Hattatson Festival 2022 was held on Saturday, April 2nd, World Autism Awareness Day and the first day of Developmental Disabilities Awareness Week. As a private-sector initiative, the UD Digital Textbook Font, which is highly rated by people with reading difficulties, was introduced, and Morisawa's developer, Takada, took to the stage!
What is Hattatson Festival?
The event was organized by Ledesone LLC, a company that operates under the concept of "creating a society where everyone can live comfortably together," and included special lectures by experts, examples of initiatives by private companies, and the Hattatson program.*1This is an online festival that brings together seminars where various stakeholders will introduce the services and content of projects that have been born from the project.
*1 Hattathon Program: A program in which people with disabilities and able-bodied people team up to co-create services and systems to solve invisible social issues related to "schools/education," "work environments," and "daily life."
Through talking about UD fonts, I hope to raise awareness among the public about the difficulties children have with reading and the potential for UD fonts to provide support!
If you weren't able to attend on the day, please check out the archived video at the end of the article..
Highlights of this year
This year's event began with special lectures on the theme of "Co-creation with Developmental Disabilities" by Akiko Hashiguchi, a universal design consultant, and Naoto Muranaka, author of "Neurodiversity Textbook" and "The Unending Addiction to Scolding," as well as an introduction to the efforts of the University of Tsukuba's DAC Center.
FONT SWITCH PROJECT has also interviewed Naoto Muranaka in the past.
As part of the Hattathon program, developers provided information through seminars on topics such as "CONDUCTOR," a task management app that creates a comfortable working environment for everyone, "Ristre," a break support app that aims to create an environment where people can work in their own way, and "mahora Note," which was developed from the perspective of people with developmental disabilities and takes into consideration factors such as paper quality, color, easy-to-read lines, and opening position.
Developer of Morisawa UD Digital Textbook Fonts speaks
From Morisawa, the developer of the "UD Digital Textbook Font" gave a lecture titled "The background and design of the UD Digital Textbook Font - Children's reading-related problems," in which he gave the following content.
- UD font concept, development background and design
- Evidence for children with low vision, children with reading difficulties, and children in elementary school classrooms in Ikoma City
- We introduce reasonable accommodations in educational settings, along with the problems children face.
We also explained how to use various UD fonts such as Mincho, Gothic, and Maru Gothic, as well as subscription services.
UD fonts also come in a variety of fonts, including Mincho, Gothic, and Kyokasho. The "UD Digital Kyokasho Font" and its lineup were created based on interviews with teachers, supporters, and many children with reading difficulties, but they are not universal fonts that are easy to read for all children.
I hope that by listening to the voices of the children in front of you, you can help them choose fonts that suit their purpose and use them effectively!
The slides from the day will be available for download, so if you're interested, please download them from the button below.
You can view the archives on Ledesone's YouTube channel.
For those who want to know more about UD fonts
The FONT SWITCH PROJECT creates teaching materials using UD digital textbook fonts under the supervision of expert teachers and distributes them free of charge. Please feel free to use them together with the fonts.
55 UD fonts, including the "UD Digital Textbook Font" and "BIZ UD Font" introduced at the seminar, are available for use through the subscription service "MORISAWA BIZ+."
You can download free fonts or purchase paid fonts.Free Membership RegistrationClick the button below↓
Paid fonts can be purchased by selecting a plan from the "Purchase License" tab after registering as a member.
