A new study by a research team in Spain has determined which computer fonts seem easiest for dyslexic individuals to read.
To determine readability of text, both reading time and fixation duration were studied using eye tracking data. Subjects were also asked to indicate their own preferences by ranking each font on a 1 to 5 scale.
After studying 48 dyslexic subjects as they read 12 different texts with 12 different fonts, the researchers concluded that reading performance was best with sans serif, monospaced, and roman fonts. They also found that italic fonts significantly impaired reading.
Based on their findings, researchers recommended Helvetica, Courier, Arial, Verdana, and Computer Modern for easiest readability for dyslexics. These fonts even beat out the OpenDyslexic font which did not enhance test readability or reading speed.
While these findings are of interest to those of us who work with dyslexia, we at DyslexiaHelp want to remind our readers that dyslexia is not a visual problem; the challenges for the dyslexic lie in being able to perceive the sound units of the language and then learning the spellings that represent those sounds in words.