Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Letter to Post and Courier .com, on a story of a student with dyslexia

Dear Ms. Wenger:

Bookshare.org and RFBD.org have great tools for the dyslexics. Main streaming is a good and economical solution to those with dyslexia and the proper tools.

Text to speech combined with digital text books and the web provide an excellent learning tool. Bookshare.org has provided such a combination, whereas a student is reading their textbook with Read:OutLoud and he or she comes to a person they do not know or a word they need defined, all they do is highlight the word and click the dictionary or go to the web and look them up.

Recently I became a member of Bookshare.org, which is free for all qualifying students in the United States, and for the first time while using this combination of tools I thought of going back to school.

It is my hope this will help the Floyd family, and contribute to the knowledge base of the Statehouse, so unnecessary spending for tools which are already available.
My Blogs has similar information about these tools and more.

To Learningdisabilities@nifl.gov June 17th, 2009

Dear Advocates:

If you all are talking about Technology.

Technology has flattened the hurdles for the Dyslexic student and adults. It seems to me, the academic environment is slow to act on new and free technology. Bookshare.Org has taken textbooks, speech to text technology and the Internet, and have combined them into a powerful learning tool.

Bookshare.Org and the United States Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) have joined money and technology to create a free for all students with qualifying disabilities a tool which is under utilized. It is now in the hands of educators, ready to be applied to the students who need them.

Education and the printed word is no longer a hurdle which dyslexic students and adults have to jump over.

Recently the below was written and submitted to Bookshare.org. Consider visiting Bookshare.org to see the rest of the Finalist essay's on how Government funded funds have change their lives thru bookshare. The link is: www.bookshare.org/about/tellUsYourStory

To all Newsletters and Newspapers publishers

Would you consider making your News Columns "Readplease enabled"? (see: http://www.readplease.com/english/rpenablewebsitecontent.php ) for a demo. We have "Readplease enabled" our sites.

Or make you news letter "print disabled" friendly so I who have been given by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the gift of Dyslexia.

Questions on Readplease and Bookshare

Thank you for your questions about Readplease and Bookshare programs.

1. How does it work? It is a text to speech program, any digital text which today most anything can be changed into digital text, the text to speech software will read the text.

2. Bookshare is a national program and is free for all qualifying students in the United States. see www.bookshare.org .


Thank you so much for your interest, the combination of these programs have the potential to change the way education is delivered

To Illinois Sun Times, July 23rd. 2009

Bookshare.org provides tools to make the life of a dyslectic equal in scholastics with text-to-speech (Read:OutLoud) and digital textbooks.

If Illinois state can name Bookshare as an Authorized User or AU of the NIMAC, then most of the funding for services to the "print disabled" (I can only speak for dyslexia) which was lost can be replaced by this program.

Read the most recent article from Bookshare.org: Source: http://www.bookshare.org/canvas/newsletter3

Recently I submitted an insight to the Wall Street Journal over the debate digital Books which Kindle has brought about, the article was titled ""Publisher Delays E-Book Amid Debate on Pricing ".

There is a bright side to digital publications made available to the print disabled.

Recently I was selected as one of the 14 finalists of Bookshare's members’ contest, which asked us how bookshare has changed our lives. The Lord Jesus has blessed me with the gift of dyslexia, which was diagnosed in 1967 at the University of Miami in Miami, Florida. Text-to-speech software, organizations such as Bookshare.org, the Gutenberg project and speech to text software has changed what most of society thinks today as a disability into a gift.



In the light of the "digital text-to-speech readers’ debate", there is a whole other bright side, of which our education system could use to inspire a new fervor for learning. Let's just take Bookshare.org, who has taken digital text and the Internet and turned it into a virtual book.



Recently, I have been reading, A. Lincoln: a biography by Ronald C. White Jr.. When reading about Abraham Lincoln, there are plenty of subjects which are mentioned which I have no clue as to what they are. So I just highlight them. Click on dictionary go to the Internet and read about the subject for example, Stephen A. Douglas, Kansas-Nebraska act, Cyrus McCormick, the financial panic of 1837 and the list goes on.



But let's step forward and apply this technology and the Internet to education. Let's take it from being a dyslexic in class reading at 89 words a minute, where the average reader reads between 200 to 250 words per minute. That was yesterday. Today I read between 400 and 450 words per minute. And if I don't understand what the word means I highlight and look it up as stated above, then make a footnote with the definition and go back to reading.



Now let's take it to a student who doesn't have a disability. They have their book, which is downloaded to their computer (How green is that?). They come to the financial panic of 1837 highlight it and look up the event on the Internet. They don't have to put their book aside and look up the event in an encyclopedia or on the Internet and go back to reading.



This technology is available today for students with qualifying disabilities because of funding by an award from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). This technology and software combination would interject youth back into today's educational classrooms.



Sure there is a cost but there is also a savings because there is a change in lives, such as mine.



The following is a copy of my Finalist award winning submission to Bookshare:

Today the successes which have taken place in my life have been from a compassionate ear, a foundation of a solid family, Jesus Christ’s presence in my life and technology.

Bookshare has for the first time in my 50 years of life, put me on the edge of a reading chair which was never in my life before. This chair is at work, at home, on vacation, and in my conversations with many.

Today the written word is not a hurdle to me nor should it be in the way of education for any student in the academic environment in the United States of America. By combining technology of text to speech, and gathering the printed word in digital format, Bookshare has overcome the initial hurdle; Bookshare has made a pioneering pathway for an unbridled learning environment.

Never in my life before Bookshare have I ever felt more a part of my community and industry. Bookshare’s partnership with Victor Reader Soft and Read:OutLoud have enabled me to read the Wall Street Journal, The World is Flat, Same Kind of Different as Me, Just As I am and more to be read. In the past, if someone were to come to me and say, “Did you read…,” this would send ripples of memories of failure and frustration which came from hurts from the casualties of dyslexia.

Prior to Bookshare, most of my published reading was restricted to the Gutenberg Project, and whatever book I was really intent on reading I would have to do the following:

1. Scrape the glue off the binder then cut the binder.
2. Scan the book into PaperPort then process the scanned book with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) it into a text rich format, then save in Microsoft Word.
3. Then read with text to speech software.

When it came to reading the Wall Street Journal, which my wife bought for me with expiring air miles, I would scan the paper headlines, then cut out the article, then repeat the above process for reading a book, and then read with text to speech software. Then a librarian told me about Bookshare, and in November of 2007 I joined, and have been reading more than ever before.

Dyslexia is a “gift” to me today, because of the barriers which have been leveled by technology; Bookshare has picked up the baton and made reading for me today a pleasure while allowing me to sharpen my mind and spirit by the printed word.

As for me and my children, the current and future technologies which are here to aid in education make the mountain tops of the creative mind obtainable. We in this country have one thing which surpasses all others, Freedom: freedom to dream, freedom to speak, freedom to learn, and freedom to achieve.

Thank you for your pursuit of making the printed word more accessible, which in turn, allows goals of reading to be set and obtained for the print disabled of our Nation by using today’s technology for tomorrow’s hope.

Thank you for serving the print disabled and our children.

To Learningdisabilities@nifl.gov July 28th, 2009

Welcome. Recently I received the below newsletter from Bookshare.org about States; which VT is one, who have become an Authorized NIMAC User, this will allow for Vermont to receive textbooks in up to 2 weeks verses months in its current status.

This is a program which I'm interested in Florida being a Authorized NIMAC User. So I thought I would pass this information on to you and if you have had experience with the Bookshare organization I would like to hear your experience. If not, then it should be a help to your Department and students. Bookshare has broken all barriers for dyslectics and others (I'm dyslexic myself), so they can have the tools they need to learn.

The article:
Source: www.bookshare.org/canvas/newsletter3

Bookshare Named Authorized NIMAC User in U.S. States and Territories

By Valerie Chernek

To expedite the process of providing accessible versions of textbooks to students with print disabilities, your state can name Bookshare as an Authorized User or AU of the NIMAC. Here is the current list of states that have named Bookshare as an Authorized User: CA, CO, KS, MA, MD, MO, MT, NH, NY, OR, TN, VT, and Guam. Is your state on the list?


What is the NIMAC? NIMAC stands for National Instructional Materials Accessibility Center. It is a federally-funded, central repository created by the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) to hold U.S. K-12 digital textbook source files. U.S. textbook publishers are required to submit files to the NIMAC when the request is made in writing at the point of print book purchase. The files can then be used to create a variety of specialized formats for students with print disabilities.


This process helps to make certain that all K-12 students with print disabilities receive timely access to required educational textbooks according to the IDEA 2004 Law. (Individual with Disabilities Education Act)


As an AU of the NIMAC, Bookshare supplements the work of other state AU’s and can provide timely access to digital accessible textbooks for students with qualified print disabilities and IEPs (Individual Education Plan). A teacher or sponsor can request and receive converted student-ready textbooks in accessible file formats from Bookshare in less than two weeks.


In states that have not named Bookshare as a state AU, teachers request textbooks through one of their state AU’s, who may still assign the book to Bookshare for conversion. This turnaround process will take longer, from one to two months depending on the complexity of the book.


“When we find a required digitized book in the NIMAC, we make a special notation to request it from Bookshare. Within a week, the books come back in a more reader-friendly format. This is one of the real benefits of working with Bookshare,” said Valerie Whitney, Special School District (SSD) Area Coordinator for St. Louis County, MO and the Missouri Assistive Technology Project.

To Learningdisabilities@nifl.gov April 6th, 2009

A fabled life it is not, it is real, it is real failure, it is petitions, it is standing in front of a class asking for help, and it is crying, pain and strength. It is a vision which you hold on to, a vision where laughter and whispers are overcome by perseverance faith and courage. Courage to approach a professor who has shunned me as a student because they think, to have my test given to me in an auditory format is unfair, laws and helping hands help in ways which cannot be appreciated enough.

Once I was asked to write and article of encouragement to students of a “LD” school, it is below.

Postcards from an L.D. Veteran

Lingering flashbacks from my elementary years, visit me often. Flashes of visions streak across my mind of just making it under the limbo bar (i.e. a C average) of high school years, then the hobbling along with everyone else in my L.D. class in college, then finally during my last three semesters in college did I ever begin to feel confident. Only then to feel the vast emptiness when I began to look for a job in the business world. My metals of honor were always at home, in the form of my parents who gave me the foundation to step out in Faith, and come home to recharge my confidence. It has and is a tough battle of overcoming the written hurdles of our society, and the limits it creates. As a dyslexic with the gift of multi dimensional thinking or thinking in pictures, we are ahead of our time, and it is discouraging to have to wait for the rest of the world to catch up. In the process we are the minority. Sure we have ADA support, but this and every other label comes at a price of whispers in the back of the class and slighted eye contact when it comes to questioning our option, but at the end of the scholastic mission there is victory.

Each of the above has a defining ring:

Elementary school was tough, although I found my place as a class clown, whenever I got close to the edge of disciplinary correction, my fellow students would ask if I had missed taking my Davis pill. Most of which was overshadowed by my likable silliness. Only one school asked me not to come back.

High-school, I thank the Lord for not being labeled as an SLD or I might have qualified for ESD, but they did not exist, as a matter of fact most teachers were not informed that I was dyslectic until my senior year.

The Scholastic Aptitude Test was my baptism into college, only under an L.D. program was I going to venture into college. The L.D. program weighted my enthusiasm, in spite of my better judgment by the administration. The L.D. program would discourage the type of courses I wanted to take, so I transferred.

The University of the South was a spring board which I desired and learned more about myself and studying than ever before. I was responsible, and I accepted the responsibility by studying very hard. I was not efficient, but I was diligent. What a great gift to be in such an academic environment.

What was to follow were three semesters of a balanced diet of hard work with other students who were there for the academic challenge, and the application of reward by having fun, i.e., kayaking, spelunking, rock climbing, watching football games in a coat and tie, (which is also the uniform to class). There were teachers who would step out of scholastic traditional bounds on my behalf. They took time to read my test to me. They also invited me into their offices and homes for private tutoring, or to get a clearer picture of the “gift of dyslexia” and how to help the knowledge I expressed in class into grades. All under the “honor code” of education.

Feeling the grades and quality points failing, I transferred to the University of South Florida. My acceptance was granted after an oral petition. Into the Special Services for the Handicap program, I was allowed in. What I did not know was that I had been academically suspended from the University of the South. Subsequently, I was academically suspended in a year and a half from the University of South Florida, mainly due to my denial of disability and help from the program of the Special Services.

Into the work force for two years after being offered a good salaried position as a manager of a night club, I decided the life style would not be good for me or a possible future family, I returned to school.

By this time my emotional arms had been strengthened by picking myself up from past failures. The deans of Social Behavioral Science questioned my ability to remain a candidate for a B.A. in Psychology, saying that in order to graduate I would have to maintain a 3.0 average; I went on. There was however, one administrator who was interested in helping me, not my “disability.” I was back at my degree. Three straight semesters later, ending in Dec. 1985, I sat front row and center, averaging a 3.0. I graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from the University of South Florida.

Again please call or email me with any questions.

To Learningdisabilities@nifl.gov April 6th, 2009

Three programs which have enabled me are www.readplease.com, www.rfbd.org and www.bookshare.org . Bookshare for the student and adult population is an excellent resource. Newspapers from all over the country are available and Bookshare provide two text to speech software programs, Victor Soft reader and a Beta for Bookshare made by Read:Outloud.

Being able to read the newspaper is a character builder, I know what is going on in the world because I read it in a newspaper, I had never been able to say this before, I can read my trade journals now, where in the past they ended up in the garbage because I could not face the daunting task of reading them. Now it is a simple clip and paste or have Read:Outloud read it to me via the web. When I read I have to follow along for 90%+ comprehension, but on the other hand I'm working a lot on spreadsheets with numbers and listening does not detour from my number crunching.

Although I can't read and type at the same time if I was able to, I would can it and sell this ability. I'm pretty sure my processing numbers and hearing the paper read to me do not use the same part of the brain.

Readplease enables me to read my letters and emails before they go out and is generally the one I use the most, Readplease should be made available to all populations in schools and libraries. If made available to all then it would not cause the much dreaded stigmatism. Readplease is a Microsoft only program, but in today's environment there are parallel operating systems software, so you can have MAC or Windows running at the same time.

As for public access, again it is us (advocates) pushing with concerted effort in the same direction.

To Learningdisabilities@nifl.gov April 10th, 2009

If my input is helpful, I can tell you as a 49 year old dyslectic, who reads extensively with Text to Speech up to 100 pages of text a day with ReadPlease, Read:OutLoud or Victor Soft Reader, my spelling has improved by 60%, because I see the highlighted word when it is read to me and hear it at the same time.

Repetition has to be a contributing factor to this improvement.

In this typing the only word I misspelled was "dyslextic" which I changed with spell check to "dyslectic".

To Learningdisabilities@nifl.gov April 29th, 2009

This might help, from one dyslexic to those who also have the gift of dyslexia.

This suggestion was posted a while back but with the inmates you have it may be a great reward system as they learn to read and hear and see words for the first time.

Three programs which have enabled me are www.readplease.com, www.rfbd.org and www.bookshare.org . Bookshare for the student and adult population is an excellent resource, you must qualify with a print disability in order to become a member. Newspapers from all over the country are available and Bookshare provide two text to speech software programs, Victor Soft reader and a Beta for Bookshare made by Read:Outloud.

Being able to read the newspaper is a character builder, this may help your students feel they are a part of the world outside because they have read it with text to speech. So it would be a simple clip and paste or have Read:Outloud read it to them. When I read I have to follow along for 90%+ comprehension, this in turn has improved my spelling by 60% to 70%, because I have a photographic memory, but also it is because I keep hearing and seeing the words over and over, so it is imprinted in my mind's eye.

Readplease enables the student to proofread their letters home or to a loved one and then they can also read letters if you have an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) program. Most recent printers to have the software embedded in the programs offered at the time of purchase.

Once I was lost now I am found, once was blind to the written word, now I read.

Tools to build your students confidence.

To Dr. Neil MacKay at The University of Wales Registry

In 1967 I was diagnosed with dyslexia, today there are not hurdels or boundries which are in my path of learning.

The following are some truths which have taken place in my life and thought I would share them with you.
Three programs which have enabled me are www.readplease.com, www.rfbd.org and www.bookshare.org . Bookshare for the student and adult population is an excellent resource, you must qualify with a print disability in order to become a member. Newspapers from all over the country are available and Bookshare provide two text to speech software programs, Victor Soft reader and a Beta for Bookshare made by Read:Outloud.

Being able to read the newspaper is a character builder, I know what is going on in the world because I read it in a newspaper, I had never been able to say this before, I can read my trade journals now, where in the past they ended up in the garbage because I could not face the daunting task of reading them. Now it is a simple clip and paste or have Read:Outloud read it to me via the web. When I read I have to follow along for 90%+ comprehension, but on the other hand I'm working a lot on spreadsheets with numbers and listening does not detour from my number crunching.

Although I can't read and type at the same time if I was able to, I would can it and sell this ability. I'm pretty sure my processing numbers and hearing the paper read to me do not use the same part of the brain.

Readplease enables me to read my letters and emails before they go out and is generally the one I use the most, Readplease should be made available to all populations in schools and libraries. If made available to all then it would not cause the much dreaded stigmatism. Readplease is a Microsoft only program, but in today's environment there are parallel operating systems software, so you can have MAC or Windows running at the same time.

As for public access, again it is us (advocates) pushing with concerted effort in the same direction.

Once I was lost now I am found, once was blind to the written word, now I read.

Tools to build your confidence.
Posted by Davis at 10:44 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Talking Books article

Links to this post
My name is Davis Graham. I have dyslexia which was diagnosed in 1967 at the University of Miami. I earned my BA degree in Psychology from the University of South Florida, class of 1985.

The road to my degree was not easy. I learned a lot about the battles with pride, how achievements come from hard work, and know today to accept dyslexia as a gift and not as a disability.

Today I am the Executive Director / CFO of Manatee Diagnostic Center, Ltd. and there is a program online which has changed my life. The program is called Readplease which I found on the Internet after receiving a contract which was 30 pages and needed to be read within 24 hours. The contract inspired me to ask the Lord for some guidance and I went to Google.com and typed in Text reading software, number two on the list was readplease.com, and in quotes was "free download", I had the contract read in 1 hour and have not hesitated to read since.

About one and half years later I bought Readplease 2003 Plus and continue to use Readplease to read the Bible, daily devotions, contracts, reading for pleasure, reading email, trade articles, Smithsonian magazine, and then proof read my letters and e-mail. It literally has changed my life.

After contacting Pat Schubert via e-mail at Talking Books which I used quite often, she gave me a library of electronic books, and for the first time I'm reading Melville's Moby Dick, next will be Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity, then on to Robinson Crusoe. When reading with Readplease, I read between 300 words per minute to close to 500 words per minute. The ability to listen at such a high rate came from my experience in college when I would receive my text books on tape while following along in the text book. I received the text books through the Learning Disability Programs I was enrolled in during college. The books would come from Reading for the Blind and Dyslexic and sometime the school would have them read from students who were studying the same course I was taking. My ability to comprehend has come from the years of listening to books on tape with the variable speed play back records which RFBD and Talking Books so generously provide.

It is my hope somebody is out there who can use my story to inspire them to reconsider reading as an adventure. It is quite the experience to hear the words of Melville roll into an image which paints a picture of life on the sea. My life of reading has been renewed and I hope your view of reading is changed, for it is a gift from our Creator.