Chapter 2: Matilda: A Typeface for Children with Low Vision

Abstract

Due to the low quality level of visual input they receive in the form of printed text, visually impaired beginning readers are at a disadvantage in comparison to their peers. In the past, typography has often been regarded as a useful instrument to improve the legibility of the printed reading material that is being offered to children with low vision. However, the legibility research that was at the base of this conception was not always of good quality. In cognitive science for example, many efforts were made that were methodologically correct, yet the test material (typefaces) was unrealistic. On the other hand, typographers themselves introduced many typefaces that were supposed to improve legibility, but the reasoning behind them was hardly ever sufficiently methodologically supported. Moreover, most legibility research focused on people with low vision in general, ignoring the fact that visually impaired children constitute a very particular group with specific issues. This PhD research project approached the issue of legibility for visually impaired beginning readers from a design context. The research is an attempt at bridging the gap between the font designers and the cognitive scientists studying the legibility of letter characters. In the development of the test material, the focus was on parameter design. Parameters are shape characteristics that can be isolated within the same type. Starting from two existing types (one serif, one sans-serif), typefaces were designed based on five parameters that explored the balance between homogeneous and heterogeneous in both form and rhythm. Based on legibility research with test material that conforms to both the scientific and the typographic knowledge in this field, a typeface is proposed that provides support for the target group of visually impaired children in the first stages of the reading process.