D&D character sheets for players with dyslexia

Redditors Inuyasharuls and Axelle123 have created dyslexia-friendly D&D character sheets.

It’s a good idea. In the UK alone, 20,000 cases of dyslexia are diagnosed each year. Symptoms include visual disturbances such as words seeming to move while you’re trying to read them.

There are techniques to help. For example, the OpenDyslexix typeface has been specially designed to be easier for suffers to read.

These D&D character sheets use Comic Sans instead. It’s a much-maligned font but was created to be readable. DM Inuyasharuls runs D&D for several dyslexic players and found Comic Sans worked best for these sheets.

You can download the Dyslexic appropriate Dungeons & Dragons from this Google Drive. They’re a PDF that weighs in at just under 5MB.

Update, Dec 19. This post has sparked a few conversations and questions on Twitter. Thankfully, one of the co-designers has kindly offered to answer questions. Please don’t bombard Axelle.

Thank you. I'm honestly super shocked at how many people have seen this and will be using them. It was originally a small pet project to help me and my group

— Axelle (@AxellesNobody) December 19, 2019

Do you have any other tips or resources for Dyslexic players? Please share them in the comments below.

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Hi there! Italian player here. I would like to translate this beautiful character sheet, which also does the job of teaching neophites how the game works. Is it possible to have the project file to edit the text in order to create a translation?
Thanks in advance,
Best Regards,
Andrea Bergamelli

That is a wonderful idea but you will need to contact the creators (who are credited and linked to in this article) directly. I’m sure they’ll agree since they were kind enough to give the original set away for free.

I like the shaped boxes, they make life so much easier as they are more like a “picture” of what the item is so you can identify it immediately. But I would recommend using a font like Calibri rather than Comic Sans, but each to their own, Dyslexia is a spectrum rather than a singular issue so some people with dyslexia prefer the more informal style of comic sans and others don’t because they key into a more formal clear printed nature of a style like Calibri. having a range of these sheets with differing print that we could download … Read more »

I agree with that!
I personally prefere Calibri over Comic Sans because the space between the words and letters seem bigger.

Comments like yours is the reason we now have a editable version avalable! To be honest we made these sheets to help my own dyslexia. Never in our lives we thought more then a handful of people would see. Im happy we were able to make sheets that could help in some way. Thank you so much for the suggestions

Hello! I am a DM that teaches younger players how to play D&D, and they LOVE the pictures. It helps them connect to the numbers better, and they pick things up much faster this way. The creators are angels!

The six and nine on the last page is a problem. I can’t tell those two numbers apart. If the nine had a long line instead of being an inverted six, than there would be no problem for me, or if the numbers were spelled out instead.

Thank you for this suggestion. We updated the forms to have lines on the 6 and 9. I apologise for that problem ad hope the new version helps!

I love this idea! Especially the use of symbols to help visualize the meaning of the words.

One of the designers for the sheet here. If you click on my friends account that was linked here You can find the Reddit post and comment to us Directly using that post. I had no idea about this article untill a few hour ago while i was working. any questions and comments can go there an we will try to anser the best we cant

Thanks for popping over, the comment and for all the hard work on these amazing character sheets. I’m happy that this little blog has been able to give this good idea a bit of a signal boost. I can also compile all the interesting suggestions/comments left or made over the next few days and send them over to you.

Thank you for talking about it honestly. I was starting to lose hope on it since the thread has been quiet the past few months. I started geting alot of tweets about the blog. Ive gotten dozens if not maybe at least 100 tweets thanking me ad my friend for the sheets. Any suggestions or comments that show up would be great to see. Or in the article if you can edit it tell readers they can go to reddit or my twitter for questions about it. :3

Thank you! That’s very kind of you to offer. I’ve updated the post with your Twitter link and an embed of one of your humble comments, so people have more context. Please let me know if you get bombarded (I’ve asked people not to) and decide you’d prefer it if the link and invitation were gone. I can update the post again to remove them.

Hey forgive me for messaging you in a comment there seems to be no other way to contact you. but It seems like a comment i made on my phone went though when I thought it didnt so I wrote my comment again to the same person. Is there a way to delete the smaller of the 2 comments. The larger one is the one i want to keep.

I run a table for developmentally disabled people from my job, I’m excited to try this to see if it helps them navigate their sheets a little easier.

can’t download it. using a stable internet but it says that I am not connected. Using google chrome on Samsung galaxy S7 edge

Hi. Sorry to hear about your download troubles. It’s working for me right now… is there a chance your ISP is blocking the connection to the Google Folder?

Hola, por vergüenza jamás digo que tengo dislexia, muchos años jugando D&D memorizando la hoja para evitar errores, con los colores y las imágenes que acompañan se vuelve más fácil para mi, creo que es excelente gracias.
(favor de usar el traductor para leer mi comentario)

An editable version is now live and avalable. For anyone to Translate into other languages and to fix any issues you personally have! thank you all for the support with this sheet. Hopefully this will help even more https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/d4s0rw/character_sheets_for_people_with_dyslexia/?sort=new

Im dyslexic. And this actually makes it worse, considerably so. I am sure it works for some people and that is absolutely fantastic. It just doesnt work for my dyslexia and probably for others I suspect. Making it a really good example of the dangers of making adjustments and assuming they work widely for people. As its a pdf its a great idea to see if this works for someone. But if it doesnt dont get mad, or question their dyslexia.. On a more technical level. I have three big take aways. Its to generic trying IMO to deal with … Read more »

Suggestion: Make one with coloration similar to Beeline Reader: https://www.beelinereader.com/

@Dean Pye Comments like yours are very appreciated and exactly why we made an editable version avalable. When I designed the original it was made for me and my group. We posted it on reddit cause we were excited about it and wated to share. We were not expecting more then maybe a handful of people seeing it let alone an article on it. On reddit we made it clear we aint experts ad understood it isnt for everyone. I am sorry it doesnt work for you personally and If i make a new one in the future ill keep … Read more »

So, could you please explain what the fire like symbol means on the upper right side of the sheet next to “speed” as it is blank and I am not certain for what it is for? Everything else is clear. thinking of using this for a niece who has developmental issues. Thanks!

That’s a general/unassigned slot – use for it what’s the burning need at the time.

Thank you, I was thinking along those lines and appreciate the clarification.

Forgive me for comment spamming it is not allowing me to reply to people. But On the reddit post there is an updated version of the sheets as well as the PSD files so you can edit. The download link is for the older version of the sheets, We fixed some spelling errors as well as added lines to 6 and 9 suggested by several users on twitter ad here

Hiya. I’ve updated the post with your new links. Thanks SO SO much for re-visiting the project and spending time taking suggestions from people and making changes. You’ve been simply amazing.

Wouldn’t it be better if the font used also be a font makes specifically for dislexy?

That’s likely to be the case for some people, but for the group these sheets were made for, Comic Sans worked better.

We chose comics sans because it worked best for my group. Had no idea the sheets would explode in popularity. Because of that we now offer a editable version on the Reddit page and Google doc so ppl can change it to suit their needs :3

Thanks for the response. I am trying to highlight the danger of a top down approach. Of people assuming what works for one, works for all. There are a number of phrases on this page and in the share I saw on facebook that show that metamorphosis. From reasonable adjustment to unreasonable one.. Despite some of you statements clearly showing the opposite, and that your aware of the limitations and are honest about were and why you made this. People will be people and will present it as a simplistic panacea. As someone who deals with adjustments quite regularly especially … Read more »

Omg my son is dyslexic and I wanted to get him D&D for Xmas but was so worried about his frustration with the reading. B you so much for this!! 😭

This is great!! I am a tutor and am always looking for ways to makes my students’ interests more accessible. My son also has dyslexia and likes to play D&D. Good work adapting the character sheets!!

Hi. This is a great idea, specialy the colour coding of the skills and the changes in the graphic designs of the boxes that hold important information about character mecanics. From reading the coments and as a dyslexic myself I would like to put out there that when it comes to selecting fonts. It would be best to offer a veriety since, from experience, I have noticed that diffrent people with dyslexia prefure diffrent texts or even page colours due to their own personal abilities and experiences. As example, I prefure times roman over any other font, even those specialy … Read more »

Yeah we have gotten several comments like this and because of that we now have a editable version avalable so people can change the fonts to what works for them. When I originally made the sheets they were designed for me personally and my own struggles. We had no idea they would explode in popularity like this and we have been working on making it even more acessable thanks to comments like yours. Thank you and forgive me for issues you had with the sheets

The sheets look really nice. But I think psd Photoshop is not a good file format for them. Those visuals are better suited to vector graphics rather than raster. Also, I think it would be easier for most if the text was bigger. Four pages rather than two. But I really like what you have done so far.

I just want to weigh in here and say that these are great! Not just great for people with Dyslexia, but I can see them having huge benefits for people with ADHD, ASD or younger children.

Another tip: Print on a “cool” colored paper (blue or green). I have an easier time reading if the background isn’t a bright color. Personally, I’ve found blue the easiest color to help me read. Do NOT use “warm” colors…those are next to impossible to read from. If you must go neutral, use sepia paper. Also…All caps with Comic Sans…HUGE nope! Only capitalize the first letter. Using all caps for acronyms is fine since HP is read “aitch pee” (you’re just reading the letter, not trying to read a word). And, come on, Comic Sans, is hard to read even … Read more »

Thank you for your comment. I would like to clarify a few things, When making these sheets we made them specificly to help me be able to play the game with little to no frustration. We had no idea the sheets would end up featured in an article or even seen by more then a handful of people. Before publishing we play tested these sheets with several players of various disability including dyslexia, Autism, ADHD and my own disabilitys. We chose caps and comic sans because those were the ones that helped me the most when playing. Because of comments … Read more »

Just a comment for the author of this piece; I shared it and one of my friends who has dyslexia commented that the language used in the article re: “suffering” undermines the intent. He is frustrated by dyslexia but is not defined by it and would appreciate the language used in this article (and any future writing you do) be more considerate / less ableist. For more info, check: http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/dasblog/2012/01/31/ableism-and-language Thanks for bringing this to light and thanks for the original creators for doing great work, especially providing an editable form. Universal design principles are great to start; allowing for … Read more »

Thank you Sen! I appreciate you telling a friend about the post and then taking the time to feedback to me.

As a disabled writer, ablism is something I try and avoid – but I may have gotten it wrong this time.

I used the word suffering here to make it clear that in this scenario, dyslexia is a real hardship and that, although pretty, these character sheets are more than just a stylistic choice.

As a fellow dyslexic “suffering” can be an appropriate choice of word. Especially when talking about specific difficulties and barriers.

I dont want to be dismissed as a dyslexic sufferer ie defined by it.

But its accurate to say I suffer from difficulties relating to organisational tasks due to my processing of information.

There is actually no research that supports the theory that OpenDyslexia benefits people with dyslexia. Research does support that people with dyslexia perform better with fonts they are comfortable with.

That aside, thank you for making these.

Uhm, feeling dumb, what is the fire symbol for?

Not dumb at all! A few people have asked and that’s partly because these sheets weren’t created with the idea of sharing to people across the internet, so there’s no instructions! I’ve seen people ask that question before and I believe the answer is the fire symbol is a miscellaneous space to use (or not) as required.

But what does the FLAME mean?

I believe the flame is a miscellaneous space to use as you see fit.

Hey! I love the look of your CRS. I was wondering if you would mind if I made it form fillable. Once done, I’d be more than willing to upload it back to the drive.

Hi Oliver, Geek Native is just sharing @AxellesNobody’s great work and does not have write access to the Google Drive. They’ve been awesome in listening to suggestions and making changes for people so I recommend getting in touch via Twitter.

I’ve tried downloading this several times, but I keep getting the same error message.

Sorry, your network/isp may be blocking Google Drive. It’s not an unheard-of security measure (but it’s a frustrating one).

I printed several of these off for new players because I’ve found these sheets make it easier to teach newcomers. But I’m drawing a blank on what the flame in the top right is to represent.

I believe the designers intended that for a wildcard space, so you can use it as you see fit or ignore it.

I am just trying these pages out. Seem like a good idea. On the upper right of the page, you have speed, and then next to it a fire sign. What is that used for? Sleep or rest time?

I’m told the fire is a free slot to use as you see fit. I think many people use it for rests/campfires.

Thank you for making this available. My 6-year-old was recently diagnosed with leukemia and my 10-year-old has been asking for quite some time to play. With the recent self-isolation efforts, I thought I might try my hand at teaching them. I know the character sheet was designed to increase accessibility to people with dyslexia, it also makes it easier for younger players to access guided imaginative play. My younger child is learning how to read, and having icon-based reference will make this a little easier to start.

wait I’m kinda new to dnd and love the character sheet but what’s the fire for?

Hiya, I’m not the designer but believe the fire space isn’t for anything in particular, it’s a wildcard slot for you to track whatever is hot at the time.

Hi really thanks I am dyslexic myself and it really helps

The Flame lookin part to the right of speed is for what?

Whatever you want! 🔥 It’s a wildcard.

Hi, why can I only download the Spanish or Italian version and not any other version? This is perfect for my campaign I would love to be able to use it. ^^ so it would be great help for me to get the english version

I will say I myself am not dyslexic, but I happened to stumble across this character sheet and have to say this is by far my favorite custom character sheet I’ve ever come across.

I just wanted to let you know that I came across this and I really appreciate it. I don’t have dyslexia but I find the layout you created allows me to focus on things without having to read through the whole sheet. I don’t feel so overwhelmed while looking at it. Thank you! Auch für die deutsche Übersetzung!

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D&D character sheets for players with dyslexia

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