Optical is a font family and browser extension that customizes letters to low vision. Reading is not a trivial task. Two hundred and sixty million rods and cones in your eyes detect light and relay electrical signals to the language centres in your brain for identification and interpretation. We depend on the written word to stay informed, connected, and employed, but we haven’t perfected it. Our alphabet was created for paper, for the general population. It works well. It doesn’t work perfectly for everyone. Research suggests ways to improve letters for low vision. But low vision varies by source and degree. There are no one size fits all solutions in accessibility. Optical uses the variable font format to improve legibility for a broad range of vision.

Optical is a font family and browser extension that tailors letters to varied low vision. Research suggests ways to improve letters for low vision. But vision varies, there are no one size fits all solutions in accessibility. Optical uses the variable font format to improve control over legibility.

Reading is not a trivial task. Two hundred and fifty million rods and cones in your eyes detect light and relay electrical signals to the language centres in your brain for identification and interpretation. Darwin himself struggled to reconcile the complexity of the eye with the random mutations that steer natural selection. We depend on written language to stay informed, connected and employed, but we haven’t perfected it. Our alphabet was created for paper, for the general population. It works really well, but it doesn’t work really well for everyone.

Optical started as a design school thesis project before finding partners and funding in support of a year of development, including research, design, development and feedback phases. Version one is the result of a collaboration between Innovation Sciences and Economic Development Canada's Accessible Technology Program, Emily Carr University (the Health Design Lab and the Shumka Centre), Disability Alliance of BC, Liiift Studio, Abyss Type Company and myself. Optical released in April 2022 and is seeking partners for continued development: scientific testing, offline use, expansions for coding and language support.