KADK research project gets DKK 5.6 million from the Danish Council for Independent Research

Research into fonts will be given a substantial boost at KADK in the next few years. The Danish Council for Independent Research has just allocated DKK 5.6 million to the research project, ‘Typeface Legibility for Visually Impaired Readers’, which aims to design a new, easily legible font that will make it easier for visually impaired persons to read.

This impressive grant comes from the Danish Council for Independent Research, which allocates funding to “create space to pursue original research ideas with a yet unknown potential to improve our lives and lifestyles”. The Council provides financial support for research activities that are based on researchers’ own ideas, and the competition to get access to the much-coveted research funds is tough. This year the Council assessed 1,387 applications, and the success rate was around the 15% mark.

Research into fonts for the visually impaired

The project, which has received the impressive grant, is titled ‘Typeface Legibility for Visually Impaired Readers. Associate Professor Sofie Beier will be responsible for its day-to-day management.  

The project team aims to examine and identify which letter shapes are the most legible on signs and screens, and in printed media, for people struggling with a vision impairment: maybe because of age-related spots on the retina or illnesses that have destroyed their eyes’ reading vision.

An interdisciplinary research project

This interdisciplinary project involves researchers from the world of design, psychology and clinical ophthalmology and aims to identify every angle in the investigations.

The results of the research project will generate new, important knowledge that can be used in written communication on the likes of signs, paper and screens, thereby substantially improving legibility for partially sighted individuals.

Associate Professor Sofie Beier says:  I am very excited, and very grateful for the grant. With the extra funding that the Danish Council for Independent Research has awarded KADK and the Visual Orientation research group, we are now able to conduct a huge range of tests and studies of partially sighted readers, before designing material that can improve their reading experience. The project is based on international collaboration and also involves researchers from the eye department at Glostrup Hospital. We can’t wait to get started!”

The project is under the aegis of the Institute of Visual Design at KADK’s School of Design. The funds from the Danish Council for Independent Research will, for example, finance a 2-year postdoc position and a PhD scholarship at KADK.