OpenDyslexic font option for dyslexic The Orbit readers

For those of you who have difficulty reading seriffed fonts, or who would prefer to use the OpenDyslexic font but aren’t on a computer you control, we’ve installed the ability to switch all the fonts on the site to something a little more readable for you.

Caveats:

– You must be logged in to the site, or else we don’t know to deliver the pages to you in that font. You may log in either with local credentials, or via the WordPress.com Single Sign On.
– This obviously only affects fonts that are text, not ones that are part of images like blog banners, etc.

When you’re logged in, click the Key icon and click Edit my profile. Or, go here. ETA: that will only work for some small fraction of you — best to use the key link or the WP Admin bar where it says “Howdy, Yourname”.) Choose an option (probably to use on both the website and the admin) under the OpenDyslexic header, scroll to the bottom, and click “update”.

From then on, any time you’re logged into the site under your account, you’ll have all the pages rendered to you with the OpenDyslexic font, like so:

opendyslexic-option-gretasblog

Additionally, since apparently this is not common knowledge among those who have need for such options, most modern browsers provide you with the ability to change the font size on the page you’re viewing. Either hold the Ctrl (or Command on a Mac) key on your keyboard, and use the mousewheel to zoom in and out, or hold Control and hit the Plus or Minus keys (next to the Backspace/Delete key, or on your number pad). This will work in Internet Explorer, Edge, Chrome/ium, Opera, Firefox and Safari, though the specific key combination may be different in your version, so look around in the View menu. Those of you who feel the font is too large (or, at least in one case, too SMALL, despite our default being significantly larger than many other sites) are encouraged to use that zoom function to set your browser settings to something comfortably readable. If you’re absolutely stumped for how to do so, let me know what browser you’re in, and I’ll try to find an option for you.

We take accessibility concerns very seriously here, and if you have any issues to report, please let us know however you can — either in comments on this post, by the email I’ve provided in my header, or by the tech issues form, for instance, but I’ll take bug reports by carrier pigeon if need be. We can’t accommodate every request, especially conflicting requests, so we aren’t about to make radical changes to our default theme that may alienate some other users without a very compelling reason to do so (so please keep your “can you change all the fonts everywhere to Papyrus 64pt red on dark-red” troll requests to yourselves, thanks!), but any issues with, for instance, screen reader software can be dealt with without impacting other readers negatively.

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OpenDyslexic font option for dyslexic The Orbit readers
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10 thoughts on “OpenDyslexic font option for dyslexic The Orbit readers

  1. 1

    w00t! It friggin’ works!! (though not through the “go here” link — I suspect that goes to the admin’s dashboard, not the user’s * )

    Time will tell if this will start to feel as natural as using OD in word processors / editors and when reading from paper.

    Doumo arigatou
    /me bows deep

    PS: As I’m 50+, I LOVE The Orbit’s standard font size.

    PPS: And the instant comment preview is really neat!

    * I received this error message: “You attempted to access the “The Orbit” dashboard, but you do not currently have privileges on this site. If you believe you should be able to access the “The Orbit” dashboard, please contact your network administrator.”

  2. 2

    Hmm. Evidently that link only works if you registered your account from the front page, not from any individual blog, despite the fact that we all share (or at least don’t allow overlap on) user accounts. WordPress Multisite sorta baffles me sometimes with its idiosyncrasies.

    So, your best bet will always be to use the Lock link (or the one in the dropdown on the Admin bar that says “Howdy Yourname”), because it’s intelligently building you your personalized profile link.

  3. 3

    Hi Jason,

    I tried to log into the site via the key above and it does not recognize my username or password. I would love to view the site this way.

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