Bible Made More Accessible with 'Dyslexia-Friendly' Bible

Photo of Bible
A photo of an open Bible taken on February 2013. |

A special edition of two books of the Bible has been published to make the Bible more accessible to people with dyslexia.

To mark the start of Dyslexia Awareness Week (5-11 October), the Bible Society -- a non-profit organization devoted to distributing the Bible -- has published both the Gospel of Mark and the Psalms in dyslexia-friendly versions.

For people with dyslexia, the Bible can be a particularly challenging book to read due to the thin paper that shows words on the other side of the page and most Bibles use smaller sized text than the average book.

The newly published dyslexia-friendly Bibles are printed on thick, cream paper, uses large point size with a Sans Serif typeface and a single column of text per page.

Dyslexia is thought to be one of the most prevalent language-based learning disabilities, potentially affecting 5-10% of the population, according to Dyslexia Help.

Ruth, the mother of a dyslexic child expressed to Christian Today the importance of making the Bible more accessible.

"To make the Bible accessible is really important. If you can't pick up the Bible and learn more yourself, then you can't grow in your faith. We would like to see the rest of the Bible produced like this," she said.

"We're hugely encouraged by the early responses to these books. People are telling us that they¹ve been wanting this for years and asking when we're going to do the whole Bible," said Matthew Van Duyvenbode, the Director of External Relations, Advocacy & Research at the Bible Society.