Designing for Dyslexia
10 Web Design Tips Everyone Benefits From
An estimated 10% of the population has dyslexia. That’s 32.9 million Americans and 764 million people worldwide. Researchers suggest the numbers could actually be much higher, many people simply go undiagnosed. Either way, we know there are hundreds of millions of people with dyslexia.
We also know dyslexia is not something children grow out of, rather a difficulty adults learn to cope with. As a designer, this means we can expect around 10% of our users to require certain design considerations to ensure an adequate user experience. Failing to take in the considerations of dyslexic users is neglecting at least 10% of your audience.
What Is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is not a visual processing issue, it’s a language processing issue. Individuals with dyslexia have the same intelligence as those without dyslexia, they simply process language differently and often have a hard time connecting letters to the sounds they make. Because it’s difficult to associate the “mmmmmm” with “M” or “buh” with “B”, it’s hard to recognize short, familiar words, or sound out longer words. Notable symptoms consist of difficulty reading and mixing up letters in a word.
