If Comic Sans can help people with dyslexia, why is it still a punchline?

Comic Sans is a typeface that at one point or another became cool to hate. But the denunciation of Comic Sans in design overlooks one of its greatest strengths: it can help people with dyslexia read texts more easily. As such, Dyslexia Scotland, together with Innocean Berlin and WeTransfer, is launching a new campaign for Dyslexia Awareness Month. The campaign speaks to an even wider problem—the need for a more inclusive mindset at large in design—hoping to raise awareness around the problem.

What is it about Comic Sans that makes it so special? As a recent release from WeTransfer and Dyslexia Scotland explains, “the same irregularity which makes it so undesirable to designers is what helps people with dyslexia put into focus texts that otherwise feel overwhelmingly chaotic.” The campaign, titled There’s Nothing Comic About Dyslexia, adopts the use of the font across all assets, which range from print, film and social media posts. WeTransfer supports the campaign with ad inventory and its digital wallpapers to spread the word on why “beautiful design and being dyslexia-friendly don’t need to be mutually exclusive.”

Of course, the press release states that the objective of “There’s Nothing Comic About Dyslexia” is not to make designers magically fall in love with Comic Sans; instead, it aims to serve as a reminder to all designers of the major role they play in reflecting the realities of people everywhere and using their influence to push for a more inclusive design mindset. Even if this doesn’t mean turning to Comic Sans for their next project, it does mean designing or exploring dyslexia-friendly fonts.