French TV channel launches pioneering subtitles for dyslexic viewers

Issuance of: 2023/04/28 – 16:14

8-12% of the world’s population suffers from dyslexia. Dyslexia is a neurological condition that affects how the brain processes written language.

Reading subtitles is particularly difficult for some patients due to their format and speed on the screen. Accessing foreign language movies and series in their original versions is therefore more difficult.

To reach the largest number of subscribers with subtitled content, Canal+ developed Dystitles in partnership with Puissance Dys, an organization that specializes in dyslexia.

We use fonts that are adapted for dyslexic viewers to read without having to decipher each letter.

T.The letters are written in black and the spaces inside the letters (counterforms) are filled in with white.

This typography allows people with dyslexia to “understand subtitles thanks to a design that corresponds to how their brain perceives letters.” Speech therapist and neuropsychologist Beatrice Sauvageot, Puissance Dis.

In a press release issued earlier this week, Canal+ wrote that Dystitles “can be understood by non-dyslexics after a short adaptation period.”

Revolutionary, but not all

Sauvageot described the implementation of Dystitles as a “revolution” for dys and non-dys people.

Speech therapist Valerie Corineau-Moutier said, “Making reading accessible to people with dyslexia like everyone else seems like the bare minimum to me.” .

Dystitles will be available as an option in the language and subtitles settings menu “by summer 2023” on the subscription-only myCANAL platform. Said Le Parisien every day.

We aim to integrate it into all programs, including live, by 2025.

some general members expressed dissatisfaction It was revealed on social media that Dystitles was never open source.

dyslexia One of the specific language and learning disabilities (SLDs) commonly referred to as ‘aphasia’.

The French National Health Authority estimates that around 8% of school-age children are affected by a disability.