Forum Discussion
Toggle Between Fonts
Hi,
I've recently come across a font designed to help reduce the complications related to dyslexia called OpenDyslexic. I don't find this font particularly appealing from a visual design perspective so I wouldn't want it to be the default font in the course. However as someone with dyslexia, I find it extremely beneficial.
I'm curious if anyone has ideas for an easy way to implement some kind of "toggle" button that would change all on screen text between fonts. Ideally, I would like to have an accessibility menu of sorts where this was an option that the learner could select if they are interested.
In theory, this menu could also eventually handle things like dark mode, contrast issues, etc.
Sadly, the research on dyslexic-friendly fonts hasn't shown that they make any difference. Open Dyslexic performs no better than Arial or Times New Roman. It's probably not worth the effort. to create a course with it.
On the other hand it would be really cool to have a series of toggles that a learner could customize their experience to make the course better. Something like the UX on this site. https://handbook.floeproject.org If you click on the preferences you can see how the experience can be customized.The answer depends on which Articulate product we are talking about.
If we are discussing Rise, then such a solution would likely need to be implemented on the developers' side. We can download the SCORM package of the course created in Rise and edit it using JavaScript (adding a button to the player that changes the font throughout the course, plus we will need to include your font in the SCORM package). However, this is not the most convenient method. In Rise, this functionality is easy to implement since it uses responsive design.
If we are talking about Storyline, creating such a "magic button" is not possible because it uses fixed layout. If we change the font, the entire design will break (letters in all fonts will be different sizes, meaning text blocks will not look as we originally intended). In Storyline, ideally, we would need to add a "replace font" button to each slide, or somewhere in a custom menu, and create duplicates of each slide/layer (or additional layers on slides) with a different font. This will not exactly double our work in assembling the course, but it will significantly increase the time and effort required.
Hi Peter!
The Helperbird browser extension includes the OpenDyslexic font that users can toggle. It also has other dyslexia tools, like an overlay and tint toggle and a high-contrast display option.
I use Helperbird Pro for testing other Accessibility items, like spacing and text size adjustment, but I thought it might also be helpful based on your list above.
For Articulate purposes, learners could use this with published Rise output.
