Home Top

What it's REALLY like to read with dyslexia: Simulator reveals how letters and words appear to people with the condition

Web code makes words appear as they do to someone with dyslexia
It keeps the first and last letter in each word fixed and jumbles the centre
Developer had the idea after a friend told him letters swap out of place

Published: 11:52 GMT, 7 March 2016 | Updated: 14:40 GMT, 7 March 2016

112

View
comments

It might look like a virus has taken over your computer and started jumbling up the words.

But this web code has been designed to make the words on a page look the way they would appear to you if you were dyslexic.

Swedish web developer Victor Widell came up with the idea after his dyslexic friend told him letters seemed to swap in and out of place when she looked at the words.

Scroll down for simulation

The code, written by Victor Widell, can be applied to any web page and scrambles the letters around, making it appear as they would to someone with dyslexia. An example of the code working on a passage of text about dyslexia is shown above

He then posted it on Git Hub, a website developers use to share code, with an example of text written about the condition.

The code keeps the first and last letter in each word the same, but jumbles up the letters in the middle to make it appear as if the letters are swapping in and out of place.

The simulation is similar to a block of text that went viral a few years ago, but goes one step further as it keeps scrambling the text.

Typoglycemia is the name given to a fake discovery that went viral about how it can be easy to read words with jumbled letters as long as the first and last letters are in the correct place.

THE DYSLEXIA SIMULATOR

The code keeps the first and last letter in each word the same, but jumbles up the letters in the middle, to make it appear as if the letters are constantly swapping in and out of place.

The simulation is similar to a block of text that went viral a few years ago, but goes one step further as it keeps scrambling the text.

Swedish web developer Victor Widell came up with the idea after his dyslexic friend told him letters seemed to swap in out of place when she looked at the words.

Some dyslexic readers commenting on Widell's blog said the simulation mirrored their experiences, while others said it was not difficult enough.

Dyslexia occurs in at least one in 10 people, affecting more than 700 million children and adults worldwide, according to Dyslexia International.

The effect isn't the same for everyone.

Dyslexia has a number of different definitions and descriptions, but is generally defined as a learning difficulty that affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling.

It is associated with difficulties in reading, writing, spelling and organization, which affects not only academic success but also self-esteem and social-emotional development.

Some people have more 'extreme' dyslexia, and some have less, as commenters noted on Widdell's blog and in a Reddit post.

Last year Daniel Britton, a 25-year-old designer from Hartley in Kent, created the 'Dyslexia' font to convey the emotion behind having the condition to those who find it difficult to understand. The alphabet in both Helvetica and the Dyslexia font is shown

One reader on Reddit said 'I have dyslexia and although this is accurate, this is a more extreme case!'

This is not the first time something has been created to resemble the experience of reading with dyslexia.

Last year, Daniel Britton, a 25-year-old designer from Hartley in Kent, created the 'Dyslexia' font to convey the emotion behind having the condition to those who find it difficult to understand.

TYPOGLYCEMIA: CAN YOU RAED TIHS?

Typoglycemia is the name given to a fake discovery that recently went viral about the way the brain reads words.

The idea was that it is easy to read words with jumbled letters as long as the first and last letters are in the correct place. It is an urban legend that appears to have an element of truth to it.

The text that circulated reads:

'I cdn'uolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg: the phaonmneel pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a rseearch taem at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Scuh a cdonition is arppoiatrely cllaed Typoglycemia.

'Amzanig huh? Yaeh and you awlyas thguoht slpeling was ipmorantt.'

No such research was carried out at Cambridge University.

'There are elements of truth in this, but also some things which scientists studying the psychology of language (psycholinguists) know to be incorrect,' said Dr Matt Davis from the cognition and brain sciences unit at Cambridge University in a blog post.

According to Britton, while it isn't based on hard science the typeface provides a similar level of frustration than that which a dyslexic person experiences when reading everyday typography.

Using Helvetica as a base, the Dyslexia font removes around 40 per cent of the typeface's lines.

The aim is to make the average reader take their time when attempting to decipher the letters in the words and sentences.

This reading test, written in the 'Dyslexia' font shows what it's like to be dyslexic, according to Daniel Britton, who designed it last year. According to Britton, while it isn't based on hard science, the typeface provides a similar level of frustration than that which a dyslexic person experiences when reading everyday typography