Dyslexia Awareness Week 2023
This week marks Dyslexia Awareness Week and the British Dyslexia Association is inviting you to share your experience as part of this year’s theme 'Uniquely You':
At the heart of our celebration is the profound understanding that each person's journey with dyslexia is an individual story. Like fingerprints, intricate and one-of-a-kind, no two experiences of dyslexia are the same. This year's theme captures the sentiment, emphasizing the complexity and originality that resides within each individual with dyslexia.
We know that 6.3 million people in the UK have been diagnosed with dyslexia (UK government research) and one in six British adults are at the same reading level as an 11-year-old. But as described by the British Dyslexia Association everyone’s experience with dyslexia and individual journey is different.
This year we want to talk about those unique journeys, how it affects learning and what our trainers are doing to tailor their approach to student’s needs.
We asked Lead Assistive Technology Trainer, Thomas Jackson, how he directly supports students with dyslexia, incorporating their different needs:
“The students are supported firstly, by all trainers and members of Remtek completing disability awareness courses to gain full knowledge and an understanding of the different disabilities and what variations each disability can have. The training sessions are worked around each student. We want to make the training as useful and engaging as possible for each student.
So, if for example, we are training in mind mapping software, we will ask if they have work or issues that this would help with and tailor it around that.
Assistive Technology Trainer John-Michael added, “Our tailored training sessions are one-to-one, supporting each student’s preferred learning style and our recommendations are dependant entirely on their needs.”
One of our newest Assistive Technology Trainers Claire Sheen wanted to share her story of living with dyslexia and how her understanding of the learning difficulty has helped her hone her skills in AT training:
“Having Dyslexia, I understand what it is like to be in a room and not understand the conversation. I understand what it is to zone out and struggle with reading and writing. But I also know that this is much more than this!
I support a mixed range of ages of students, training them on the software from the DSA. There are some who tell me that they have dyslexia, and they feel that society views them as being stupid breaks my heart.
It's about being resilient it's being creative it's being a problem solver. These are all desirable skills that the workforce needs and employers want.
I find a lot of friends coming to me for advice. They may say, "I would never have seen or thought about it like that.” This is down to seeing the whole picture, problem-solving, and having empathy. All things which are also a part of the dyslexic traits.
This is the power of dyslexia and what we need to talk about more.
I am very lucky in my role to have access to so much Assistive support software.
Talk Type has helped me transcribe my ideas onto paper, for this article.
Claro read has helped me read back my writing and helped me know what wanted to write is right. Grammarly has helped me with my spelling and punctuation for this article. But also, in my day-to-day life, I use things like mind mapping tools. At the moment, I am using MapView to help me plan my wedding.
Although I do work as a training specialist it has been hard to learn and remember all the software, so this is why I use it in my day-to-day.
There are so many good resources out there to help anyone who has or has someone in your life who is dyslexic including;
- British Dyslexia Association
- Made By Dyslexia
- Succeed with Dyslexia
- Elizabeth Takyi and so much more!
And there is free tech too or settings on your phone that can help you.”
This week we’ll be taking part in a range of activities to raise awareness of dyslexia and promoting how our support can enable students to thrive in their studies. A huge thank you to Claire, Thomas and John Michael for talking with us for this year’s Dyslexia Awareness Week.
