Dyslexia and Reading Disabilities - Share tips for 7 Cups
If you have any suggestions for things to make 7 Cups easier to use for those who have reading disabilities please share them!
@qingruArt I hope this helps!
It doesn't help with the reading part, but I think it can help with others' expectations - in a 1-1 chat let the other person know you're slower to respond if you can't read or type something fairly quickly.
Many listeners and members do tend to just bail on chats and as a member if a listener does let me know I tend to have a lot more patience for getting responses. If I do want a faster moving chat at the time, then at least I have a heads up beforehand so I can move onto another listener without feeling frustrated with a chat first and may go back to the listener another time.
There's also the option of offline chats, where the expectation isn't to get responses immediately. I recommend not picking up a general request for that purpose though, setting a status to busy is something that can help bump someone's profile up when others are looking at browse listeners for that purpose.
Thank you for these tips, @AffyAvo.
I also found a 2010 research review : What we know about dyslexia and Web accessibility
Some problems dyslexic users face, according to the article, included:
- Confusing page layout
- Unclear navigation
- Poor color selection
- Small text or graphics
- Complicated language
Some of these issues are beyond our control on 7 cups. But maybe using simpler language in 1-1 chats or in group chats may be helpful for users with reading disabilities and/ or dyslexia.
Also, forum posts should aim for and use:
- clear formatting,
- visible colors,
- larger font/graphic sizes
- clear and concise language
To be more accessible to these types of users, if not for everybody.
Somebody showed me this tool for making writing "bold and clear", I just tried it out to edit this comment.
@PuzichkinCat This seems to be a somewhat controversial area.
At least some experts distinguish between language processing disorders (dyslexia), and visual processing disorders. Different parts of the brain are involved. Of course, someone with a visual processing disorder will have difficulties with written language. Someone with a language processing disorder will also have difficulties with written language, but different difficulties. More at: Visual processing disorder and dyslexia
Web accessibility tends to focus on visual issues. It's not clear to me, though, how web accessibility relates to language processing.
I enjoyed the Hemingway Editor that you linked to! Unfortunately I found it difficult to take seriously.
For example, it highlighted this sentence in red:
If you see a red highlight, your sentence is so dense and complicated that your readers will get lost trying to follow its meandering, splitting logic — try editing this sentence to remove the red.
But I disagree. I think the logic of that sentence flows well. I edited the sentence and changed the logic so it really does meander and split. The Hemingway Editor found my new version completely acceptable:
Try editing. So dense and complicated. Splitting logic if you see a red. Highlight your sentence. Trying to follow its meandering. This sentence to remove the red. Your readers will get lost.
Another problem it has is passive voice. For some technical information at The Writing Center, see: Passive Voice
I pasted one of The Writing Center's examples into the Hemingway Editor, and it failed to detect the passive voice:
Why was the road crossed by the chicken?
But it does complain about passive voice even when passive voice is useful.
To return to visual clarity, I do think it's good for everyone to be aware of the accessibility settings in the device you are using, in your web browser, and in this website (Accessibility, at the bottom right of the page).
However, in the forum I would ask everyone, please don't force other users to use your visual preferences. You should change your own settings to provide the best visual experience for yourself, but don't change text size, colour, or anything else in your forum posts without good reason. Other people's visual preferences are unlikely to be the same as yours.
Charlie
@AffyAvo I agree. It's often useful for listeners to be open and to help members to manage their expectations of the chat.
There's a separate section in the general request queue for offline chats, although it's rarely used. So it can sometime be good to check the general request queue anyway.
Charlie
@AffyAvo It is not just for dislexia, but i have got the following suggestions:
- always write at least a part of username of member or listener to who you are writting.
- write as grammatically correctly as you can (please, avoid the slang as it is harder to be understood by people whose english isn't mother language either). Yes, it is sometimes needed to write about stuff more indirectly to avoid triggering but it can also cause that people have harder time understanding stuff. For example when i came to 7cups i was connecting word "graphic" with graphic design, graphic cards, pictures (avatars!), etc only and i thought that i can't use colors and smileys in 7cups... I am not sure whether phrase "describing violence, sex and cursing" could be used in the rooms instead of phrase "graphic words". Yes, due to avoiding of triggering members, a list explaining these words should be put somewhere into the forums to watch by those whose english isn't first language or have learning and other disabilities, etc.
- don't spam
- ensure that chat isn't too quick.
@gentleSun78 I agree—these are good ideas.
But problems with words like "graphic" are difficult to avoid. The word really does have more than one meaning. Ideally, anyone who writes a word that can mean more than one thing should be careful to make the intended meaning clear.
I don't think a list of words with double meanings would be very useful, because if you read something like "Do not include any graphic or inappropriate language" (in our community guidelines) there is no reason for you to suspect that you need to consult the list to work out what "graphic" might mean. You'd just assume it means "image".
There is, however, a list I maintain of words and phrases that have special meanings at 7 Cups: 7 Cups Glossary
Abbreviations are another problem. I think writers should avoid inventing abbreviations, because they make 7 Cups more difficult for newbies to understand, and by doing that they create a sense of exclusion. Some of the abbreviations in use at 7 Cups have conflicting meanings in other places. For these reasons it's now my policy not to add new abbreviations to the glossary.
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie Thanks you for your post. I agree with it.
@gentleSun78 Those are good tips!
@AffyAvo
I am not dyslexic, so maybe my words don't have a lot of impact, but I am a teacher, and fonts, where the letter A in the lower case (a) looks like an upside-down lower-case E (e), can cause confusion in some dyslexic people. There are various forms of dyslexia. So I wonder if a small adaptation even in the website's/app font would be of help?
@Flika89 If you click the Accessibility link at the bottom right of this (or almost any) page at 7 Cups, and activate AudioEye, then I believe you can change the font to one designed for dyslexia. That's what AudioEye advertises, anyway.
For people who benefit from special fonts of any kind, a better solution is to change all the fonts on their device. This might mean installing a system-wide accessibility tool. This avoids having to configure every website and application separately.
Charlie
@AffyAvo
For me it's making sure threads don't include too much of the colour of the words being different Like this or this because for me personally I use a tint on my screen to simulate my yellow overlay so when people write in colours sometimes I can't even see them because of the way my screen is tinted.
Also breaking up big paragraphs helps so much!
Highlighting in pastels is fine for me but highlighting in Bold colours just make the shifting of the words within the highlighted area happen to much more.
For me, when you want to highlight the importance of something using bold or underlining makes it more accessible. But i try and avoid Italics as I think most people with dyslexia agree, our brains and eyes don't agree with italics 😂
These are my personal experiences and obviously this wont be the case for everyone!
