French TV channel unveils pioneering subtitles for viewers with dyslexia

France’s private Canal+ TV has developed a new typography to help people who suffer from dyslexia to access its subtitled content.

Canal+ worked with serigraphers, neurologists, dyslexic and non-dyslexic people to develop Dystitles. © Screengrab Canal+

Between eight and 12 percent of the world’s population suffers from dyslexia – a neurological condition that affects the way the brain processes written language.

Reading subtitles is particularly challenging for some sufferers due to the format and speed with which they go by on the screen. It's therefore more difficult to access foreign language films and series in the original version.

In a bid to get its subtitled content to a maximum of subscribers Canal+ has developed Dystitles in conjunction with Puissance Dys – an organisation specialised in dyslexia.

It uses an adapted font allowing viewers with dyslexia to read without having to decipher letters one by one.

The letters are written in black, and the space inside the letters (the counterform) is filled in with white.

The typography allows dyslexics "to understand the subtitles thanks to a design that corresponds to the way their brain perceives letters", says speech-therapist and neuropsychologist Beatrice Sauvageot, president of Puissance Dys.

Dystitles is also "understandable by non-dyslexic people, after a slight adaptation period", Canal+ writes in its press release issued earlier this week.

A revolution, but not for all

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

Speech therapist Valérie Colineau-Moutiez said: "Allowing dyslexics to have access to reading like everyone else seems to me to be the minimum".

Dystitles will be available on the subscription-only myCANAL platform as an option in the language and subtitle settings menu "by the summer of 2023" Gérald-Brice Viret, CEO of Canal+France, told Le Parisien daily.

The aim is to integrate it in all programmes, including live ones, by 2025.

Some members of the public expressed frustration on social media that Dystitles was not open source.

Dyslexia is one of the specific language and learning disorders (SLD), commonly referred to as a "dys disorder", along with dysphasia (language) or dyspraxia (motor development and writing).

The French National Health Authority estimates some 8 percent of school-age children are affected by dys disorders.