What if I told you…By Davis Graham

What if I told you we were not born with the ability to read?

"The human brain did not evolve to read"... John Gabrieli, MIT neuroscientist
What if I told you reading was not prevalent for all of time?

"...literacy has been commonplace only in the last two centuries..."- John Gabrieli
What if I told the world; reading is not a skill which is easily taught?

“Reading is so demanding that there’s not a successful alternative pathway that works as well,” says Gabrieli. It’s like using a stapler to pound a nail—the stapler can get the job done, but it takes a lot of extra effort.-John Gabrieli.
What if I told you, if you can't learn to read then there is not a backup plan?

..."so the brain must repurpose regions that evolved for very different ends. And the evolutionary newness of reading may leave the brain without a backup plan..."- John Gabrieli
There is a backup plan...

What if we knew there was another way to "consume" the printed word?

‘Our’ current methods we use for reading — based on ancient engineering constraints no longer relevant in today’s society.-Matthew Schneps, MIT

What if our brains were built to consume information faster than we can talk?

"The human mind can think at least four times faster than a person can talk." -The Peacemaker by Ken Sande
What is the speed we can listen and understand?

'People' are capable of listening to more than 600 words per minute. - Modern Human Relations at Work By Kathryn W. Hegar
What if I told you with dyslexia, my test scores state, "When Davis is required to read in a normal fashion and comprehend information, his score plummets from 98% comprehension (using Bookshare and 'TTS' software) to at or above the first (1%) percentile."

What if I told you, I received my Masters of Science in Health and Medical Informatics and was nominated as the 2016 Student Marshal at Brandeis University.

You may ask, "how with dyslexia?" All I did was use the tools at the end of this article!We have the capacity….let’s use it…in education, business, and everyday life! We do not have to leave anyone with dyslexia behind!

We need a reformation in education, now with the arrival of technology, education should no longer exclusive.

By Davis Graham, MHMi

Recently I was reading, The Dance of Hope, thanks to Bookshare.org and Apple:

”Knowledge is love and light and vision."-Helen Keller
When I read this quote today with my text to speech software on my iPhone I knew exactly what she was talking about. You can gain much knowledge from your surroundings but when you start reading or receiving knowledge from someone else it truly is an experience of love light and vision.

I think Helen Keller and all with some disability feel an inequality to the access of knowledge until a bridge occurs. For Helen Keller, it was her friend Ann Sullivan who was the bridge. For me as a dyslexic the bridge to knowledge is technology. I don’t need to be re-mediated or anything else I just need access, and text to speech (TTS) and speech to text (STT) of which is my bridge or my Ann Sullivan.

 We need to ponder the thought of establishing bridges with technology for those who are denied access to knowledge because it’s encased in the confines of the printed word.