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| Art installation by me from our Unique Dyslexic Get Creative Visual Art workshop called dyslexia its about diversity
Good morning and welcome to everyone from myself here Glenrothes in Scotland. Hope you are all well.
Dyslexia awareness news:
We successfully ran 5 dyslexia awareness training session here in Fife over the past few months in 2016. Have to say the training was fabtastic even if I do say so myself lol........not that I am biased in anyway lol. Everyone gave us a 4 or a 5 out of 5 for the sessions.
Some feedback from participants:
So you can see lots of positive feedback. However, would like to take the training further afield to Edinburgh or Dundee etc. So if anyone can host my dyslexia awareness training and would like to help market it locally give me a call.
I am planning to run more dyslexia awareness training in 2017. The cost is £35 per participant and if an organisation wants to host training a member of their staff can attend for free. Ideally I would need between 6 to 15 participants for the training to make it financially viable.
Big news on Lottery funding:
Above Big Lottery Logo
Funding News:
As many of my regular readers will know we already successfully delivered a lottery funded project called Unique Dyslexic Get Creative.
Since then we have been waiting for a suitable Big Lottery Fund programme we can apply for to develop our new dyslexia / neuro different hub here in Fife.. I am currently writing a stage one application for funding from The Big Lottery Improving Lives fund to enable us to move forward with developing our proposed dyslexia and neuro diversity hub in Lochgelly. This will be completed next week. We have also managed to secure support from Fife Centre for Equalities with this application and support with developing our dyslexia hub idea. Its a two stage process and we can access support from the Big Lottery through the Improving Lives Fund itself and from other organisations attached to the Big Lottery. the first stage involves the answering of four questions. This is nearly completed.
We would like to invite other organisations, particularly organisation in Lochgelly, or people or organisations anywhere in Fife to join us in our plan to open our new hub here in Fife.
Just give me a call 07828741473 if you would like to get involved or want to chat to us about this. If we are going to make this a success then we need more people involved and maybe a little funding as well. 
Above Dyslexia Pathways logo
Dyslexia and neuro diversity at school:
All class teachers should be given the training needed to meet the diversity of learning needs of every child in their classrooms during their teacher training. They also need to be given the time to develop and deliver inclusive learning opportunities for every child in their classrooms.
It is every dyslexic child and adult's human right to have access to an education that will enable them to learn and succeed within education. It is not good enough that our education system continues to fail and marginalise so many of our dyslexic children and adults.
It is an outrage that so many dyslexic children leave school with out achieving according to their potential and with low self esteem and self confidence. It is not acceptable that so many of us leave school with mental health issues that can have life long impact. The same needs to b said for children from neuro diverse and disabled communities.
There is no doubt there are some fab schools and professionals doing fabtastic work with dyslexia, neuro diverse and disabled students. But they are few and far between and it has to change.
50% of NASA employees are dyslexic, 35% of entrepreneurs are dyslexic, dyslexics are fab our of the box thinkers, big picture thinkers, unique problems solvers.
Dyslexia can and do excel in across the whole spectrum of our society including: art, computer science, design, drama, electronics, math, mechanics, music, physics, sales and sports
Dyslexia is a difference that reflects diversity and what a fab difference it is
Dyslexia Pathways CIC DONATE SOCIAL Crowd Funding:
We have added s Donate Social button to our Unique Dyslexic Facebook page, Donate Social lets our followers make donations on your Facebook page using PayPal or a credit card. They can also invite their friends to donate to our cause.
Donate Social is free to use, does not take a cut from any donations, does not store any personal information, and does not use tracking cookies.
Any money raised will be used to help us with our work, keeping our web sites and social media running.
Below is a link to our Unique Dyslexic Facebook page and the graphic bellows highlights where the Donate Social button is.
If you like what you see please give us a like, or share your creative work or just press our Social Donate button and donate to support our work.
Anyways thanks for taking the time to read my blog. Please share it with others who you think might enjoy it as well please.
Regards
Steve
PS oh almost forgot my blog has had over 46000 reads so far maybe 50.000 in a month or so.
Since writing this blog my blog reads has reached over 70,000 so in your face all those medical model of dyslexia proponents that tell us we cannot write or spell lol.
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Monday, 25 July 2016
dyslexia, neuro diversity, social enterprise the way ahead for me and Dyslexia Pathways CIC an updated version
Monday, 18 July 2016
I am dyslexic, I dont have dyslexia and neither am I a person with dyslexia
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| Photo above Dyslexia Pathways, Unique Dyslexia and Social Enterprise Scotland Logos |
Hi blog readers hope you are all well
I have been feeling a bit frustrated, a little annoyed with myself, maybe a little perplexed with the way things have been going over the last few months. I really want to push on with what we are doing at Dyslexia Pathways CIC and with my own goals also. But alas everything is practically at a stand still, moving in slow motion even.
Like many organisations and people its all about a lack of funds and income. But we also need more people on board who can support the work we are doing and want to do.
A couple weeks back I received an invitation to a conference on Disrupting Social Innovation, Pursuing Inclusive Opportunities Through Universities. Its being held at the Cambridge Judge Business School at Cambridge University.
I guess I received the invitation because if my background in inclusion, dyslexia and inclusion as well as my experience in working in universities and my social enterprise back ground.
Maybe its was the EU paper that said Dyslexia Pathways CIC was leading the way in social
inclusion.
Anyway I was fab to be invited. I think that's the one big difference this year. We are being contacted by organisations and invited to events much more that we were.
Alas it looks like I will be unable to raise the funding to get there and to stay over night, I just have not got the funds needed to attend.
So tomorrow I will have to e mail them to cancel my attendance. A really bad scene because a lot of heavy hitters are attending and it was an opportunity to get involved at a UK level with inclusion.
Some thing about dyslexia for us all to think about
Right now we have individual parents of dyslexic kids fighting our education system one at a time. Sometimes they win little victories and get support for their dyslexic kids. Most of the time they face long battles and get nowhere.
We as dyslexic adults need to get together to build a social movement where we can work together. Work together to bring positive changes to the current education system that up to now is still failing too many of us and our children.
Right now many of us are fighting for positive change from the bottom upwards. We have to influence those who are responsible for developing education policy. This can only be done if we work together and take this to those who make policy.
There needs to be political will to make the changes to our education system that will enable our dyslexic kids to succeed is school. Right now there is no political will to do this. Only by working together can we influence those who run our education system.
We have to make a much more positive case for supporting our dyslexic kids. We have to move away from an old outdated medical model of dyslexia that basically tells us our brains do not work correctly. That somehow we are not normal. That we are broken in some way. What does this say to potential employers about dyslexics? What does this say to our dyslexic kids?
I am not saying dyslexics do not need support at school. What I am saying is we need teachers in every classroom being trained to teach to meet the diversity of learning needs in the class room. To enable teachers to do their job of teaching our dyslexic kids together with their non dyslexic peers in a classroom.
Every day I visit Facebook I read real life stories about dyslexic kids and parents battles to get what is a human right to a good education. Stories about dyslexic kids not wanting to go to school. About parents seeing their children crying and frustration and fear about going to school. This is just not good enough at all.
I believe it is society that disables dyslexics and that's why I promote and support the social model of dyslexia. I am not saying it's a perfect model but it places the responsibility for the failure of our education to meet the learning needs of dyslexic kids where it belongs. Not on the shoulders of dyslexic kids and parents. But squarely on the shoulders of those who shape our education system and politicians why are responsible for developing and running an education system that fails so many of us.
Dyslexics can and do succeed but many do so in spite of their education not because of it.
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| photo above: we must enable dyslexics to fly not sentence them to failure |
#dyslexia is a difference that reflects #diversity. We need to unleash and nurture that potential not remediate or stifle it.
What are your thoughts on this? please comment
Below are links to our online social media and sites. Please give us a visit, join it, get involved or share your talents and stories.
Anyway that's enough from me apart to say my blog received nearly 1900 reads last week so I am very happy about that, Ta to all who read my blog. Hope you enjoy and share my latest one.
PS
DONATE SOCIAL BUTTON:
We have added s Donate Social button to our Unique Dyslexic Facebook page, Donate Social lets our followers make donations on your Facebook page using PayPal or a credit card. They can also invite their friends to donate to our cause.
Donate Social is free to use, does not take a cut from any donations, does not store any personal information, and does not use tracking cookies.
Any money raised will be used to help us with our work, keeping our web sites and social media running.
Below is a link to our Unique Dyslexic Facebook page and the graphic bellows highlights where the Donate Social button is.
If you like what you see please give us a like, or share your creative work or just press our Social Donate button and donate.
Thursday, 14 July 2016
Dyslexia, diversity, inclusion, neuro diversity and vivaladifference
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| Picture above logos for Dyslexia Pathways CIC, Unique Dyslexic and Social Enterprise Scotland |
Hi de hi blog readers. I hope you are all well and the world is being good to you.
Just a couple of little blogger hints from me here. I add captions to my photos for people who use text to speech screen readers to make my blog more accessible.
I only wish I could add a screen reader such as browse aloud but so far I have not found a screen reader widget or app that will work in blogger.
I also try and use a dyslexia friendly font. I used Verdana size 12 or 14 together with different background colours to again make my blog more accessible.
Here is a funny dyslexia short story lol I have been calling verdana veranda for ages and wondering why I was getting quizzical looks from people when I talked about fonts. lol.
I only wish I had the time and space to make more audio or visual blogs but they take me such a long time to produce. Its not really a techy issue its remembering a script lol. I think I will make a visual blog next week.
Being dyslexia friendly can cost next to nothing and has many benefits
There are some easy things dyslexics like myself, people, parents and organisations can do to support people who are dyslexic that cost nothing or very little to implement.
I personally find staring at a white computer screen and black text quite a strain on the eyes as well as difficult to read. So the hints below are good for all not just for dyslexics.
This includes finding a background colour which is dyslexia friendly. This is a bit trial and error because every dyslexic's dyslexia is unique to the individual so solutions are unique to the individual.
Personally I like the background colour to my blog page but I also like pastel colours like beige, blue or yellow.
Different colour printing paper is also helpful also not only for employees but for customers, clients and trainees.
Changing the font size is also a fabtastic strategy. Personally I like comic sans best but that has gone out of fashion so to speak so now I use verdana but ariel and century gothic are dyslexia friendly fonts. But its finding the font and solutions that work for you that are best and these can be found by trial end error.
Its good for dyslexic employees, good for dyslexic customers, good for business and good for inclusion and a companies reputation. A win win all round and it cost nothing or very little to implement.
I have recently, after much struggle, managed to persuade my bank to send my bank statements, emails and letters in a dyslexia friendly format. I also requested the financial ombudsmen to do the same and they agreed to do so.
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| Dyslexia friendly fonts |
Lots of ups and downs
The past few months have been eventful but difficult. I am not running dyslexia awareness training and that's going ok. We have run two out of four dyslexia awareness training sessions in Fife and had nothing but positive feedback. I would like to run others in Edinburgh and Dundee but we just do not have to funding to promote this properly or run them.
I am going to be focussing on promoting other dyslexia support services. I have got a one year license to use Quickscan for dyslexia screening and Studyscan for dyslexia assessments. It cost £350 for a year and this came out of the Foundation Scotland budget. So we are going to try low as possible costs screening and assessments.
If I could find suitable funding I would provide this for free but alas could not find any. As a social enterprise we have to make money just like any other business and any profits we make, when we make them, has to be put back into the business to run our projects. But I also have to live, to pay bills etc. If I don't make money for myself and for Dyslexia Pathways CIC then Dyslexia Pathways CIC closes down simple as that I am afraid.
At Dyslexia Pathways CIC, the CIC stands for Community Interest Company, we believe social enterprise and the social model of dyslexia offers and innovating way forward for all dyslexics.
Our year long Unique Dyslexic Get Creative project was all done by 15 volunteers, including myself. I do a lot of work on our social media, web site, work on committees to promote our social model of dyslexia vision at the Scottish parliament all on a voluntary basis.
I volunteer on the Goodison Group and Futures Forum and a couple other committees at the Scottish Government. We cannot even claim travel costs which in my view means you only get people going to these committees who can afford to go. Not very inclusive I think.
We have our online shop selling dyslexia positive tee shirt and hoodies. The main problem here is we have no marketing budget at all. We need a better cheaper way to bring them to market.
We are slowly slowly moving forward with our dyslexia / neuro difference hub. I have a couple people who are interested in getting involved but realistically we need 6 to 8 people to really push on with the project.
So if there is anyone out there with experience of starting up a project,, of writing funding bids and looking for funding, has experience of social media, running web sites etc please give us a holler 01592 756 187. We are based in Fife by the way.
If anyone would like to volunteer a little of their time to spread the word about our dyslexia online shop and our donate social crowd funding campaign that would help.
So things are moving along but we need, I need things to be happening now lol.
Anyways that's enough for this blog
Peace love and groovyness to all in the dyslexic and other neuro difference communities and all those who support and love them.
PS below is an idea for dyslexia friendly colours to try our for yourselves.
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| Which is your dyslexia friendly colour?
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Monday, 11 July 2016
I am dyslexic and not a person with dyslexia like there is me and standing next to me there is the dyslexic me
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| Picture about shows Dyslexia Pathways CIC, Social Enterprise Scotland and Unique Dyslexic logos |
Good morning blog readers hope you are all well
I have spent a lot of time over the last week end thinking about what I am going to write about in this my latest blog. Not because I don't have any ideas but because I have to many lol.
Some of the problem is like many, not all, dyslexics I tend to think in pictures and I see the big picture when it comes to issues. To me everything links up, has relationships with everything else and it always lends itself to the big picture. So teasing out a small picture out of the big picture can be problematic. Give me a 10,000 word essay and I am away like a rat up a drainpipe. Give me an essay in 500 words and I am like a sloth in amber lol.
The other part is about me procrastinating. Something which I did a lot of doing last week. Getting myself motivated was almost impossible for the first three days of last week. The when I do get myself motivated the problem then becomes giving myself a break to rest. So I am either work, work working or procrastinating, procrastinating and hmmm procrastinating. To make things worse I absolutely hate procrastinating lol.
Then there is the dyslexic roller coaster of highs a lows. When I am at the top of the roller coaster I am a very confident and positive dyslexic. I endeavour to see the positive at all times that's me most of the time.
But I still can get taken down the slope of the roller coaster to. I can still get to a place where my confidence and self esteem are back in the place where I was struggling at school, where I did feel stupid, depressed and where I could not see a future for myself. Like any real roller coaster it can take a little time to reach get to next high lol.
I talk to may dyslexic students about these highs and lows and it is surprising how hard we can be on ourselves. How we can say things to ourselves about ourselves that we would not say about our worst enemy. For me that is one of the positives of writing a blog. I can go back over old blogs and remind myself of the highs. Its honest self reflection which I believe is really important to do and something I always advise my students to do. Here is something funny about being dyslexics. Its surprising how many dyslexics become like the agony aunts within their friends circle. They are the person friends confide in or talk about their problems to? Two really strong positive dyslexic qualities are empathy and emotional intelligence. Where would the world be without empathy and emotional intelligence?
I am very lucky in that I have my wife and her family and friends to support me. Social media like Facebook and blogger etc and great sources of support. My own family life as a kid was a train wreck quite literally. My dad was a chronic alcoholic and gambler and my mum used to hit us with a large stick she used for washing clothes. Yelling and shouting was something that happened every day.
The roller coaster analogy works well for entrepreneurs and in particular dyslexic entrepreneurs. When we successfully completed our Unique Dyslexic Get Creative Campaign. That was a fab high. When I completed the inaugural Scotland Can Do Scale fab. When I got the £12.500 award from First Port when I started Dyslexia Pathways CIC fab. Right now I am working very hard to try and keep Dyslexia Pathways CIC going. CIC stands for Community Interest Company by the way.
At this time to social entrepreneur in my is struggling, has been and a real low for a while. But I am slowly climbing back up the hill again. The dyslexia awareness training sessions are going well and getting lots of positive feedback and that's always good to hear. That's bringing some income, not enough but some. I am going to start doing dyslexia screenings and assessments again and networking. I have been contacted by Inspirealba, hope I got that spelling right and they have offered us some free support and advice. We have our dyslexia online shop and will have a new tee shirt design ready soon thanks to support from InspireAlba.
This week I am going to approach the National lotteryand make a funding bit with them and I am still slowly, slowly moving the dyslexia hub idea forward. Slowly slowly is a problem for me though because like many entrepreneurs slow is just now quick enough
But Dyslexia Pathways CIC really need more people on board to support and help us with our dyslexia hub idea. We need people with expertise in developing an idea like this. People who can write funding bids, help market what we are doing, who have experience of and help us build a dyslexic / neuro difference community.
We have a feasibility study, we have architects plans, we have a prospective site to develop in Lochgelly, our Unique Dyslexic programmes has showed there are people out there who would like to see what we are doing happening. I have one or two people interested in getting involved but idealy we need around 6. I would have to be on a voluntary basis because we cannot afford to pay anyone.
Our vision is that through social enterprise and our social model of dyslexia message we can forge a new more positive way forward for dyslexic and other neuro difference communities. Its not good enough that some many dyslexic kids are basically being failed by our education systems world wide. This is something we are working to change in our own small way
I am hoping the one message that comes out from this blog is that we cannot take dyslexia
Dyslexia and neuro difference positive clothing range
Dyslexia Pathways CIC supports and promotes dyslexic and neuro difference communities as well as the people who support or love them.
Our Unique designs enable all communities to promote a more positive vision of dyslexia and neuro difference. A vision that focusses on the values of respect, diversity, equality and difference.
#dyslexia is a difference that reflects #diversity #vivaladifference #uniquedyslexic "
Please visit our online shop and if you see anything you like hey why not buy one lol Or just leave some feedback here.
Many thanks to all who have taken the time to read my blog please share amongst friends and followers
Pease love and groovyness to all in the dyslexic and other neuro difference communities as well as to all those who love and or support us
Steve McCue
PS:
.Donate social
Please consider supporting our work by donating to Dyslexia Pathways CIC Unique Dyslexic donate social cause funding and or sharing amongst your friends.
The donate social button is at the top of the page. We would like to raise £1000 to pay for some new assistive tech software for myself and to use to demonstrate at our dyslexia awareness training. To pay to keep our Unique Dyslexic and Dyslexia Pathways web sites up and running. To help pay travel and admin costs and to enable us to take on a volunteer or two.
What is Donate Social
Donate Social lets your fans make donations on your Facebook page using PayPal or a credit card. They can also invite their friends to donate to your cause.
Once installed to your page, your Donate Social tab is completely customizable with a text editor and the ability to add photos, links, custom html, css, and even embed YouTube videos. All you need to set it up is the email address you use for your PayPal account.
Many thanks to all who have taken the time to read my blog please share amongst friends and followers
Pease love and groovyness to all in the dyslexic and other neuro difference communities as well as to all those who love and or support us
Steve McCue
PS:
.Donate social
The donate social button is at the top of the page. We would like to raise £1000 to pay for some new assistive tech software for myself and to use to demonstrate at our dyslexia awareness training. To pay to keep our Unique Dyslexic and Dyslexia Pathways web sites up and running. To help pay travel and admin costs and to enable us to take on a volunteer or two.
What is Donate Social
Once installed to your page, your Donate Social tab is completely customizable with a text editor and the ability to add photos, links, custom html, css, and even embed YouTube videos. All you need to set it up is the email address you use for your PayPal account.
Donate Social is free to use, does not take a cut from your donations, does not store any personal information, and does not use tracking cookies. It's just our way of helping out.
Above is a link to out Unique Dyslexic Facebook and the Donate Social Button in highlighted in yellow in the above graphic
please please share amongst your contacts and friends and help get word out there
Take care all and ta for taking the time to read my blog
Friday, 8 July 2016
a guest blog from Amie and a few other bits and bobs
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| Dyslexia Pathways, social enterprise and Unique Dyslexic graphic. |
Introduction
Hi blog readers hope you are well. Fab news about my last blog which had over 700 reads which is a record for me. Thanks to all who took the time to read and share my blog much appreciate.
For a change from me waffling on I thought I would like to ring in the changes a little here by inviting people to write a little guest blog for us. I am going to try and publish one around one a month. Give me a nod if you would like to write a guest blog for us.
So Amie from How to be happy has agreed to be my first guest blogger. Its important that we all have the opportunity to express our thoughts and opinions about being dyslexic and about dyslexia in itself. How else can we have a debate if we don't talk about the issues as each of us perceives them?
Guest Blog
Dear all you amazing Mums and Dads,
Amie
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| Aimie and #IAMDYSLEXIC |
Twitter: @HowToBeHappy89
Many thanks for your fab blog much appreciated. For being our guest blogger you receive a fabtastic Unique Dyslexic sticker.
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| Unique Dyslexic award sticker |
A little news from NASA
After an almost five-year journey to the solar system’s largest planet, NASA's Juno spacecraft successfully entered Jupiter’s orbit during a 35-minute engine burn. Confirmation that the burn had completed was received on Earth at 8:53 p.m. PDT (11:53 p.m. EDT) Monday, July 4.#
Hey did you know that around 50% of people who work at NASA are dyslexic? How fabtastic is that? Our education system still fails far to many of our dyslexic, disabled and neuro different kids. But look what we can achieve in spite of this? Next time you are felling down about being dyslexic just look up at Jupiter because without dyslexic diversity we may not have reached Jupiter at all.
Dyslexia and neuro difference positive clothing range
Dyslexia Pathways CIC supports and promotes dyslexic and neuro difference communities as well as the people who support or love them.Our Unique designs enable all communities to promote a more positive vision of dyslexia and neuro difference. A vision that focusses on the values of respect, diversity, equality and difference.
#dyslexia is a difference that reflects #diversity #vivaladifference #uniquedyslexic "
Please visit our online shop and if you see anything you like hey why not buy one lol Or just leave some feedback here.
Many thanks to all who have taken the time to read my blog please share amongst friends and followers
Peace love and groovyness to all in the dyslexic and other neuro difference communities as well as to all those who love and or support us.
Many thanks to all who have taken the time to read my blog please share amongst friends and followers
Peace love and groovyness to all in the dyslexic and other neuro difference communities as well as to all those who love and or support us.
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