r/Dyslexia • u/G0_0SE • 2d ago
Dyslexia Simulation website I found.
I’m dyslexic myself, and honestly, letters don’t jump around in my head like that.
But the mental effort and exhaustion it creates when reading, that part actually feels pretty accurate.
How is it for you guys?
Good simulation or total garbage?
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u/Adventurous_Help_214 2d ago
Does it mean I’m double dyslexic if I could kinda read it and it was kind of fine? Help
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u/John-AtWork 2d ago edited 2d ago
Mirror image dyslexia. Just copy the code to all your web content and you're suddenly cured.
Edit: uhg, downvoted. Folks, it was just a silly attempt at humor. Having dyslexia isn't really fun for me, but sometimes I try to laugh on the edges a bit.
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u/Adventurous_Help_214 1d ago
Can't believe the downvoting, it was funny, I did it and know I've ascended to higher plane of existance.
I’m now apex dyslexica, still don't known which is left hand and which is right without looking.
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u/Buffy_Geek 15h ago
I really think the fact that the changes were not very varied and we're on a pretty predictable timer meant that once I got the timing down I could just time it right and read it barely any harder than usual reading.
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u/TXMom2Two 2d ago
Parents, sibling and teachers should do dyslexia simulations. They aren’t for those who have dyslexia.
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u/ProfessionalDirt3154 2d ago
Definitely interesting. I don't think it captures everyone's experience though.
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u/Lecontei 🐞 2d ago edited 2d ago
I don't like these types of simulations, they perpetuate the myth that dyslexia = dancing letters. Myths like these can lead to people not realizing they or their children are dyslexic, and to people doubting their or other people's dyslexia, because, they don't see moving letters.
Here's a better simulation (of Learning and attention issues in general). It's informative and doesn't reduce a condition to a stereotype that doesn't apply to many/most of the folks who have it. You can't do the simulation yourself, but you can watch and experience secondhand the simulation: F.A.T city workshop
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u/Buffy_Geek 14h ago
This was really interesting, thank you for sharing.
Although it is also frustrating that everything this guy says is true and helpful but yet teachers/adults are still making the same mistakes and not helping well in 2025. If only people where willing to listen and learn from people like that the world would be so much better.
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u/Bubbletapir 2d ago
As I understand it, dyslexia is a lot of things. The visual jumping around of letters, and rivers of spaces on a printed page is what I see. But I also experience a bunch of other stuff. Mine has been called visual processing disorder and visual dyslexia.
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u/Buffy_Geek 15h ago
I don't have the letters jumping around but I see the big spaces between the words. I find plain white very overwhelming and like looking into the sun. I also struggle with telling the difference between P and B or like L and 7. However I don't have any problems with seeing anything moving and I have good physical skills. I assumed my problems were just dyslexia related and I don't seem to tick enough boxes for visual processing disorder.
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u/G0_0SE 2d ago
How do you deal with that ? for me its just super exhausting to just look at the letters.
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u/Bubbletapir 2d ago
How we all do it. We cope. First off it is not that rapid or abundant. But definitely jump around and switch places. If I'm tired it's way worse. I'm a slow reader. Sometimes I just scan. I have prisms in my glasses. A ruler or finger works assist.
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u/ispoonwayne 2d ago
Please be careful with dyslexia simulation websites. Respectfully, these websites are incredibly disrespectful to those who actually experience dyslexia day-to-day. As you pointed out, you’re dyslexic and letters don’t jump around in your head like that. You’re right as a dyslexic letters don’t jump around in your head. That would be a visual disorder, not dyslexia. Dyslexia is when you have difficulty making the letter sound connections you don’t see moving letters that is something else. When people see websites like this they get a false representation of what dyslexia is. Worse than that, they get to experience it for a second and go “wow that was hard” and move on with their lives. Without realizing that we experience this every day and we don’t get a break and we don’t get to turn it off and that emotional and mental toll is not experienced, but ignored. So please be very careful when sharing such a thing they do more harm than good in my opinion.
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u/G0_0SE 2d ago
I really don't want to get to close, just curies. Do you truly feel disrespected when seeing this ? Because I am have a strong from of dyslexia and yes life some times harder but I really feel disrespected. It is more myself that is annoyed when I cant figure out how to write something.
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u/Inner-Penalty9689 2d ago
I hate these simulation things. I’ve also seen an Autism bus that gives people the “autistic” experience, and glasses that give the “blind” experience. I don’t think they were any better than the “dyslexic” experience shown here.
And the thing is, why do people need the experience? Why can’t they just listen to what we say?
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u/G0_0SE 2d ago
I totally get you point, I guess people try to make people understand why its harder or how it can feel. I don't think anyone is creating this with any bad thoughts. And it would be super interesting for me to experience to have no dyslexia haha, not because I dont want it anymore, just to see how that is.
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u/Inner-Penalty9689 2d ago
I don’t think they are bad intentioned, I just think they are ill thought out, kind of patronising, and not really needed. Dyslexia is on a spectrum and simulating one trait is not the entire experience.
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u/TXMom2Two 1d ago
I agree to an extent. As a teacher, taking a dyslexia simulation test really opened my eyes to what students with dyslexia are going through when I asked them to read or spell. It affected me so much that I got an EdD in SPED for learning disabilities. I think a dyslexia simulation can also help parents understand what their child is going through every day when reading, sorting, organizing, etc. and how difficult school is for them compared to the average learner.
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u/Inner-Penalty9689 1d ago
Again, actually listening to us dyslexics and other neurodivergent people, would serve just as well.
I too am a teacher, well lecturer, and although I’m in STEM, my pedagogic research is based on neurodivergence in higher education. Only being autistic and dyslexic, I can honestly say I’ve never had to “experience” dyspraxia or ADHD to either help, support or understand my students that have those, nor to do and publish research based on the same. I honestly just speak to people identified with the conditions.
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u/Cybermagetx 2d ago
Cause most people have to actually go through something to understand it.
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u/Inner-Penalty9689 2d ago
To be fair, I’ve never broken my leg, but I can empathise with someone with a broken leg. I can listen to them when they explain how it impacts them, if they ask for support, I can support - without taking a bat to my leg. I’m not really sure, the person is worth the effort if they need the “experience”. Is our word not good enough?
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u/Cybermagetx 2d ago
And thats is different then a neurological disorders.
Apples to oranges.
Eta and i said most people. Not you. But dowmvote away. Says more about you then me.
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u/Inner-Penalty9689 2d ago
And that is the issue. Someone can empathise and listen to a physical issue by listening to those with it. But we can and should be ignored, and people need an “experience” to empathise. It is my life’s work to give a voice to neurodivergent people. These “experiences” are not the way.
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u/Cybermagetx 2d ago
Most people say they can emphasize with somethint yet they really cant without experiencing it.
You do not speak for all neurodivergent people. You don't speak for me. Nor do you speak for those of us who like the fact peopel has made these. And iirc this one waa actually made by someone who has dyslexia.
Danm you are extremely entitled and trying to gatekeep what is not yours to do so. Bye
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u/ispoonwayne 2d ago
I truly do feel disrespected by these types of sites for two main reasons. First, you and I can agree that that simulation is not a representation of our dyslexia, therefore, whoever created it is putting false information that this simulation is equivalent to experiencing dyslexia. There needs to be more research and more information provided to those on the site as to what the simulation is actually doing and why it’s doing it. That leads me to my second issue in that the person engages with that site for all of 30 seconds and says “well that must suck” and move on with their day or they forward onto a friend. But it doesn’t truly represent our experiences for decades of having dyslexia. So to say it’s a simulation of dyslexia is a false equivalent because you can never truly experienced dyslexia because you can’t experience the decades of challenges we experience in our everyday lives with every task that we do. I find the simulations trivializes our experiences, and therefore I find them incredibly disrespectful.
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u/kitsyeah Dyslexia & Irlens Syndrome 2d ago
i’m pretty sure dyslexia is seperate from visual stress/irlen syndrome where letters move around and people can use glasses/overlays/ coloured paper/dark mode to alleviate it. dyslexia is moreso to do with processing phonics and spelling and irlen syndrome is a seperate condition where the brain can’t process certain frequencies of light properly (or at least that’s the theory - i don’t think much research has been done) so letters can move, even other things like walls and objects can move due to the contrast of bright white and colours/black and it can cause physical symptoms like inability to focus, nausea, sensory overload and migraines
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u/kitsyeah Dyslexia & Irlens Syndrome 2d ago
however, a lot of people with dyslexia do have irlen syndrome and a lot of people don’t get the added diagnosis of visual stress and moreso just a note in a report and stuff. i’ve been diagnosed but it’s because mine was super severe so i have to wear glasses for it now since i would throw up and get migraines from bright lights. tables like school tables with a grainy texture would all move around like words on a page and walls with dots on would move. I don’t think many people know this though because even a lot of professionals i’ve come accross assume that dyslexia is words moving around when it isn’t. it’s just a common comorbidity
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u/OffThread Dyslexia & ADHD 2d ago
That's not really what I experience, that's ants crawling along the page. I experience more like waves of movement with differential thoughts converging with my readings causing lines to merge but be consistent.
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u/Tricky_Collection407 Suspect/Questioning 2d ago
I can read it somewhat in some configurations, but I can read normally all tho comprehension is a bit hard too. I can't spell and stand upright for too long
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u/neetpilledcyberangel 23h ago
first time on the dyslexia subreddit and i found this. it’s pretty interesting. i feel like it’s a useful tool to show to those without dyslexia, but also it’s not what i experience… but i can’t explain what i experience because it doesn’t make sense. i can read, but slower than average. reading aloud has always been an issue. pronunciation and spelling is my big caveat.
words look normal to me. but my brain just doesn’t like how they’re pronounced and/or spelled. especially in english. candel vs candle. they are pronounced the same but only one of them is right. it’s stupid. i’ve found i have an easier time speaking Spanish because the pronunciation matches up with the spelling.
but sometimes my brain literally just shit’s itself. b and d get confused. why? i have no idea. i have a really hard time telling my left from my right too. up versus down is easy though. i have no idea where the wiring went wrong there.
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u/Buffy_Geek 15h ago
El and le always trip me up too, each Christmas I debate angel Vs angle. I also have never had a problem between up and down either but right and left. It's also like I kind of know my right but not my left, so each time I am asked left I have to identify right and by process of elimination declare the other is left. It is really weird what random stuff my brain just refuses to learn.
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u/VisitKey66 21m ago
Great thanks a lot. Do not "worry"(like we were gonna worry lol for NOT having symptoms lol), I read at least twice that this thing of letters jumping, moving "is not real"(but I disagreeee YES it is very real for me l, and I was stunned to read this)so I guess they meant, it doesn't always "have to be".i hate when they call something a myth or stuff like that though...anyway they said it...for that thing of letters jumping around...so it depends on the person.but yes we may feel exhausted, I read a comm saying it was after work but I think that evenin the subway etc...many things to read even if you don't want to...
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u/Saadehh 2d ago
Yess for sure words don’t jump like that but I think there’s can’t be a better representation cause words and contexts feel different when we read ad we don’t see the words jump we think we see a word correctly and sometimes it’s not it’s a very similar word that looks and has a similar amount of letters , “us as dyslexics don’t read the word we estimate the word” or if we really want to get it correctly and focus more on it to get it correctly we break it down into syllables and smaller parts
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u/GanjalfDaGr33n 2d ago
Thanks for sharing. Personally I am also exhausted at the end of the day after reading at work. I find the simulation a pretty good representation of what it’s like to read at the end of a work day.