Dyslexia: challenging negative dyslexia stereotypes and THE BIG QUESTION..........

Hi readers hope you are all feeling #fab

My organisation Dyslexia Pathways CIC and sister project Unique Dyslexic was founded in 2008. Our social model of dyslexia and social enterprise vision challenges negative #dyslexia stereotypes and promote dyslexia and neuro diversity in terms of diversity and difference.

Here we go I am going to take a little dyslexia Einstein thought journey in my blog. This may take us into the realms of the xfiles lol. I think I have read and heard this question a myriad of times and the question has been given numerous different answers. The question is:

What causes your dyslexia?

I am going to try and keep away from talking to much jargonese here and if I had the equipment, my recorder is broken, I would make a video also.

If you go for the idea that dyslexia is a medical issue, that it is a disability, that in some way our brains do not function like a non dyslexic brain. This infers we as dyslexics are in need of a cure, remediation and treatment. That we have an impairment, a neurobiological condition.

To me personally I think this says I am less than a non dyslexic in someway. When I talk about a medical model of dyslexia this is what I am talking about. This medical model of dyslexia says we as dyslexics have a problem, that we are the problem and basically says society bares no responsibility for the way it basically fails us in schools. Maybe this is why only areund 20% of dyslexic adults were assessed when they were at school. Our education system and schools can simply abdicate their responsibility to teach us because we as dyslexics are the problem.

Then we come to the social model of dyslexia which tells us that dyslexia is a difference that reflects diversity. If we look at dyslexia in terms of diversity and difference then maybe the answer to the question is evolution. Dyslexics are here because of the process of evolution. There may only be between 10% to 20% of us but nature and evolution has selected dyslexia in. If you think the total world population is 7.6 billion people there are a lot of dyslexics out there.

Our diversity and difference means we think, feel, interact and percieve the world through a dyslexic prism. It menas if we are to learn effectivly we must be taught is ways that will enable us to learn from day one at school. Society has a duty to provide us all, dyslexic, dysparaxic, neurodiverse or disabled with a good education. This is not just an issue of inclusion it is a human rights issue.

The social model of dyslexia tells us it is society which disables us and the evidence is clear that it does from day one at school for far to many of us. Its why over 50% of adults in our prisons are dyslexic.

I am not saying I have any answers. But I do think we need to change the way we percieve and talk about dyslexia. We have to have conversations and challange a medical model of dyslexia that has done nothing for us apart from trap us behind negative dyslexia stereotypes that say we cannot read, write or spell.

anyways thats enough from me today

peace love and groovyness