Free interactive self-check
Experience visual stress — and find your most comfortable reading color
This isn’t a quiz you read about. It’s an interactive experience: feel what visual stress can look like, slide through colors that recolor the page live, and see which one feels easiest on your eyes. Takes about 3 minutes.
Please read first: This is an educational self-check, not a diagnosis or medical test. It cannot tell you whether you have Irlen Syndrome, dyslexia, ADHD, or any condition, and it isn’t a substitute for medical, psychological, educational, or vision evaluation. It’s simply a way to explore your experience and decide whether an Irlen diagnosis might be worth pursuing.
Step 1 · How does reading feel?
Answer honestly for yourself (or the person you’re checking for). There’s no pass or fail.
Step 2 · What can visual stress look like?
Toggle the effects and drag the intensity slider. For people with visual stress, text can do things like this on its own. Does any of it look familiar?
Which of these looks like your experience?
Step 3 · Find your most comfortable color
Tap a color to lay it over the text, then fine-tune the strength. Many people find one color makes reading feel noticeably calmer. Pick whichever feels easiest on your eyes.
A short passage to read
Take your time with these few lines. Notice how your eyes feel as you move across each one. When the words sit still and the page feels comfortable, reading takes less effort and your attention can stay where it belongs — on the meaning, not on the struggle.
Now try the colors. As you switch between them, ask yourself a simple question: which one makes this paragraph feel the easiest to read? There is no right answer, only what feels best to you.
No overlay selected yet — try the colors above.
Step 4 · Your self-check summary
Email my results & explore a diagnosis
We’ll open an email to Miranda’s team with your summary attached, so you can send it in one tap and request a diagnosis. Nothing is sent until you press send in your email app. Please don’t add sensitive medical details.
Ready for the real thing?
An Irlen diagnosis with Miranda explores this properly and gives you personalized next steps. It’s the natural next move if this self-check resonated.
Reminder: this self-check is educational and does not diagnose any condition. Results vary from person to person. For diagnosis or treatment, please consult qualified professionals. This site does not provide emergency care.
About this visual stress self-check
This free, interactive tool is designed to help you experience what visual processing stress can feel like, rather than just read about it. Visual stress — often called Irlen Syndrome or Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome — is understood as a difference in how the brain processes light and print. For some people, colored overlays change how light reaches the brain and make reading feel more comfortable.
The color reader above is a simplified, on-screen version of that idea. It can’t replace a proper Irlen screening, which uses specific materials and a trained screener to explore color and comfort accurately — but it’s a friendly first step. If a particular color felt noticeably easier, or the distortion simulator looked familiar, an Irlen screening is the best way to explore it further.