The font used for the main bodies of text on this site is "Atkinson Hyperlegible Next", a font designed with low vision readers in mind. Since it is meant to be easily leigble for those with low vision, it is generally more easily readable for those with ADHD and dyslexia as well by avoiding the common font mistakes that make them overwhelming to read over long periods--including similarities between letters and poor kerning. It was developed by Elliot Scott and Megan Eiswerth working for Applied Design Works under the request of the Braille Institute of America for it's 100th birthday. The goal of Scott and Eiswerth were to create a design that was both leigble and distinct, but coherent, without looking like "old ransom notes, where each letter and number were dramatically different from each other". After Atkinson Hyperlegible was a success and won awards for its innovation in accessibility in 2019, they updated the font in 2024 to Atkinson Hyperlegible Next which added "new weights, improved kerning, refined curves, added symbols, and additional language support" to the original. The font is named after the founder of the Braille Institue of America, J. Robert Atkinson. If you'd like to add the font to your own site, it's available on Google Fonts and if you'd like it on your own machine, it's here on Github! Also used on this site are Sixtyfour and Funnel Display, used for the grand reason of I thought they were neat.
If you're interested in other fonts that are considered more friendly to those who may struggle reading large swaths of text for one reason or another, there's a few things to know and consider. 1) No one font is going to be best for everyone. If possible, the best you can do for those who struggle with fonts is options, not just in font, but in font size, kerning (space between letters), and color of both text and background. That's well beyond my coding skills at the moment, but if you feel able to do it, it's certainly the ideal! 2) The biggest considerations to make are that the things that cause the most problems is poor kerning, confusion between characters that can be visibly similar (i.e. 1, I, and l or O and 0), and poor color contrast making it difficult to read. Now, these are not invlaid artistic choices in a font or a website, but if your goal is to make your site very legible for as many people as possible, then designing it and choosing a font with those things in mind should be the goal! Now, for some fonts that are known to be better for those with dyslexia, ADHD, and low vision: Arial, Verdana, and Open Sans are considered good! Comic Sans is also famously easier for some to read, though harder for others (and unfortunately, unavailable via Google Fonts or CSS's generic fonts regardless :c). Anyway, unnessecarily long spiel about my font choice over. I just wanted to talk about it becuase I found it all quite interesting and fun to learn about.
Agent 47 © Hitman | bg © Piofiore: Fated Memories
