Interactive e-Books to Support Reading Skills in Dyslexia

Developmental dyslexia is the specific learning disability in reading that affects the ability to read written text. In the current paper we explore the potential offered by interactive e-book technologies for supporting reading in people with developmental dyslexia. An important aspect of interactive e-books, which cannot be easily achieved with traditional printed media, is the ease of customizing the text layout in a way that can potentially help those with reading difficulties. We discuss findings from empirical studies in psychology and accessibility that identify best practices for presenting electronic text for readers with dyslexia. Moreover, given the spreading availability of e-readers and the flexibility provided by e-books to present content in different ways, we discuss the opportunities of using interactive e-books for improving reading skills. We believe that interactive e-books can be used not only as a support for facilitating reading but also as a way to develop and enhance the learning abilities of dyslexic readers