Giving Compass' Take:

•  Christian Boer developed a font that helps individuals with dyslexia read with less difficulty. He offers the program for free with the hope that it will expand to help others have more seamless reading experiences. 

• How can we help diagnose people with dyslexia sooner rather than later? How can educators and organizations help support these students? 

• Learn about tools that will help students with dyslexia. 

30 years ago, when Christian Boer was first learning how to read while growing up in the Netherlands, he made a lot of mistakes. His teacher didn’t attribute his challenges to what would eventually be diagnosed as dyslexia — she just told Boer to try harder, occasionally even calling him lazy and stupid.

Fortunately, awareness of dyslexia is much higher these days, and most of us have at least a vague sense that, for instance, dyslexics see the letter “b” as “d” or “p.” Yet it’s still common to assume that we can “train” dyslexic children out of their habits or that they’ll eventually outgrow the affliction on their own.

But, Boer warns, that’s not the case at all. “Dyslexia is a lifelong neurological condition,” he says. “You can explain the difference between letters to me today, but it won’t change how I see them tomorrow.”

Individuals with dyslexia experience the world three-dimensionally — not just with letters, but with everything. Paradoxically, they read more slowly but think more quickly. Their unique thinking leads many of them to become artists (including Boer, who makes a living as a graphic designer) and “visionary” thinkers who end up inventing things or starting their own businesses.

As Boer grew older and awareness of dyslexia started to spread, he was eventually lucky enough to find compassionate educators who understood his disorder and nurtured his learning experience. He even went on to pursue graduate design school.

For his thesis project, he decided to create something that would make his own life easier: a font called Dyslexie designed to counteract the singular neurological perceptions of dyslexic individuals.

Dyslexie has received a lot of attention, mostly because research suggests that it’s effective (though some disagree) and also because Boer has made the font available for free. He hopes that Dyslexie one day will be available for use on even more platforms so that reading becomes almost as seamless an experience for people with dyslexia.

Read the full article about dyslexia by Christian Boer and Katie Wudel at GOOD Magazine.