In this episode of the “The Work of…” series, I spoke to Kevin Larson, a Principal Researcher on Microsoft’s Advanced Reading Technologies team. We talked about reading, dyslexia, fonts and accessibility, and more. Kevin has worked extensively on accessibility issues, and here provides an in-depth discussion of dyslexia that may prove surprising to listeners with preconceived notions about the condition.
What we did not discuss in detail (but which a good friend suggested I include!) was an overview of the concept of eye movement in reading. Eyes do not move continuously along a line of text, but make short, rapid movements (saccades) intermingled with short stops (fixations). Another acquaintance suggested I include recent research on return-sweep saccades during reading in adults and children (2019) as well as saccades and fixations in children with delayed reading skills (2017).
We’ll surely have Kevin back on for another round of reading-related conversation!
The Work of Reading (w/ Kevin Larson)