Meet Soph. Soph is a member of our network of usability test participants.
We asked Soph to tell us a bit about themselves and how some design decisions impact website usability for dyslexic users.
Tell us a little bit about yourself
Hi, I’m Soph (she/they). I work in the arts and cultural sector, making websites for wonderful organisations. When not busy working, you’ll likely find me wandering through the woods, playing with my pets or doing cross-stitch! That, or curled up watching Netflix and cuddling the cats.
I am Dyslexic and have something called Meares-Irlen Syndrome, also known as Visual Stress Syndrome. Dyslexia affects my ability to read and interpret words/letters/symbols; it also impacts my spelling and vocabulary. Meares-Irlen is a disorder of visual processing. It doesn’t affect the eyes but how the brain processes data from the eyes. Whilst there is a crossover in how the two affect me day to day, I’ve tried to split out my experiences with each below.
I imagine many people have heard of dyslexia causing issues with spelling, but when I say I can’t spell – it’s to the extent that Google doesn’t know what I’m trying to say.
If I don’t know how to spell something, usually spellcheck has no idea what I’m trying to say, so I will attempt to google it – but I’m a frequent flyer of the ‘sorry no results found’ page on Google.
I’ve learnt when asking co-workers for help with spelling, that if I use a word in a sentence then generally they can work out what I’m aiming for. I’m forever grateful to my co-workers who put up with my strange spelling requests.
Sometimes I find it easier to just abandon a specific word and find another way to express what I mean (for example I wanted to write ‘coleeg’ ‘college’ ‘coleauge ‘colleague’) I abandoned that and chose ‘co-worker’.
The impact of Meares-Irlen
Meares-Irlen is one that I imagine fewer people will have heard of. I get very tired when reading, completely exhausted at times.
Bright lights are physically painful, and I often get migraines brought on by bright lights or the sun. Fluorescent lights are especially painful. I tend to see patterns in text and often see words and text moving around the page.
The picture I’ve chosen shows me in my blue glasses. With these glasses I can read faster and more accurately. I get much less tired.
It’s hard to describe just how much they help: a cool blanket on the forehead when you have a fever. If I’m wrung out, or if I feel like I’m in the early stages of a migraine I’ll wear these. They are much more than reading glasses.
Do you use any assistive technologies when using computers?
I have my blue glasses – which might count as more of an analogue assistive technology.
Whilst I don’t think it was intended as an assistive technology, I keep all my devices in dark mode. This helps reduce glare and actually makes screens more pleasant to look at.
Similarly any device which has day/night or ‘blue light’ controls – I tweak these to keep the overall colour temperature in a place which suits me better.
I can’t stand the yellow evening tints they produce, but prefer the colder, more blue hues of the daytime.
Dark mode is an interesting one. Some websites turn all white backgrounds to black, but then don’t adjust the font colour, making it impossible to read.
I can only think of Google’s own search as a good example of a website that picks up dark mode. Many that do pick up the dark mode are actually harder to use, and often I switch off dark mode if I really need to use that website.
What makes a website more difficult to use?
For me personally, fonts can be a source of frustration on a website. A serif font is something like Times New Roman – one with the little tails on all the letters. This makes writing so busy and jumbled, and can become like looking at a page of white noise, it’s very hard for me to read. Some sites have stylised header fonts.
Sadly, a lot of the time, this means I struggle to differentiate between words, or read them at all. When these fonts are used for buttons and navigational information then I am unlikely to have an easy time using that website.
Finally, text on images: trying to read words over a busy background image (and also not being able to copy and paste a word I don’t know into Google) can be very frustrating. Not only do I then struggle to read the text, I often fail to be able to ‘view’ the image as my brain is getting distracted by all the text-based information and I can’t process it.
Something I’ve seen on quite a few websites during the checkout process is a mixture of buttons and ‘links’. Previously when booking tickets, I’ve been in the checkout process, unable to proceed because I’m not seeing the ‘pay’ or ‘continue’ option.
I had been looking for another button (something in a rectangle following the style of other buttons) and the site has suddenly changed to a link (text with an underline). I find that I navigate by symbols and shapes – so suddenly losing the rectangle shape, meant I couldn’t identify these as a button for interaction.
What makes a good website?
A good search on a website is so important.
Often a page or item I’m looking for is hidden under menus or paths which seem arbitrary, websites so regularly use language that’s specific to an organisation, that I find it hard to navigate using their menu. So I tend to favour a ‘search’.
Even better when this search is indicated with the little magnifying glass symbol. I can then input a few key words like ‘parking’ or ‘opening times’ and hopefully that will take me right to the information I’m looking for.
Is there one thing that every website could do that would make your life easier?
Not using serif fonts/busy fonts. If there was a way to not see serif fonts online it would be wonderful, reading a font like that is like walking through treacle.
Or at least an easy way to mean my browser never shows those fonts again.
Get in touch
If you are looking to conduct inclusive usability testing on your organisation’s website, or you are interested in taking part in inclusive website usability studies please get in touch by emailing us on [email protected].