Hoi,
Between 7 and 10% of a population is dyslexic. For them reading takes much more effort than it does for the rest of us. As it is, the English Wikipedia has a font available for people who are dyslexic. It is the OpenDyslexic font.
It is possible to configure en.wp and many other Wikipedias by clicking somewhere... There are a few questions I would like to ask:
- did you know this many people have a problem reading Wikipedia - did you know these people can be helped with a different font - do you know how to configure Wikipedia to read with the OpenDyslexic font - do you agree that this should be more obvious and easy - what can we do to raise awareness for usability in MediaWiki in general and for dyslexia in specific
Thanks, GerardM
http://ultimategerardm.blogspot.nl/2013/12/the-best-sinterklaas-gift-ever.ht...
On Dec 9, 2013 10:41 AM, "Gerard Meijssen" gerard.meijssen@gmail.com wrote:
Hoi,
Between 7 and 10% of a population is dyslexic. For them reading takes much more effort than it does for the rest of us. As it is, the English Wikipedia has a font available for people who are dyslexic. It is the OpenDyslexic font.
It is possible to configure en.wp and many other Wikipedias by clicking somewhere... There are a few questions I would like to ask:
- did you know this many people have a problem reading Wikipedia
Yes, though severity of dyslexia varies. I myself have a mild case.
- did you know these people can be helped with a different font
Yes, I even have a browser plugin to be able to override fonts
- do you know how to configure Wikipedia to read with the OpenDyslexic
font
Not from within Wikipedia itself
- do you agree that this should be more obvious and easy
It would be especially nice if it were easy to toggle on and off. The open dyslexic font is visually horribly unappealing, and while it significantly reduces reading effort and increases reading speed for me, I prefer to only make the trade off when reading large bodies of text. For smaller bodies of text I prefer to use default typography, as the absolute gain is not that large to me personally.
- what can we do to raise awareness for usability in MediaWiki in
general and for dyslexia in specific
Thanks, GerardM
http://ultimategerardm.blogspot.nl/2013/12/the-best-sinterklaas-gift-ever.ht...
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On 9 December 2013 09:40, Gerard Meijssen gerard.meijssen@gmail.com wrote:
Hoi,
Between 7 and 10% of a population is dyslexic. For them reading takes much more effort than it does for the rest of us.
If you withdraw that statement now your apology might be accepted.
As it is, the English Wikipedia has a font available for people who are dyslexic. It is the OpenDyslexic font.
It is possible to configure en.wp and many other Wikipedias by clicking somewhere... There are a few questions I would like to ask:
- did you know this many people have a problem reading Wikipedia
- did you know these people can be helped with a different font
There really isn't much data to support that.
I find this idea of a "dyslexia font" quite intriguing...now if only one could make a font that helps people like myself who have the flavor of dyslexia known as "surface dyslexia".
Folks with this flavor of dyslexia tend to read words from left to right rather than as a unit. For example, here is a list of words, which, when read as quickly as possible, are frequently mispronounced by people with what I've got, even though we know perfectly well how to say these words:
pint do yacht have flower angel sew gesture infrared
English is a terrible language for folks like us... German is far friendlier. :)
Bob
On 12/9/2013 9:07 AM, geni wrote:
On 9 December 2013 09:40, Gerard Meijssen gerard.meijssen@gmail.com wrote:
Hoi,
Between 7 and 10% of a population is dyslexic. For them reading takes much more effort than it does for the rest of us.
If you withdraw that statement now your apology might be accepted.
As it is, the English Wikipedia has a font available for people who are dyslexic. It is the OpenDyslexic font.
It is possible to configure en.wp and many other Wikipedias by clicking somewhere... There are a few questions I would like to ask:
- did you know this many people have a problem reading Wikipedia - did you know these people can be helped with a different fontThere really isn't much data to support that.