This is what it’s like to read when you have dyslexia

One in five people suffer from dyslexia, but for those who don’t have it, it’s difficult to imagine just how difficult living with the condition can be. However, web developer Victor Widell has set out to try to make others understand what it’s like to live with it.

Widell created a website to simulate his friend’s description of the condition to help others understand how mentally debilitating it can be. “A friend who has dyslexia described to me how she experiences reading,” Widell explained in the site’s intro. She can read, but it takes a lot of concentration, and the letters seem to ‘jump around.””

And that’s exactly what the letters in the intro do — jump around to the point where it’s nearly incomprehensible to read. “I remembered reading about typoglycemia. Wouldn’t it be possible to do it interactively on a website with JavaScript? Sure it would,” the intro reads. “Dyslexia is characterized by difficulty with learning to read fluently and with accurate comprehension despite normal intelligence.”

It’s essential to highlight that the simulation is certainly not perfect; there are many different types of dyslexia, with many people experiencing the condition differently. One of the blog commenters highlighted that the site makes it look too easy, particularly because the first and last letters of the words are stable.

“Not totally accurate in my opinion, but it’s a good way to give non-dyslexic readers an idea of what dyslexic readers go through,” another commenter said. “Just for completeness, my dyslexia is more ‘vertical’ – words and letters swap into preceding and following lines.”

However, as Reddit user highlighted, the page is still important, even if it doesn’t exactly hit the nail on the head:

Check out the website here to get a taste of the constant struggle that goes hand-in-hand with dyslexia.