Why I Hate Dyslexia Specific Fonts

Example of OpenDyslexic

As someone with dyslexia who was diagnosed as a child, I have been searching for any solutions I could get my hands on to help with writing, reading, math, everything. I have tried all dyslexia fonts that I have seen on the market, and noticed that all of them actually distracted me from what I was reading. I thought I was just too “broken” for any of these fonts to help. “...the most harm may come when students who have already experienced significant struggle and academic failures related to learning to read have yet another experience with failure when they are not able to read significantly better in a font designed to do so” (Wery & Diliberto 2016). 

I am lucky that I had some other people around me with dyslexia that corroborated my story. That made me question why these fonts were, quite literally, being sold to us as a solution. It is especially sensitive because the audiences these are often shown to are parents of kids with dyslexia. This can give them the idea that their kids should be close to “cured” with these tools.

As a game developer, the main reason I am irritated with dyslexia fonts is that other developers often include the font as their only solution for dyslexic accessibility. The amount of times I have blown people’s minds by saying that these fonts aren’t effective and that you can get the same or a better outcome with sans serif fonts is nuts. 

This information is not hidden, it is just not taught.

Resources About Accessible Fonts:

• Dyslexia Scotland — ‘Dyslexia-Friendly Typed Formats’

• Bureau of Internet Accessibility — Comic Sans and Dyslexia

• International Dyslexia Association — Do Special Fonts Help People with Dyslexia?’

Studies on Dyslexia Specific Fonts:

• Kuster 2017 — ‘Dyslexie Font does not Benefit Reading in Children with or without Dyslexia’

• Wery & Diliberto 2016 — ‘The Effect of a Specialized Dyslexia Font, OpenDyslexic, on Reading Rate and Accuracy’

While doing research on what fonts are better for people with reading issues, I found an article from a university whose title said, “Best for Dyslexics”. Please, when referring to a group of people, do not make their “issue” their only label. We wouldn’t say, “Font that is Best for Blacks”. A better way of saying this would be, “Best for People with Dyslexia”.

This is a shame. What they had in their research does have some great information, but I don’t feel comfortable adding it to these lists.