters, that means, speed and accuracy of the reading. Finally, results have been discussed and compared with existing literature in the field to understand the impact of typography in helping and improving the experience of kids and young adults in learning activities.

Keywords:

Education and dyslexia, typography and dyslexia, Font design, legibility, readability, font usability.