In this TEDx Talk, Spanish researcher Luz Rello discusses her recent advancements in dyslexic technology and addresses the way in which we must view improvements to the dyslexic community. She shares the idea behind variation of text formatting to create higher levels of readability. By running multiple tests with students, Rello and her team have been able to create the first developing reader for dyslexics.
Quotes from the Video
“When you talk about dyslexia, think about the children, don’t think about celebrities with dyslexia. Think of the children who give all they have in school but fail nonetheless. Think of the hard-working kids that make the effort but nevertheless, they fail at school.”
“We ran tests, varied every condition in the text we could have imagined. Different typefaces, different font sizes, interlines, inter letter space column width…to find the magic formula that could make a dyslexic person read text."
“Isn’t it amazing that just by changing something as simple as text design, a dyslexic person can learn to read significantly faster?”
“In both dyslexics and non-dyslexics, there are huge dots in the mistakes. But for a dyslexic, seeing mistakes does not prevent comprehension. So maybe it’s the rest of the people who are limited? All of you, only capable of reading a strictly rigid text.”
“Teachers, do not mark down your dyslexic students because of spelling mistakes because they are doing it right, rate the content.”