Friday, 28 June 2013

Font size. Such an easy starting point to reduce barriers to reading. Critical Print Size

Font size.  Such an easy starting point to reduce barriers to reading. Critical Print Size

Yesterday I met the daughter of a friend who I taught with years ago. She always had difficulties in school, which were ‘diagnosed’ as Dyslexia when she went to the local FE College.

No one at school suggested that she may have a barrier to reading that could be reduced or removed.

The conversation which took place went over her experiences as a person growing up with dyslexia and how she was ‘assisted’.

She recounted how her difficulties got worse when she started in secondary school.  The drop in font size was a real problem for her. So much so that at the age of 12 she went to an optician where she was identified as significantly short sighted with an astigmatism in both eyes.

In secondary school, she did not like practical work which involved reading instructions or writing. She was very messy or clumsy if she mixed the practical work with reading and writing. This is a very typical story that I hear from adult dyslexic people.  Where possible she would work in a team and leave the reading and writing to other members of the team…. No problems then.

This did not solve her problem though.  In a way it must have reinforced in her the idea that she just was not really academic. The optician could not fix her problem.   She was still very aware that the reading was really limited by the small font sizes being offered to her, in all the books and print outs.

With smaller fonts the letters seemed to crowd each other, especially the ends of the words, which she would guess at. After a short period of slow reading the letters and lines would start to move, become unstable.

At the FE College, she was referred to an Educational Psychologist, who duly tested her and pronounced her ‘dyslexic’. Unfortunately, she was unable to read the ‘report’ and did not understand the ideas when explained to her.  This is a common experience of dyslexic undergraduates.  It is often as if they do not recognise the report as really being about them.

Back to my friend’s daughter. 
At the college the support staff went through ‘testing for ‘colour’. A range of ‘coloured plastic sheets’ were placed on to text.
Some stabilised the text for a short time, then the movement and crowding would start again. She has a ‘bluish filter’ which sort of helps sometimes.  But a larger font always does!

I am writing this today, after a few weeks without a blog following a spinal problem which has made it difficult to use my computer, because yesterday I received an email from a group of dyslexia specialists which I am a member of which included a link to a particular website.

Now the people who run this website are great people, I have tremendous respect for them. I have tried to engage them in a dialogue, but just get ignored. Perhaps they know something about me that I do not. Let’s consider the website, please look at it as you read this.

The first thing that hits you is the bit of graphics on the home page with the philosophy of the two main people at DNA and amongst others, that well respected ‘honourable /co-opted dyslexic Albert Einstein.




Now this is a good start.  Large font, not a white background.

Then we get into body of the website.

Welcome to DnA, a social enterprise story
designed and led by dyslexic and disabled
 adults working with the sole purpose to
 provide support, strategies, Assistive
 Technology training and shared wellbeing.
The website appears to be defaulted to Arial 10.5 font.  From work with dyslexic undergraduates in the UK the following histogram has been produced showing the ‘optimum font size, needed to stop the dyslexic student’s reading performance being limited by font size.



Ignore the pretty colours but look at the column on the left. 

There were 3 students who had a critical font (print size) less than 11!

In this histogram of the last 345 dyslexic students seen by my colleague, 99% would be restricted by the font size on the website.

Over half of them needed a font size of 16. They would still be restricted if the default was font 16.

This is in no way a new idea. Other studies have found a close relationship between font size and reading performance. One report suggested that font size management is a major reason for the popularity of Kindles, in addition to that lovely grey background.

In work being undertaken with a primary school, font size is the starting point in reducing barriers to reading. You can see a close link between oral reading fluency and critical print size. An adjustment that could be made in all printed materials at the school and in extreme cases using a computer screen.

I will publish this in Font 20 as well. There are issues in terms of restricting the space for advertising on the web… sorry to you graphics artists.

Back to the website.

Taking our cue from the expressed philosophy let’s consider accessibility. How can the user of the website reduce the barriers for themselves?
There is an accessibility option at the top of the site.  This gives the opportunity to raise the font to a massive Font 12!!!!!


Welcome to DnA, a social enterprise
 story designed and led by dyslexic and
 disabled adults working with the sole
 purpose to provide support, strategies,
Assistive Technology training and
 shared wellbeing.
                                                    
Ok that fantastic possibility will now bring improved access to…
..another 7% …..of the dyslexic adults reading this site, leaving another 92% struggling because of font size.
Mind you they probably think they are struggling because they are dyslexic!
I will quote someone who, on the occasions when I talked with him gave me great hope about what could be.
Attitude is indeed the biggest disablement. We all have the ability to change the attitude of others. ‘
Unfortunately that ‘attitudes’ that we strike up for ourselves; unwillingness to remove /reduce obvious boundaries restricts our ability to change the attitude in others.


I worked for a few years with a group of inspiring, severely physically disabled young people at Hephaistos School, when I first started teaching. They taught me a great deal.  First remove /reduce the barriers.  

And now at font 20

Font size.  Such an easy starting point to reduce barriers to reading. Critical Print Size

Yesterday I met the daughter of a friend who I taught with years ago. She always had difficulties in school, which were ‘diagnosed’ as Dyslexia when she went to the local FE College.

No one at school suggested that she may have a barrier to reading that could be reduced or removed.
The conversation which took place went over her experiences as a person growing up with dyslexia and how she was ‘assisted’.

She recounted how her difficulties got worse when she started in secondary school.  The drop in font size was a real problem for her. So much so that at the age of 12 she went to an optician where she was identified as significantly short sighted with an astigmatism in both eyes.

In secondary school, she did not like practical work which involved reading instructions or writing. She was very messy or clumsy if she mixed the practical work with reading and writing. This is a very typical story that I hear from adult dyslexic people.  Where possible she would work in a team and leave the reading and writing to other members of the team…. No problems then.

This did not solve her problem though.  In a way it must have reinforced in her the idea that she just was not really academic. The optician could not fix her problem.   She was still though very aware that the reading was really limited by the small font sizes being offered to her, in all the books and print outs.
With smaller fonts the letters seemed to crowd each other, especially the ends of the words, which she would guess at. After a short period of slow reading the letters and lines would start to move, become unstable.

At the FE College, she was referred to an Educational Psychologist, who duly tested her and pronounced her ‘dyslexic’. Unfortunately, she was unable to read the ‘report’ and did not understand the ideas when explained to her.  Again this is a common experience of dyslexic undergraduates.  It is often as if they do not recognise the report as really being about them.
Back to my friend’s daughter.

At the college the support staff went through ‘testing for ‘colour’. A range of ‘coloured plastic sheets’ were placed on to text.

Some stabilised the text for a short time, then the movement and crowding would start again. She has a ‘bluish filter’ which sort of helps sometimes.  But a larger font always does!

I am writing this today, after a few weeks without a blog following a spinal problem which has made it difficult to use my computer, because yesterday I received an email from a group of dyslexia specialists which I am a member of which included a link to a particular website.


Now the people who run this website are great people, I have tremendous respect for them. I have tried to engage them in a dialogue, but just get ignored. Perhaps they know something about me that I do not. Let’s consider the website, please look at it as you read this.

The first thing that hits you is the bit of graphics on the home page with the philosophy of the two main people at DNA and amongst others, that well respected ‘honourable /co-opted dyslexic Albert Einstein.




Now this is a good start.  Large font, not a white background.

Then we get into body of the website.

Welcome to DnA, a social enterprise story
designed and led by dyslexic and disabled
 adults working with the sole purpose to
 provide support, strategies, Assistive
 Technology training and shared wellbeing.
The website appears to be defaulted to Arial 10.5 font.  From work with dyslexic undergraduates in the UK the following histogram has been produced showing the ‘optimum font size, needed to stop the dyslexic student’s reading performance being limited by font size.



Ignore the pretty colours but look at the column on the left.  There were 3 students who had a critical font (print size) less than 11!

In this histogram of the last 345 dyslexic students seen by my colleague, 99% would be restricted by the font size on the website.

Over half of them needed a font size of 16. They would still be restricted if the default was font 16.

This is in no way a new idea. Other studies have found a close relationship between font size and reading performance. One report suggested that font size management is a major reason for the popularity of Kindles, in addition to that lovely grey background.
In work being undertaken with a primary school, font size is the starting point in reducing barriers to reading. 

You can see a close link between oral reading fluency and critical print size.  An adjustment that could be made in all printed materials at the school and in extreme cases using a computer screen.

I will publish this in Font 20 as well. There are issues in terms of restricting the space for advertising on the web… sorry to you graphics artists.

Back to the website.

Taking our cue from the expressed philosophy let’s consider accessibility. How can the user of the website reduce the barriers for themselves?
There is an accessibility option at the top of the site.  This gives the opportunity to raise the font to a massive Font 12!!!!!



Welcome to DnA, a social enterprise
 story designed and led by dyslexic and
 disabled adults working with the sole
 purpose to provide support, strategies,
Assistive Technology training and
 shared wellbeing.
                                
Ok that fantastic possibility will now bring improved access to…
..another 7% …..of the dyslexic adults reading this site, leaving another 92% struggling because of font size.

Mind you they probably think they are struggling because they are dyslexic!

I will quote someone who, on the occasions when I talked with him gave me great hope about what could be.

Attitude is indeed the biggest disablement. We all have the ability to change the attitude of others. ‘
Unfortunately that ‘attitudes’ that we strike up for ourselves; unwillingness to remove /reduce obvious boundaries restricts our ability to change the attitude in others.

I worked for a few years with a group of inspiring, severely physically disabled young people at Hephaistos School, when I first started teaching. They taught me a great deal.  First remove /reduce the barriers.

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