Dyslexic community?

Ok questions and please answer:

Is there a dyslexic community?

If not do we need to build one?

You answers may depend on you own definition and experience of community
But if we use the definition:
      

"A community is not just a group of people bounded by a geographical links, such as a village, settlement or district, but also includes those brought together by lifestyle, religion, hobby, interest, etc"

 

Please let me know what you think?

 

I would like to believe that we do have a dyslexic community but I do not think we actually have one.

wow and ouch lol

Well just got a call to say my application to get on to the intensive four day Ignite course run by the Social Enterprise Academy has been accepted. Blimey have to scrabble about to find the £400 or so pounds to pay for the course and personal expenses.. I have two maybe three weeks to find it sigh. Its the right programme for my personal and cpmpany development.

Great news

Here is a copy of a newspaper article about Heriot Watt University here in Scotland. Dyslexia Pathways supplies dyslexia support services to its students. I am happy to read that we have been a small part of the team of dedicated professionals and staff responsible for this success:

"Heriot-Watt University: Scottish University of the Year
Heriot-Watt was said to have the best student experience of any
university in the UK

Heriot-Watt University has been named as Scottish University of the Year
by the Sunday Times University Guide for the second year running.

The Edinburgh-based university was also named as being the best for student experience in the UK.

It comes in the same week as students awarded the university the title of Scotland's best in the National Student Survey.

The annual student survey also ranked the university fourth best in the UK.

This was up from 29th last year.

Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Steve Chapman, said: "Being Scottish University of the Year, number one in UK for student experience and voted number one in Scotland by students is a fantastic hat-trick.

"At Heriot-Watt, we put great effort into exceptional student experience by striving to consistently deliver excellent facilities, teaching, and
support services.

"These positive results represent a real strength of feeling among our students and real professionalism on the part of the staff."

Mike Ross, president of Heriot-Watt University Student Union, added:
"These results represent the excellent work that has been done by
students and staff working together to enhance the student experience."

happy in my dyslexic skin

Dyslexia is a double edged sword. Gift for some a nightmare for others. Me I am very happy in my dyslexic skin many are not. Thats why I set up Dyslexia Pathways to enable other dyslexics to be more comfortable and happy in their dyslexia skin in a non dyslexic world..

Rush rush rush

I contacted the Social Enterprise Academy on Wednesday to find out about any new courses I might be able to apply for. Was told about their Ignite programme which looked very interesting to me. Only problem I have to complete and send in a form by the following day.

Of course I was in Edinburgh all day working the following day and didn't get home till very late and just didnt have any time to complete the form.. I got up at 5am this morning and competed the form. Now I like to take my time with any writing I do. I like to plan, to focus my ideas and do all those dyslexic thinks that enable us to write more effectively and efficiently.

Then there is the nightmare of proof reading......I do not know why I can proof read for students but just cannot do it for myself. It didn't help that the form itself was very dyslexia unfriendly as well in my opinion. All little boxes and small fonts sigh. A good 90% of any forms I have to complete, or applications I have to make are still dyslexia unfriendly.

I wanted to phone them and give them my thoughts on how uninclusive their course application forms are lol. To be fair the form didn't require a lot of information only 1200 words or so. Its lucky I had all the information required in my head lol.

Ok after getting up at 5am and slogging over this course applicaton form and sending it off. I receive a bounce back message telling me they are out of office till Monday lol So I will have to call them at 9am and see if I got my completed form in on time. Hopefully it will be ok and I will not have spent 3 hours completing this form needlessly.

Guest blog

Please come and read my guest blog on the RASP website. RASP publishing the work of dyslexic writers since 2007

another day another dollar

I met with a new student last week He is not dyslexic but does have a disability. He needed some support with his dissertation. We did a couple of hours last week looking at the literature review which was the main problem. We discussed this together through a self reflective learning session and reached an agreement on what needed he needed to do and stratagies for doing it. Then I basically showed him a couple of times what he needed to do. We then we did a bit more of the work together and finally I let him carry on with it himself to show me he understood what I was asking hime to do. At the end of his session we set his goals for the next support session.

Today he came back looking much happier. He had achieved the goals set and his literature review is much better. One more happy student for me more to the point a happier student.

I have the form to fill in for the Ignite Programme when I get home. It has to be completed and handed back tomorrow so time is tight. Its when I have to react to events that the dyslexia issues impact. I will not have time to plan as well as I would like. I don't have nearly enough time to proof read as I would like.

On the plus side I do have everything there in my head that I need to write, all the ideas are there and that is a very big plus side.

I have a linked in account and am a member of a number of groups there. I found a discussion about writing funding bids and letters etc. One person was harping on about correct grammar and how it irked him when bids and letters were not written in a queens english style. A few contributors admited they just discarded out of hand anything they felt didn't conform to their standards of english.

I read this with dismay because it is so short sighted and discriminatory. Now I understand the need to have writing standards and the need to communicate ideas on funding bids as clearly possible. But english grammar is a specialist subject on its own and at a rough guess about 90% of the population do not know the exact ins and outs of english grammar.

Seems crazy to me to think that some funders will potentially accetp a poor idea for funding bid on the basis it uses a level of english grammar they see as acceptible. On the other hand they could potentially turn down a great idea because of issues with grammar and correct usage queens english that meets their personal standards.

I have written many funding bids, some successful some not, and each one has taken a lot of work on my part. To think someone might discard my bid in such a cavalier fashion gets on my threpenny bits.

Growing pains lol

I have an opportunity to go on the Ignite Residential Course described below. Only problem is I do not have the funds to attend. I think it might cost around £400 for the whole course and to pay for transport. Only fly in the ointment I do not have the cash to pay for it. Had we not fostered the kids we might have been able to afford it. I am not moaning about it I would not have had it any other way. The kids needed us and thats that. But it meant I had to close Dyslexia Pathways for a couple of months to support the kids. I will still apply for the course you never know something might turn up

It seems dyslexics make great entrepreneurs. Studies show that 20% of  entreprenurs in the UK are dyslexis and 35% are in the US. It would be cool to do a study to find out how many dyslexic social entrepreneurs. I have done the whole social entrepreneur bit starting up Dyslexia Pathways and I already provide dyslexia support to students studying at university.

I know when I was starting up Dyslexia Pathways there was a lot of support to access. However, there was none specifically geared towards supporting dyslexic entrepreneurs. I would like to support dyslexic entrepreneurs and enable them to succeed and this course would be a useful one to be on. Still there is always next year.

Ignite Residential 2012
You are running a social enterprise full of
potential.
How can this potential be unlocked?
And where do you find the time in your
demanding schedule?
For one weekend only the Academy is bringing
together 18 entrepreneurs from across Scotland
to scale up their social enterprises.
There will be surgeries with  nance, business and
marketing experts and talks from inspirational
individuals. This dynamic programme will
develop your understandings about your venture
and yourself. And most importantly you will leave
with a plan to ignite your business.

Progress

Have begun my dyslexia support work at one uni this week and will be starting next week at the other uni. I have found someone with some graphic design talent who is going to take my rough ideas for a logo for my new idea forward. I have been kicking this idea around for some time and it feels good to have got moving with it.

I believe I have found one new director for Dyslexia Pathways. I know she will be a great asset to Dyslexia pathways as she has a wealth of experience is docial enterprise, funding and networking.

Now all I have to do is find someone to take on the redevleopment of the Dyslexia Pathways web site. Its quite static not very interactive and I would like to make it much more social media / interactive / a place to share all things dyslexic. This means the main focus is that the site still remain as dyslexia / disability friendly as possible.

I am going to apply for the Aspire Programme here in Fife.....well I will be once I can find out more about it and if Dyslexia Pathways or myself are suitable for the programme.

I was planning to go to the Fife Independent Disability Network AGM today but the weather has cause a few problems with transport links. So I might not be able to get there.

Ah yes its that time of year again......MOT and car insurance time. Last year my car incurance cost around £200 fully comp..........But this year the same company has quoated just a little over £500. The reason being my wife wis hit by a deer on the motor way. I dont think Jenesn Button could have avoided the accident. A total fluke accident and I was not even in the car at the time. So I have been searching around for new quotes and got the cost down to £300. Much better and more managable.......can't do without a car in Scotland in my line of work.  

what were my options?

I am a well qualified dyslexia and inclusive education specialist with an excellent career in teaching. When I move to Scotland after being made redundant to look after my mum I searched long and hard for teaching work. I couldnt even find one hours teaching. One person I spoke to at an interview told me that I would never teach in scotland because I didn't have any experience of teaching in Scotland.
When I was looking around for other options I chatted with many dyslexics looking for work and discovered there is totally no support for dyslexics looking for work. There is a need for my skills but no dyslexia jobs within education or training.

That why I founded Dyslexia Pathways now we have contracts to supply dyslexia support serivces to two unis up here. At least this way I can still use my training and experience to work with dyslexics who need support.

My other options were nil as far as I could see. There is no way I can afford to pay for retraining in a different profession. My own disabilities stop me from doing manuel work. Couldn't even apply for benefits because my wife ears to much. Just over the limit that excludes me from benefits.

My options were 0 but I am glad I founded Dyslexia Pathways. I do not earn a fortune maybe a quarter of what I earned as a senior lecturer but at least I am still doing what I love supporting other dyslexics and enableing thim to succeed.

politics in the uk if it were not true it would be funny

There was something on the news about party leadership satisfaction ratings. Nick Clegg was -51, Cameron was -27 and the labour leader, what ever his name is was -9. In other words we have a complete shower of sh........ you know what, running political partys here in the UK  Thats the lowest cumulative score in history lol. Then there was a pole of least trusted professionals with bankers coming third, journos coming seconds and yes you guessed it politicians coming first.

trying to move thing forward.

 

I have been thinking of setting up a crowd funding appeal for Dyslexia Pathways to raise funds for our work and developing our ideas. However, it looks like a lot of work to keep going and I am not sure I could do it on my own.

I met with a young person who is struggling on a distance course yesterday. The mum has payed around £1400 for t he course and cannot really afford to pay for any dyslexia support. I have offered her a couple of hours study skills support free of charge. She really need maybe 15 to 20 hours but i cannot give that much time free of charge and I have paid work to do for Dyslexia Pathways.

I have three or four new projects to move forward such as the positve image dyslexia awareness project. I have just put ad advert on the CVS site for a volunteer graphic artists to develop my designs.

I am hoping to interest a univeristy in my dyslexia mentoring scheme and will be trying to sell them the idea in a week or so. ...

 Then there is the dyslexia phone app and games. As well as trying to develop our website into a more interactive social media site. For that I have again put in an ad for a volunteer with an IT / website development background who may be able t o move this forward.

Think the next step is advertiing on the CVS site for directors. People who would want to get involved with possible fund raising ideas as well as all the ideas above.

 

I met wih a prospective new volunteer yesterday who may be willing to assisst with admin tasks and proof reading my documents and learning materials.

finding it difficult to be optomistic here

I would love to be optimistic here but successful as the Paralympics was it will fade into the annals of history very quickly. We have a government hell bent of making life much harder for disabled people in all areas of their lives. They together with the press are using negative and often misleading information to portay disabled people as benefit scrounging scum incapable of making any positive contribution to society. It seems to be going down very well in the non-disabled world and to me and the condems see it as a no brainer vote winner. Protests against ATOS continue to go unreported in the press and on TV. Figures for hate crimes perpetrated against disabled people are on the up and thats just the ones that are actually reported. For every 1 reported I would suggest 3 are not. This is a best guess figure based on my experience working with disabled students as an inclusion specialist teachet 13 years ago. Sorry its so pessimestic and believe me I hate being so but thats how I see it I am afraid. Frankly I feel nothing but distain for this despicible government and shocked at how quickly the tollerence of the non disabled british public evaporated.

new condem exam

Thats me had my little say on the Wright Stuff about the new exams being introduced to replace GCSEs. As far as i can see this new exam will not only fail dyslexic kids but over 80% of kids in school. They will not sit any exam whatsoever and just get a reference from the school on leaving school. Crazy as many kids will just give up on school because once they have been excluded from taking this ...new exam why bother working at school.

Already we see so many dyslexic and other kids with literacy issues languishing in our prisons. Is that the future we want to see for even more of our kids?

When i did my O levels many years ago I already knew I had no chance and just stopped attending at 14. I wasn't until I was assessed as being dyslexic 20 years later that I discovered that wasn't daft or stupid and that I was able to learn on an academic level.

Now I am a dyslexia and inclusion specialist, I have founded my own social enterprise Dyslexia Pathways and now I work with other dyslexics who schools have still failed them.

support you employees and unleash their potential

Well budgets are tight for all businesses, particularly training ones. But every business benefits from a  healthy and motivated staff. They are more productive, less likely to take time off due to illness and stress. A business can also serve its dyslexic / disabled customers more effectively by being dyslexia and disability friendly. Dyslexia is recognised as a disability under the disability discrimination act. Employers are required under this legislation to support disable and dyslexic staff by making reasonable adjustments. Dyslexia Pathways run regular dyslexia awareness training sessions which can be run for whole organisations or in groups with people from other organisations. This is probably the first step in raising awarness of dyslexia. Then its about providing a safe environemnt where staff can discuss any dyslexia / disability disclose they are dyslexic / disabled. Maybe have a named person in HR where people feel able and comfortable to disclose. I know it is not easy for small organisation to do this but the benefits from supporting disabled and dyslexic staff far outweigh the negatives. There is support available for employers to support dyslexic / disabled staff through the government Access to Work scheme. They can provide funds to buy assistive tech software if it required for dyslexic and disabled staff. Last time I worked with Access to Work they were able to provide 90% of the costs towards equipment for dyslexic / disabled staff. Businesses, training organisations, charities have to remember that 20% of the uk population is disabled, around 10% are dyslexic. Meeting their needs effecitvely can increase business turnover and enhance corporate image. So it makes sound business sense to be dyslexia / disablity friendly. Finally dyslexia friendly solutions can benefit non dyslexic staff. For example some dyslexics can benefit from using different colour background colours on computers. It not only enables a dyslexic to work more effectively it could help non dyslxic staff avoid eyestrain. This is a simple and free solution. Not all solutions cost money and solutions that do cost money there is support from Access to Work.

Access to work scheme

The Access to Work scheme gives you and your employer advice and financial support with extra costs which may arise because of your needs.

You had to be in employment to apply for Access to Work and that means declaring a disability to employers which many people are not happy to do especially those with a hidden disability. I developed a project, funded by the Learning and Skills Council, designed to provide free dyslexia screening and assessment for staff, including teachers. I was employed as co-coordinator for dyslexia support at the college and have a very positive attitude towards dyslexia. We screened over 300 members of staff, assessed 23 members of staff as dyslexic and provided training in dyslexia friendly work practices as well as support with Access to Work. But, even after the project had ened and even though we had exceeded targets by 200% most of the staff assessed still did not want to declare it to their managers. Most said it was because they feared declaring they were dyslexic would impact on their careers.

 On the downside when I applied for Access to Work the same college made me sign a waiver stating that if I left the job they would keep all the technology from Access to Work. When I was made redundant they did indeed keep the technology including a laptop and assistive software. This in turn impacted on my ability to seek new employment and on future applications for access to work. I do not believe dyslexia to be a disability for many dyslexics. It is society and employers who disable and this employer by keeping the assistive technology disabled me. Access to Work or my union were willing to help me with this situation.

additional information on changes to Access to Work

Access to Work have extended the services they offer -  For example, until recently people who were working but not earning were not eligible - but now people on work placements or unpaid internships are. Also, they will carry out an assessment with an unemployed disabled person, agree what adjustments that person might need in the workplace, and write a letter that the candidate can show to prospective employers explaining what (if any) equipment might be required and confirming that Access to Work would cover the costs.

Now I am not sure if this applies to all of the UK though and this is something I only read about today

weird but true lol

Wierdest self referral for dyslexia support I ever had was during my operation for a hernia in my stomach. I had been given my pre med and rolled into the anaethestist and he started asking me about being dyslexic and how he could access support from me lol.

ATOS be praised NOT!

News just in.........ATOS has replaced Lourdes as the place for the sick and disabled seeking a miracle cure. Thousands from all over the world receive blessings from ATOS miracle doctors and they do not even have to lay hand on you before declaring you fit for work

misconceptions of dyslexia

One of the most challenging parts of being dyslexic is the misconception that it makes people unintelligent or slow. At Dyslexia Pathways we believe it is time to stop classifying dyslexia as a learning disability rather it is a learning difference. The dyslexic brain needs to be fostered and nurtured rather than corrected and remediated.   

dyslexia in Fife?

Was at an event if Fife the other day doing my best to raise a more enabling and positive profile of dyslexia. Have to say 90% or the people I spoke to running organisations in Fife were all interested in the issue but no funds to deal with it. Dyslexia Pathways has won business with organisations in Dundee, Edinburgh and Tayside. I am beginning to think dyslexia does not exist in Fife.

funding for my ideas

I have been considering crowd funding as a means to raise funds to develop some new ideas I have for Dyslexia Pathways. Its a big undertaking involving a lot of work. Pretty certain I couldn't do it all myself especially now the universties are back and my dyslexia support work will keep me very busy and trying to drum up business for my dyslexia awareness training courses.

broken brain?

I totally disagree with the whole medical model cognitive deficites there is something wrong with our brain idea. This takes us down the road of medicating dyslexics finding a cure for dyslexia which I totally disagree with. I for one do not want to be medicated, do not feel the need to be cured. Indeed I celebrate my dyslexia for all the positive attributes it gives me. I am happy in my dyslexic skin. I see dyslexia as a difference rather than a disability. Dyslexia becomes an issue in non dyslexic world when we start school. Where we are not taught in ways that enable many of us to access the learning. It is why so many dyslexics fail at school. Not because they are not intelliegent enough or have cognitive deficites. They are to unable to access the learning effectively because it is done it a totally dyslexia unfriendly way.