The Best Fonts for People With Dyslexia

Ever notice that some fonts are much easier to read than others? An effective font should allow someone to read through a text efficiently, accurately and with little strain. For someone with dyslexia, it seems like a no-brainer that choosing the right font can make reading a much easier task. Dyslexics already have a very difficult time when it comes to deciphering characters on the page. They don’t need the added struggle of trying to read their way through a font that makes reading even harder.

For dyslexics, the best fonts are the ones that create distinct differences between letters, such as “b” and “d,” and “p” and “q” rather than depict them as mirror images. This also goes for the number “1” and a capital “I,” which can be particularly confusing. The distance between letters is also an important factor in readability, especially when it comes to “r” and “n” which can easily look like an “m” if they are placed too closely together. Crowding letters together can also just make it harder to read in general.

Times New Roman

db, qp, rn

Arial

db, qp, rn

The speed at which one can easily read a font is also an important consideration. Certain characteristics, like the size of the text, design and the spacing between characters can greatly impact the ease of readability. Arial and Times New Roman are two of the most commonly used fonts in academic writing. Arial, however, is a bit easier to read in general as the characters tend to be slightly bigger in size, and there’s more of a space between each letter.

There are some fonts that specifically target people with dyslexia, such as Dyslexia or Lexia Readable. These are fairly new developments, however, and there still needs to be more peer-reviewed studies to prove whether or not these fonts actually help people with dyslexia read faster and more accurately than other fonts do. Features that these fonts use to help make certain letters more distinct include thicker lines, varying sizes in tails on letters, such as “p”, “q”, “d” and “b” to make them more distinct from one another. While it’s not a good idea to put all of your eggs in one basket, and invest too much time and energy into these fonts without the proper research backing, it’s definitely worth a try as they’re free to download.

With all of this being said, no font is going to magically make reading an easy task for people with dyslexia. However, using the right font can help eliminate unnecessary points of confusion, such as close-letter spacing and mirrored images.