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Size matters (spacing not): 18 points for a dyslexic-friendly Wikipedia

Published: 13 May 2013 Publication History

Abstract

In 2012, Wikipedia was the sixth-most visited website on the Internet. Being one of the main repositories of knowledge, students from all over the world consult it. But, around 10% of these students have dyslexia, which impairs their access to text-based websites. How could Wikipedia be presented to be more readable for this target group? In an experiment with 28 participants with dyslexia, we compare reading speed, comprehension, and subjective readability for the font sizes 10, 12, 14, 18, 22, and 26 points, and line spacings 0.8, 1.0, 1.4, and 1.8. The results show that font size has a significant effect on the readability and the understandability of the text, while line spacing does not. On the basis of our results, we recommend using 18-point font size when designing web text for readers with dyslexia. Our results significantly differ from previous recommendations, presumably, because this is the first work to cover a wide range of values and to study them in the context of an actual website.

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  1. Size matters (spacing not): 18 points for a dyslexic-friendly Wikipedia

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        cover image ACM Other conferences
        W4A '13: Proceedings of the 10th International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility
        May 2013
        209 pages
        ISBN:9781450318440
        DOI:10.1145/2461121
        Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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        Published: 13 May 2013

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        Author Tags

        1. Wikipedia
        2. dyslexia
        3. eye-tracking
        4. font size
        5. line spacing
        6. readability
        7. text presentation
        8. understandability

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        Overall Acceptance Rate 171 of 371 submissions, 46%

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        • (2024)Validation of a Web App Enabling Children with Dyslexia to Identify Personalized Visual and Auditory Parameters Facilitating Online Text ReadingMultimodal Technologies and Interaction10.3390/mti80100058:1(5)Online publication date: 15-Jan-2024
        • (2024)Universal Design Element Utilization and Mathematics Performance: Implications for Diverse Student PopulationsJournal of Special Education Technology10.1177/01626434241289951Online publication date: 8-Oct-2024
        • (2022)The Invisible Labor of Access in Academic Writing Practices: A Case Analysis with Dyslexic AdultsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35129676:CSCW1(1-25)Online publication date: 7-Apr-2022
        • (2022)Dyslexeasy-App to Improve Readability through the Extracted Summary for Dyslexic Users2022 IEEE 19th Annual Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC)10.1109/CCNC49033.2022.9700618(1-6)Online publication date: 8-Jan-2022
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        • (2022)Il lettore 'distratto'undefinedOnline publication date: 2022
        • (2021)Reading Experiences and Reading Efficiency Among Adults with Dyslexia: An Accessibility StudyUniversal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Access to Media, Learning and Assistive Environments10.1007/978-3-030-78095-1_17(221-240)Online publication date: 3-Jul-2021
        • (2020)Towards a gaze-contingent reading assistance for children with difficulties in readingProceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3373625.3418014(1-4)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2020
        • (2019)A Study on Accessibility in Games for the Visually ImpairedProceedings of the 5th EAI International Conference on Smart Objects and Technologies for Social Good10.1145/3342428.3342682(142-148)Online publication date: 25-Sep-2019
        • (2019)Analyzing Eye Gaze of Users with Learning DisabilityProceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Graphics and Signal Processing10.1145/3338472.3338481(95-99)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2019
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