Stories - The Hustle

This Website Simulates What It Feels Like to Read With Dyslexia

Written by Tam Pham | Jun 30, 2020 7:20:18 AM

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Dyslexia is the most common learning disability in the world. People with it struggle with spelling, reading quickly, writing words, and pronunciation when reading aloud. This condition has nothing to do with intelligence or not working hard enough. Many legendary entrepreneurs suffer from dyslexia but still managed to build massive businesses, including Richard Branson, HP co-founder William Hewlett, and Henry Ford.

When his friend described her experience reading with dyslexia, coder Victor Widell wanted to share that feeling with the world. So he created a page using Javascript that simulated the reading experience of people with dyslexia.

I gave up halfway through the page because the moving letters gave me a huge headache. Below is a screenshot where you can attempt to read it, but I highly recommend going on Widell’s page to get the full effect.

Although the Javascript effect isn’t a perfect simulation, it’s certainly an eye-opening way for people to experience at a high level how difficult (and frustrating) reading can feel to someone with dyslexia.

Nice work, Victor.