Cognitive Disorder
Dyslexia disorders
Dyslexia is a learning disorder characterized by challenges in reading, stemming from difficulties in recognizing speech sounds and understanding their connection to letters and words (decoding). Also referred to as a reading disability, it arises from unique variations in the brain regions responsible for language processing.
- Nature of disability : Congenital
- Age group concerned : Disorder starting in childhood and continuing into adulthood
- Number of people affected: In France, there is talk of 6 to 8% of dys disorders. We can say that 4 to 5% of pupils in an age group are dyslexic age group are dyslexic, 3% are dyspraxic and 2% are dysphasic. Between 6 and 8% of the population would be affected.
Symptoms
There are 7 DYS disorders, each with different symptoms:
- Dyscalculia: These disorders impair the ability to understand and use numbers.
- Dyslexia and dysorthographia: These are specific and significant impairments in reading (dyslexia) and/or writing and spelling (dysorthographia).
- Dysphasia : People with these disorders have difficulty in easily conveying information, feelings, reciting lessons, telling stories, conversing, and have difficulties in all oral restitution.
- Difficulty in understanding what is conveyed orally, and consequent maladjustment of behaviour.
- Dyspraxia: These relate to motor development, i.e. the organisation of movements and/or the acquisition of sensory-motor coordination and/or visuo-spatial functions
Examples of obstacles encountered during navigation
- Complex navigation mechanisms and page layouts that are difficult to understand and use
- Lack of clear structure and overabundance of content
- Complex sentences that are difficult to read and unusual words that are hard to understand
- Unconventional fonts that are difficult to read
- Long passages of text without images, graphics or other illustrations to highlight the context
- Moving, flashing or flickering content and background sound that cannot be turned off
- Web browsers and media players that do not provide mechanisms for removing animations and sound
- Visual page designs that cannot be adapted using web browser controls or custom style sheets
Solutions for accessibility
- Clearly structured content for easy overview and orientation
- Consistent labelling of forms, buttons and other content elements
- Predictable link targets, affordant functionality and overall interaction
- Different ways of navigating websites, such as hierarchical menus and search
- Options to remove flashing, flickering, blinking and otherwise distracting content
- Simpler text complemented by images, graphics and other illustrations
- Ability to change focus options (e.g. reading mask, text-to-speech word highlighting)
- Customisable text and content (text spacing, words, font)