Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Institute helps dyslexics make grade. (click here to view article)

Dear Felicia:

Thank you for your article on Dyslexia and the Wisconsin Institute for Learning Disabilities/Dyslexia. Great story.

Although in contrast to your article today, I consider dyslexia a Gift, today with Technology the hurdle of reading does not exist nor does it have to for those who struggle with the written word.

View "My travels with the Gift of Dyslexia" : www.manateediagnostic.com/davisgraham.aspx

Four programs which have empowered me and are available to help others are www.readplease.com, www.rfbd.org, www.bookshare.org and Balabolka.

Bookshare® is free for all U.S. students with qualifying disabilities, thanks to an award from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP).

Read:OutLoud and Bookshare.org turn any book or text book into a virtual book. Bookshare therefore is excellent for the student and adult population. 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.

With Read:OutLoud if the reader comes to a person, place or thing they don't understand then all the reader has to do with a couple of clicks and connection to the internet click the dictionary and voila they have the meaning of the word, or picture of the person or a map of where the place is located.

In today's iPad world Read:OutLoud is volumes ahead as a tool for the student. The next step in education is for all textbooks to be on an iPad foundation with the ability to update the textbooks or access references or contributing resources to the textbook.

Green education, what a new idea, except it isn't, it has been brought to the system by the Learning Disabled, through BookShare.org.

Check out how the software works, by visiting my blog at: www.mygiftofdyslexia.blogspot.com

In summary those who have Dyslexia have a gift not a disability.

Sincerely Davis Graham

Saturday, December 4, 2010

US News encourging LD students, my comment

Dear Kim:


Thank you for your article encouraging those students who have a LD to attend college. One if not the best resource which was not mentioned was www.Bookshare.org. What a gift this is for those who have the gift of Dyslexia or other qualifying disabilities.


Bookshare.org has the combination of digital textbooks and software which has the potential to change the landscape of our education system. For those who do qualify it has already changed the landscape by taking a textbook and turning the book and software combination into a vitrual book. If you come to a person, place or thing you don't know then you just highlight the word and with the internet you are able to data mine the topic and incorporate the meaning into your book.


Check out "Dyslexia and technology" on Youtube for a demostration.


Our education system is good let's make it great by incorporating the technology which is available to learning disabled students and make it available to all who seek to learn.

Mike Cohen with Google

Dear Mike:
I have the gift of dyslexia and I am and have been using text to speech for 9 years now. Check out my Youtube videos at my blog mygiftofdyslexia.blogspot.com we as a nation are on the edge a good educational system (?) to a great one with efforts like yours to incorporate text to speech and other technology in to the mainstream. Think of Google coming out with an "iPad" technology for textbooks. Where a student receives their books from 9th thru college in a digital format with data mining capability. (Dyslexia and technology, Youtube). The text books would be uploaded and updated 1/4 or every semester. Bookshare.org has done some amazing things and is offering these tools to the LD population already.