Dyslexie-Font Essay

The Dyslexie-Font Dyslexia is commonly known as a reading disability, but it is also often referred to as a learning disability. People who suffer from dyslexia can experience difficulties with reading, writing, pronouncing words and spelling. Dyslexia can cause people to fail academically and in the typical working environment. Approximately 15% of Canadians aged 15 or older suffer from dyslexia (Statistics Canada, 2015). With dyslexia being such a widely known struggle, many people have tried to create solutions to help those who suffer, including Christian Boer. Christian Boer is a Dutch graphic designer who has struggled with dyslexia most of his life. While attending the University of Twente in Enschede, Netherlands, Boer came up with

I wanted to make an impact and help people feel more confident in their abilities (Boer, 2011).” During his time at the University of Twente, Boer used Arial as the primary font for written material, as it was the most recommended font for people with dyslexia. While this font and other alternatives, such as Verdana, Tahoma and even Comic Sans made it easier for him to read, he felt that they didn’t help enough (Boer, 2011). The problem was that the letters still appeared too similar, and the concentration required while reading was immense. The letters often merged together making it hard for Boer to identify words and punctuations. Boer related this phenomenon to the way people think in words. “Dyslexics cannot stop seeing letters differently just as non-dyslexic people cannot stop thinking in words. They often swap, rotate or flip letters because the letters are too similar (Boer, 2011).” 
 With these common symptoms in mind, Boer designed the Dyslexie-Font. Every single letter in the font is unique in its own shape and form, which prevents the readers from rotating, flipping and reversing letters. “Written words can often have a crowding effect. They will appear fused because they are too close