The Effect of Font Type on Screen Readability by People with Dyslexia

Around 10% of the people have dyslexia, a neurological disability that impairs a person’s ability to read and write. There is evidence that the presentation of the text has a significant effect on a text’s accessibility for people with dyslexia. However, to the best of our knowledge, there are no experiments that objectively measure the impact of the typeface (font) on screen reading performance. In this article, we present the first experiment that uses eye-tracking to measure the effect of typeface on reading speed. Using a mixed between-within subject design, 97 subjects (48 with dyslexia) read 12 texts with 12 different fonts. Font types have an impact on readability for people with and without dyslexia. For the tested fonts, sans serif, monospaced, and roman font styles significantly improved the reading performance over serif, proportional, and italic fonts. On the basis of our results, we recommend a set of more accessible fonts for people with and without dyslexia.

[1]  Simone Diniz Junqueira Barbosa,et al.  An iOS reader for people with dyslexia , 2013, ASSETS.

[2]  Ricardo Baeza-Yates,et al.  Frequent Words Improve Readability and Short Words Improve Understandability for People with Dyslexia , 2013, INTERACT.

[3]  B. Evans,et al.  The Relationship between Dyslexia and Meares-Irlen Syndrome. , 2005 .

[4]  Y. Benjamini,et al.  Controlling the false discovery rate: a practical and powerful approach to multiple testing , 1995 .

[5]  Y. Benjamini,et al.  THE CONTROL OF THE FALSE DISCOVERY RATE IN MULTIPLE TESTING UNDER DEPENDENCY , 2001 .

[6]  D. Schaid,et al.  Incidence of reading disability in a population-based birth cohort, 1976-1982, Rochester, Minn. , 2001, Mayo Clinic proceedings.

[7]  Ricardo Baeza-Yates,et al.  IDEAL: a dyslexic-friendly ebook reader , 2012, ASSETS '12.

[8]  Janet B W Williams.  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , 2013 .

[9]  Peter Z. Orton,et al.  An eye tracking study of how font size and type influence online reading , 2008, BCS HCI.

[10]  Jakob Nielsen,et al.  Eyetracking Web Usability , 2009 .

[11]  Beverly J. Wolf,et al.  Teaching Students with Dyslexia and Dysgraphia: Lessons from Teaching and Science. , 2009 .

[12]  Andreas Dengel,et al.  Eye tracking analysis of preferred reading regions on the screen , 2010, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[13]  Martin Pielot,et al.  Make It Big!: The Effect of Font Size and Line Spacing on Online Readability , 2016, CHI.

[14]  Francisco Javier Amores Fernández.  Fracaso y abandono escolar en España , 2010 .

[15]  Francisco J. Martos,et al.  Differences in eye movements control among dyslexic, retarded and normal readers in the Spanish population , 1990 .

[16]  Betsy Morris,et al.  Overcoming dyslexia. , 2002, Fortune.

[17]  N. Goulandris.  Dyslexia in Different Languages: Cross-Linguistic Comparisons , 2003 .

[18]  F. Cuetos,et al.  Modelos de lectura y dislexias , 1988 .

[19]  Raquel Hervás,et al.  One Half or 50%? An Eye-Tracking Study of Number Representation Readability , 2013, INTERACT.

[20]  Luz Rello,et al.  DysWebxia: a text accessibility model for people with dyslexia , 2014 .

[21]  Javier Rujas Martínez-Novillo.  "Fracaso y abandono escolar en España" de Mariano Fernández Enguita, Luis Mena Martínez y Jaime Rivière Gómez Barcelona, Fundación “La Caixa” (Col. Estudios Sociales, nº 29), 2010 , 2012 .

[22]  Roderick I. Nicolson,et al.  Dyslexia, dysgraphia, procedural learning and the cerebellum , 2011, Cortex.

[23]  Miles A. Tinker,et al.  Bases for effective reading , 1967 .

[24]  K. Rayner,et al.  Lexical complexity and fixation times in reading: Effects of word frequency, verb complexity, and lexical ambiguity , 1986, Memory & cognition.

[25]  Vagner Figuerêdo de Santana,et al.  Firefixia: an accessibility web browser customization toolbar for people with dyslexia , 2013, W4A.

[26]  Sylvia Defior,et al.  Dyslexia speed problems in a transparent orthography , 2008, Annals of dyslexia.

[27]  Sanja Stajner,et al.  Making It Simplext , 2015, ACM Trans. Access. Comput..

[28]  Jodi Forlizzi,et al.  A study of fonts designed for screen display , 1998, CHI.

[29]  R. Flesch.  A new readability yardstick. , 1948, The Journal of applied psychology.

[30]  G. V. Conroy,et al.  Comparing Comprhension Speeds and Accuracy of Online Information in Students with and without Dyslexia , 2007 .

[31]  Nicola Brunswick.  Unimpaired reading development and dyslexia across different languages , 2010 .

[32]  J. Hyönä,et al.  Eye fixation patterns among dyslexic and normal readers: effects of word length and word frequency. , 1995, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[33]  Ehud Reiter,et al.  Experiments with discourse-level choices and readability , 2003, ENLG@EACL.

[34]  G. Lyon,et al.  Toward a definition of dyslexia , 1995, Annals of dyslexia.

[35]  Poulton Ec.  Letter differentiation and rate of comprehension in reading. , 1965 .

[36]  J. Fletcher,et al.  Specific reading disability (dyslexia): what have we learned in the past four decades? , 2004, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[37]  G. Legge,et al.  The effect of print size on reading speed in dyslexia. , 2005, Journal of research in reading.

[38]  Joy Sykes.  Dyslexia, design and reading: Making print work for college students with dyslexia. A qualitative interaction design study , 2008 .

[39]  E C Poulton.  Letter differentiation and rate of comprehension in reading. , 1965, The Journal of applied psychology.

[40]  J. Ziegler,et al.  Extra-large letter spacing improves reading in dyslexia , 2012, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[41]  Peter Gregor,et al.  SeeWord - a personal word processing environment for dyslexic computer users , 2003, Br. J. Educ. Technol..

[42]  L Stark,et al.  Eye Movements, Scanpaths, and Dyslexia , 1978, American journal of optometry and physiological optics.

[43]  Gary E. Raney,et al.  Word frequency effects and eye movements during two readings of a text. , 1995, Canadian journal of experimental psychology = Revue canadienne de psychologie experimentale.

[44]  S. Moriarty,et al.  A study of close-set text type. , 1984, The Journal of applied psychology.

[45]  L. Waites,et al.  Definition of dyslexia. , 1968, Canadian Medical Association journal.

[46]  Rudi W. De Lange,et al.  Performance Differences Between Times and Helvetica in a Reading Task , 1993, Electron. Publ..

[47]  Miles A. Tinker,et al.  Influence of simultaneous variation in size of type, width of line, and leading for newspaper type. , 1963 .

[48]  Thomas S. Tullis,et al.  Readability of fonts in the windows environment , 1995, CHI 95 Conference Companion.

[49]  K. Rayner.  Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research. , 1998, Psychological bulletin.

[50]  G. Hommel.  A stagewise rejective multiple test procedure based on a modified Bonferroni test , 1988 .

[51]  Miles A. Tinker,et al.  Studies of typographical factors influencing speed of reading. , 1931 .

[52]  David J. Brown,et al.  Text formats and web design for visually impaired and dyslexic readers - Clear Text for All , 2005, Interact. Comput..

[53]  R Kliegl,et al.  Dyslexic and normal readers' eye movements. , 1983, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[54]  S. Holm.  A Simple Sequentially Rejective Multiple Test Procedure , 1979 .

[55]  Ricardo Baeza-Yates,et al.  Good fonts for dyslexia , 2013, ASSETS.

[56]  Cristina Rodríguez,et al.  Prevalencia de las dificultades específicas de aprendizaje: La dislexia en español , 2009 .

[57]  M. Coleman,et al.  A computer readability formula designed for machine scoring. , 1975 .

[58]  Ricardo Baeza-Yates,et al.  Layout guidelines for web text and a web service to improve accessibility for dyslexics , 2012, W4A.

[59]  Barbara S. Chaparro,et al.  The Effects of Line Length on Reading Online News , 2008 .

[60]  D. F. Fisher,et al.  Eye Movement Dynamics of Good and Poor Readers: Then and Now , 1979 .

[61]  D. Segal.  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) , 2010 .

[62]  Gary E. Raney,et al.  Eye movement control in reading and visual search: Effects of word frequency , 1996, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[63]  K Rayner,et al.  Eye movements and the perceptual span in beginning and skilled readers. , 1986, Journal of experimental child psychology.

[64]  K. Rayner,et al.  Parafoveal word processing during eye fixations in reading: Effects of word frequency , 1986, Perception & psychophysics.

[65]  Keith Rayner,et al.  The Neural Control of Eye Movements in Acquired and Developmental Reading Disorders , 1979 .

[66]  J. Stein,et al.  Differences in eye movements and reading problems in dyslexic and normal children , 1994, Vision Research.

[67]  Miles A. Tinker,et al.  Studies of typographical factors influencing speed of reading. X. Style of type face. , 1932 .

[68]  J. Nielsen.  F-shaped pattern for reading Web content, Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox , 2006 .

[69]  Peter Gregor,et al.  Ongoing investigation of the ways in which some of the problems encountered by some dyslexics can be alleviated using computer techniques , 2002, Assets '02.

[70]  Robert Hillier.  Sylexiad. A typeface for the adult dyslexic reader , 2008 .

[71]  Eric Borsting.  Dyslexia and Vision. , 2002 .

[72]  M. C. Gallego,et al.  Evaluación de la dislexia en la escuela primaria: Prevalencia en español , 2011 .

[73]  Gregg C. Vanderheiden,et al.  Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 , 2008 .

[74]  Peter Gregor,et al.  An empirical investigation of ways in which some of the problems encountered by some dyslexics may be alleviated using computer techniques , 2000, Assets '00.

[75]  Martin Pielot,et al.  Size matters (spacing not): 18 points for a dyslexic-friendly Wikipedia , 2013, W4A.

[76]  L F Dell'Osso,et al.  Eye Movement Patterns in Dyslexic Children , 1980, Journal of learning disabilities.

[77]  A. Olson,et al.  Developmental Surface Dysgraphia: What is the Underlying Cognitive Impairment? , 1999, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[78]  S E Shaywitz,et al.  Evidence that dyslexia may represent the lower tail of a normal distribution of reading ability. , 1992, The New England journal of medicine.

[79]  M A Just,et al.  A theory of reading: from eye fixations to comprehension. , 1980, Psychological review.

[80]  Barbara S. Chaparro,et al.  Comparing the effects of text size and format on the readibility of computer-displayed Times New Roman and Arial text , 2003, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[81]  K STEINER,et al.  [International statistical classification of diseases, injuries and causes of death]. , 1949, Vojenske zdravotnicke listy.

[82]  Y. Hochberg.  A sharper Bonferroni procedure for multiple tests of significance , 1988 .