Dyslexia is a widely misunderstood learning disability that is very common amongst young students.
Unfortunately, language-based disabilities affect one out of every five students, according to the Dyslexia Center of Utah. Out of all the possible learning disabilities, dyslexia is, by far, the most prevalent.
The disability creates large learning barriers for individuals because they have a difficult time relating speech sounds to written words.
Daniel Britton is an individual who knows this disability far too well. When he was in grade school, his teachers thought he was either lazy or slow. They refused to believe that there was something fundamentally wrong with the way he perceived words — a situation which is far too common amongst students across the globe.
Britton is now a graphic designer based out of Hartley, England. His academic career in math and English were, understandably, subpar, which is why he pursued one of the few career possibilities that was not entirely deterred by his dyslexic nature.
Over the course of Britton’s life, he had difficulty explaining to people what it is like to have dyslexia. He said in a recent interview,
“People who’ve never been dyslexic don’t understand what it’s like.”
Although the 25-year-old Britton was widely misunderstood as a child and even as a young adult, he continued to cultivate his creative talents and, eventually, he figured out a creative way to get people to see from his point of view.
Designed as a self-initiated school project, Britton created a typeface that illustrates what it feels like to have Dyslexia. The typeface is not based on hard science, but it ended up getting published on Designboom, and his email’s inbox was flooded with responses and media requests. Britton said:
“I had no idea it would be globally accepted in the course of a few days.”
After Britton realized how many people were contacting him, not because of interest in his services, but because he made it possible for people to see what it’s like try to read with dyslexia, he made it his mission to educate others on the disability.
Using crowdfunding as his avenue to get his message out, he is trying to raise $3,163.60 to cover production and shipping costs until his project can sustain itself on his anticipated revenue.
His project involves a pack that will include posters and booklets featuring the typeface. His aim is to get his typeface into schools and homes so that he can educate both teachers and parents about the seriously misunderstood disability that tragically prevents students from keeping up with their peers.
“This is everyone’s responsibility… If I could help them, that’d mean everything.”
