May 28, 2024
Contribution written by Mark Woods, and republished with permission from the British and Foreign Bible Society.
For the first time ever, the whole Bible has been made available in a dyslexia-friendly format.
The British and Foreign Bible Society initiative began in 2015 with the book of Psalms and the Gospel of Mark. It’s now been completed with the publication of Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua.
People with dyslexia can struggle to read and write easily because they don’t deal well with text on a page. Around 6 million people in the UK, and an estimated 780 million people worldwide – one in ten of the population – are thought to have the condition. Reading the Bible can be particularly challenging as Bibles are often produced on thin paper in densely printed type.
The books in the dyslexia-friendly format are laid out like novels rather than in traditional columns and use shorter paragraphs. The larger, sans serif typeface with more space between the lines helps to reduce visual clutter.
The books use thick paper so words don’t show through from the next page and a matte, rather than glossy, finish minimises light reflection. Because the dyslexia-friendly series is published in shorter volumes, readers find it easier to navigate them instead of having to find their way through a thick Bible.
Clair Natt, who has dyslexia, says: “I struggled reading the Bible because the words are so small and the pages are really thin. I just found it really difficult to read; it’s just too complicated for me to comprehend and understand.”
Reading Scripture in the Good News Bible Dyslexia-Friendly edition has transformed her experience, she says. “The Dyslexia-Friendly Bible’s really helpful because it’s more spaced out, the words are bigger and it’s just easier to read. I think before I’d struggle reading the Bible because it felt so big, whereas the Dyslexia Bible is just so much easier to read for me. And it was broken down with pictures as well, which I quite liked.”
The Bible Society’s publishing director Derek Hill said:
‘We want to make the Bible available and accessible to everyone who needs it. We’ve willingly committed resources to this project because we know it will benefit many people who find reading the Bible really difficult. Now they’ll be able to discover its treasures for themselves.
‘People can collect the different books as individuals, or churches might decide to invest in a set. This is a really significant achievement and we’re delighted to have reached this accessibility milestone.’
The Dyslexia-Friendly range can be ordered from the Bible Society’s online shop.
