In this episode, Chris talks with Bonnie Shaver Troup, Founder of Lexend and the Creator of the Lexend fonts.

10 years before Bonnie created Lexend, her six-month-old baby was diagnosed with cancer. The doctors told her it was inoperable. It was a painful and overwhelming experience, but set Bonnie on a path toward educational therapy, with a focus on dyslexia and reading. 

Chris and Bonnie discuss the impact of Lexend fonts, creating the perfect typographic system for struggling readers, and changing how the world sees dyslexia. 

“It’s not dyslexia; it’s print sensitivity. We’re all sensitive to print. We are all sensitive to typographical factors. Those with dyslexia struggle with what we traditionally offer. And we can change that by changing the typographical factors. It happens in real-time, and it’s not delayed evidence.’” ~ Bonnie Shaver-Troup

Main takeaways 

For Bonnie, it’s all about changing how the world reads and improving the outcome. There are legible fonts, but the world needs more tools that can reduce visual stress.

The priority when setting up a typographic system is to be readable for everyone—including the people with impairments. Things like reducing cognitive noise, increasing scaling, and expanding character spacing are important.

Dyslexia and struggles with reading can be significantly improved if traditional typographical factors change.

Links

Bonnie Shaver-Troup on LinkedIn

Lexend

Google Fonts

US Department of Education

Microsoft365

Quicksand – Google Font

Variable Fonts

BMW

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