Designing for Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a learning ability which primarily affects a person's ability to process language. It is a fairly common learning disability which affects people of all levels of intelligence. It manifests as "difficulty in developing word-level reading skills in elementary school children."
Between three and ten percent of school-aged children have some level of dyslexia, although some studies have estimated this to be as high as 17 percent. Also, "because dyslexia has often gone undiagnosed in children, many adults suffer from the condition without realizing it."
There still is no simple explanation for what causes dyslexia. However, it is strictly a developmental disability, and not motivational, as some non-scientific studies have suggested.
As for the future of dyslexia, there is no cure. However, dyslexics can learn to read and write with appropriate education and treatment. This may include use of the following -
- specialized phonics instruction;
- audio books;
- text to speech synthesis;
- voice recognition software;