Three patterns, not three people
Provisional personas built from peer-reviewed research only. Every trait is tagged, so the evidence and the guesses never blur.
Method
These personas come from peer-reviewed research only. No interviews have been run yet, and no forum posts, blogs or vendor pages are used as evidence. Each persona is a pattern, not a real person; names, ages and jobs are placeholders.
- Sourced: supported by a source listed at the end.
- Hypothesis: not found in research, to be confirmed or rejected in interviews.
Most studies test reading and spelling in lab tasks, not phone use. Anything about keyboards, autocorrect or messaging is therefore a hypothesis until interviews confirm it.
Persona 1: Farsi–English, diagnosed late
Grew up undiagnosed, and discovered dyslexia only when studying in another language.
| Trait | Tag | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Farsi first language, English learned later | sourced | Framing of both Persian studies below |
| Everyday Farsi omits vowel marks; readers rely on letter-by-letter decoding | sourced | Pouretemad et al., 2011 |
| Features of Persian spelling cause specific problems when reading and writing English | sourced | Teaching English to Students With Dyslexia in Iran, 2020 |
| Dyslexia in a second language has been largely neglected in research and support | sourced | Same 2020 study |
| Went undiagnosed growing up; dyslexia surfaced only in another language | hypothesis | — |
| Forgets to switch keyboard, retypes often | hypothesis | — |
| Prefers voice notes over typing | hypothesis | — |
| Age, job, name | hypothesis | Placeholder |
Design opportunityReduce decoding load in Farsi text entry and reading: an optional vowel-mark display, or keyboard auto-switching that reads the surrounding text.
Persona 2: Mandarin–English, dyslexic in English only
Reads Chinese without difficulty. Dyslexia appears only in English, so others doubt it.
| Trait | Tag | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese and alphabetic reading impairments involve different brain regions | sourced | Siok, Perfetti, Jin & Tan, Nature, 2004 |
| Adults with dyslexia make more spelling errors and read more slowly in English as a second language | sourced | Annals of Dyslexia, 2025 |
| Adults with dyslexia type more slowly and less accurately, with more reliance on visual checking | sourced | Reading and Writing, 2025 |
| Reads Chinese normally; dyslexia appears only in English | hypothesis | Consistent with Siok et al. but not tested directly |
| Autocorrect suggests words from every installed language at once | hypothesis | — |
| Others doubt the diagnosis because "you read fine" | hypothesis | — |
| Keeps messages short; copies English words instead of typing | hypothesis | — |
| Age, job, name | hypothesis | Placeholder |
Design opportunityAutocorrect that follows the active keyboard language, plus dyslexia-aware English suggestions for users whose first script is not alphabetic.
Persona 3: Mandarin–English, dyslexic in Chinese
Typing pinyin is easy. Choosing the right character from the pop-up list is the hard step.
| Trait | Tag | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese dyslexia involves visual-orthographic processing of characters, not only sound | sourced | Siok et al., Nature, 2004 |
| Most characters are compounds built from radicals; the cognitive profile of Chinese dyslexia is more complex than alphabetic | sourced | Frontiers in Psychology, 2017 |
| Pinyin input requires picking a character from a list of same-sound options; heavy pinyin use is linked to weaker character reading | sourced | PNAS pinyin typing study |
| Can read pinyin but confuses look-alike characters | hypothesis | Consistent with the above, not tested directly |
| Often sends the wrong character | hypothesis | — |
| Uses emoji to replace uncertain words | hypothesis | — |
| Age, job, name | hypothesis | Placeholder |
Design opportunityCharacter-selection lists that show meaning hints or context previews, so the choice does not depend on visual recognition alone.
Findings
Four patterns from the secondary research. Confidence is low for all of them until interviews confirm.
| Finding | Evidence | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Dyslexia does not transfer between scripts | Chinese and alphabetic reading impairments involve different brain regions (Siok et al., 2004); bilingual reading changes how dyslexia shows in adults (Scientific Studies of Reading, 2018) | Accessibility settings per language, not per account |
| The switch moment is unowned | Dyslexic spelling errors differ by language (Language Resources and Evaluation, 2022), yet no study covers language switching on devices | One active-language signal that keyboard, autocorrect and predictions all follow |
| Each script breaks at a different step | Farsi: decoding without vowel marks (Pouretemad, 2011). English: second-language spelling (Annals of Dyslexia, 2025). Mandarin: visual character processing and the pinyin picker (Siok, 2004; PNAS) | Script-specific support: a vowel-mark toggle for Farsi, meaning hints in the Chinese character picker |
| Nobody has asked these users about their phones | Adults with dyslexia type slower and less accurately (Reading and Writing, 2025), but no study covers bilingual switching on devices | Run the interview study; treat this gap as the project’s main contribution |
Sources
All nine are peer-reviewed.
| Source | What it supports | Journal |
|---|---|---|
| Pouretemad et al., 2011. Manifestations of Developmental Dyslexia in Monolingual Persian Speaking Students | Vowel-free Persian is opaque; readers decode letter by letter | Archives of Iranian Medicine |
| Teaching English to Students With Dyslexia in Iran: A Multiple-Case Study, 2020 | Persian spelling features cause specific problems in English; second-language dyslexia is under-researched | Reading & Writing Quarterly |
| Siok, Perfetti, Jin & Tan, 2004. Biological abnormality of impaired reading is constrained by culture | Chinese and alphabetic dyslexia involve different brain regions | Nature |
| Phonological awareness training for Chinese children with dyslexia, 2017 | Chinese dyslexia has a more complex, visually loaded profile | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Pinyin typing hinders Chinese reading development | Pinyin input means picking a character from a same-sound list | PNAS |
| Language skills of adults with dyslexia in English as a foreign language, 2025 | More spelling errors and slower reading in a second language | Annals of Dyslexia |
| Writing performance in Spanish adults with dyslexia: handwriting versus typing, 2025 | Adults with dyslexia type slower, less accurately, with more visual checking | Reading and Writing |
| Learning to Read Bilingually Modulates the Manifestations of Dyslexia in Adults, 2018 | Early bilingual reading changes how dyslexia shows up in adulthood | Scientific Studies of Reading |
| Spelling errors made by people with dyslexia, 2022 | Dyslexic typing errors differ by language; corpora used to design assistive tech | Language Resources and Evaluation |
The gap worth stating: no peer-reviewed study looks at dyslexic Farsi or Mandarin speakers switching languages on a phone. Research covers reading and spelling in lab tasks, mostly with children.
Next
The hypotheses are the interview guide. Six to eight interviews, two or three per language pair, would confirm or reject them.
- Does dyslexia make keyboard switching worse, or is it the same as for any bilingual user?
- What workarounds do people actually use: voice notes, copying, emoji, something else?
- Is the character-selection step the real pain point for Chinese dyslexic users?
- Do late-diagnosed Farsi speakers see their phone habits differently after diagnosis?