Can pictures in comics improve reading accessibility in university students with dyslexia? An eye-tracking study

Research has reported persistent word reading deficits in adults with dyslexia. Comics, with their pictures, might be an effective way to facilitate word recognition and comprehension processes. This study aims to test the potential benefit of comics for reading comprehension in university students with dyslexia. 40 French-speaking university students with dyslexia and 40 skilled readers read two stories in both comic and text formats while their eye movements were recorded and then answered comprehension questions. Although there was no difference between readers with and without dyslexia on comic reading comprehension, the difference between the time needed to read the two formats was larger in participants with dyslexia than in skilled readers, suggesting that the former benefitted more from reading comics than skilled readers. Additionally, both groups of readers read words in balloons faster than words in linear text, although participants with dyslexia were still slower than skilled readers. Finally, readers with dyslexia relied more on picture processing to understand the comics' content, spending more time on pictures, revisiting previously seen pictures more often, and making more saccades between balloons and their corresponding pictures than skilled readers. Picture processing may be central to comic reading comprehension and may enhance reading outcomes by facilitating the processing of both the story's content and the words in balloons, especially for students with dyslexia.