The project was presented during:
• the 8th Journées d'étude NTIC (new technologies for visually impaired people) organized by the FAF at the French National Institute for the Blind;
• the 2nd RNLA at Enssib (the French National School of Library and Information Science);
• the journée d'étude Déficience visuelle et éducation inclusive (Visual Impairment and Inclusive Education Days) at the INSHEA
Laurent Bourcellier & Jonathan Fabreguettes
Luciole (French for “firefly”) is a new typeface developed explicitly for visually impaired people.
The result of a two-year collaboration between the Centre Technique Régional pour la Déficience Visuelle
(the Regional Technical Center for Visual Impairment) and the type-design studio typographies.fr,
this project received a grant from the Swiss Ceres Foundation and support from the DIPHE laboratory
at the Université Lumière Lyon 2.
Word massing, spacing, the structure of the letters: the concept for Luciole adheres to a dozen specific
design criteria to provide the best possible reading experience for the visually impaired.
Particular care has been taken in drawing the figures, mathematical signs, and punctuation.
Each style of Luciole contains over seven hundred characters and supports almost all European languages.
The character set also includes many Greek and mathematical symbols for scientific notation.
Luciole aims to facilitate both optimal readability for visually impaired students and efficient deployment
by publishing professionals.
The Luciole font is now used by specialized reference publishers but also by transcribers, teachers, developers.
As a result of this project, three reading tests based studies have been or are currently being carried out with visually impaired students or adults:
− In the DIPHE laboratory, University Lumière Lyon 2 [study completed, currently being published]
− In the CTRDV's ophthalmological assessment [study completed]
− As part of the ISTR's graduation project, Department of Orthoptics, University Lyon 1 [study in progress]
These three studies reveal a preference of visually impaired readers in favor of Luciole.
Luciole is available for download under a