Siena Blog

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Dyslexia Awareness Month 2025 

For Dyslexia Awareness Month 2025, Siena is taking the opportunity to highlight a promising new initiative from some book publishers: dyslexia-friendly editions of adult and young adult books. These offer dyslexic readers another option for print books by using certain font choices and page design elements to ease readability.

Dyslexia-Friendly Book Editions

Two presses headquartered in England, Bloomsbury and Books on the Hill Press, have published several dyslexia-friendly book editions in the past few years. 

Bloomsbury editions released in the past year include Circe and Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Books on the Hill Press has also offered dyslexia-friendly versions of such classics as Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, and selected Sherlock Holmes stories, among many other titles. In addition, they’ve also published versions of contemporary books by Bernard Cornwell and Garth Nix.

Jess Stevens, Rights Assistant for Bloomsbury's Adult Trade titles, shared in this short piece on their website that, as someone with severe dyslexia, she saw a need for such books and then pitched the idea to Bloomsbury in 2021:  

When you’re young it’s because you don’t know the rules around reading and spelling. But as you get older, whilst those are still issues you encounter, they are joined by difficult formats, font choices and paper colour, adding to an already taxing experience.

Bloomsbury’s dyslexia-friendly editions use a sans-serif font and cream-colored paper with blue text to increase contrast and thus accessibility for dyslexic readers.

The dyslexia-friendly editions from Books on the Hill Press adopt a similar approach, using a larger, sans-serif font and generous line spacing to ease reading and processing. Books on the Hill Press was founded by Dr. Alistair Sims, who is dyslexic and co-owns and -operates a bookstore with his sister in Clevedon near Bristol, England.

“People assume that, if a book is for dyslexic adults, then it’s simplified in plot and language, but it’s not. We’re not really changing the contents, we’re changing the formatting to make it easier to read.” Learn more about Sims and Books on the Hill Press in this 2024 article from The Guardian.

There’s hope from Stevens, Sims, and others in the industry that this trend will catch on among major publishing houses to further expand availability for dyslexic readers.

Resources for Publishing Accessibility 

Here are some additional resources for dyslexia-friendly reading:

• Books to Get Kids Reading (Dyslexia Help)
• Dyslexia Friendly Books for Children (Barrington Stoke Books)
  • Some of these have Kindle editions with text that can be adjusted (e.g., size, font, color, margins, spacing, alignment)
• Everyone Can Be A Reader (Barnes & Noble)
  • These editions use specialized fonts, paper tones, and formatting to increase readability across a wide range of age and interest levels. There is also a dedicated section and signage in Barnes & Noble stores.
• Flyleaf Publishing

Siena Resources

Remember that Siena’s intentionality of communication for the LD community applies to our website: the LD-friendly dyslexie font can be activated by clicking on the Dyslexie icon on the top right corner (desktop) or bottom left corner (mobile) of our website.

Click here for some Helpful Resources on dyslexia, ADHD, college preparedness, and more. You can also explore our series of blog posts on Teacher Resources, Social-Emotional Health, and Cultural Heritage Spotlights.

The Siena School, a national leader in dyslexia education, serves bright, college-bound students with language-based learning differences on DC Metro area campuses in Silver Spring, MD (grades 3-4 and 5-12) and Oakton, VA (grades 3-12).