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.
Numerous reading tests with visually impaired students from elementary school through high school are
conducted,
with assistance from the DIPHE laboratory at the Université Lumière Lyon 2. Articles detailing the project
and the results of this research will be published shortly; they will appear both on the
Luciole is available for download under a