Arabic language is in use from last 2500 years, it has 12 million distinct words compared to English and each letter follows the same shape. It is beautiful but also complex, particularly for the 86.4 million people in the Middle East who are dyslexic. Omantel, the national telecom of Oman wants to simplify communication by making Arabic accessible to everyone and more inclusive for every Arabic speaker. So, with the help of Arabic Typeface designers and the dyslexic community from across the region we designed the first Arabic dyslexic-friendly font – Maqroo (meaning readable).

Despite there being 650 active Arabic fonts, none of them is dyslexic-friendly. In the Middle East 86.4 million people are dyslexic and they struggle every day with reading and writing in Arabic.

Arabic is one of the most complex languages to learn, even more for the dyslexic community because it has 12 million distinct words, it is written from right to left and every letter has a similar shape.

The difficulty of communicating in Arabic leads to a significant rise in stress amongst the dyslexic community in the region – severely affecting their daily lives.

So, as the national telecom of Oman, Omantel wants to simplify communication for everyone by making Arabic a more inclusive language and to achieve that they needed to develop the first Arabic dyslexic-friendly font.

Situation: Arabic is one of the most complex languages in the world and even more complex for the 86.4 million people in the region with learning and reading disability.

Brief: Omantel, the national telecom of Oman has always believed in simplifying communication for everyone. So, on the International Day of People of Determination, Omantel was clear in its stand of making Arabic inclusive for everyone.

Objectives: Making Arabic an inclusive language was at the forefront of the Omantel’s commitment. We decided to design the first Arabic dyslexic-friendly font that broke the barriers of disability and made Arabic easier for all.

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We developed the first Arabic dyslexic-friendly font – Maqroo (meaning: readable).

It was important to understand how they perceive the fonts so, we worked with the Arabic typeface designers from across the region and analyzed all 650 Arabic fonts with the dyslexic community to track their reading and stress levels. We increased the size of noqat (dots) and tashkeel (glyphs) by 200% and designed each letter to be distinctively recognizable through their irregularities. The font was coded to increase the heights of the letters and made the inner spaces irregular for better readability. Finally, the font was made available for everyone on maqroo.com and it became an instant hit in the community with many typeface designers applying Maqroo rules to their fonts - making the language more inclusive for everyone. Until today Maqroo is downloaded +23K times and is aiding the community.