My Project ‘Help Others Understand Dyslexia’ aims to recreate the frustrations of reading with dyslexia using typography. I have created three unique typefaces, that are intentionally difficult to read, by manipulating the letterforms in a way that mimics the visual challenges associated with dyslexia. By creating typefaces that are almost illegible the whole process of reading is significantly slower. By gaining an insight into the literary struggles they face, we can begin to understand the daily challenges that come with this common disorder.

An image of woodblock type, a full capital alphabet

This typeface aims to recreate the frustration of reading with dyslexia. The typeface pushes the boundaries of traditional typography. It breaks many typographic rules, such as maintaining a balance between x-height and cap-height, optical corrections and accessibility standards in order to display the difficulties that come with the disorder. I am fascinated with letterpress and it's history, therefore I decided to make my own woodblock type. It was then used as part of a workshop that allowed students to gain an insight into the challenges of reading with dyslexia and develop an understanding of inclusive design practices.

Woodblock Type

An image of a hand holding an 'A' in woodblock type

An image of the woodblock type being used in a letterpress studio

Images of typography that appears to bend and move

This typeface aims to recreate the frustration of reading with dyslexia as the letterforms appear to bend and move. The wavy nature of the typeface also aims to introduce visual instability, making it harder for the reader to maintain a steady focus on the text.By creating letterforms that are almost illegible the whole process of reading is significantly slower. By gaining an insight into the literary struggles, we can begin to understand the daily challenges that come with this common disorder.

A typeface inspired by my experience of reading with dyslexia

Images of a letter stencil where parts of the letterforms are missing

This typeface aims to recreate the frustration of reading with dyslexia. By removing parts of the letterforms this typeface symbolises the flipping or swapping of elements when a dyslexic person reads. The typeface was created using a stencil, therefore it seemed necessary to turn it back into its original form.

This typeface aims to recreate the frustration of reading with dyslexia. By removing parts of the letterforms this typeface symbolises the flipping or swapping of elements when a dyslexia person reads. The typeface was created using a stencil, therefore it seemed necessary to turn it back into its original form.

Images of a letter stencil where parts of the letterforms are missing.

An image of a poster that says 'This Is How I Read With Dyslexia' fly posted onto a wall.

I decided to exhibit my work in a public setting with the goal of fostering greater understanding and empathy towards dyslexia. Manipulating the text “This is how I read with dyslexia” is a simple yet effective way of recreating the frustrations of reading with the disorder. It directly simulates the experience of visual distortion and difficulty in deciphering letters and words.

Dyslexia Awareness Campaign

An image of a poster that says 'This Is How I Read With Dyslexia' displayed within a bus stop advertisement.

An image of multiple posters that say 'This Is How I Read With Dyslexia' fly posted onto an advertisement board.

Help Others Understand Dyslexia

Images of a graphic design thesis bound using red thread.

Legibility is an element of design that is constantly changing, what was once considered legible is completely different today. These developments in both perception of legibility and its importance in relation to aesthetics are a result of continual interaction between changing technologies within the design field and the social content in which the design is presented.This publication was written alongside my project 'Help Others Understand Dyslexia'. It has given me valuable insight into accessible/inclusive design practices and how I can begin to use this knowledge within my practice.

Thesis - 'How has changing technology and social context affected typographic design and perceptions of legibility?'

Images of a graphic design thesis bound with red thread.

A series of images of myself leading a talk/workshop to students and the results of the workshop.

In order to ‘Help others understand dyslexia’, I ran a workshop at my old foundation course. The aim of this workshop was for the students to gain an insight into the challenges of reading with dyslexia and develop an understanding of inclusive design practices. I began with a short introduction that quickly led onto a task that asked the students to visually represent how they read with dyslexia or how they think someone with dyslexia reads. As part of the task the students were each given a newspaper cover on white paper and on tracing paper. I set out a variety of other materials such as pens, stickers and textured paper to help them disrupt the text. I chose to use a newspaper as it is something that I have experimented with previously. The combination of small text size, crowded layout, justified text and lack of visual cues makes newspapers challenging to read for individuals with dyslexia. This workshop was a great way to collect primary research for my project however I wanted the students to also benefit from the session therefore I also gave a short talk about Inclusive/universal design. Inclusive design was something the students had never covered so they were keen to learn how to incorporate the basic principles into their practice. This experience was extremely rewarding, hearing other students experiences with dyslexia provided validation and a sense of understanding.

Primary Research

A series of images of a newspaper front page that have been drawn over to represent how the students read with dyslexia

A series of images showing students recreating how they read with dyslexia using the phrase 'This is how I read with dyslexia'

My Project ‘Help Others Understand Dyslexia’ aims to recreate the frustrations of reading with dyslexia using typography. I have created three unique typefaces, that are intentionally difficult to read, by manipulating the letterforms in a way that mimics the visual challenges...

Harmony Closs

Final work

Research and process

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Help Others Understand Dyslexia

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