New Simulation Reveals What It's Like to Have Dyslexia

Web developer Victor Widell is attempting to shine some light on dyslexia with a little creative coding simulation.

In GIF form, the computerized simulation looks something like this. 

For those who deal with its effects, dyslexia can cause severe difficulty reading and writing, with many saying the letters within words can appear jumbled and out of order. Despite afflicting roughy 20% of the U.S. population and being the scourge of celebrities from Jennifer Aniston to Richard Branson, the disorder remains mysterious and misunderstood. 

Read more: This Is Why a Company Posted an Ad for a Job Only Available to Dyslexics

"A friend who has dyslexia described to me how she experiences reading," Widell wrote on his website, using the simulation. "She can read, but it takes a lot of concentration, and the letters seem to 'jump around.'"

The text in the simulation is, appropriately an explanation of dyslexia, with the first paragraph reading: 

"Dyslexia is characterized by difficulty with learning to read fluently and with accurate comprehension despite normal intelligence. This includes difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, processing speed, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, language skills/verbal comprehension, and/or rapid naming."

h/t CNN