I made a mistake.
Last week I was finally at the stage where we were ready to hit the 'print' button for the proof copies of Pirate Penguin.
This is always an exciting but also nerve-wracking moment usually preceded by lots of re-reading, and questioning every grammatical decision. (Should we capitalise penguin breeds? Should that be a full stop or a comma?)
Learning from previous experience I sent draft copies of Pirate Penguin to a small group of trusted 'beta readers': Fellow indie publishers, parents and teachers who have a keen interest in the book.
I'm so glad I did because Samuel from Owlet Press flagged something they had received feedback on recently too: The font doesn't look fully accessible.
I immediately realised my mistake.
In the excitement of finding a brilliant font that suits the exciting adventures of Flipper and friends through the Antarctic, I had not checked that the font is accessible for dyslexic and other neurodiverse readers.
Not so brilliant.
I'm an inclusive publisher and I failed to consider inclusive fonts.
After a frantic 48 hours of researching and going back and forth to my wonderful illustrator Nicci, we found 'Dyslexie' - a font specifically created for dyslexic readers. it even had a kids version with the single story 'a'.
Brilliant!
Before sending to print, I tested it out again with my beta readers. One of them is a primary school teacher who is dyslexic. Her response to the Dyslexie font confirmed how important this change was:
"I thought the previous text was fine but with this new font I'm able to focus more when reading it. No jumping letters or having to re-read a sentence. I guess I've gotten so used to muddling through when reading! Honestly it blew my mind. I didn't know there was a specific font to make reading easier for me."
After hitting the 'send to print' button I reflected some more on this feedback. I hadn't realised how much mental load is added for people with dyslexia when they are reading - especially children's picture books which often use different fonts.
This could be the difference between a child 'getting through' a book and enjoying a book.
It could be the difference between a parent reading it once to reading it multiple times.
I'm so grateful to my team of supportive readers who take the time to give me such constructive feedback, and I'm especially grateful for organisations like Dyslexie Font and Open Dyslexic ( which offers a free dyslexic friendly font!) for creating these brilliantly accessible fonts.
You can pre-order Pirate Penguin now! Follow this link to support 10-year-old author Hunter McNeil-Ali and get an exclusive signed copy of this amazing adventure story
