Layout of written material—for the benefit of everyone, especially dyslexics
By adhering to simple principles, it is possible to significantly improve the readability of all written material. Using the principles will greatly help all students, but it will benefit many dyslexic students in particular.
First, it is crucial that you apply the principles when preparing written exam assignments, and it will also be a huge help on a daily basis if you apply the principles in the course material, presentations, emails, etc.
Useful advice when writing to dyslexic students:
- Choice of font. The following fonts are recommended:
- Arial
- Comic Sans
- Verdana
- Tahoma
- Century Gothic
- Trebuchet
- Calibri
- Open Sans
- Font size 12-14
- Headings and structure—create structure in your text with headings and subheadings, as well as the use of bulleted text.
- Good distance between letters, words, and lines.
- Avoid using underlined/italicized text. Instead, use bold font to highlight text.
- Avoid parenthetical phrases and brackets.
- Writing style. Use active rather than passive voice, be concise, and avoid long and intricate sentences.
- Compound words should be divided up—not as in two words, but, for example, instead of writing ‘long-lasting’, write ‘of longer duration’.
- Colours. Use single-colour backgrounds with sufficient contrast levels between background and text, and avoid green/red.
- Layout. Left-align text, use short lines, avoid ‘newspaper’ columns, etc.
The above advice has been drawn up following dialogue with VUC Lyngby as well as after referring to the website of the British Dyslexia Association. See all the principles from the British Dyslexia Association here https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/employer/dyslexia-style-guide-2018-creating-dyslexia-friendly-content
For multiple-choice tests
The wording of a multiple choice test (MCT) must never be formulated in such a way that only one word determines whether the student replies correctly or incorrectly. As a teacher, you should be interested in testing whether the student has a good grasp of the academic concepts in the course content and not whether the student can find errors in a text. And that is irrespective of whether the student is dyslexic or not.DTU’s guidelines on how to formulate good MCT questions can be found on http://www.elearning.dtu.dk/tools/quizzes
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a congenital disorder and has nothing to do with vision or intelligence. Dyslexia is a permanent impairment which makes it difficult to handle speech sounds and written language, and it can therefore affect the student’s studies.Symptoms of dyslexia in adolescents and adults may include:
- Reads and spells in a slow and imprecise manner
- Smaller vocabulary than similar non-dyslexic persons
- Difficulty learning and remembering new words and names, for example, technical terms
- Differences in written and oral performance
- Problems reading and writing a foreign language
- Problems remembering sentences while writing them down
- Difficulty formulating complicated contexts in writing
- Problems summarizing a text in principal points
- Misunderstands information and text
- Pays little attention to detail—or focuses excessively on detail
- Has problems planning time and tasks and avoids or postpones tasks related to reading and writing
State support for dyslexics
As a dyslexic student at DTU, it is possible to apply for funding via the special educational support (SPS) scheme. The support can take the form of:
- Clarifying support needs
- IT start pack with a computer—or a program pack for your own PC
- Other IT equipment/software—e.g. a dictation machine, flatbed scanner, Dictus, Dragon Natural Speaking, etc.
- IT instruction
- Study support hours, including help with study techniques, written work, and structure/planning, currently at KVUC—Copenhagen Adult Education.
- Electronic study material—for reading text aloud.