Hi All, as my first experience of a jam - it is great and fantastic to see so much genorosity.  Ive mentioned on one or two games about readability -Im dyslexic and use a read write programme for 90% of anything I read that involves rules etc. I've found quite a few great looking games that are unreadable using the programme I use and it feels such a shame.  I know not everyone wants to think about this or it doesnt matter too much to them but I definatly think its worth bearing in mind accessibility when it comes to presenting a game - Its incredible what you can get away with and still be readable (by a reader programme)  so I dont think it dents creativity. Anyway -. Ill shut up now, Rupert

Do you have any resources you recommend for things to do design wise to alleviate readability issues for dyslexic people?

Do you know what's (typically) the cause for such issues? Hard agree that accessibility is important to keep in mind, but I'm not at all familiar with read/write software so knowing what to look out for and avoid would be super helpful!

Hi these are top tips - where the solutions are pretty quick. :-)

The below is actually from text help advice but works across most read write software.

1. Image-Based vs. Text-Based PDFs

The biggest culprit is usually that the PDF isn't actually "text"—it's a photograph of text.

• Text-Based: These are created digitally (like saving a Word doc as a PDF). The computer knows exactly what a "T" is and where it sits on the page.
• Image-Based: These are often created by scanners or photocopiers. To the computer, the page is just one big picture of ink. Without Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Read&Write sees pixels, not words.

2. The "Z-Pattern" and Reading Order

Sometimes the text is there, but Read&Write reads the sidebar before the main paragraph. This happens because of the underlying tagging.

• Digital documents have a hidden layer that tells assistive technology, "Read this box first, then that column."
• If a PDF is poorly formatted (common with multi-column academic papers or brochures), that hidden map is a mess, and the software just follows the "physical" coordinates it finds, which might be nonsensical.

PS the z pattern bit above isnt so much of a problem as with most readers you can identify the specific text you want to read. 

3. Non-Standard Fonts 

If a PDF uses a highly stylized or custom font, the software might struggle to map the character shapes to actual letters. Similarly, if the space between letters is too tight, the OCR might see "rn" and read it as "m," leading to those "m-words" you might hear during playback.

I think this been the main problem  though i have encountered 'drawn' text that wont read

4. Security Restrictions

Some PDFs have "Owner Passwords" or security settings that specifically disable Content Accessibility. If the creator locked the file to prevent text copying, they often inadvertently block screen readers and literacy software from "seeing" the content at all.