The Menu Project

What I can do for your business.

I will help you make your menu easy to read for people with dyslexia and other reading challenges.

Which, if you are unfamiliar with the term dyslexia, let me give you a brief overview. Dyslexia is a reading disability that affects the part of the brain that processes language, making reading and writing harder to learn and retain. It can affect people with normal intelligence and vision so it sometimes goes undiagnosed. With dyslexia, having a good font, high color contrast and the correct spacing is very important to help lessen the "movement" of the words and letters on the page. (See the examples page for more on "movement".) As a dyslexic reader, the words and letters can move on the page and if the font is more elaborate, then the letters become harder to tell apart. For example, in a more difficult font the letters "d,b,p,q,j,g,6,8,9,&" can all look like the same letter to me. This happens with a lot of other sets of letters and numbers. (see Examples page for more information)

When I go out to eat with my family or friends I often have a very hard time reading the menu due to the layout, elaborate fonts, spacing and sometimes the color of the paper. If the menu is too hard to read, I will just end up going with a burger or some other simple item that most places have, but if the menu was easier to read I probably would have gotten something more exciting. And I know I am not the only one this happens to because "The United States Department of Health and Human Services estimates that 15% of the U.S. population has dyslexia." (see top link in footer for more information)

Now think about this... If 15% of people in the US have dyslexia that means that your business could be losing money. You may ask yourself how? But think of all the people coming to eat at your restaurant that order a burger, if half of those people who ordered a burger are dyslexic, like me, they might want to get something more fancy and exciting. And have been willing to pay more than what a burger costs. But because the menu was too difficult to read they didn't get the rack of ribs special. Which means they only got a 15 dollar meal when they might have spent 30 or 35 dollars on something they would have enjoyed even more.