Dyslexia: Availability of Materials - Thesis Example

 Dyslexia – Availability of Materials There is very little written information available for the person who is suffering from dyslexia. Not only are numbers and simple mathematics are mostly unknown, but poetry and the literary works enjoyed by the majority of the populace are denied to the dyslexic, especially the long complicated sentences and lines that are a vital part of classic literature. Even worse, insomuch as career and education wise, the absolutely essential twenty-first century task of navigating the intricacies of the World Wide Web is virtually impossible. The thesis will explain the various stages and treatments of the disorder, how it is developed and whether or not there is a cure available. Further, this paper will therefore explore the viability of creating reading material and Web pages specifically for the dyslexic, for every person deserves the same chance to have the same quality of life as those without the disorder. Dyslexia is a debilitating neurological disorder that is sometimes also referred to as Developmental Reading Disorder. The sufferer is often of normal intelligence and their vision and hearing are at least average. Three kinds of dyslexia are most common. There is trauma dyslexia and can happen at any age after some sort of brain injury. Primary dyslexia comes from the left side of the brain in the cerebral cortex area. This form of the disorder is permanent and a child with primary dyslexia rarely proceeds developmentally above that of a ten year-old. The third type is Developmental Dyslexia. It is caused by hormonal imbalances in the fetus and can dissipate as the child ages. Both Primary and Developmental Dyslexia are more prevalent in boys than girls, although researchers are unsure as to why (Perlstein). The very young child often reverses letters such as S and E but that usually disappears by the age of eight. In a world where up is down and left is right, teaching the dyslexic can be a challenging proposition. The disorder makes reading difficult if not impossible. Some have visual symptoms, so that letters and symbols written in a certain manner are often seen as a mirror image in the dyslexic. With auditory dyslexia, the patient can hear the sounds correctly but the brain jumbles them before the student can put them onto paper. Even if he understands the sentence that he reads, the dyslexic often has trouble remembering it. As a result of his frustration the dyslexic is more prone to depression, behavior problems, and being the victim of bullying. So the optimal learning environment has to be structured for the dyslexic and normally one-on-one instruction for him is the best method. If not, learning among a small group of dyslexics is likewise beneficial, for the child realizes he is not alone with the disorder. With everybody struggling to a certain extent, there would be less chance of teasing and bullying. Consequently, to date there is no cure for dyslexia. As seen above, though, the symptoms in some cases can lessen as the child approaches adulthood but the dyslexic will always suffer with the issue. As with all other “abnormal” situations acceptance is the one key to living successfully with dyslexia. As the disorder comes more into the forefront, there is more information available to educate the layperson and hopefully the dyslexic will soon be treated no differently than someone with say a peanut allergy. Creating appropriate teaching and reading materials for the dyslexic is no less challenging. Most all of the rules that one takes for granted in “normal writing” are going to have to be discarded. Simple is going to have to be the keyword when dealing with dyslexic-friendly written pages. The British Dyslexia Association (BDA) has developed the following tips and suggestions for writing an appropriate paper for the dyslexic reader. 1. The paper itself is important to the dyslexic. First off it must be thick enough not to be able to see through. The plain white stock that is so popular to most people is intimidating for him and the dyslexic would probably prefer a subtle pastel color, for most even have a favorite they want. It should neither be glossy (like photo paper). 2. Unlike this document, it is preferable to use left margin rather than justified. Clean right lines are confusing. Avoid using all capitals if possible. Bullets and/or numbering are also much easier for the dyslexic to read, rather than long continuous paragraphs and paragraph spacing of at least 1.5 or double is a good rule of thumb. 3. The sentence structure and layout should be short, almost choppy. Even though it sounds strange to the writer, instead of “During the track race, Jack had to clear several hurdles if he wanted to win”, use structure like “Jack ran a race. He jumped hurdles. Jack tried to win”. As the third grade teacher would say, never try to use extra negatives and make the words mostly active. 4. Microsoft Word is an excellent tool for writing appropriately for the dyslexic’s abilities, especially the readability option as built into the Spell Checker. For example, the Flesch score for this paper is less than fifty, way too difficult for a dyslexic. Their optimal reading score is more than seventy. The reader with dyslexia can do equally well with Adobe Acrobat Documents, as long as the writer has the more expensive Read/Write version, for pre-written Adobe papers would be of a certainty too difficult for the reader. 5. However, researchers are beginning to realize the benefits of using Microsoft PowerPoint as a reading tool for the dyslexic. The “flip chart” approach is simple in design and bullet comments (DO This, TRY this, etc.) make much more sense in a flow chart. Also the pictures and charts that the dyslexic likes are much easier to produce, as well as the boxes that surround PowerPoint slides. As with paper, go light on the colors and add a list of contents slide. For all types of production, try to steer clear of most abbreviations and use Arabic instead of Roman numerals. 6. A good font to use would be Arial but such unique types as Comic Sans Serif would also be acceptable. Size should be at least twelve although a good rule of thumb is the larger the better. A dark color should be chosen that would show well on the paper stock and bold is not a bad idea. Do not use colors such as green, red or pink. A man in New Hampshire named Abelardo Gonzalez has developed a specific font for dyslexics which he has named Olympian that is catching on in many areas (Brooks). A self-described software geek, he had no experience in font production but was able to create his Open Dyslexic style in his spare time and has made it available as open source software (free of charge). People without dyslexia tell him the font is “ugly” and he replies “if you don’t need it, that’s good for you”. Yet dyslexics have critiqued the font and praised it. Gonzalez is not affected by the disorder but a gentleman in the Netherlands is and has developed still another style of font. Christian Boer has suffered from dyslexia all of his life and was frustrated that he could not put letters together as a complete sentence. He said the letters floated around in his head like balloons. Boer is only just past thirty years old and was studying at the University of Twente when he invented the font style he refers to as Dyslexie. Using the font as his graduate thesis, he and several dyslexic friends tweaked the font until still another graduate student did a survey based upon Boer’s font in 2010 and discovered that the reading abilities of dyslexics approved dramatically (Nalewicki). The website referenced gives a sample of the font, which gives bold emphasis at the base of letters in order to give the appearance of them being weighted down. Certain difficult letters such as “J” were slanted as if italicized and Dyslexie gives sufficient space between the words. The sample looks almost like the way alphabet letters are written on the wall of an average elementary classroom. There is also an Adobe Acrobat document available on the web page that is written in Dyslexie. Because Holland is such a small country, most inhabitants speak English and the new font is now available in that language. The website points out the fact that there is a larger proportion of dyslexics in English speaking countries, perhaps due to the complexity of the language. When writing for the dyslexic, one must also be cognizant of the fact that some of them must use an electronic voice text reader, especially those afflicted with vision problems as well (BDA). The writer should listen to his or her text on the device before attempting to market it to the reader/listener. If it sounds chopped off it should be revised, for the trick is to make it as smooth as possible, like an audio book for the blind. There are several tricks to make this a smooth transition. As always, use short sentences with as few all caps as possible. Use colons and semicolons often, particularly after a bullet. Remember the computer-activated voice picks up what it thinks the word or phrase says, so putting stops after a thought is vitally important. A table in Word can confuse most text readers. Avoid images if possible but if images are absolutely necessary for the document, explain the images in the text itself, rather than below the image. Else the device will ignore the text. Also, telephone numbers should be phrased as 111-555-1212 instead of being grouped together. With all reading material written for the dyslexic, testing the document on a sufferer can give the writer insight as to whether their efforts. Just remember the dyslexic is frustrated by his condition enough, so don’t take any criticisms and critiques to heart, for a good read should be informative and enjoyable. Think of it this way. If the non-dyslexic was trying to read an article and half of it was in Cyrillic, understanding the gist of the document would be almost impossible. Well, that is what dyslexics have to endure attempting to read their own language. Like most of the populace, dyslexics would like to use the World Wide Web and the various smart phone applications associated with it. Everyday functions such as educational research, entertainment, catching up on the news, and shopping can prove frustrating and confusing. As commercial and educational activities compete with each other for more business from the ever expanding potential customer base, the internet pages are increasingly colored and flashy with different fonts all over the page. All of these customer drawing options are just the things which will lose the dyslexic quickly. Web pages need to be like their literary counterparts with simplicity and the following points need to be clarified so that the dyslexic will have a much easier time of accessing the site (Bradford): The white background with black lettering is particularly popular for internet pages, particularly those which are text-heavy. Yet the brightness of white makes the reading even blurrier for the dyslexic. A gray background would be much preferable. If the new dyslexic fonts referenced above are not available, trying using a Serif format, such as Comic Sans, popular among dyslexics. Better still use a web page layout that allows the user to choose his own format. Column width is also important and should not stretch across the entire web page. Try the newspaper style and break it up into two or more columns, easier to follow. Use many images; plain text is boring and with a picture to go along the dyslexic can perceive the gist of the subject matter. Boxes for emphasis are also a great help. For dyslexics and “normal” people alike, many times internet pages are designed by computer professionals who assume everybody should have the same computer skills as they do. The designer should put thought into his audience and assemble the web site accordingly. It is understandable that most internet sites would not survive without advertiser funds. But the shiny ads (especially those which flash like a neon sign) and pop-up advertisements that they like to use will bewilder the dyslexic and lose them. As with literature, be mindful of the fact that many dyslexics use an electronic voice text reader. Have the page make sense. Lastly if the website does not contain the information a dyslexic might need but the writer knows of a site that does, the writer should be less territorial and insert hyperlinks as needed. In conclusion, when writing for the dyslexic, the author not only has to be concerned with grammar and spelling. He or she also has to decide whether or not it is readable for the audience. Extra time and care must be taken but such writing can be rewarding in the knowledge the author is opening a whole new world to a group sorely deprived of reading, one of the simple pleasures of life. WORKS CITED BDA, “Dyslexia Style Guide”, Web, November 21, 2012. Bradford, John, “Designing web pages for dyslexic readers”, Web, November 23, 2012. Brooks, David, “NH man creates fonts for dyslexics”, The Telegraph (Nashua, NH), Web, November 21, 2012. Nalewicki, Jennifer, “Bold Stroke: New Font Helps Dyslexics Read”, Web, November 23, 2012. Perlstein, David MD, “Dyslexia”, Medicine Net.com, Web, November 21, 2012. Read More