Dyslexia Simulation

The activities on this page are designed to help visitors experience how decoding effort, inaccessible formatting, and cognitive overload can interfere with problem solving. 

These simulations are not meant to literally recreate dyslexia or perfectly represent the lived experiences of dyslexic students. Dyslexia presents differently from person to person. Some individuals may experience visual instability or letters appearing to shift, and others may not. Further, dyslexia as a whole cannot be reduced down to one short activity. 

Instead, these activities are designed to increase decoding effort and demonstrate how barriers can compete with mathematical reasoning. 

In classrooms, students may be expected to simultaneously:

• read text

• process symbols and notation

• track multiple quantities

• organize information

• remember steps

• determine what the problem is asking

• solve the problem itself

When these demands stack together, mathematical tasks can become exhausting before students even begin solving. 

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The activity below introduces visual instability, letter substitutions, and occasional number transpositions into a systems of equations problem. 

As you work through the task, notice:

• how often you reread

• whether your attention shifts away from the problem itself

• how much effort goes into decoding the text

• whether frustration or fatigue begins building

Redesign Challenge

How Could This Task Be More Accessible?

Below is the original version of the fundraiser problem.

Identifying Possible Barriers

Although the mathematics itself is doable (systems of equations), the problem introduces several demands that are unrelated to solving the system. 

Possible barriers include:

• large amounts of uninterrupted text

• multiple quantities embedded in sentences

• unnecessary details

• important information scattered throughout the paragraph

• needing to reread to locate relevant information

Your Turn: Redesign the Problem

Without lowering expectations: 

• How could the task be reorganized?

• What information is essential?

• What information could be presented more clearly?

• How might visual organization improve accessibility?

Try redesigning the problem before viewing the example below. 

One Possible Redesign

What Changed?

The mathematics is identical.

However, the redesigned version: 

• separates important information visually

• reduces unnecessary reading demands

• makes numerical information easier to locate

The way information is visually presented in worksheets can dramatically affect accessibility. 

Compare the two examples below. 

Example A

A store is having a sale. A customer buys 3 notebooks that cost $4.99 each, 2 packs of markers that cost $7.49 each, and a calculator for $18.95. The customer uses a coupon for $5 off the total purchase before tax. If sales tax is 6%, what is the final total cost of the purchase? Round to the nearest cent. 

Example B

A customer receives the following receipt. Determine the customer’s final total after the coupon and 6% sales tax are applied. Round to the nearest cent. 

Although both examples are asking the same question, the second version changes how the information is organized and processed. 

• In Example A, students encounter a large block of text before knowing what they are being asked to determine. This can increase rereading, visual scanning, and working memory demands.

• In Example B, students see the purpose of the task first, and the information is organized visually rather than embedded in a paragraph. The problem is exactly the same, but the structure reduces unnecessary cognitive load.

Some barriers can appear during tasks that seem simple at first glance. 

Try copying the expression below onto a separate sheet of paper or into a notes app without looking back multiple times. 

Now compare what you copied to the original. 

Did you:

• miss a negative sign?

• reverse a number?

• lose parentheses?

• omit a term?

• copy something incorrectly without noticing?

Copying information can actually require substantial cognitive effort. This can be compounded by also trying to pay attention to what a teacher or classmate is saying. 

A small transcription error can completely change the problem. 

These kinds of errors can be interpreted as:

• "careless mistakes"

• inattention

• rushing

• not checking work

But for some students, the issue isn't carelessness. The issue is the amount of visual tracking, sequencing, working memory, and sustained attention required to move accurately between locations on a page. 

This becomes even more difficult when:

• worksheets are visually crowded

• spacing is inconsistent

• students copy from a board across the room

• time pressure is involved

Some dyslexic students may: 

• transpose numbers

• confuse visually similar symbols

• lose place while copying information

• accidentally omit information

• reverse digits

For example:

• writing 31 instead of 13

• reading 61 as 91

• copying 1.30 as 3.10

These mistakes can be easily interpreted as "careless errors," even though they may result from the interaction between visual processing, working memory load, and the structure of the task itself. 

This can become especially frustrating for students because they may fully understand the mathematics conceptually while still arriving at an incorrect answer due to transcription or decoding challenges.

• At what point did the task begin to feel mentally exhausting?

• Did you notice yourself focusing more on decoding than reasoning?

• How did the formatting affect your ability to organize information?

• How might repeated experiences like this affect a student's confidence or willingness to participate?

• How often are tasks unintentionally evaluating decoding speed rather than mathematical understanding?

The activities are not about advocating for making mathematics easier. 

They are designed to show the distinction between:

• mathematical reasoning 

and 

• unnecessary barriers to access

Inclusive mathematics classrooms should not lower expectations for students. Instead, they should recognize that students cannot accurately demonstrate what they know when excessive cognitive energy is spent decoding, tracking, organizing, or simply trying to access the task itself. 

When we reduce unnecessary barriers, we create more opportunities for students to engage meaningfully with mathematics rather than fighting to access it.