Despite the fact that dyslexics are over-represented in Art & Design, the field of User Design is surprisingly late to designing for dyslexia specifically in mind. It may be that some design is as good as it is because there are already dyslexics in design teams...
Ingvar Kamprad grew up in poverty on a small farm in Sweden. His grandfather had killed himself after realizing he could no longer afford his mortgage. His grandmother was able to save the family farm. Because Ingvar struggled in school because of his dyslexia and he...
![Dyslexic Master Montessori Teacher ALISON AWES [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Screen-Shot-2019-08-31-at-4.00.40-PM.jpg)
I recently had a chance to talk with Master Montessori Teacher Alison Awes who is based at the Montessori Training Center of Minnesota. Alison is dyslexic herself and she has written about how Montessori instruction can support dyslexic students. Alison is also trained in Orton-Gillingham Level1. Like the Orton-Gillingham method, the Montessori approach was created by a physician working with special education students. I knew about Montessori because both our children attended Montessori preschools and we liked many aspects of the educational approach, including self-directed learning, multi-age classrooms, and well-designed hands-on materials. I was interested in hearing about Alison’s experiences because she attended a Montessori school herself until the age of 12 and then transitioned to a traditional middle school. She only discovered that she […]
![America’s Greatest Designers, CHUCK HARRISON [PREMIUM]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-01-at-9.00.20-PM.jpg)
Chuck Harrison‘s designs are so ubiquitous that it’s said that every household in America has something designed by him. Growing up in rural Louisiana, Chuck’s first attempts at design involved the building of a “skate box” when he attached wheels to an old two-by-four, creating an early version of a skateboard. Chuck’s father was an industrial arts teachers first at Southern University, then Texas A & M. Chuck knew he loved to create things with his hands, but didn’t know how to translate it into a career until he took an aptitude test at the City College of San Francisco. His dean advised him to go into industrial design, so he applied to all 5 programs in the country. In college, Chuck had the […]
![Dyslexia: The Twenty-Something Years [PREMIUM]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Screen-Shot-2019-09-01-at-8.40.01-AM.jpg)
“These are the years when it will be easiest to start the lives we want. And no matter what we do, the twenties are an inflection point- the great reorganization – a time when the experiences we have disproportionately influence the adult lives we will lead.” – Meg Jay, author of The Defining Decade “Life for emerging adults is vastly different today than it was for their counterparts even a generation ago. Young people are waiting longer to marry, to have children, and to choose a career direction. As a result, they enjoy more freedom, opportunities, and personal growth than ever before. But the transition to adulthood is also more complex, disjointed, and confusing. ” – Christian Smith, lead author of Lost in Transition Many ‘experts’ have […]
![Dyslexic Entrepreneur’s Advice for the Road [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Screen-Shot-2019-09-01-at-8.30.50-AM.jpg)
Great advice from Stephen Key at Additude. For many adult dyslexics, running your own business is the best way to build on strengths and create a positive working environment. Stephen offers the following helpful advice for those at the beginning their journey. “1. I prepare for every situation. My learning disability has caused me to fear the unknown. Feeling prepared soothes my nerves. Before I attend a meeting, I make sure to have an agenda. I like knowing what is expected of me. Because I don’t like being caught off guard, I am constantly studying up — on all sorts of topics. Much to my wife’s amusement, I even studied up on the first book we read for our neighborhood book club. When I’m traveling, […]
Dr. Gail Saltz has a hit book on her hands, and it's called The Power of Different. In addition to being a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, she grew up with a brother who'd win a Nobel Prize. Gail was kind enough to talk to her about what she learned...
![Harvard Genetics Professor George Church on Dyslexia and Failing [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Screen-Shot-2019-09-15-at-9.02.10-PM.jpg)
“If you’re not failing, You’re probably not trying as hard as you could be.” – Dyslexic Harvard Genetics Professor George Church From Harvard’s Gazette: Church had an erratic path through higher education like many dyslexic students, but his path shows a lot of ingenuity, passion, and dogged persistence in spite of not learning to read well. As a young person: “I was using books — even though I had a lot of trouble reading. By using the index and using photographs, I could figure out just about anything. So that kind of set me on a course of independent study. I was not particularly well adapted socially. I had dyslexia, narcolepsy, OCD, ADD — all these things were very mild, but made me feel different.” […]
Thanks, Founding Dyslexic Advantage Board Member Tom West for this presentation "A New World Shaped by Dyslexics." Tom is the author of In the Mind's Eye and Thinking Like Einstein for A New World Shaped by Dyslexics for Embrace Dyslexia Symposium in Singapore....
![Discoverer of the Titanic – Dyslexic Ocean Explorer Robert Ballard [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2019-09-17-at-9.10.00-AM.jpg)
“When I was a child, I wrote a letter to an oceanographic institution in California called Scripps (Scripps Institution of Oceanography UC San Diego). It was a Dear Santa Claus letter. “Dear Scripps, I want to be an oceanographer.” I’m sure I misspelled it, because I’m dyslexic. They gave me a scholarship.” – Robert Ballard When I was seventeen, 56 years ago, I went on my first expedition. We got caught in a storm, hit by a rogue wave, and I thought that was so cool. I was too young to be afraid. I just fell in love with adventure with a purpose, where you go out there and overcome the obstacles that you’re always faced with, and then you find this secret, whether it’s a shipwreck […]
"It was such a turning point to find that I had a talent and I had something to contribute, somewhere." - Gwen Stefani, singer, songwriter, fashion designer, actress As a child, Gwen was very creative, performing puppet shows for friends and neighbors with her...
![Shakespeare and Dyslexia – Making Words Physical [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/shakepeare-pixabay.jpg)
Today is National Shakespeare Day, and dyslexia and Shakespeare have been on our minds. We recently mentioned that Lloyd Everitt (yes, he’s dyslexic) is the youngest actor to play Othello at Shakespeare’s own Globe Theater. But we’ve also been thinking about Shakespeare recently because, on our trip down to California, we had the pleasure of stopping by the Oregon Shakespeare Company’s Rebecca Carey, the head of Voice and Text. Rebecca has an accomplished career that includes acting herself as well as teaching and consultant roles with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Oxford School of Drama, Broadway, and American Repertory Theatre. Rebecca is also co-author (with her husband, David Carey) of The Shakespeare Workbook and Video, a brilliant practical course for actors that includes such topics […]
