“Dyslexia Font”

  • Resolved mikeknappe

    (@mikeknappe)


    2 months ago

    Hi there,

    yesterday I saw in the newest update of NextCloud, that they have introduced a font for people who are having Dyslexia. This would be probably a good innovation for your plugin to have a button in the sidebar, which will switch the font type of the website to another font.

    A deep dive into this topic took me this study:
    https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5934461/#CR11

    Their research and the research of others came to the conclusion: Fonts like Dyslexia or OpenDyslexia have not proven any effort in better reading, faster reading or reading with less errors. The main problem seems not the be, that people with Dyslexia can’t identify the letters, because they look the same. It’s more that they can’t divide them during the reading, because the character spacing is to less.

    The British Dyslexia Association stated this problem already 2013 in one of their first Style Guides for readable text for people with Dyslexia. Therefore it would be better to follow the Dyslexia Style Guide of the British Dyslexia Association:
    https://blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/LTAcademy/wp-content/uploads/sites/286/2025/10/British-Dyslexia-Association-Style-Guide.pdf

    Which prefers to use Arial with a bunch of settings to the font itself (through CSS) like:

    • Font size should be 12-14 point or equivalent (e.g. 1-1.2em / 16-19 px). Some dyslexic readers may request a larger font.
    • Larger inter-letter / character spacing (sometimes called tracking) improves readability, ideally around 35% of the average letter width. If letter spacing is excessive it can reduce readability.
    • Inter-word spacing should be at least 3.5 times the inter-letter spacing. Some dyslexic people find that larger line spacing improves readability. It should be proportional to inter-word spacing; 1.5 / 150% is preferable.
    • Avoid Underlining and italics as this can make the text appear to run together and cause crowding. Use bold for emphasis.
    • Avoid using capital letter and uppercase letters for continuous text. Lower case letters are easier to read.

    Would be nice to see a button in the upcoming releases following this guide to support 1/10 visitors having Dyslexia.

    Have a nice day and keep up the good work,
    ~Mike

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  • Plugin Author christianzettinger

    (@christianzettinger)

    2 months ago

    Hi @mikeknappe ,

    Thank you so much for reaching out and sharing your insights with us!

    We really appreciate the deep dive you did into this topic. Your point regarding character spacing versus specific font types is incredibly valuable—especially the reference to the British Dyslexia Association’s Style Guide. It provides us with a much clearer, evidence-based direction than just adding a custom font.

    I have immediately forwarded your feedback and the technical specifications to our development team. They will review the research and look into how we can best implement a toggle button for these accessibility settings in one of our upcoming releases.

    Thank you for helping OneTap make more accessible for everyone. We truly value feedback like yours!

    Have a great day and best regards,
    Christian from OneTap

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