Irlen Syndrome
Oct. 13th, 2009 11:24 amI recently heard about Irlen Syndrome, which apparently 12-15% of the population are affected by, according to Irlen UK. "The brain is unable to process full spectral light. This results in: a range of distortions in the environment, a range of distortions on the printed page, physical and behavioural symptoms."
At Glyndŵr University, hand-outs for students are often printed with black text on light blue or light peach coloured paper, so that it is easier for people with Irlen Syndrome to read. Black text on a white background can be more difficult to read.
This makes me wonder about the design of websites and software applications. People with Irlen Syndrome may have tinted glasses that help with looking at them anyway. Web browsers allow you to choose what colour you want the text and background of web pages to be. The Irlen UK website has a bar at the top which allows you to choose a different colour to be used on the website.
The software application I'm currently working on has the main box of text as black text on a light blue background, but users are not able to change the colours. The users are not likely to be concentrating on reading the screen for a long period of time and there isn't much text, so I think that it is okay as it is.
At Glyndŵr University, hand-outs for students are often printed with black text on light blue or light peach coloured paper, so that it is easier for people with Irlen Syndrome to read. Black text on a white background can be more difficult to read.
This makes me wonder about the design of websites and software applications. People with Irlen Syndrome may have tinted glasses that help with looking at them anyway. Web browsers allow you to choose what colour you want the text and background of web pages to be. The Irlen UK website has a bar at the top which allows you to choose a different colour to be used on the website.
The software application I'm currently working on has the main box of text as black text on a light blue background, but users are not able to change the colours. The users are not likely to be concentrating on reading the screen for a long period of time and there isn't much text, so I think that it is okay as it is.
