Decoding Dyslexia: Writing for a Neurodiverse Audience
T h i s is wh at dy sl exic r e a ders s e e .
This is a 3 part blog series exploring the dyslexic experience. Here, I talk about writing to a dyslexic audience. I also talk about my personal history as a reader and mother of a dyslexic child, as well as overcoming dyslexia as a reader in other posts.
Writing for the dyslexic reader is not a secret sauce. It’s just good writing.
Dyslexia and other neurodivergent conditions are enjoying a long overdue spotlight in terms of advocacy and acceptance. The term dyslexia dates back to 1887 when it was coined by German ophthalmologist Rudolf Berlin. The study of this so-called “word-blindness” is slightly older still. But this isn’t a history lesson.
If you’re a writer, here are some ways to make your work more accessible. These principles are universally helpful for any audience, not just those of us with dyslexia.
Write With Precision
Everyone could use a little Hemingway. Concise, lean writing is easier to process, especially for dyslexics. Avoid unnecessary adjectives, convoluted phrasing, and long sentences. Have you ever read a sentence so long you forgot what it said at the beginning? This is a daily struggle for many people with dyslexia.
Does this mean you’re writing needs to be simplistic? Absolutely not. We want good, meaningful prose. But maybe stay away from words like supercalafragalisticexpialadocious.
Give Your Words Some Space
Have you ever opened Facebook or Instagram to be met with a friends endless wall of text? This is a sure way to give your dyslexic audience (and anyone else) a quick spike of anxiety. Break up paragraphs. Very sentence lengths. Use headings if you’re writing an article or non-fiction. Keep your chapters at a reasonable length (1,500-3,500 words).
Use a Friendly Font
Script fonts are having a renaissance in the graphic design world. They’re beautiful, but I have to spend a good few seconds per word. Dyslexic readers will thank you to keep those fonts to up-cycled home decor and photography logos.
If you’re interested in diving into the wormhole of font categories for dyslexic readers, click here. In general, keep it simple and classic. Arial and Times New Roman are your friends.
Check Your Readability
Unless you’re writing a PhD thesis (and I would argue even then), you don’t need to make your writing overly-complex. This is especially true if you want to write with a dyslexic audience in mind. Dyslexia has nothing to do with intelligence or vocabulary. However, sentence structure and complexity matter. A Flesch Reading Ease score of 70 or above is a good indicator you’re writing is more widely accessible.
Use Audio
Many people with dyslexia have fairly high auditory comprehension. Personally, I read audiobooks at 1.5-2x speed and never miss a word. These days, screen readers are readily available for websites and academic text. If you’re writing a book (fiction or non-fiction), an audiobook is a must, both for accessibility and for greater readership in general.
If these steps seem simple and common sense, it’s because accessible writing is just pain old good writing. Being dyslexic has made me a better writer. Sure, I spell every third word wrong, but that’s what spell check is for. I hope this blog encourages you to up your writing game, not just to reach dyslexic readers, but because these are good principles for any writing. It’s worth the effort.
Stay inspired and keep writing!