Typography research a typeface development that attends to facilitate dyslexic readers

Typography research.

A typeface development that attends to facilitate dyslexic readers.

student. Myrto Lazaridou tutor. Dimitris Bizioglis

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Abstrach Learning agreement The world of dyslexia Giftlexia the font About the project Personas Swot Giftlexia. The name of the font About the typeface Letterforms' analysis Numbers' analysis Glyphs' analysis About the icons Icons' analysis Next step Special thanks Appendices References

Contents

Program Name Tutor Year

MA in Design Myrto Lazaridou Dimitris Bizioglis 2017

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Dyslexia is a life lasting usually genetic, inherited condition that affects 20% of the global population. It is a disorder that influences the way the brain processes written and spoken information.

Dyslexics have word blindness as they have phonological processing deficits. They are right brained, three-dimensional image thinkers. It is very difficult for them to recognize the letters and match them to particular sounds and images in their mind. Every time they come across with unrecognizable words their evolutionary thinking is interrupted leading to disorientation, confusion and misinterpretation. The purpose of this MA research is to help dyslexics in their reading process. The goal is to create a universal font, which will combine letterforms and icons.

The fields explored prior to font development were, education and learning difficulties, dyslexia teaching techniques, dyslexics reading behavior and its consequences to their self-esteem. A big part of my research is based on Ronald Davis’s method, stating that dyslexics are image thinkers. The use of image instead of text, font development techniques, glyphs and dingbats were investigated in depth.

The outcome of this research is Giftlexia, a font consisting of both letters and expert characters. It is a sans serif, geometrical typeface. Its unique letterforms help in letter and word recognition. The expert characters are icons, representational and fulfilled. Giftlexia gives the opportunity to replace words with the expert characters.

A questionnaire survey, carried out to test dyslexics’ reaction to Giftlexia, recommends that the font facilitate dyslexic readers, especially when the icons replace representational words.

Abstract 4

Learning agreement

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Brief Explanation / Outline of Project This MA research is dedicated to dyslexics, aiming at finding modes in order to help dyslexic people with their reading process.

The word dyslexia means difficulty with words. It is a life lasting, usually genetic, inherited condition that affects around 10% of the population.

Dyslexia is really about information processing. Being image thinkers, as dyslexics are, means that text reading is a hard process often leading to confusion, disorientation and misinterpretation.

Text and written information is everywhere. It is significant to help those people to have access in written materials. The aim of this project is to make this particular target audience familiarized with text and letters.

Dyslexics while reading they see the ‘big image’, in other words, they see the forest and miss the tree; they recognize the shape of the word, but not the letters themselves. This results in misunderstanding. For an image thinker, it is very hard to recognize the letters and match them with particular sounds and images in his mind. The creation of a new font that covers dyslexics’ needs, has been developed. This font combines both images and letters aiming at the correct information process. When the dyslexic reader will find it difficult to cope with the words, and does not understand, the images-pictograms will be present to illuminate and clear their disorientation.

My aim is to support a universal design, but at the same time to help dyslexic people understand their difficulties offering them a useful reading type of font.

Context / Rationale As dyslexic people are image thinkers, reading processing deficits are generated. This whole issue begins because they do not have the ability to match the images that they have in their mind with the appropriate sounds of the words. Generally speaking they have phonological processing deficits and in order for them to conceal their inability to express themselves they are forced to develop secondary behavioral tricks while speaking or reading. The most commonly used are repetition of words or phrases, pauses, use of non-specific words and circumlocutions as well as substitution errors. This could be helpful but in many cases could lead to incomprehension.

I’m a dyslexic person myself. I was diagnosed with this specific learning difficulty when I was 8 years old. It was very hard for me at first but after years of hard effort and special courses, I learned how to cope with it. Till now I have same communication problems, most of them are due to the fact that I cannot express myself; it’s like expressing yourself in a foreign language. It’s the way I think, and it is something that no effort can change it. I remember my teacher saying to me, when I was depressed with my reading difficulties, that after many years she would be able to put all the knowledge in my brain, and then I would not have to read. Now that I have grown up, I realize the importance of text reading; I would like to help dyslexics in their reading process.

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Key Areas of Research In order to create a successful aid for dyslexics’ reading process, the consumer profile had to be made. Primary and secondary research is necessary for creating the best personas. The competitive research was also useful, in order to find out what’s out in the market. Swot analysis was carried out. The history of education and learning difficulties through out the past decades were very essential.

Typography plays a very important role for a dyslexic’s reading process; I had to find out which are the most common typefaces that dyslexics are exposed to and which are the typographic characterists that help them while reading. The use of image instead of text, was one of the main areas of the research. Furthermore, it was of great importance to study the font development, to learn how to create new fonts, glyphs and dingbats.

Intended Outcome of the Project The outcome of this project was a creation of a new font that helps dyslexic readers. This new font consists of both letters and expert characters.

It is a sans serif, geometric typeface with high x-height, high extenders and big couriers. Spacing and tracking of the letters are adapted to dyslexics’ needs. The expert characters of the font are pictograms; represented, fulfilled symbols.

Thanks to technology, the users are able to personalize the text according to their needs. When the user will choose this new font to type with, he will have the option to replace words with the expert characters.

Student signature

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The world of dyslexia

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When dyslexia started Communication in humans’ lives is vital. From the very beginning men necessitated means of communication to help them survive, to enable them to form communities, to trade. For hundreds of years people had been communicating directly by speaking.

Around 30.000 BC they used to paint pictures on cave walls and ceilings.

It was a primitive visual story telling. Over the years people evolved, expanded geographically and naturally new needs emerged. Information and knowledge had to be kept, restored and transferred at large distances and to future generations. The invention of writing satisfied the above needs.

The earliest writing system was representational, later the Egyptian hieroglyphic system was developed consisting of pictures expressing ideas and sounds. The first alphabet system was the Phoenician, which appeared around 1.000 BC. By the 11th century writing dominated in communication. The invention of movable type printing in 1457 by John Gutenberg led the way to mass communication. Volumes of books and printed newspapers were available.

Access to knowledge and education was therefore effective to almost all-social classes grace to printing texts. To all except the 20% of the population who were dyslexics. For them the way towards knowledge was filled with barriers. As people became more literate the brain disorder of dyslexia was discovered.

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About dyslexia The word dyslexia originates from the Greek work (dys) difficult and (lexia) word. It is a life lasting usually genetic, inherited condition that affects the person’s learning ability. It’s a disorder that influences the way the brain processes written and spoken information. Dyslexia affects the life of millions of children and adults all over the world. It appears in children with medium and high intelligence level who attend schools, and are culturally and socially stimulated. It appears during the first classes of elementary school. It does not affect all people to the same degree, some are affected more severely than others, and they do not have all the same symptoms.

Dyslexia is not just a reading disorder; the international Neurological Federation defines dyslexia as a syndrome of many reading and writing symptoms that affect a person’s ability to learn to read and write, irrespective his education and cultural influences. It is a neurological disorder that influences the fundamental brain learning processes.

Dyslexics may have difficulty in reading and spelling or in writing or even trouble in learning how to count. They may have problem in speaking trying to find the appropriate word to express their thoughts. Dyslexics are not retarded or lazy, or have poor vision. They have phonological decoding processing difficulties. They cannot match the alphabet letters with specific sounds. They have word blindness. Dyslexia is about information processing.

Dyslexics have strong visual, advanced creative and problem solving skills and progress successfully in fields requiring innovative thinking; architecture, engineering, entrepreneurship and arts. Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Agatha Christie are famous dyslexics who wrote history in science and art respectively.

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Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) It is a neurological syndrome that affects about 2 to 3 % of the population. Children with ADD are hypersensitive, hyper distractible, hyper impulsive. There are also children who also have hyperactivity, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It affects both children and adults and it has no social or ethics boundaries. Boys are diagnosed with ADD in a higher percentage than girls because they are more hyperactive. The diagnosis of Add is a long subjective evaluation procedure. School children may exhibit ADD behavior on one class and be highly attentive in another. Ronald D Davis states in his book “The gift of Dyslexia” that ADD is a cover for poor teaching. If the lecture is taught poorly students will not be interested. In fact Add should not be considered as a learning but as a teaching problem. It is interesting the fact that very good teachers and professors rarely have ADD students in their classrooms while other colleague teachers characterize some of the same students as ADD. Many children develop ADD due to stressful events and depression. Most of them were not born with ADD; in fact ADD is a phenomenon created by our over stimulating, visual society structure. To actually verify a real ADD it is important to see whether this behavior is present both inside and outside the classroom. Nowadays ADD is diagnosed very frequently for various reasons. It is a convenient term which encompasses a variety of problematic conditions and children who do not fit to the proper student’s behavior definition. Parents and teachers welcome the diagnosis of Add because that provides them an answer for the inexplicable child behavior. There is medication and certain special behavioral management techniques recommended by doctors to ADD children. However an ADD diagnosis affects the child’s life. The child knows there is something wrong with himself, and usually has low self-esteem.

ADD and ADHD must be differentiated to Dyslexia. A child could be dyslexic without having ADD or hyperactivity and the opposite. However if a dyslexic child is diagnosed with ADD then learning becomes harder. Like Dyslexia the symptoms of ADD could prove to be tremendously advantageous in real life.

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Left-brained, right-brained people Not all the people think in the same way. There are left, whole and right brained people. Left brained people are logical, analytical and accurate.

They perform well at school and at work executing their task with order and following precise rules and have an excellent sense of time. They feel uncomfortable with challenges and changes of their daily routine and in general they lack of imagination. They tend to be good at numbers, names, learning rules and solve problems that require logic and sequential steps. They store information in words rather than images.

Right brained people on the other hand are three dimensional image thinkers. They have very strong visual memory. Right brained individuals from kids to adults face difficulties in our world set up by words. They struggle to match while reading the words with mental images. To execute any given task they prefer to have it demonstrated to them and not explained step by step. They do not need to follow rules they do not like routine and are highly imaginative and excellent in creative problem solving. They are very competitive always seek for new challenges and act with perfection.

Whole brain people can enjoy the benefits of both left and right brained individuals. They can complete with ease any task requiring logic and order and they can also have creative abilities.

Dyslexics and ADD individuals are usually right-brained, even though in case of high intelligence they could be whole-brained. It is not a rule that all right brained individuals are ADD. They are distinguished by their hypersensitivity and their luck of impulse control.

The most common hypersensitivity of an ADHD student is his unusually developed sense of hearing. A whisper or a page turn is enough to cause him distraction and frustration and therefore unable him to follow the teacher. They have excellent hearing abilities but they can’t hear vowel sounds. This is the reason that ADD people have difficulties in auditory spelling.

Professor Dimitrios Goudiras, a cardio-psychologist with long experience in special treatment, claimed that dyslexics make numerous reading mistakes because they read fast. It is absolutely necessary to attract their attention while reading in order to understand the text.

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Ronald Davis’s method Ronald Davis and his methods cover a big part of my research and approach of dyslexia. He was a dyslexic child facing great difficulties in reading. To be able to read a whole book without struggling was a dream for Davis. He became a successful engineer and artist. He observed that when he was in good art creation periods his dyslexia became worse. At the age of 38 after long efforts of practicing to figure out how dyslexia can be worse or better he found a way to eliminate common perceptual distortions.

In order to cope with their learning difficulties and to conceal their inability of expressing themselves dyslexics adopt methods and behavioral tricks such as repetition of words, phrases, sentences and pauses in reading.

This attitude starts around the age of nine. The adaptation of such tricks may help temporarily the child to read but it may well lead to text incomprehension, to stress and to disorientation.

The use of such solutions with time becomes compulsory. Davis refers to them as 'the old solutions' and declares that they are the cause creating disorientation and provoking dyslexia. His method focuses in finding these behaviors and attempts to eliminate them from the reading process.

Unlocking the power of dyslexia means learning to control disorientation.

In 1982 Ronald Davis opened the reading research council of dyslexia correction center in California and had great success in helping dyslexics coping with their reading difficulties. In 1995 Davis Dyslexia Association International (DDAI) was founded aiming to train professionals and to expand the methods throughout the world. There are now hundreds of centers scattered around the world teaching the Davis method.

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Verbal and non verbal It is believed that people think in two different ways, verbally and no-verbally. In the first way thinking is based on the sounds of words and in the second on imaginary pictures of ideas and concepts. In verbal thinking the thinker composes in his mind the sentences word by word.

Verbal thinking and oral speech run approximately at the same speed.

Common oral speech speed is around 150 words per second. Non verbal thinking occurs at a speed of 32 images per second. It is estimated to be up to 200 times faster than verbal thinking.

A non verbal thinker faces two different types of words. Those that can be converted into images and others that can’t. It is ease for a non verbal thinker to illustrate nouns that he knows their meaning. For example words like pen, cat, school and car. Similarly he can illustrate verbs like sleep, play, run and eat as he experiences the actions that these verbs describe. It is impossible however for him to think with words when he can’t illustrate their meaning. For example imagine an image thinker facing the word AND. He can observe the letters A, N and D, he is aware of their shape but he can’t see the meaning of the word that these letters form. For verbal thinkers the reading of such words causes no confusion because they know their sounds and they understand the meaning of the sentence when reading is completed. For non verbal readers the reading of these words creates dyslexia.

A non verbal thinker could comprehend through images meanings that would require hundreds of words to be described. No-verbal thinking is evolutionary. The image is developed while the thinking process adds more concepts. This evolutionary process of image creation is interrupted every time the no-verbal thinker faces a word or symbol that he cannot understand and match it to a picture. Every interruption leads to confusion, incomprehension and disorientation. Davis theory states that dyslexics are picture thinkers.

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Sentances and image thinking “The brown horse jumped over the stone fence and ran through the pasture.�1 The child starts reading and faces the first word, the. He doesn’t have a picture for this word and this causes a thinking gap and confusion. He forces himself to concentrate, says the and passes over to the next word, brown. Now a brown color image is thought but it has no content or shape.

He says the word brown.

He passes over to the next word horse. The brown image now gets a defined shape. He says the word horse and moves on to the next word, jumped. Now the image develops and gets movement, the brown horse pulls over his legs and jumps. He says the word jumped. The next word, over, maintains the image of a brown horse pulling over his legs and jumping on the air. He concentrates and says the word over.

The next word, the, causes another thinking gap as there is no picture for it. Confusion is increased. He doubles his concentration and continues. It is possibly that he does not read the word, the, and moves straight to the next word, stone.

This word creates the image of a stone, and he says stone. The picture however that he has in his mind is a picture of a stone that has nothing to do with what he read so far. Next word, fence, develops the image from a plain rock to a rock fence. He concentrates and says, fence.

The word, and that follows creates another gap in his mind. The picture now is totally blanked out. Confusion is at its peak. The child is now disorientated, tired, forces himself to increase concentration in order to continue. It is at this exact point of time that the signs of dyslexia appear.

He cannot understand what he is reading and he does not recognize the words on the page in front of him. It is possible that he will omit or substitute letters in his effort to read. This makes him read the next word, ran, runs. He confuses even more as this is irrelevant to the brown horse picture, and the picture of the stone fence that followed. He forms a picture of someone running and says the word runs.

Next word through is read throws. So now he sees someone throwing a ball and says throws. The following word, the, collapse him. The letters are flying in front of his eyes. He feels sick. He forces himself to concentrate and finally reaches the last word, pasture. Now due to his absolute disorientation he has to recognize the letters one by one to form the word. He says pasture and he thinks of a grassy field.

Reading is finished. It is possible that he will not be able to explain the meaning of the sentence because he has in his mind a picture of a jumping horse, that of a stone fence, a running person, and someone throwing a ball; pictures that cannot be matched together to form the sentence. It is clear that he did not understand what he had just read.

The above analysis is an example of a dyslexic student's efford to read aloud a sentence and what he understands at the end of the process.

1 http://Anon, (2017). [online] Available at: http://davis-method.narod.ru/Gift_of_Dyslexia.pdf [Accessed 10 Oct. 2017].

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Reading and Spelling Reading is the process of getting information and knowledge from written texts. To begin with, PhD researcher Alastair Montgomery stated that reading is separated into two distinct phases; the learning to read and the reading to learn.

Children are taught at their first year in elementary school the alphabet song, to match sounds with letters, to distinguish syllables and diphthongs. Once they gain the above reading abilities then they pass to the second phase, reading to learn. This transmission is very painful and hard for dyslexics.

As Guinevere Eden, analyzes in the video 'brain and dyslexia', at Understood channel of You-tube, the reading process activates three different parts of the brain. The Broca’s area in the frontal lobe is linked to speech pronunciation. Parieto-Temporal region translates the sounds and it is located at the back side of the left ear. And the Occipital-Temporal region is the part of the brain that stores and processes images; it is situated at the right side of the brain. The brain of a dyslexic person does not operate in the same way as a non dyslexic. Some areas are under activated.

Humans think in two different ways; verbal and non-verbal. As Ronald Davis states that there are also two different kinds of words, those that represent real images and those that their meanings cannot be pictured. It is very hard for a non-verbal thinker, like dyslexics, to decode words that are not stored as an image in their mind.

Dyslexics are afraid of texts. They suffer from visual streess, which is known as 'Meares/Irlen syndrom'. Lettes become blurred or are drifted apart, text is shaking making reading a very difficult process.

Learning to spell can be an equally hard process. They do not have the ability to match sounds with letters and therefore they confuse letters that sound alike.

The most common letters that they mess up, are b, d, p, q; u, n; e, a; m, w; j, g; They also confuse the number 6 with 9. They mix up the order of the letters, they ommit or add letters and syllables. The outcome of mispelling is unreadable words and lack of meaning. This is the reason why this MA research, aims to readability and legibility and in order to achieve them we have to take under consideration accessibility for dyslexics.

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Reading errors

displacement

omission

insertion

substitution omission

That Ted took that on.

The cat jumped over the moon.

That jump

omission

on noon man reversal

guessing, confabulation

The above diagram is an example of 'typical' dyslexics' errors during their reading process, analyzing a simple sentence; 'The cat jumped over the moon'.2

2 http://Anon, (2017). [online] Available at: http://dyslexiaonline.com/basics/syndrome.html [Accessed 10 Oct. 2017].

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The problem with typography Prior to electronic typesetting almost all printing materials looked the same. Printers used characters made out of metal which had to be placed together uniformly in a row on the printing machine. Computerized typesetting offers nowadays a large scale of characters and the benefit of choice. Graphic designers have in their disposal the means to intervene and change the style of the types and therefore produce an outcome that expresses them personally. The result may be artistic, but less legible especially to dyslexics who get disorientated.

Dyslexia is a global phenomenon appearing in all languages which have alphabets based on phonetic symbols. The influence of each language to the learning process varies according to its structure. When there is no exact phonetic correspondence for each alphabet letter the difficulty in the learning process is greater. English is a very complicated language for dyslexics because some characters or combinations of characters can represent as many as five different sounds. In order to be able to represent all sounds of speech the English alphabet should have been a set of about 44 characters.

Typography is the mean of transferring writen information. The selection of a font has a significant role on the comprehension of a text. To study he fonts that people are exposed to in their everyday life is of great importance.

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Fonts that are used most

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Fonts that children are exprosed to

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Fonts designed for dyslexics

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Arial ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 Helvetica ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 Courier ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890

Sassoon ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 Comic Sans ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890

Alphabet 26 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 Open Dyslexic ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 Dyslexie ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890

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Lexia Readable ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890

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Accessibility Unfortunately, dyslexics cannot avoid texts. They have to learn to read and write. There are means of making the text friendlier to dyslexics. It has been found that printed texts can facilitate dyslexic users when the paper used is thick enough to prevent the other side showing through and when matt paper is used. In reading texts, printed or on screen, it is wise to avoid the use of white background, which can confuse the reader. A cream or soft pastel color is preferable. The contrast between the background and the letters should be intense. Some dyslexics have their own color preference.

The use of fonts plays a very important role on the reading process. Sans Serif fonts such as Helvetica and Century Gothic are the most preferable ones. Details such as tracking and leading and font size must be taken into consideration for dyslexic reading. Studies have shown that for parts of the text, which, need to be emphasized, it is better to type in bold instead of underlining, italics, or using capital letters.

Text layout plays a significant role too. As we read from left to right it is advised the use of left-justified. Narrow columns must be avoided as they provoke confusion. It is a torture for a dyslexic to read a newspaper. Each line however should not be very long having a maximum of 70 characters.

Writing style also affects reading. It is recommended the use of short simple sentences and the use of active voice. Meanings and explanations should be concise and given clearly in short sentences. Pictorial representations like charts, pictograms and graphics are by definition the most appropriate tools to give information to a dyslexic person.

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12 Tips for dyslexics' typefaces

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₇ ₈ ₉ ₁0

Sans serif fonts are more clear than serif Good acsenders and descenders, b, d, f, h, k, l, t, and g, j, p, q, y High x-height Big couriers Give emphasize to punctuation marks They help the reader to take a breath while reading Letters have to be distinguished Capital I, lowercase l and digital 1 b, d; p, q not mirror The shape of the letters has to be closed Open spaces on letters like b, p, may confuse Prefer single than double story g, a rounded as in handwriting Letter-spacing r and n together, rn, should not look like m Good kerning, tracking

11 Size of the letters It depends on the age of the reader, but the preferable sizes of texts are 12-16 pt 12 Left-Justified text

Fonts are undoubtedly a mean of transferring information. Focusing on the right comprehension of written material, it very important to bear in mind some parameters that make also text accessible to everybody.

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Images are a helpful tool to dyslexics

Early learners come across with representational pictograms, at their process of learning how to read. Teachers and logo-therapists use charts with pictograms to teach to children in primary school the sounds of vowels and consonants. They expose the children to one pictogram at a time.

For example, the children come across to the written lowercase ‘s’ on the blackboard and face the star pictogram. The teacher explains to them how to pronounces the letter ‘s’, how they should move their lips, their tongue. In this way and with continuous training, the children combine the visual image of ‘s’ and the image of a star to the sound they learned. Due to the fact that dyslexic students are image thinkers and they find it difficult to cope with reading, the above teaching method with pictograms is found to be helpful in later school years as well.

Edward, a thirteen-years-old high school student, with reading and writing deficits, confirms the dyslexic’s need of image usage. He is answering to his teacher’s question on birds feeding process, mainly by drawing using only few notes.

Represantational symbols were also the evaluation results of a survey referring to the communication design abilities of elementary children with dyslexia. The evaluators asked the children to draw 20 different conceptual terms on an A4 piece of paper. The results seem to give answers about how to set up a correct communication design education program. The way the students illustrated the conceptual terms given to them, reminds semiotics icons. Semiotics are simple symbols globally understandable, which are transferring information via icons. Passing information visually and transferring clearly the meanings, is very important not only for dyslexics but also for normal readers.

The results of the communication design abilities of elementary children with dyslexia survey.¹

Edward is answering to his teacher’s question via drawing.2

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2 Photo from: Muzaffer, Ç.,Oğuzhan, Ö. and Ümran, K. (2008) The meaning of dyslexics’ drawings in communication design. [image] Journal, Volume 15(2), pp. 151. Available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ doi/10.1002/dys.362/pdf [Accessed 18 Jan. 2017].

James, a twelve years-old child with learning difficulties designs his own pictograms to help himself recall the phonics of the words.3 1, 2 Photo from: Pinsent, P. (1990). Children with literacy difficulties. London: David Fulton.

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Could a visual language replace words?

Dyslexics are image thinkers. Pictorial representation helps them in reading comprehension. Written information is everywhere. Could an image replace text and pass the exact same message to the readers? People are often say, an image is worth a thousand words. Surveys have confirmed this belief.

Genevieve von Petzinger observed by exploring caves throughout the whole continent that animal and human paints were outnumbered by various geometrical symbols by a rate of 2:1. There were found 32 different geometrical symbols scattered in the continent. People were using them repeatedly for 30,000 years. These symbols were representational and lead us to the outcome that humans have created a primitive communication system through observation.

Later, in 1897-1985 Charles K. Bliss developed a visual language aiming to overcome the diverse linguistic differences and become global. Bliss system is a simple, illustrated language code. Bliss symbols today are over 5,000 and each word in the Bliss code consists of one or more symbols.

The combinations of Bliss words are numerous. Each symbol is easily understandable, but has to be taught.

Otto Neurath and his wife created the Isotype, International System of Typographic Picture Education, in the decade of 1930. It was conceived and designed to be a pictorial language consisted of pictograms, icons and symbols, aiming to be universally accepted. Gerd Arntz was the designer of the icons. The first pictograms were silhouette representations of men and women. The figure style used was neutral, in order to avoid personal identification. Later, the icon symbols were expanded in variety to include almost everything; from dogs to planes. Nowadays, they have become standard universal communication signs in all transportation modes and not only.

In 1982, Scott Fahlman first had the idea of using :) as a joke marker.

Thirty years later these punctuation symbols, well known as emotions, represent a happy face. Emoticons is a visual representational communication code with universal acceptance that breaks linguistic barriers.

When an online reader comes across that happy face, he senses automatically the same feeling as if he is facing a real one. It has to be mentioned that when the punctuation symbols are reversed (: the viewer does not see the happy face. This leads to the outcome that network users have the unconscious need to see the emoticons in the same way as they read; from right to left. This may happen because they are familiar in the combined use of text and emoticons. As familiarity was mentioned, it is impressive an Instagram’s research, proving that emojis have replaced the Internet slag. In a face-to-face communication both message sender and receiver can understand each other by speech and by body language. Emoticons, cover the body language part as they represent the tone of voice of the text. Finally, another research has shown that people who avoid abbreviations they tend to use a hyphen to represent a nose in the happy face.

The above examples prove that images can replace words. There are however numerous words that cannot be illustrated by an image, for example the word situation. Written language, typography and text is necessary for complete understanding. Typography though can be enriched by the use of dingbats.

Dignbants are expert characters of a font that do not represent alphabet symbols. There are many and different kind of dingbants, others have been created for decorative purposes and others in order to inform. A font that includes dignbants is called Font Pi. The most common Font Pis are Zapf Dingbats, EuropeanPi and Carta.

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Some of the first Isotype's icons designed by Gerd Arntz. 4

4 Photo from: Gerdarntz.org. (2017). Gerd Arntz Web Archive. [online] Available at: http:// www.gerdarntz.org/isotype [Accessed 10 Oct. 2017].

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Conclusion All the above leads to the conclusion that images have been proven useful elements in human communication. For dyslexics who are image thinkers, images could function like a dictionary that gives meaning to written material. As Dr Goudiras claims, dyslexic children must be part of the community. The aim is to facilitate their reading process, not to avoid reading. To achieve this goal proper typeface that would cover dyslexics’ needs has to be developed and use in text in combination with representational symbols.

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Giftlexia the font

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About the project During the last decades many surveys have been conducted in order to understand and help dyslexics. This MA project attends to facilitate dyslexics in their reading process.

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Problem recognition Dyslexics are image thinkers. This different way of understanding the world around them, on the one hand enriches them in many fields, but on the other hand burdens their writing and reading process.

Talking about writing, they often struggle to find the right words to express themselves and when they find them, they write the words wrongly.

They either add or remove letters. Studying dyslexics’ handwriting it has been noticed that they mirror the letters and this behavior results in passing an incomprehensible message to readers.

Not only in writing, but also in reading process they face a lot of difficulties. They see the forest but miss the tree. They have difficulties in letter, word recognition. Due to the fact that they are image thinkers, they do not focus on the letters that form the words, but they see the word’s shape. As a result they confuse letters and they read words that either have the same shape of the word in their mind or even the word doesn’t exist. They sometimes flip letters, mix up syllables, or repeat the same line while reading. This behavior leads to misunderstanding.

There are also dyslexics that read well, but they don’t have the ability to understand while reading the meaning of the sentence. It is hard for parents and teachers to easily recognize their children’s learning difficulty, because they read well, resulting to late treatment.

Reading and writing is a mean of communication and it is significant for everyone to have access in written material. People who do not read are forced to marginalization.

Attended goal In this project the aim is to develop proposal, which will facilitate dyslexics in their reading. Comprehension disability in their reading attempt is crucial to be solved. They often manage to read a sentence but they are unable to fully understand the meaning.

Written material is everywhere, not only in book texts. For instance a road sign may miss lead a dyslexic driver, if read wrongly. Medicine packaging and its use instructions is vital to be read correctly. This is the reason why universal design is so important.

Dyslexics are also stressed when they face texts and they tend to avoid reading them. The aim is to liberate them from this behavior and to familiarize them with texts.

29

Suggested way The idea is to create a new font that will facilitate dyslexic readers giving them the opportunity to have access to written information. The font has to be friendly to dyslexics, in order to avoid visual stress. The aim is to attract the dyslexics’ interest and help them in letter recognition. The most important is the comprehension of the text. The reading speed is of secondary importance. Focusing in attracting dyslexics’ interest and aiming to help them recognize their miscomprehension at the moment it occurs, I decided to enrich the font with some expert characters that will be pictograms. The pictograms will have the ability to replace words with representational icons, easily understandable by everyone. When dyslexics will read a text in this particular font with pictograms, they will have the ability to understand better the meaning of the sentence.

Thanks to pictograms, the reader will be able to understand if he confuses letters and does not read the correct words, because the meaning of the images will not corespond with what he read. This way, he will give himself a second change to read the sentence, only this time he will read it more carefully.

The outcome The outcome of this project is the development of a new font, which will consist of both pictograms and letters. The font will be sans serif, geometric with rounded terminals. It will be based on Cera font, which has been tested to dyslexics through questionnaires in this semester and was approved by them as a good font for reading. But Cera still has some characteristics that hardens reading process and letter recognition. The x-height and the extenders will become higher. The letters will have to become unique. Spacing and tracking of the letters will be adapted to dyslexics’ needs. The expert characters of the font will be pictograms; represented, fulfilled symbols.

30

The debate of my project The first idea was to create a monoalphabet system, having both lowercases and uppercases. The capital letters would have the appearence of the lowercases, but in the cap’s height. After studing the dyslexic’s handwriting, I noticed that some of them tend to avoid uppercases. They prefer to script letters in their lowercase version, but bigger in size. Being image thinkers, they find it difficult to match the images that they have in their mind with written words. Having two different shapes of letters for a particular sound of a word, makes this difficulty harder.

I came into contact with high school dyslexic students, and I discussed my idea with them. Students were divided. Those who tend to avoid capitals supported my idea, while the others told me that a font like this would confuse them. I thus decided to divide my target audience and to create two different typefaces, one for each group.

But the idea of developing a monoalphabet system like this, created questions to experts. They supported that children, who are taught both uppercases and lowercases letters at school, will get confused. In order for a monoalphabet system to exist, the children would have to learn only this version of letters, they told me. The books and any written material that people have access to, have both capitals and lowercases, which is another obstacle.

The aim of my MA project is to help dyslexics and familiarize them with text. This monoalphabet system would not be able to achieve my target.

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Personas All researches are carried out for a purpose: to answer the needs of a particular target group. Each target audience has a persona, whose personality characterizes the whole group. In order to find and create the personas, I had to get in touch with people from different fields related to dyslexia.

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Demographics ·Male ·Spanish ·9 years old ·Elementary school ·Dyslexic Fonts ·Comic Sans ·Sassoon Primary Applications ·Reader

Key goals

Behaviors

To make his homework To learn how to read (in order to avoid school bulling)

Gives books to others to read them for him He does not like listening to histories on CD’s He can’t stand still He likes playing games on tablet

We must

We must never

Use big size fonts Use colors Clear pictograms Big courier High x-high High ascenders & discenders

Use Serif font Use big and difficult words Avoid text

‘‘

My mind is messed up

‘‘

He was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of 6. His big brother has also dyslexia. His mum and dad work all day and he studies daily with his speech pheraphist. His teacher uses pictures and vowel charts to teach him the initial consonant sounds.

An other tool, they use for learning words is the ''Reader'' application.

Peter

Games ·Clash Royale ·Loney Tunes

33

Demographics ·Male ·Greek ·15 years old ·Dyslexic and ADHD ·High school ·Learns English ·Socialized ·Good sense of humor Fonts ·Helvetica ·Arial ·Open Dyslexic

John

‘‘

Applications ·Dyslexia Browser Games ·World of warcraft ·League of Legends

I have dyslexia, there is no reason to be depressed

He was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of 12. He is having meetings with a speech therapist during the last 3 years. He has excellent computer knowledge. He uses applications a lot in his mobile and he plays games in his computer. Online games have helped him learning English words.

‘‘ 34

Key goals

Behaviors

Save time Learn to write without making mistakes Learn English well in order to go abroad Finish his homework quickly in order to play online games

He likes reading fiction books Patient Strong-willed He can't stand still He likes playing online games

We must

We must never

Use big size font Sans serif font Good contrast Rounded terminals

Make text illegible Avoid text Not to many typefaces in a text

Demographics ·Female ·Greek ·22 years old ·Nursery governess studies ·Works Part time in a beer house Full time at a special treatment’s school ·Single ·Very friendly with people ·Dyslexic and ADD

Androniki

Fonts ·Arial Applications ·Instagram ·Facebook ·Netflix ·Wallet app She was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of 19. She has excellent computer knowledge and uses applications a lot in her mobile.

‘‘

I feel awkward writing something down when my boss is standing next to me

‘‘ Key goals

Behaviors

Be able to read in front of others Be able to learn by heart Be able to help others learn the language

Avoids reading or writing Tends to make others do the parts she can’t do Thinks of too many things at once

We must

We must never

Make the words legible Give rules when she is reading To be designed clearly and easily Keep her concentrated Use images Create high x-height

Avoid text Confuse things

35

Demographics ·Male ·British ·30 years old ·BA in graphic design ·Works at a graphic design studio ·Single ·German language; good comand ·Dyslexic

Terrence

‘‘

I feel proud of my dyslexia, it learned me to fight and work hard

Fonts ·Helvetica ·Baskerville ·ITC Century Applications ·Shazam ·iTunes ·Behance ·Opportunity app He was diagnosed with dyslexia, at the age of 8.

Sometimes he feels uncomfortable in crowds.

Uses applications on his mobile but he is not very keen.

‘‘

36

Key goals

Behaviors

Be able to read and understand without second reading Be able to talk and concentrate on the subject without forgetting words and changing subjects Easier comprehension

Reads well but necessitates a second effort to understand; this becomes worse when reading in foreign language Needs a person to understand and see his thoughts Prefers reading books with images

We must

We must never

Use images Give opportunity to choose Keep him concentrated Good kerning

Use many different types of text Use small size letters Use big words Avoid text

Demographics ·Female ·Greek ·45 years old ·BA(honors) in textile Marketing MA in Management science ·Business woman ·Married ·Children 2 Boy 18 years old non dyslexic Girl 15 years old dyslexic ·English fluent Spanish good command

Applications ·Skype ·Viber She does not think that dyslexia is a taboo. She helps her daughter with her dyslexia during school years in her reading efforts and homework assessments. She believes that emotional support of the dyslexics is fundamental.

They are easily hurt and loose self esteem. She is not familiar with the use of technological applications. Her technological knowledge goes as far as the use of the business programs and the internet navigation.

Key goals

Behaviors

Save time Easy in use User must do the work and the thinking

Patient and peaceful Helps her daughter with her homework With time they have found their own way to cooperate Does not uses social media

We must

We must never

Use text as she can’t understand images Give her choises

Press the users Do it complicated

‘‘

I do not have the gift

‘‘

Susan

Fonts ·Garamond

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Demographics ·Female ·German ·50 years old ·BA in children education in Preihurg, Germany MA in dyslexia in Wales, UK ·Speech therapist ·Married ·Mother of a 14 years old non dyslexic girl

Persa

‘‘

Fonts ·Open Dyslexic ·Comic Sans ·Sassoon Primary ·Arial Applications ·Reader app ·Dyslexia Browser ·Voice Dreamer Reader

I have met dyslexic people with remarkable abilities

She thought her daughter had reading difficulties.

She uses applications.

‘‘

38

Key goals

Behaviors

Save time Help the child to read Learn to write Make student independent

She uses colored text slides She uses calligraphy notebook to teach them writing She creates new words; each letter of the new word signifies a concept She does not follow one particular method; it depends on the child which method she will follow

We must

We must never

Use colors Use big size font Sans serif font Good contrast

Make text illegible Avoid text Hide the problem

Swot analysis

39

Giftlexia

40

Giftlexia. The name of the font Giftlexia is the selected name for the font that is going to be developed in this MA project. The target group, as it has already been mentioned, is people with learning difficulties, like dyslexics. Dyslexics find difficult to cope with text because they are image thinkers.

Text and written material is everywhere. In the next decades, technology will give us the opportunity of personalization. Till then people have to be able to understand what they are reading. This is the reason why Giftlexia has the option of using icons. The creation of pictograms aims to a better comprehension, not to rely on them. Using this particular font, the deficits that a dyslexic reader has, will be eliminated. Having access to written material, dyslexics can focus and concentrate on fields that interest them.

This font transforms dys-lexia to a gift.

41

Developing the uppercase letters of the Giftlexia font.

42

Developing the lowercase letters of the Giftlexia font.

43

About the typeface Giftlexia was developed to cover dyslexics’ needs. The typeface is based on Cera Round Pro font and it aims to retain Cera’s friendliness and at the same time to personalize the font to dyslexics.

Dyslexics during their reading process struggle to recognize similar letterforms. Giftlexia aims to eliminate these difficulties and thus each letter is designed in a unique shape.

In order to achieve the best legibility for its target group, Giftlexia is designed with high x-height, Cap-height, long extenders and big counters.

The high x-height and Cap-height make the size of the font look bigger.

Big counters help readers to distinguish letter shapes and high extenders words shape.

Giftlexia breaks down the typographic rules, making the Cap-height higher than the ascender line. By this I wanted to emphasize pauses and sentences alteration. When a sentence begins with words like ‘This’ or ‘What’ for example, where the ascender is next to the capital letter and it is higher, the ascender attracts the dyslexic readers’ attention and the reading process is not interrupted. The result is that the reader does not pause while reading and get tired. More importantly he is unable to recognize the beginning of the new sentence and the reading message is misunderstood. In order for someone to recognize the beginning of a new sentence it should be clear where the previous sentence ends. In order to achieve this clarity Giftlexia’s glyphs and punctuation marks are designed bigger and bolder than those in Cera Round Pro font. Finally Giftlexia kerning and leading is very clear.

The combination of high x-height, Cap-height, big counters and the clear kerning and leading, provides a desirable white space in the text flow.

White space offers the appropriate breathing room, which allows continuous flow and balance in reading. It improves the dyslexic readers’ psychology, reduces their visual stress and increases content understanding.

44

1

“About„ 2

2

3

4

4

5

Unique letterforms

01. Cap-height

02. Extenders

The letters of Giftlexia have been designed in a way in order for the dyslexics neither to flip, rotate nor to confuse them with one to the other.

In order to attract dyslexics’ attention and make a pause while a sentence is finished and another one begins, the Cap-height became higher than the ascender line.

The ascenders, e.g. letter's b, and the descenders are long in order to help dyslexics to distinguish the words’ shapes. The t-extender is also high.

03. x-height

04. Counters

Giftlexia has high x-heigh in order not only to achieve better legibility in small text sizes, but also to offer white space to written flow.

Big counters and apertures avoid letter confusion providing more white space to the text.

05. Glyphs Giftlexia’s glyphs punctuation marks are designed bigger and bolder in order to be clear where the sentences end and where they begin.

45

bdpq In most fonts that children are exposed to, letters b, d, p, q are mirrored. This is the reason why dyslexics find it hard to distinguish them in words and sentences. A very common reading error is to mess up the letters and read 'doat' instead of 'boat'. The outcome is misunderstanding.

46

Giftlexia's b, d, p, q have high ascenders. The letters' b and q terminals helps in letter recognition, as the letters d and p have a different one. Letters b and d have still a reflection of letters q and p respectively, but as speech therapist, Persa Panori said, they do not confuse b, q; d, p.

rnmhu Usually letters m, n, r, h, u have the same letterform structure. This is the reason why dyslexics use to confuse them in their reading process. One of the most common example of dyslexics' reading errors is the word 'modern', where the combination rn looks like m, and as a result they read 'modem'.

Giftlexia differentiates the letters r, n, m, h, u either through their terminal or their width. Lowercase m, has a different terminal, which differentiate it from the similar ones, n, r, h. Lowercase u has the same terminal with m, but its aperture is much wider. Moreover the shoulders of the letters have been designed with different curve contributing in this way to the letter recognition.

47

vwy Most fonts that dyslexic people are exposed to have the same or similar scale of the letter v, w, y.

Reading is a very hard process for some people and provokes to them visual stress. In a condition like this the reader in unable to distinguish the letters.

48

Giftlexia differentiate lowercase v, w, y in order to help in letter recognition. The apex of w, creates a unique form to the letter. The lowercase y has a narrower width than letter v. The oblique terminal to the descender is added in order to attract readers attention.

oaec In many typefaces lowercase o is the base of many other alphabet's letters. Aiming to avoid any confusion to dyslexic readers Giftlexia tries to distinguish o, a, e, c, which in many fonts have the same scale.

The lowercase a has a narrower width from o, e, c. Moreover it has a single story form which helps dyslexics in letter recognition.

The big apertures of letter e and c providing white space help in attracting the attention of the letters shape.

49

1Il Digital 1, uppercase I and lowercase l in many fonts use to have the similar or even the same scale, making letter recognition impossible.

50

In order to avoid letter confusion, the lowercase l, has added a terminal in order not to be similar with digital 1 or uppercase I. Uppercase I in its term has added horizontal strokes in order to help dyslexics in their reading process.

69 Dyslexics confuse features 6 and 9 due to their scale, which is mirrored. Giftlexia developed number 6 with a very large curvature line for ascender and a very small one for the descender of number 9.

51

oO0 Lowercase o, uppercase O and feature zero have been differentiated in width in order to avoid any confusion of their shapes.

52

Weights

Aa Aa Giftlexia Regular

Giftlexia Bold

Giftlexia family has two weights, Regular and Bold. The Regular weight is suitable for reading while the bold one is perfect for attracting the attention when it is necessary.

Studies have shown that for parts of the text, which need to be emphasized, it is better to type in bold instead of underlining, italics, or using capital letters.

Giftlexia family has two weights, Regular and Bold. The Regular weight is suitable for reading while the bold one is perfect for attracting the attention when it is necessary.

Studies have shown that for parts of the text, which need to be emphasized, it is better to type in bold instead of underlining, italics, or using capital letters.

53

CATCATCATCACATCAT CATCATCATCACATCAT CATCATCATCACATCAT CATCATCATCACATCAT CATCATCATCACATCAT CATCATCATCACATCAT CATCATCATCACATCAT CATCATCATCACATCAT CATCATCATCACATCAT CATCATCATCACATCAT CATCATCATCACATCAT CATCATCATCACATCAT CATCATCATCACATCAT CATCATCATCACATCAT CATCATCATCACATCAT Ronald Davis presents in his book 40 possible versions of how dyslexics read the word cat for the first time.

Giftlexia aims to help this particular target audience to distinguish the letters and to understand the words.

54

Giftlexia was developed The typeface is based and it aims to retain C the same time to perso Dyslexics during their re to recognize similar lett eliminate these difficult designed in a unique sh the best legibility for it designed with high x-he tenders and big counte 55

letterforms’ analysis

56

Aa

cross bar

The Cap-height is higher in Giftlexia font compared to Cera Round Pro in order to attract dyslexics’ attention and pause when a sentence is finished and another one begins.

The cross bar of the uppercase A is placed at this particular height, in order for the counter to be big.

During this project I came into contact with many experts. Viveta

Lymperaki and Xenia Konstantinopoulou were two of them who are specialized in language disorder.

Discussing with them about the development of Giftlexia, they paid special attention in the way that children form special letters such as letter -a-. This special formation does not appear in existing fonts.

Dyslexics write it in single story

single story

terminal

while in fonts it is designed in double story, which reminds them of letter -e- and confuses them.

The lowercase a of Giftlexia has a single story and a big counter, in the same shape with the one dyslexics use to write lowercase a.

It's terminal ending helps to letter recognition.

57

Bb bowl

counter

terminal

The uppercase B, has remained in the same width, while its height became higher. I tried to differentiate the link between the bowls, making the counters big.

Lowercase b, d, p, q are some of the letters that dyslexics confuse most, due to the fact that they have the same letterform.

58

Giftlexia's lowercase b, has a long ascender. Its terminal helps in letter recognition, as the letters d and p have a different one. It is still a reflection of letter q, but as speech therapist, Persa Panori said, they do not confuse b, q; d, p.

Furthermore the counter of the lowercase b is narrower than the one of letter o.

Cc

aperture

The uppercase and lowercase C, c have large apertures in order to improve legibility. The white space created inside the letters helps readers in letter regnition, as they look less like letters O,o.

59

Dd

counter

terminal

Making the cap height high, the counter of the uppercase D becomes bigger, creating more white space.

The lowercase d, has a long ascender. Its terminal helps in letter recognition, as the letters p and q have a different one. It is still a reflection of letter q, but as speech therapist, Persa Panori said, they do not confuse b, q; d, p.

60

Ee arm

eye

aperture

The uppercase E has a wider middle arm than the one in capital F, however both horizontal strokes are placed in the same height.

The lowercase e confuses dyslexic students. Dyslexics sometimes read a or o instead of letter e. Moreover Greek students who learn english as a foreign language, confuse lowercase e, with the Greek letter 'Îľ'. The main reason why this is happening is due to their sound.

In order to achieve the letter recognition, lowercase e has a terminal which is out of the circle shape of the letter providing a bigger aperture. The curved eye distinguishes letter e with a.

61

Ff hook

cross bar

arm

The uppercase F has different horizontal strokes. It's cross bar is closer to the stem bar than the one in capital E. The lowercase f has a high ascender and its cross bar is close to x-height's line. The cross bar placement was chosen after testing the kerning in different words. The cross bar of letter t is in the same height. The curved hook of lowercase f that extends upwards from the stem is not mirrored with the descending hook of the lowercase j.

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Gg aperture

terminal

hook

The uppercase G has an added terminal. Its big aperture in combination with its orizontal terminal helps in the letter recognition.

Lowercase g confuses dyslexic students while reading, due to the fact that in most fonts that they are exposed to, the letter g has a double story form.

Dyslexics write it in a single story.

This is the reason why Giftlexia's lowercase g has a single story form. Its descending hook is not mirrored neither with the one of letter j or with the ascending one of lowercase f.

63

cross bar

Hh aperture

The uppercase H, has its cross bar in the middle of the vertical strokes, avoiding in this way the aligning with the central arm of capital E, F. Lowercase h has a long ascender which contributes in the differentiation of letter n. Moreover its aperture is narrower than the one in letter m. Lowercase h, n, u, r, m have usually the same letterform structure.

64

Ii

dot

horizontal stroke

The uppercase I, has horizontal strokes to help the readers differentiate it from the digita 1 and the lowercase l.

The lowercase i has its dot placed at the same height with the terminal of the letter's t stem. The circle dot is shaped slightly wider than the stem of the letter.

65

Jj

dot

arc of stem

The lowercase j, has a longer descender. In order to achieve letter recognition, its arc of stem is different in shape with the hook of letter g and the ascending one of letter f. The circle dot is shaped slightly wider than the stem of the letter.

66

stem

Kk leg

Uppercase and lowercase K, k are completed shapes; the whole letter is one part.

The lowercase k, has a high stem as its leg is long and extends far from the body of the letter.

67

Ll

terminal

In order to avoid letter confusion, the lowercase l, has added a terminal in order not to be similar with digital 1 or uppercase I.

68

Mm terminal

vertex

aperture

The uppercase M is wider that uppercase N. The vertex has been placed closed to the mid-line of the vertical strokes, in order to distinguish its shape from the letter's N. Usually letters m, n, r, h, u have the same letterform structure. Giftlexia's lowercase m, has a different terminal, which differentiates it from the similar ones, n, r, h.

Lowercase u has the same terminal with m, but its aperture is much wider.

69

Nn shoulder

diagonal stroke

aperture

Dyslexics confuse words such as 'modern', where r is next to n, because they see the word 'modem'. Aiming to distinguish the letter m with r n, lowercase n, has a different shoulder and terminal with letter m. Though it has similar shoulder with letter r.

70

Oo counter

counter

Neighter capital O or lowercase o have the same scale with number zero.

Lowercase o has designed with a big counter in order to release white space and help in letter recognition. Letters b, d, p, d have different counter shape to lowercase o.

71

Pp bowl

terminal

counter

Uppercase P has a higher cap height. Neither capital R, or B have the same bowl with P. Lowercase p has a long descender.

Its terminal helps in letter recognition, as the letter b and q has a different one.

72

Qq

terminal

counter

tail

The uppercase Q has designed with a diagonal stroke as a tail. The manuscript alphabet, that is used from teachers, presents letter Q in the same shape.

Lowercase q has a long descender.

Its terminal helps in letter recognition, as the letters d and p have a different one.

73

Rr bowl

shoulder

leg

The uppercase R has a high cap height. Neither capital B, or P have the same bowl with R. Lowercace r, has the same terminal as letter n, as their shoulders are similar. The aim is to avoid confusion with the letter m in words where letter r and n is one next to the other.

74

Ss

spine

The spine of both uppercase and lowercase S, s has a curvature that offers a balance.

75

horizontal stroke

Tt

t-extender

cross bar

terminal

The horizontal stroke is wider than that of letters L, I, F, E. Lowercase t, has a high ascender, t-extender. The cross bar placement was chosen after testing the kerning in different words. The cross bar of letter f is in the same height.

76

Uu aperture

terminal

Uppercase and lowercase U, u have a different shape. The lowercase u has an added terminal in order to help letter recognition. Its curved terminal differentiates the letter from n, h, r and at the same time its width differentiates it from letter m.

77

Vv aperture

vertex

The width of the uppercase and lowercase V, v differentiates the letterform from Y, X, W and y, x, w respectively.

78

Ww apeχ

apeχ

Uppercase and lowercase W, w do not have tha same scale with letter V, v. Their apex helps in their differentiation.

79

Xx diagonal stroke

Uppercase X has a high cap-height and its width is narrower than letter's Y. The diagonal strokes of letter x, are connected in this particular height in order to create a width that is different from letter y.

80

aperture

Yy

terminal

Uppercase Y has a different width with X, V, in order to help in the letter recognition.

The lowercase y has a narrower width than letter v. The oblique terminal is added in order to attract readers attention.

81

Zz

horizontal stroke

The horizontal strokes in uppercase and lowercase Z, z are not in the same width in order to provide a visual balance.

82

numbers’ analysis

Giftlexia has lining figures, they are equal in height with the uppercases. Although in most fonts, old style figures are blending better with running text, it would provoke visual stress to dyslexics. Giftlexia's figures are designed for both running and stand out text.

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1 In many fonts, digital 1, lowercase l and uppercase I cannot be distinguished. Giftlexia's digital 1 has a curved terminal in order to avoid confusion.

84

2 The number 2 has the shape that dyslexics most commonly use to write. There is no circle in the upper scale in order to become as clear as possible.

85

3 Number 3 has a curved top in order to differentiate it from number's 5 scale. Avoiding the confusion with digital 8, number 3 has big open counters that help in recognition.

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4 Number 4 is a closed shape in order to avoid any confusion with alphabet's letters.

87

5 Number 5 has a flat top in order to differentiate it from number's 3 scale. The large apertures help in creating white space and making the scale of the number clear.

88

6 It is very common for dyslexics to confuse number 6 with 9. Giftlexia's 6 and 9 are not mirrored figures.

89

7 Number 7 has a horizontal stroke on top ending to a curved diagonal one.

90

8 Number 8 consists of two circles with different width. The circle on the top is smaller in order to provide visual balance.

91

9 It is very common for dyslexics to confuse number 6 with 9. Giftlexia's 6 and 9 are not mirrored figures.

92

0 Neighter capital O or lowercase o have the same letterform with number zero due to its width, which is narrower.

93

glyphs’ analysis

Giftlexia’s glyphs punctuation marks are designed bigger and bolder in order to be clear where the sentences end and where they begin.

94

.

Full stop.

Full stop Full stop is a glyph that determines the end of the sentence. Aiming to help dyslexics to distinguish one sentence from the other, the full stop, point has designed bold.

95

, Comma,

Comma The comma originates from a Greek word which means a small pause. It plays a very important role in reading process, it seperates sentences. Giftlexia's comma is long in order to attract dyslexics' attention.

96

!

Exclamation!

Exclamation mark The exclamation mark is placed at the end of a sentence or phrase.

It also seperates sentences and meanings. Its height raises to the Cap-height in order to be noticed from dyslexic readers.

97

?

Question?

Question mark The question mark is placed at the end of a sentence or phrase. Its use sometimes change the meaning of the whole sentence. Its height raises to the Cap-height in order to attract dyslexics' attention.

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; Semicolon;

Semicolon A semicolon is used when major sentence elements have to be seperated.

99

: Colon:

Colon The colon symbol is used both to separate sentences and hours from minutes. Its dots are bold in order be differentiated eighter from letters or numbers.

100

_ Dash_

Dash

Dashes have usually two forms, the one that has the width of an em, and another of an en. Giftlexia's dash has a narrower width than letter m, because the combination of a wider one and the horizontal stroke, would disorientate dyslexic readers.

101

…

Ellipsis…

Ellipsis A glyph that consists of three full stops. The dots have the same scale with the full points.

102

{ } {brackets}

Curly brackets

Giftlexia's curly brackets are higher than the capitals, in order to hold sentences and separate them from the previous ones helping the reader to understand better the meaning of the text.

103

[ ] [brackets]

Square brackets Giftlexia's square brackets are higher than capitals, in order to hold sentences and separate them from the previous ones helping the reader to understand better the meaning of the text.

104

( ) (brackets)

Parentheses The parentheses are round brackets. Giftlexia's parentheses are higher than the capitals, in order to hold sentences and separate them from the previous helping the reader to understand better the meaning of the text.

105

/ Slash

Slash Giftlexia's slash punctuation is higher than the capital letters.

106

| |bar

Bar Giftlexia's vertical bar is higher than the capital letters.

107

& You & me

Ampersant It is a glyph for the letter e and t, from the Latin word 'et' which means 'and'. Dyslexics find difficult to cope with glyphs, nevertheless the ampersant is widespread.

108

# #1

Octothorpe Octothorpe is the sign for numbers or, in the social networking world, the sign for 'hashtag'.

109

* Footnote*

Asterisk The asterisk's name in latin was asteriscus, which means small stars. Its typographic use is to lead reader to search footnotes.

110

@ @gmail

@ Symbol The @ symbol is a component to all e-mail addresses. Firstly it was designed as an accounting symbol, meaning 'at a rate of'.

Its a has single story in order to be friendlier to dyslexics.

111

" 5''

Double primes They are straight marks, used for inches. They accompany figures and for this reason they have the same height with them.

112

’ I’m dyslexic.

Apostroph The apostrophe is a punctuation mark that is used for various purposes. Its usage may change the meaning of the whole sentence.

Giftlexia’s apostrophe is bold in order to attract readers’ attention.

113

“ „ “Just smile”

Quotes Giftlexia quotes are bold in order to attract the readers' attention. It is of great importance for the quotation marks to be easily recognizable and for the reader to understand where the quotation starts and where it ends.

114

$ $28,50

Dollar The dollar symbol has to be clear and visible even in small sizes. This is the reason why it has the same height with capitals.

115

â‚Ź 49,50â‚Ź

Euro The euro symbol has to be clear and visible even in small sizes. This is the reason why it has the same height with capitals.

116

− 6−4=2

Minus The minus sign is used to represent the negative numbers as well as the substraction. It has a long horizontal stroke in order to be easily distinguished from the numbers.

117

+ 2+4=6

Plus The plus sign is used to represent the possitive numbers as well as the addition. It has a long horizontal and a vertical stroke in order to be easily distinguished from the numbers.

118

รท 20รท5=4

Division Students are taught division in elementary school. The dots of the sign are bold in order to attract the attention and avoid any confusion with the minus sign.

119

% 100%

Percent The percent sign raises the ascender line, It is shorter than the figures.

It is a sign that is friendly to dyslexics due to its balance.

120

< 20<15<8

Less The mathematic sign that is used to state that a value is smaller than another.

121

> 8>15>20

Greater The mathematic sign that is used to state that a value is bigger than another.

122

About the icons Giftlexia gives the opportunity to users to replace representational words with images. Dyslexics are image thinkers; they find it extremely hard to cope with text. With written information being all around us it is significant to familiarise this particular target group with texts and provide them easy access to it. Moreover the icons themselves are friendly to dyslexics.

Dr Dimitrios Goudiras, a cardio – psychologist with long experience in special treatment stated that it is absolutely necessary to attract dyslexics’ attention during the reading process. The attraction will make them to pause they will reduce their reading speed they will think and understand better the text. His advice confirmed my idea of replacing certain written words with icons easy to understand. In this way, if during the reading process the comprehension of a word or a phrase does not match with the icon’s meaning, the reader will be intrigued to have a second and more careful reading effort.

Giftlexia's ding bats, icons have been based on “The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists, Fourth Edition, 2000 by Prentice Hall. Authors: Fry, Kress & Fountoukidis” which presents the 1000 most frequently used words in written materials. I have selected out of the above list those words that could be represented by an image and created my own list. When the design of the icons was fulfilled I realized that some icons have diverse meanings. For example the heart icon could signify the heart itself, love, tender, feelings in general. The reader will be able to understand the exact meaning from the content.

In order to create suitable icons for dyslexics I carried out a survey to find out the style of icons they are familiar with. The preferable styles are the following categories, the minimal, the illustrations and the symbols without representational meaning. It became clear that it is very hard to compare the icons of a font with those used either for decorative purposes or on online applications.

An important factor that I had to take under consideration and find a solution in designing the icons was the ratio of recognition to size. Obviously the icons could have to be designed in the relatively small font size. The use of frame is not appropriate and will be an obstacle in this case because it will make them even smaller.

Taking under consideration all the above, I have developed the Giftlexia icons representational without illustrations. Non representational icons are well known to users. Additionally in case of ignorance there is always the option of clicking and finding out its meaning. In case of written materials’ icons and particularly in printed this option is not available.

The icons were designed fulfilled to make contrast with the text and attract the reader’s attention, with round terminals and in the same grid with the font. Higher icons level up with the ascender line.

123

{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat} {cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat} {cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat} {cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat} {cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat} {cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat} {cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat} {cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat} {cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat} {cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat} {cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat} {cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat} {cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat} {cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat} {cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat}{cat} Ronald Davis presents in his book 40 possible versions of how dyslexics read the word cat for the first time.

Giftlexia aims to help this particular target audience to distinguish the letters and to understand the words.

124

Giftlexia was developed The typeface is based tain Ceraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s friendliness at the same {time} to perso their {read} process struggl similar letterforms. Giftl to eliminate {this} difficulti is designed in a unique {people}. Giftlexia is designed ers high x-height and C of the font look bigger 125

iconsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; analysis

The meaning of any sign changes depending on who is reading it.

Giftlexiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s icons are based on symbols that the target audience is already familiarized with.

126

{heart} {heart}

{heart}

{heart} Heart To start creating a pictorial language that will replace words and meanings, we must find out how some symbols represent objects that have no representational connection with them. The symbol of heart is the most popular symbol that faces no language or cultural barriers and it signifies love, affection and emotions.

The historical root of the hear symbol is difficult to be defined. We find the symbol in many ancient monuments, grave stones, and texts. There exit many theories.

Some claim that it derives from the shape of the ivy leaves which symbolizes love, fidelity and duration.

Others claim that it represents the parts of the female anatomy, the breasts and the buttocks. There is also the belief that the shape was based on the ancient herb silphium used by ancient Greeks and Romans as a medicine and as a form of birth control. Silphium’s seedpod shape resembles the modern Valentine’s heart.

The symbol of heart did not mean love prior to 14th century. In middle ages they selected to use this symbol as an expression of love and affection. Till now the heart symbol has the same meaning. Giftlexia’s heart icon replaces words heart, love and feel.

127

{happy} {happy}

{happy}

{happy} Happy In 1982, Scott Fahlman first had the idea of using :) as a joke marker. Thirty years later these punctuation symbols, well known as emotions, represent a happy face. When an online reader comes across a happy face, he senses automatically the same feeling as if he is facing a real one. This leads us to the outcome that people have become familiar with its meaning.

Giftlexia's happy face replaces words smile and happy. The reader will be able to understand the exact meaning through content.

128

{like} {like}

{like}

{like} Thumb-up The thumb-up symbol is one of the most popular icons signifying approval. On social media, particularly on Facebook, is associated with the term â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;likeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. A raised thumb in body language terms a positive gesture clearly understandable by everyone.

Its historical roots go back to ancient Rome. The emperor with his hand gesture spared the life of the defeated gladiator. Pilots in World War II, with a thumb-up gesture, informed the ground crew that all is set for takeoff. Many nations used the thumb-up movement to express approval, and positive feelings.

Giftlexiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thumb-up replaces the words like, ok, good.

129

{plane} {plane}

{plane}

{plane} Plane The plane icon is a representation symbol of an aircraft. Giftlexiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s plane symbolizes more than one meanings; the plane which is the mean of transport, the airport as an area and the flight as an action.

130

{history} {history}

{history}

{history} History History is an abstract concept that cannot be represented by an object.

It refers to facts that occurred in previous time periods. The users of electronic devices are aware of an icon, which shows the clock indicators inside a circle with the arrow pointing backwards. Giftlexiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s icon for history has adopted the above concept for its appearance.

131

iconsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; list

Iconsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; activation 1. The stylistic set 1 has to become activated in inDesign.

2. To activate the icon the user has to type the word in brackets.

The icons are personalized, if a user does not want to use them, he has the option simply not to activate the stylistic set 1.

132

{person} {people} {incall} {outcall} {eye} {heart} {home} {school} {stocks} {hospital} {pet} {moon} {sun} {cloud} {star} {power} {fire} {drop} {waves} {leaf} {flower} {forest} {mountain} {apple} {egg} {play} {stop} {pause}

{user} {person} {group} {people} {users} {everyone} {incall} {call} {outcall} {see} {look} {eye} {heart} {love} {feel} {house} {home} {school} {stocks} {bank} {hospital} {animal} {pet} {footprint} {moon} {sun} {cloud} {star} {power} {fire} {water} {drop} {waves} {leaf} {flower} {tree} {forest} {mountain} {apple} {eggs} {play} {stop} {pause}

{right} {left} {up} {down} {repeat} {check} {ecology} {plus} {key} {lock} {unlock} {flag} {shield} {attention} {happy} {man} {woman} {mother} {dance} {child} {baby} {blind} {disabled} {deaf} {read} {page} {book}

{right} {next} {left} {back} {up} {down} {repeat} {check} {ok} {recycle} {ecology} {plus} {add} {and} {key} {keyclosed} {lock} {keyopened} {unlock} {flag} {safe} {shield} {attention} {happy} {smile} {man} {human} {woman} {mother} {dance} {child} {happybaby} {baby} {blind} {disabled} {deaf} {openbook} {read}

{food} {drink} {cup} {train} {plane} {ship} {taxi} {car} {cat} {horse} {dog} {fish} {bird} {music} {mute} {sound} {micoff} {mic} {discuss} {comment} {like} {this} {hand} {camera} {film}

{eat} {food} {drink} {coffee} {cup} {train} {plane} {aeroplane} {flight} {boat} {ship} {taxi} {car} {cat} {horse} {dog} {fish} {bird} {music} {song} {mute} {sound} {volume} {listen} {mute} {micon} {discuss} {chat} {comment} {say} {speak} {like} {ok} {good} {this} {show} {go} {hand} {camera} {film}

{photo} {video} {circle} {onoff} {info} {alt} {piechart} {question} {earth} {time} {history} {pin} {map} {money} {doctor} {science} {draw} {king} {fix} {hat} {engagement} {dropbox} {pencil} {compass} Âś

{picture} {photo} {image} {video} {circle} {onoff} {info} {alt} {forbid} {part} {piechart} {question} {ask} {earth} {hour} {time} {clock} {history} {place} {locate} {location} {map} {money} {doctor} {science} {medicin} {draw} {paint} {art} {king} {crow} {tools} {fix} {hat} {ring} {engagement} {engage} {box} {dropbox} {write} {pencil} {east} {compass} {paragraph}

{paper} {page} {closebook} {book}

133

Character Set

Regular Uppercases

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Lowercases

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Symbols & Punctuation

&#€$.,;?!–_:{[(\|)]}…%+–<>÷‘"’'“'"” Numbers

1234567890 Icons

{person} {people} {incall} {outcall}{heart}{home}{school}{stocks}{hospital}{pet} {moon}{sun} {cloud}{star} {power}{fire}{drop}{waves}{leaf} {flower}{forest}{mountain} {apple} {egg}{play}{pause} {stop} {right}{left} {up}{down} {repeat} {check} {ecology}{plus}{key}{lock}{unlock}{flag}{shield}{attention} {happy}{man} {woman} {mother}{child}{baby} {blind} {disabled} {deaf} {read}{page} {book}{food}{drink}{cup}{train}{plane} {ship}{taxi} {car}{cat}{horse}{dog} {fish}{bird}{music} {mute} {sound} {micoff} {mic}{discuss}{comment}{like}{this}{hand}{camera}{film}{photo}{video}{circle}{onoff}{info}{alt}{piechart}{question}{earth}{time} {history} {pin} {map}{money} {doctor}{science} {draw} {king}{fix}{hat}{engagement}{dropbox}{pencil}{compass}{paragraph}

134

Character Set

Bold Uppercases

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Lowercases

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Symbols & Punctuation

&#€$.,;?!_:{[(\|)]}…%+–<>÷‘"’'“'"” Numbers

1234567890 Icons

{person} {people} {incall} {outcall}{eye} {heart}{home}{school}{stocks}{hospital} {pet} {moon}{sun} {cloud}{star}{power}{fire}{drop}{waves}{leaf} {flower}{forest}{mountain} {apple} {egg}{play}{pause} {stop} {right}{left} {up}{down} {repeat} {check} {ecology}{plus}{key}{lock}{unlock}{flag}{shield}{attention} {happy}{man} {woman} {mother}{child}{baby} {blind} {disabled} {deaf} {read}{page} {book}{food}{drink}{cup}{train}{plane} {ship}{taxi} {car}{cat}{horse}{dog} {fish}{bird}{music} {mute} {sound} {micoff} {mic}{discuss}{comment}{like}{this}{hand}{camera}{film}{photo}{video}{circle}{onoff}{info}{alt}{piechart}{question}{earth}{time} {history} {pin} {map}{money} {doctor}{science} {draw} {king}{fix}{hat}{engagement}{dropbox}{pencil}{compass}{paragraph}

135

The text is copyrighted: Davis, R. (2010) The gift of dyslexic: Why Some of the Smartest People Canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Read and How They Can Learn.

New York: Penguin Group

136

137

“

I was doing a lot of research on dyslexia lately. I'm 23 years old, I got a 3D Animation Degree and I have a 140 IQ. I’m very good at physics, math, computer science, Photography and Film, and I’m also very good doing whatever I want to do. I do a lot of research very often because I feel the necessity learning more and more. Today I heard a conversation about dyslexia and decided to do research on that. It seems I have about 15 symptoms of this condition, but the one I find more troublesome is that I find very difficult to explain what I’m thinking to other people. My way of thinking is very weird... When I think, I just know I’m thinking something because I feel that my brain is busy and I only see colored images in my thoughts. If someone asks me “what are you thinking about??” I just respond “I don’t know, I know I’m thinking something, but I just don’t know what it is” and when my brain is done thinking.... the result is delivered to me as knowledge... It’s like some knowledge just appear on my memory magically... and if someone ask me “how do you know” I have to respond “I just know”. There have been a couple times when I had to give a speech in public... and it was very embarrassing that I was very confident about what I was going to say, but at the moment of speaking, I couldn’t make finished sentences, I couldn’t find proper words to explain myself.

Most of the time I avoid talking to people in person or by phone, I prefer to talk to people by a messaging software or e-mail, because that way, I have enough time to think my words out and say exactly what I want to say.

Jess M.

“

The text is copyrighted, Dystalk.com. (2017). Speech Dyslexi - Dyslexia - Forum - dysTalk. [online] Available at: http://www.dystalk.com/forum_dyslexia_108-speech-dyslexi [Accessed 10 Oct. 2017].

138

The text is copyrighted, Dystalk.com. (2017). Speech Dyslexi - Dyslexia - Forum - dysTalk. [online] Available at: http://www.dystalk.com/forum_dyslexia_108-speech-dyslexi [Accessed 10 Oct. 2017].

“

I was doing a lot of research on dyslexia lately. I'm 23 years old, I got a 3D Animation Degree and I have a 140 IQ. I’m very {like} at physics, math, computer {science}, {camera} {plus} {film}, and I’m also very {like} doing whatever I want to do. I do a lot of research very often because I {heart} the necessity learning more and more. Today I heard a conversation about dyslexia and decided to do research on that. It seems I have about 15 symptoms of this condition, but the one I find more troublesome is that I find very difficult to explain what I’m thinking to other people. My way of thinking is very weird... When I think, I just know I’m thinking something because I feel that my brain is busy and I only {eye} colored {photo} in my thoughts. If someone {question} me “what are you thinking about??” I just respond “I don’t know, I know I’m thinking something, but I just don’t know what it is” and when my brain is done thinking.... the result is delivered to me as knowledge... It’s like some knowledge just appear on my memory magically... and if someone {question} me “how do you know” I have to respond “I just know”. There have been a couple {time} when I had to give a {mic} in {people}... and it was very embarrassing that I was very confident about what I was going to {comment}, but at the moment of {comment}, I couldn’t make finished sentences, I couldn’t find proper words to explain myself.

Most of the {time} I avoid {comment} to {people} in {person} or by phone, I prefer to {comment} to {people} by a {discuss} software or e-mail, because that way, I have enough {time} to think my words out and {comment} exactly what I want to {comment}.

Jess M. 139

“

Download the font

To download the font please click

140

{down}

{down}

Giftlexia

Giftlexia

Regular

Bold

Next step To study the influences of typography on people with learning difficulties is a field that intrigues my interest. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m aiming to continue my research with the questionnaires, in order to achieve a better outcome about Giftlexia. One of my next plans is to continue the research on reading with learning difficulties in a PhD level.

141

Dimitris Bizioglis Special thanks to my supervisor Dimitris Bizioglis, for all the advice that he gave me and his support during the last years.

George Triantafyllakos Special thanks to George Triantafyllakos, owner of a 'typical type foundry', who transformed my Giftlexia font development to an otf file and it is ready for use.

Special thanks 142

Persa Panory Special thanks to the speech therapist Persa Panory, for the advice and books that she lend me in order to be informed about learing difficulties and phonological awareness.

My Way Special thanks to V. Lymperaki and X. Konstantinopoulou for all the advice and the visitings we arranged in order to meet their students and discuss with them about fonts. They both are MA holders in language disorder and the latter is a PhD student in neurolinguistics.

Dimitrios Goudiras Special thanks to Dimitrios Goudiras, Professor at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, Greece, a cardio-psychologist with long experience in special treatment, for all the advice and the books that he lend me.

Alastair Montgomery Special thanks to Alastair Montgomery, a graphic designer with a PhD in 'typography research into how the aesthetic of letterforms affect children with reading difficulties', for all the advice that he gave me.

Appendices

143

Questionnaire 01 Questionnaire analysis Aiming to create a new font for dyslexic readers, I considered a necessary first step, the design of a questionnaire, which will gather important feedback for dyslexicsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; needs.

The questionnaire is addressed only to dyslexics, aged between 12-40.

I have limited the target group to these ages because children younger than 12 are exposed to very few fonts and people over 40 have already developed their own reading mechanisms.

The questionnaire consists of three texts for English beginners, written in different fonts. The reader is asked to read them and evaluate how helpful each font was for his reading. Texts were taken from the site, myenglishpages.com. They were chosen on purpose to be easy texts, avoiding difficult words. I did not want the reader to struggle to read and judge based on text content.

Texts were also big in size in order to make the reader feel that he faces a book page. The readers, however, were instructed to read the first two paragraphs because I did not wish them to get exhausted and influence their judgment while reading the last text. The three fonts used were; Cera Round Pro Regular, in which I wanted to examine the round terminals, the big counters and the large x-height. Optima Regular font, where I aimed to check how much can weight stress affect reading. Finally Officina Sans ITC Hel Book, was selected in order to study the slant use on a font. All texts were on 12pt size and given printed to readers.

Readers had the option to select from a range of four different emoticons to evaluate texts. Emoticons were chosen as answering tools for two reasons. Firstly because I wanted to communicate better with image thinkers, like dyslexics and the secondly because their use makes it easy for me to understand their feelings.

144

Questionnaire about fonts

Age

Gender

13-18

Male

19-25

Female

26-31 32-40

There are three different texts in the following pages.

Read them and check the feeling that the font provoked to you.

145

01

Reassessing the Impacts of Brain Drain on Developing Countries

Brain drain, which is the action of having highly skilled and educated people leaving their country to work abroad, has become one of the developing countries concern. Brain drain is also referred to as human capital flight. More and more third world science and technology educated people are heading for more prosperous countries seeking higher wages and better working conditions. This has of course serious consequences on the sending countries.

While many people believe that immigration is a personal choice that must be understood and respected, others look at the phenomenon from a different perspective. What makes those educated people leave their countries should be seriously considered and a distinction between push and pull factors must be made. The push factors include low wages and lack of satisfactory working and living conditions.

Social unrest, political conflicts and wars may also be determining causes. The pull factors, however, include intellectual freedom and substantial funds for research.

Brain drain has negative impact on the sending countries economic prospects and competitiveness. It reduces the number of dynamic and creative people who can contribute to the development of their country. Likewise, with more entrepreneurs taking their investments abroad, developing countries are missing an opportunity of wealth creation. This has also negative consequences on tax revenue and employment.

Most of the measures taken so far have not had any success in alleviating the effects of brain drain. A more global view must take into consideration the provision of adequate working and living conditions in the sending countries. An other option should involve encouraging the expatriates to contribute their skill to the development of their countries without necessarily physically relocating.

146

02

Juvenile Crime

Juvenile delinquency refers to antisocial or illegal behavior by children or adolescents and is considered a serious problem all over the world. It is caused by social, economic and cultural factors. This juvenile criminality is apparent in marginal sectors of urban areas where children are exposed to violence in their immediate social environment, either as observers or as victims.

Because delinquents basic education, if they have any, is poor they have been marginalized from society and destitute of any dignity or self esteem. Although most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with young criminals, such as juvenile detention centers and suppression, approaches to prevent youth from becoming delinquent should also include measures to instill equality and justice, fight poverty and create an atmosphere of hope and peace among youth. These preventive policies should be given priorities over any coercive measures.

Socioeconomic opportunities and administrative services should be provided in rural areas to discourage young people from migrating to urban areas. Similarly, youth from poor urban settings should benefit from plans that focus on education, employment and access to leisure programs , especially during long school holidays. Young people who drop out of school or come from broken families should have access to specific social programs that help them become responsible adults.

Information campaigns should be planned to sensitize youth to be aware of the detrimental effects of violence on the family, community and society, to teach them how to communicate without violence. Focus on the importance of family should become a priority because it is the primary institution of socialization of youth and continues to play an important role in the prevention of juvenile delinquency and underage crime.

147

03

A big mystery: the tremendous benefits of laughter.

Humor, the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement, affects how we perceive and respond to life. It enhances the quality of life and may relieve the body from so many health problems. In fact, humans are the only creatures on earth that are endowed with the ability to laugh.

The difference between humor and laughter is that humor is a perceptual process while laughter is a behavioral response. People of all ages and cultures respond to humor. The majority of people are able to experience humor, i.e., to be amused, to laugh or smile at something funny, and thus they are considered to have a sense of humor.

The hypothetical person lacking a sense of humor would likely find the behavior induced by humor to be inexplicable, strange, or even irrational. Though ultimately decided by personal taste, the extent to which a person will find something humorous depends upon a host of variables, including geographical location, culture, maturity, level of education, intelligence and context.

Regular laughter sessions can have important effects on our health and well being. For instance, laughter is considered to be a stress buster and researchers found a direct link between laughter and healthy function of blood vessels. Laughter causes the dilatation of the inner lining of blood vessels, the endothelium, and increases blood flow. It also has been shown to lead to reductions in stress hormones such as cortisol and epinephrine. When laughing the brain also releases endorphins that can relieve some physical pain. Laughter also boosts the number of antibody-producing cells and enhances the effectiveness of T-cells, a type of cells that lead to a stronger immune system.

Since laughter does effect the body, mind and spirit the only thing you have to do to lead a happy life is LAUGH, as simple as that.

148

Results Ages

Gender

25%

45%

25%

5%

13-18

19-25

26-31

32-40

01 02 03 The questionnaire was distributed to 20 dyslexic people. Almost 2/3 of the target group were male and in their majority aged 19-25 years old.

The questionnaire results lead to the conclusion that Cera Round Pro Regular is the most preferable; dyslexics were able to read with ease a text in this font. Optima Regular font appears neither to confuse nor to facilitate them. Officina Sans ITC Hel Book, seems to be more acceptable compared to Optima but at the same time is the font that mostly irritates the most.

149

Questionnaire 02 Questionnaire analysis Giftlexia aims to facilitate dyslexics during their reading difficulties. Completing the development of the typeface, I realized the absolute necessity to test it on dyslexic users to check its adaptation and for this reason I set up a questionnaire. The questions aimed to derive results on two major factors. Does GIftlexia provoke visual stress while reading and has it been proven helpful in reading comprehension? People were asked to read two different texts, answer to the reading comprehension’s questions and express their feeling on using the Giftlexia.The first text was in Giftlexia regular and the second one in Giftlexia regular with icons.

The questionnaire’s target group was non-English native dyslexic speakers. Dyslexics find it difficult to cope with foreign languages, especially in reading comprehension. For this reason were actually used English tests and exercises from the elementary level learners. The site I copyrighted them was http://englishteststore.net/.

The ages of the target audiences were 7-12, 13-18, 19-25, 26-31 and 32-40. Age group 7-12 was asked to fulfill the questionnaire under the supervision of their teachers. Age group 13-18 was asked to fulfill it alone or with the supervision of their parents if this was considered necessary and finally last groups was asked to complete it alone. Age group 19-25 is in general familiar with the use of English language but as it often happens with foreign languages their self-esteem level could be very low. Age group 32-40 has already developed its own reading mechanisms even in foreign language.

Dyslexics are afraid of texts. I did not wish to stress them, so I chose very small texts. The sentences were small to make it easier for them to find the correct answer. The answers were true of false to make them feel more comfortable. The number of questions was only two, because I didn’t want them to be exhausted or terrified.

Text evaluation offered to the readers the choice to select one out of four different emoticons in order to express their feelings about the font.

Emoticons were chosen as answering tools for two reasons. Firstly because I wanted to communicate better with the dyslexic image thinkers, and I believe emoticons is an excellent mean and secondly because their use makes it easy for me to understand their feelings.

150

Questionnaire about Giftlexia Age

Gender

7-12

Male

13-18

Female

19-25 26-31 32-40

There are two different texts in the following pages.

Read them and check the feeling that the font provoked to you and then complete the correct answer to the questions.

151

01

Giftlexia font

My name is Bill. I’m twelve years old. I’m a student. There are four people in my family: My father, my mother, my sister and me. My father is a worker. His name is George. He’s forty-eight.

My mother is a teacher. She is thirty-nine years old. Her name is Mary. My sister is a student. She is sixteen. Now we are in our living room.

Question 1 Bill’s sister is teacher.

A True B False Question 2 Bill’s sister is fifteen.

A True B False

152

02

Giftlexia with Icons font

Nancy {like} going to the countryside. She goes there with her friends twice a month. They usually go by bicycle. They often go camping or fishing in the river. Sometimes they go swimming or climb the {mountain}. They usually take some {food} with them: biscuits, sandwiches, milk and oranges. Nancy {like} flying kites. She often climbs to the top of the {mountain} and flies a kite there. In the evening, they return {home} and feel very {happy}.

Question 1 Nancy {like} going to the countryside.

A True B False Question 2 She goes there three times a month.

A True B False

153

Results Ages

Gender

24%

28%

40%

4%

4%

7-12

13-18

19-25

26-31

32-40

Feelings

01 02 Comprehension

01 02 154

The questionnaire was distributed to 25 dyslexic people. Almost 2/3 of the target group was male and in the majority aged 19-25 years old.

The questionnaire result analysis of this small target audience shows that Giftlexia seems to help dyslexic readers. They do not declare feelings of sadness, stress, or uncomforted. Judging from Giftlexia from their replays, Giftlexia icons, proved to be more preferable.

Referring to reading comprehension, Giftlexia facilitates dyslexic readers, especially when the icons replace words.

Questionnaire 03 Questionnaire analysis Aiming to gather the best feedback for Giftlexiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s character set, I had to create a second questionnaire addressed to teachers and speech therapists. In order to achieve the best approach, experts from different fields had to judge the font from their own point of view. Firstly, I had a short discussion with them to explain some points about the font and my idea of this MA project and then I gave them the questionnaire to fill it.

The target audience was asked to supervise their students 7-13 with learning difficulties, while they were answering the questionnaire. After noticing their studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; behaviors, they would complete their own questionnaire.

Five questions on Giftlexia font had to be completed in the first page; The following two pages present Giftlexia regular and Giftlexia bold.

155

Questionnaire for teachers

01 Would you use Giftlexia to write texts for your students?

Yes

No

02 Would you use Giftlexiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s characters to teach your students the differences between the alphabetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s letters?

Yes

No

03 Would you replace representational words with icons in reading comprehension texts?

Yes

No

04 Do you think this font helps dyslexics in reading?

Yes

No

05 Does this font help in visual stress?

Yes

156

No

Giftlexia

Regular Uppercases

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Lowercases

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Symbols & Punctuation

&#€$.,;?!–_:{[(\|)]}…%+–<>÷‘"’'“'"” Numbers

1234567890 Icons

{person} {people} {incall} {outcall}{heart}{home}{school}{stocks}{hospital}{pet} {moon}{sun} {cloud}{star} {power}{fire}{drop}{waves}{leaf} {flower}{forest}{mountain} {apple} {egg}{play}{pause} {stop} {right}{left} {up}{down} {repeat} {check} {ecology}{plus}{key}{lock}{unlock}{flag}{shield}{attention} {happy}{man} {woman} {mother}{child}{baby} {blind} {disabled} {deaf} {read}{page} {book}{food}{drink}{cup}{train}{plane} {ship}{taxi} {car}{cat}{horse}{dog} {fish}{bird}{music} {mute} {sound} {micoff} {mic}{discuss}{comment}{like}{this}{hand}{camera}{film}{photo}{video}{circle}{onoff}{info}{alt}{piechart}{question}{earth}{time} {history} {pin} {map}{money} {doctor}{science} {draw} {king}{fix}{hat}{engagement}{dropbox}{pencil}{compass}{paragraph}

157

Giftlexia

Bold Uppercases

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Lowercases

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Symbols & Punctuation

&#€$.,;?!_:{[(\|)]}…%+–<>÷‘"’'“'"” Numbers

1234567890 Icons

{person} {people} {incall} {outcall}{eye} {heart}{home}{school}{stocks}{hospital} {pet} {moon}{sun} {cloud}{star}{power}{fire}{drop}{waves}{leaf} {flower}{forest}{mountain} {apple} {egg}{play}{pause} {stop} {right}{left} {up}{down} {repeat} {check} {ecology}{plus}{key}{lock}{unlock}{flag}{shield}{attention} {happy}{man} {woman} {mother}{child}{baby} {blind} {disabled} {deaf} {read}{page} {book}{food}{drink}{cup}{train}{plane} {ship}{taxi} {car}{cat}{horse}{dog} {fish}{bird}{music} {mute} {sound} {micoff} {mic}{discuss}{comment}{like}{this}{hand}{camera}{film}{photo}{video}{circle}{onoff}{info}{alt}{piechart}{question}{earth}{time} {history} {pin} {map}{money} {doctor}{science} {draw} {king}{fix}{hat}{engagement}{dropbox}{pencil}{compass}{paragraph}

158

Results

01 Would you use Giftlexia to write texts for your students?

Yes

No

02 Would you use Giftlexiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s characters to teach your students the differences between the alphabetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s letters?

Yes

No

03 Would you replace representational words with icons in reading comprehension texts?

Yes

No

04 Do you think this font helps dyslexics in reading?

Yes

No

05 Does this font help in visual stress?

Yes

No

The questionnaire was given to 4 speech therapists. Teachers distinguished themselves the questionnaires to their students in class and they sound that reading in this new font was smooth. They all claimed that they are positively thinking teaching in Giftlexia and its icons, font.

The sample of the target group is very small but the results are positive.

159

The most used words Words' list The most frequently used words in written material, is presented in the next pages. In these pages I have highlighted the words that can be illustrated in pictograms.

Source: The Reading Teacher's Book of Lists, Fourth Edition, 2000 by Prentice Hall. Authors: Fry, Kress & Fountoukidis

160

Instant Words 1,000 Most Frequently Used Words These are the most common words in English, ranked in frequency order. The first 25 make up about a third of all printed material. The first 100 make up about half of all written material, and the first 300 make up about 65 percent of all written material. Is it any wonder that all students must learn to recognize these words instantly and to spell them correctly also?

Source: The Reading Teacherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Book of Lists, Fourth Edition, Š 2000 by Prentice Hall Authors: Fry, Kress & Fountoukidis

FIRST HUNDRED Words 1-25

Words 26-50

Words 51-75

Words 75-100

the of and a to in is you that it he was for on are as with his they I at be this have from

or one had by word but not what all were we when your can said there use an each which she do how their if

will up other about out many then them these so some her would make like him into time has look two more write go see

number no way could people my than first water been call who oil its now find long down day did get come made may part

161

SECOND HUNDRED

162

Words 101-125

Words 126-150

Words 151-175

Words 176-200

over new sound take only little work know place year live me back give most very after thing our just name good sentence man think

say great where help through much before line right too mean old any same tell boy follow came want show also around form three small

set put end does another well large must big even such because turn here why ask went men read need land different home us move

try kind hand picture again change off play spell air away animal house point page letter mother answer found study still learn should America world

THIRD HUNDRED Words 201-225

Words 226-250

Words 251-275

Words 276-300

high every near add food between own below country plant last school father keep tree never start city earth eye light thought head under story

saw left donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t few while along might close something seem next hard open example begin life always those both paper together got group often run

important until children side feet car mile night walk white sea began grow took river four carry state once book hear stop without second later

miss idea enough eat face watch far Indian really almost let above girl sometimes mountain cut young talk soon list song being leave family itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

163

FOURTH HUNDRED

164

Words 301-325

Words 326-350

Words 351-375

Words 376-400

body music color stand sun question fish area mark dog horse birds problem complete room knew since ever piece told usually didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t friends easy heard

order red door sure become top ship across today during short better best however low hours black products happened whole measure remember early waves reached

listen wind rock space covered fast several hold himself toward five step morning passed vowel true hundred against pattern numeral table north slowly money map

farm pulled draw voice seen cold cried plan notice south sing war ground fall king town Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll unit figure certain field travel wood fire upon

FIFTH HUNDRED Words 401-425

Words 426-450

Words 451-475

Words 476-500

done English road halt ten fly gave box finally wait correct oh quickly person became shown minutes strong verb stars front feel fact inches street

decided contain course surface produce building ocean class note nothing rest carefully scientists inside wheels stay green known island week less machine base ago stood

plane system behind ran round boat game force brought understand warm common bring explain dry though language shape deep thousands yes clear equation yet government

filled heat full hot check object am rule among noun power cannot able six size dark ball material special heavy fine pair circle include built

165

SIXTH HUNDRED

166

Words 501-525

Words 526-550

Words 551-575

Words 576-600

canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t matter square syllables perhaps bill felt suddenly test direction center farmers ready anything divided general energy subject Europe moon region return believe dance members

picked simple cells paint mind love cause rain exercise eggs train blue wish drop developed window difference distance heart sit sum summer wall forest probably

legs sat main winter wide written length reason kept interest arms brother race present beautiful store job edge past sign record finished discovered wild happy

beside gone sky glass million west lay weather root instruments meet third months paragraph raised represent soft whether clothes flowers shall teacher held describe drive

SEVENTH HUNDRED Words 601-625

Words 626-650

Words 651-675

Words 676-700

cross speak solve appear metal son either ice sleep village factors result jumped snow ride care floor hill pushed baby buy century outside everything tall

already instead phrase soil bed copy free hope spring case laughed nation quite type themselves temperature bright lead everyone method section lake consonant within dictionary

hair age amount scale pounds although per broken moment tiny possible gold milk quiet natural lot stone act build middle speed count cat someone sail

rolled bear wonder smiled angle fraction Africa killed melody bottom trip hole poor letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fight surprise French died beat exactly remain dress iron couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fingers

167

EIGHTH HUNDRED

168

Words 701-725

Words 726-750

Words 751-775

Words 776-800

row least catch climbed wrote shouted continued itself else plains gas England burning design joined foot law ears grass youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re grew skin valley cents key

president brown trouble cool cloud lost sent symbols wear bad save experiment engine alone drawing east pay single touch information express mouth yard equal decimal

yourself control practice report straight rise statement stick party seeds suppose woman coast bank period wire choose clean visit bit whose received garden please strange

caught fell team God captain direct ring serve child desert increase history cost maybe business separate break uncle hunting flow lady students human art feeling

NINTH HUNDRED Words 801-825

Words 826-850

Words 851-875

Words 876-900

supply corner electric insects crops tone hit sand doctor provide thus wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t cook bones tail board modern compound mine wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fit addition belong safe soldiers

guess silent trade rather compare crowd poem enjoy elements indicate except expect flat seven interesting sense string blow famous value wings movement pole exciting branches

thick blood lie spot bell fun loud consider suggested thin position entered fruit tied rich dollars send sight chief Japanese stream planets rhythm eight science

major observe tube necessary weight meat lifted process army hat property particular swim terms current park sell shoulder industry wash block spread cattle wife sharp

169

TENTH HUNDRED

170

Words 901-925

Words 926-950

Words 951-975

Words 976-1000

company radio we’ll action capital factories settled yellow isn’t southern truck fair printed wouldn’t ahead chance born level triangle molecules France repeated column western church

sister oxygen plural various agreed opposite wrong chart prepared pretty solution fresh shop suffix especially shoes actually nose afraid dead sugar adjective fig office huge

gun similar death score forward stretched experience rose allow fear workers Washington Greek women bought led march northern create British difficult match win doesn’t steel

total deal determine evening nor rope cotton apple details entire corn substances smell tools conditions cows track arrived located sir seat division effect underline view

References

171

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Thank you

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