Choose Dyslexic-Friendly Font

Why choose a sans serif font over a serif font like Times New Roman for online use?

There’s a valid reason for this choice, but I never thought about it until I was researching my last book.

When I researched learning disabilities for my recent release Brianna’s Season for Miracles, I discovered a lot more about learning disabilities than I expected.

There are several more types of learning disabilities than dyslexia which is what we most often hear about. There’s:

• Phonological Dyslexia
• Surface Dyslexia
• Rapid Automatic Naming Dyslexia
• Double Deficit Dyslexia
• Dyscalculia
• Dysgraphia
• Left Right Confusion.

Sometimes a person can have a combination of these. In my novel, I dealt with dysgraphia (difficulty click here.
in writing), dyscalculia (difficulty with numbers), and dyslexia (difficulty with reading). To learn more about all the types of learning disabilities,

What Else I Learned

With dyslexia, there is something we, as bloggers, need to do. Make it easy for someone with dyslexia to read our content by selecting fonts that make it easier to be read.

Traditional publishers have done this for many years. They use fonts designed specifically for dyslexic readers and have different ones for children and adults.

My blog SlingWords already uses a dyslexic-friendly font because I chose a sans serif font rather than a popular serif font like Times New Roman. However, I always need to remember to NOT use italics. Italics make a font very difficult for dyslexic readers.

More About Font Choice

Font styles have a significant impact on readability for people with dyslexia. You can do an online search for fonts for people with dyslexia and come up with a number of suggestions. Most of the recommendations come from associations for people with dyslexia.

They all agree on using sans-serif fonts. Specifically, the BDA Tech (British Dyslexia Association) recommends: Arial, Century Gothic, Comic Sans, Tahoma, Trebuchet, and Verdana.

BDA Tech has links to free fonts designed specifically for dyslexic readers. Those are Lexia Readable, Open-Dyslexic, and Dyslexie. Please visit BDA Tech to download those.

In addition to their free fonts, they offer some that can be purchased. Sassoon is designed specifically for children and Sylexiad for dyslexic adults. Again, visit BDA Tech to purchase and download those.

Choose Wisely

With the most commonly used dyslexic-friendly fonts offered as part of Windows and/or Microsoft Office, you should have no problem selecting one.

Helvetica, a beautiful sans serif font that’s recommended, comes only on Mac. You can purchase it, but it’s a bit pricey.

Takeaway Truth

If you want to make your blog readable by all, choose your font carefully. Do the same with the font you use for email.

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