This website shows what it’s like to have dyslexia

Most of us are aware of what dyslexia is: According to the Canadian Dyslexia Association, it’s “a difficulty with the alphabet, reading, writing and spelling in spite of normal or above-normal intelligence, conventional teaching methods, and adequate sociocultural opportunity.”

But for those of us not suffering from dyslexia (or any learning disorder), it’s difficult to imagine just exactly what it’s like.

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Now, a website is trying to put that into perspective.

“A friend who has dyslexia described to me how she experiences reading,” the site’s introduction reads. “She can read, but it takes a lot of concentration, and the letters seems to ‘jump around,’“ the site’s introduction reads.

The site uses Javascript to switch around the letters within a given word at random. It’s of course not exactly how people with dyslexia read – and everyone experiences it differently – but commenters say it’s pretty close.

“A very good simulation! 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,” writes one commenter. “Just for completeness, my dyslexia is more ‘vertical’ - words and letters swap into preceding and following lines.”

“As alluded to in the third paragraph, different people have different symptoms, and the JavaScript effect isn’t quite an accurate simulation of any of them. However, this is still a nice way for people to experience at a high level what having some kind of difficulty reading can feel like,” adds another.