This is the first variable Cyrillic font for dyslexic people. Enormous number of people (about 12% of the population of Russia) suffer from dyslexia, while there is simply no technology or font that allows to read text information. We both developed a special Cyrillic font and created the ability to custom design letters’ thickness, serifs, spacing between both words and sentences, which allows to adjust certain parameters critical for dyslexics. Regarding global practice, the ability to flexibly customize and adapt a text makes it unique. Notice that the font is supported by any media and adapted to any resolution.

Dyslexics in Russia get into difficult situations. Sadly, Russia has neither developed a methodology nor covered this problem. On one side, there are people with dyslexia who are afraid to ask for help and come across as simply illiterate. But then again, there is a poor awareness about the existence of this problem, despite a large percentage (about 12%) of people suffering from dyslexia.

We faced a number of limitations. Our task was not only to create a completely new text, but also to do it under the conditions of a lack of attention to this problem, and, therefore, having few subject matter experts. Moreover, there was a huge difference between type font and type font for gadgets. We had to take into account the distortion font undergoes on smartphone screens. Moreover, we couldn't refer to anything, since this problem had been dealt with only in the West.

Studying the information, we first contacted organizations dealing with this problem. And we were shocked since official figures state that about 12% of the population suffer from dyslexia.

Having met and interviewed more than a hundred dyslexics, we found out that people face problems daily when choosing goods, which either takes a long time or is almost impossible, which makes going to the store on their own very uncomfortable.

Our idea and goal was not only to enable dyslexics to confidently read text information, but to raise people's awareness and draw attention to it. We decided to create the first variable Cyrillic font especially for dyslexic people, adapt and implement it in the application. Develop not only a basic set of symbols, but also to make it possible to change variables in them, so that each person can adjust it individually for themselves

1 August 2020 - the birth of the idea itself, the beginning of the research

20 September 2020 - First big meeting with a team of experts on questions relating to dyslexia to understand the theoretical background.

12 October 2020 - over a period of 4 days, several dozen interviews were conducted with people with dyslexia in order to understand the importance of creating this font, the problems dyslexic people face and their possible solutions.

25 October 2020 - full staffing of the font design team who will be engaged in the creation of the font. We particularly needed guys who came across or heard about such a problem and had experience in creating their own fonts.

8 December 2020 - first tests of intermediate versions of the text

17 January 2021 - first test implementation in a mobile application

29 January 2021 - first successful tests of the text adapted for a mobile application.

1 March 2021 - final release of the text

10 March 2021 - First positive results and usage statistics, applying for a patent.

Text and technology are integrated into the mobile app. When scanning a product in the application, it issues a card with text information, which contains product information from originality to ingredients, production and expiration dates, etc. We have created a visually understandable setting that allows to convert all displayed text information, from letters to special characters, into our font. Moreover, we make it possible to custom design all parameters of a text, using a visually understandable element design. Text is transformed online allowing customisation to be made flexible and individual.

The main components of the font are the basic version, specially adapted for dyslexic eyesight, and the variable part. That is, each symbol has a large number of variations, for each combination of settings.

Moreover, the font itself is adaptive for any digital media and electronic devices. It can be used on Android and IOS. Initially, it was developed only for mobile devices, but later an ability to adapt it for any screen while maintaining quality was added.

The final version was released on March 1, 2021, at the moment we are observing usage statistics in large numbers and making local adjustments to certain characters based on feedback from users.

The main task of our text is to create additional value of our application and reach out to people, who previously found it unnecessary to use. In the first test week alone, the number of daily installs grew by 25%, while the retention stays high. We plan to increase font perception rate by bringing the recognition rate to 90%.

Moreover, existence of the font is educational as many people simply have no idea about the problem, and dyslexics don’t understand causes of their problems.

This project isn’t purely commercial, so we’d like to distribute it to other services with plenty of text information. Due to adaptability of the font, we are able to transfer it to different media.

In terms of quantity index, on average 12% of the population of Russia find this font highly-demanded, and since the mobile application operates countrywise, we are tied only to gadgets.