Author aims to make reading enjoyable for those with learning disabilities

NOVI — Learning disabilities such as dyslexia present numerous challenges that often prevent people from enjoying a good book. However, one Novi man is working to change this and make the magic of reading accessible to all.

Oliver W. Decay, 28, of Novi, was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child. He said the learning disability made it very difficult for him to read books, but over the years he has learned several different tricks that help him process the written word easier, and he is incorporating them into the design of his self-published book, “Devil’s Harvest: Blood Bonds.”

The sci-fi thriller tells the story of two brothers who were once estranged and find themselves in the middle of a deadly conspiracy and must come together and face their past as they face “monstrous forces and a prophecy that threatens to unravel their reality.”

“When I was going throughout school, I had a very difficult time reading. A lot of the books that I found easier to read were like mangas and comic books or smaller, big-text books,” Decay said.

He said that he noticed that he would write differently from other students, and his teachers would comment that his papers just seemed to flow more easily when they went to grade them. He said at first he thought it was just because of his dyslexia, which made him rewrite whatever he would write numerous times.

“I kept wondering why people don’t make things easier to read. If you want your book to be enjoyed, make it easier to read,” he said.

So, he considered that when he decided to write the stories he had been drafting in his head since childhood. He said he wants to make sure that everyone can read his books.

“A lot of books that I wanted to read I couldn’t read because of my dyslexia, and I kind of felt like I was getting cut out from those books themselves. So, I wanted to go in and make a book that doesn’t allow anyone to be cut out,” Decay said.”The only reason why you don’t want to read it is because you don’t enjoy (the story).”

In order to make his books more accessible, Decay utilized the fonts Libre Baskerville and Oswald and plans to use OpenDyslexic font for his next book. He said the font choice is particularly important for the ease of those with dyslexia. He said he looks for fonts where the letters don’t touch each other, where there’s decent spacing, and he makes sure that there weren’t any extra points and curves in the lettering.

“One of the things that helped me when I was going through elementary school and middle school was to know what the letter looked like and what it’s supposed to look like, and the minute that it doesn’t look like that, that you need to replace that letter. Some fonts, they touch each other and have extra points and curves, which causes this to happen, so I had to go through and make sure that none of this existed.

He said he constantly rereads his work because of his dyslexia to make sure there aren’t any issues for others with the disability.

“This may sound funny, but if the page hurts, I rewrite it,” he said. “If it hurts my brain trying to read it, if my eyes start getting strained too much while reading it, if the text is becoming piled up or being overdone, then I’ll go ahead and redo that page,” he said.

He said he also takes into consideration the spacing, as some paragraphs are smaller and don’t need as much space, while others need more. That way, the smaller text pops out to the reader “like the cheese in a cheeseburger.”

Decay also designed the page layout to reflect the speakers. If the text is on one side of the page, it is about the character the chapter is about. If it is aligned on the other side of the page, it is someone speaking to the character the chapter is about, and if it is aligned in the middle, it is like a TV talking or something.

According to Sami Thompson, Decay’s girlfriend, a lot of people who have dyslexia also have ADHD.

“If you have a comprehension issue, it’s easy to follow (the story) because of the size of the text, and the way that it’s laid out,” Thompson said.

According to Thompson, a friend of theirs with ADHD read through the book and said it was the first book she had ever been able to read.

“It really was a labor of love,” Thompson said.

“Devil’s Harvest: Blood Bonds” can be purchased through Amazon in hardcover for $20.99 or $15.99 for paperback.