The Readability Study (2021)

20 typefaces tested. 337,350 user-submitted data points collected. Finding: commercially marketed 'dyslexia-friendly' typefaces performed worse than several everyday sans-serif fonts.

The Readability Study

Our 2021 study tested 20 typefaces against over 3,000 respondents and collected over 300,000 user-submitted data points sorted by disability profile.

The finding that surprised everyone

Commercially marketed “dyslexia-friendly” typefaces performed worse than everyday sans-serif typefaces in our testing. Simple, familiar fonts won — not the specialized fonts that have been widely recommended.

This finding directly challenged established practice in the accessibility community and has been presented at multiple conferences.

What this shows

The methodology used by Accessible Thinking’s ASK platform produces non-obvious, statistically grounded findings — not just confirming what people already believe. The Readability Study is a proof of concept: with the right methodology and a large enough sample, you get insights that cut through received wisdom.

Assets

Raw data available for reanalysis (available, get in touch)
Survey source code (available, get in touch)
Conference presentation available online