1 in 5 Canadian children suffer with Dyslexia. But our Canadian education systems do not recognize the condition. Children go undiagnosed, leading to inadequacy, and more sever social problems.

Dyslexia Canada, a registered Canadian charitable organization, approached us with the objective of raising awareness around the daily reality of children who suffer from Dyslexia in Canada.

For a person with Dyslexia, the printed word can seem like a foreign language that everyone understands but you. The lack of awareness and understanding around Dyslexia has created a tremendous hardship on families, our education system, and society in general.

The It's Hard To Read campaign was developed to capture the frustration and isolation felt by 15% - 20% of the population with reading and spelling but is taken for granted as a simple task by the rest.

We created a one-of-a-kind educational web experience that allows Canadians to immerse themselves in reading challenges that mimic the problems faced by those with Dyslexia.

Billed as the World's Hardest-to-Read Website, itshardtoread.org uses seamless scrolling, with purposeful design and animation to alter text, engaging visitors in a surprising brand experience.

The bilingual website aims to sensitize the public to what it’s like for children living with Dyslexia on a day-to-day basis, offer the necessary resources to help them overcome the learning disability, and finally, properly educate adults on the matter.

Target audiences include parents, teachers, media, and government officials, as well as those with connections to Dyslexia.

Funding for charitable organizations should go to the organization, not their advertising. Given this stance, the agency decided that a daring digital experience that could be easily shared and spread across the country with the possibility of generating earned media was the smartest approach.

itshardtoread.org is the world’s hardest-to-read website. Once on the site, can get all the educational information and statistics about Dyslexia and useful information for parents and teachers.

Of course, it’s not that easy.

itshardtoread.org uses seamless scrolling, with purposeful design and animation to alter text, engaging visitors in a surprising brand experience that makes every word on the page hard to read. Reading challenges were designed to mimic the specific difficulties those with Dyslexia face daily.

While attention was paid to achieve a uniformly desirable look for the site, each consecutive topic was treated with a unique design, font, and animation technique. This went against every design instinct we have, forcing us to discard standard practices of simplicity and legibility. In scrolling through the site, we don’t only gain knowledge, but we gain empathy towards the cause and those affected by the condition.

As a bilingual entity in a bilingual country, our creatives were also challenged to develop itshardtoread.org in both English and French.

An easier-to-read version of the site was also developed for those with reading challenges, or visitors who want more education and less experience.

When Dyslexia Canada approached us, they were transparent about how limited their budgets were, in practice this meant that there was no budget for paid media or promotion.

We used the timing of our launch – Family Literacy Day – to gain PR buzz. The launch of the itshardtoread.org allowed us to reach a national audience thanks to earned media coverage on Global News Morning Montreal and our Creative Chairman and on CTV Morning Live Ottawa. Ultimately, this led to over 777,000 Canadians visiting itshardtoread.org, discovering an immersive digital experience which shows how hard it is to read when you’re dyslexic. 38% of visitors scrolled to the bottom of the page, with an average visit time of 2:20 minutes.

Critically, in a time when we know Canadian kids who have dyslexia are getting left behind, we brought this agenda to forefront for millions of Canadians.