Chapter Leggi[a]bilità, tra grafica e inclusione

The 43rd UID conference, held in Genova, takes up the theme of ‘Dialogues’ as practice and debate on many fundamental topics in our social life, especially in these complex and not yet resolved times. The city of Genova offers the opportunity to ponder on the value of comparison and on the possibilities for the community, naturally focused on the aspects that concern us, as professors, researchers, disseminators of knowledge, or on all the possibile meanings of the discipline of representation and its dialogue with ‘others’, which we have broadly catalogued in three macro areas: History, Semiotics, Science / Technology. Therefore, “dialogue” as a profitable exchange based on a common language, without which it is impossible to comprehend and understand one another; and the graphic sign that connotes the conference is the precise transcription of this concept: the title ‘translated’ into signs, derived from the visual alphabet designed for the visual identity of the UID since 2017. There are many topics which refer to three macro sessions: - Witnessing (signs and history) - Communicating (signs and semiotics) - Experimenting (signs and sciences) Thanks to the different points of view, an exceptional resource of our disciplinary area, we want to try to outline the prevailing theoretical-operational synergies, the collaborative lines of an instrumental nature, the recent updates of the repertoires of images that attest and nourish the relations among representation, history, semiotics, sciences

Peculiarities of Visual Perception of Elementary School Children with Disabilities in the Design of Educational Products

Статья посвящена исследованию особенностей визуального восприятия детей начальной школы с ОВЗ в области дизайна образовательных продуктов. Основное содержание исследования составляет анализ результатов социологического опроса детей начальной школы с ОВЗ. В ходе проведения анализа данных опроса определены особенности восприятия визуальной информации детей с ОВЗ, а также идентифицированы их основные потребности и проблемы в области дизайна образовательных продуктов. Автором предложены способы решения выявленных проблем, а также даны рекомендации по проектированию образовательных продуктов для детей с ОВЗ.The article is devoted to the study of the features of visual perception of elementary school children with disabilities in the design of educational products. The main content of the study is the analysis of the results of a sociological survey of elementary school children with disabilities. During the analysis of the survey data the peculiarities of visual perception of children with disabilities are identified, as well as their main needs and problems in the design of educational products are identified. The author proposes ways to solve the identified problems, as well as provides recommendations for the design of educational products for children with disabilities

The effect of a dyslexia-specific Cyrillic font, LexiaD, on reading speed : further exploration in adolescents with and without dyslexia

The current study aims to test the assumption that a specially designed Cyrillic font, LexiaD, can assist adolescents with reading problems and facilitate their reading experience. LexiaD was compared with the widely used Arial font. Two groups of adolescents with dyslexia (N= 34) and without dyslexia (N= 28) silently read 144 sentences from the Russian Sentence Corpus (Laurinavichyute et al., 2019), some of which were presented in LexiaD, and others in Arial, while their eye movements were recorded. LexiaD did not show the desired effect for adolescents at the beginning of the experiment: Arial outperformed it in reading speed in both participant groups. However, by the end of the experiment, LexiaD showed a better performance. Although the speed of the higher-level cognitive processing (e.g., lexical access) in both fonts did not differ significantly, the feature extraction was found to be better in LexiaD than in Arial. Thus, we found some positive effect of LexiaD when participants with and without dyslexia got accustomed to it. A follow-up study with an explicit exposure session is needed to confirm this conclusion.Peer reviewe

Dyslexia Simulation Font: Can We Simulate Reading Struggles of Individuals with Dyslexia?

Individuals with dyslexia struggle at explaining what it is like to have dyslexia and how they perceive letters and words differently. This led the designer Daniel Britton to create a font that aims to simulate the perceptual experience of how effortful reading can be for individuals with dyslexia (http://danielbritton.info/dyslexia). This font removes forty percent of each character stroke with the aim of increasing reading effort, and in turn empathy and understanding for individuals with dyslexia. However, its efficacy has not yet been empirically tested. In the present study, we compared participants without dyslexia reading texts in the dyslexia simulation font to a group of individuals with dyslexia reading the same texts in Times New Roman font. Results suggest that the simulation font amplifies the struggle of reading, surpassing that experienced by adults with dyslexia—as reflected in increased reading time and overall number of eye movements in the majority of typical readers reading in the simulation font. Future research could compare the performance of the Daniel Britton simulation font against a sample of beginning readers with dyslexia as well as seek to design and empirically test an adapted simulation font with an increased preserved percentage of letter strokes

Effects of typeface fluency on the hypothesised processes contributing to source recollection

This item is only available electronically.Recollection accuracy can be significantly improved by producing written materials using hard-to-read (disfluent) fonts. Research suggest that these improvements are due to disfluency activating deeper levels of processing. While this ‘disfluency effect’ is well established, the cognitive mechanisms responsible are not yet understood. The present study involved 30 adults (71% female, mean age = 21.05, SD = 3.17), and examined the disfluency effect using EEG techniques to investigate familiarity and recollection; the two processes believed to be responsible for memory retrieval. The current study found no significant disfluency effects on the neurological correlates of familiarity (early frontal negative compenent; FN400) or recollection (late positive component; LPC) during the recall phase of a source memory task for information learned in fluent vs. disfluent typefaces. These findings bring into question whether familiarity and recollection provide an appropriate theoretical basis for the investigation of fluency and recollection. Furthermore, the current study also questions the correspondence between these two processes and specific ERP components may not be as straightforward as is generally believed. Therefore, it is suggested that future studies will be benefited by close monitoring of the theoretical assumptions which guide research.Thesis (B.PsychSc(Hons)) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 201

The influence of typeface fluency on simple sentence encoding as measured through spectral power analysis

This item is only available electronically.Previous research has shown that typeface fluency has an impact on the encoding and processing of written texts. Specifically, less fluent letters and words appear to be processed more deeply and remembered more accurately. To date, there is limited research regarding the mechanisms by which typeface fluency impacts on the encoding of full sentences. Therefore, this study aimed to expand on this research by focusing on the way it can be applied to the encoding of full sentences. Participants were asked to memorise simple sentences presented in either a fluent or disfluent typeface. Electroencephalography was used to record the changes in spectral power during the learning phase in order to determine the level of encoding success. Following a period of distraction, an audio-presented recall task was used to assess recall accuracy. Fluency was found to be associated with changes in alpha power at learning. Further, alpha power significantly differed between the parietal and occipital regions of the brain but did not show any reaction with fluency. Due to performance ceiling effects, these findings could not be associated with memory outcomes. This research is especially relevant to education, as much of the information presented in schooling is digitally presented text. Keywords: electroencephalography, spectral power, typeface fluency, language encoding, typographyThesis (B.PsychSc(Hons)) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 201

Reflip Type: Developing Visual Strategies for Teaching Typography to Collegiate Students with Dyslexia

In educational facilities today, the approaches to teaching typography to college students with dyslexia are limited. This thesis provides a research-based pedagogy for teaching typography to students in a way that accommodates the visual, processing, and auditory differences present in students with dyslexia. Through the analysis of the learning disability itself, existing material for graphic designers with dyslexia, and current accessibility standards for those with dyslexia, this thesis offers a practical solution to provide a more balanced learning experience for all students, especially those with dyslexia. The aim of this study was to examine the current graphic design standards and refocus and modify them for ease of readability for all individuals, especially those with dyslexia

Saavutettavuus perusopetuksessa

Tiivistelmä. Laki digitaalisten palvelujen tarjoamisesta eli digipalvelulaki tuli voimaan vuonna 2019. Siitä lähtien on kiinnitetty huomioita erityisesti aikuisten käyttämiin verkkopalveluihin. Digipalvelulaki vaatii julkisen sektorin ja osan yksityisen ja kolmannen sektorin organisaatioista toteuttamaan saavutettavia verkkopalveluja. Saavutettavuuden edistämisen tarkoituksena on edistää yhdenvertaisuutta yhteiskunnassa. Tämä tarkoittaa sitä, että verkkopalvelut tulisi tehdä niin, että niitä voi käyttää erilaiset ihmiset erilaisin rajoituksin. Aikuiset osaavat vaatia ja kyseenalaistaa puutteellisia verkkopalveluita, mutta täyttävätkö lapsille osoitetut verkkopalvelut ja digitaaliset materiaalit erityisesti koulussa digipalvelun määrittämät vaatimukset? Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää, huomioivatko peruskoulun 1.–6. vuosiluokan opettajat saavutettavuusvaatimukset opetuksessaan. Mikäli huomioivat, millä tavalla ja toisaalta, jos eivät huomioi, miksi eivät. Tutkimuskysymyksiin pyrittiin saamaan vastauksia Webropol -kyselyllä. Tutkimukseen saatiin 30 vastausta 1.–6.-luokkalaisten opettajilta. Vähäisestä vastausmäärästä huolimatta on selvää, että opettajien tietämys saavutettavuudesta on aika vähäistä. Saavutettavuutta toteutetaan ehkä osittain, mutta lain tuomat vaatimukset eivät välttämättä ole tiedossa. Resurssien puute ja tietämättömyys koko saavutettavuudesta ovat suurimmat syyt siihen, ettei opetusmateriaaleissa toteuteta saavutettavuutta. Positiivista on, että tietämystä on mahdollista lisätä. Tässä tutkimuksessa on myös jatkokehitysehdotuksia siihen, kuinka saada lisättyä opettajien keskuudessa saavutettavuuteen liittyvää tietoa ja taitoa