Dyslexia is a developmental reading disorder that occurs when the brain doesn’t recognize and process certain symbols. I taught many children with dyslexia, and they worked hard to make sense of letters that seemed to float off the page as they read. I constantly searched for tools and strategies to support their determined efforts to master written language.

Dyslexia Free Font

Donna Thomson, who blogs at The Caregiver’s Livingroom, recently provided a link to a free downloadable font for people with dyslexia. It’s registered with Creative Commons, which means that “as long as you visibly give credit, you can use this on your ebook, ebook reader, actual physical books, web sites” and so on.

The link at dafont.com has examples of the font in regular, bold, italic, and italic-bold print. In addition to the upper and lower case alphabet, the creator made weighted versions of a large variety of symbols. There’s also quiet a collection of letters with accent marks for foreign languages or perhaps phonetic symbols…I’m not sure which since my last brush with either category was way back in college.

Dyslexia Weighted Font

How does the font help people with dyslexia? According to the note from the author, it’s a “font created to help dyslexic readers. Bottom heavy and unique character shapes help prevent letters and numbers from being confused.” It makes sense that weighting would help anchor letters in place for readers with dyslexia, but the site contained no studies about its effectiveness. But since the font is a free download, it’s certainly worth a try.

Dyslexia and You

Do you have a child with dyslexia? What strategies and tools make a difference for your child? Or are you dyslexic? If so, how do you cope with your condition? What helped you learn to read when you were young? Leave a comment to share your story and resources. Thanks.

photo credit: www.freedigitalphotos.net

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