What is it like to be Dyslexic?

  • Josh Penn

'What is it like to be Dyslexic?' a question often thought about but rarely acted upon. There are many organisations, companies and individuals who work to help individuals with dyslexia and the daily struggles that they face. I as a dyslexia student, wanted to take a different approach with this university minor project. I wanted to communicate to individuals that do not suffer from the neurological glitch known as dyslexia, I wanted to build a better understanding of the condition for those that do not have dyslexia - I wanted to find a way to communicate to them and show them what it exactly is. My first thought was to create something print based, whether this was a poster or leaflet, anything. But, I eventually discovered that this would have been the most ineffective solution possible. I would have been giving people a piece of printed design, with jumbled letter, bad spelling and other dyslexia symptoms and essentially telling them "here...read this badly". A person without dyslexia will not understand because they understand the written language, telling them to read badly wouldn't work, so I had to perform it for them.