Monday, March 8, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Medical Student’s Appeal Highlights Challenges of Dyslexia
My Bio: www.manateediagnostic.com/davisgraham.aspx tells the story of my life with the Gift of Dyslexia.
There are so many changes in technology which has broken the learning barriers which kept me from being measured with knowledge which is gained by reading.
Text to speech and speech recognition have for me almost leveled the written knowledge world to where I am excelling.
If I were a student today, Bookshare.org and Readplease.com would be as they are in my day to day life my enablers to the written word.
Dyslexia is a Gift, which is barely ever mentioned. The ability to think or as I call it seeing in multi-dimensions is a Gift which creates solutions. Most dyslectics see the end or anticipate the end before the means are even considered.
View the greats, Einstein, Edison, Charles Schwab and others and then you can see it is a Gift, not a disability.
The archaic learning processes we have in place today are restricted by people and traditions, they are not thinking ahead. Take for instance Bookshare.org tools. Read:OutLoud and Bookshare.org turn any book or text book into a virtual book.
Check out my Youtube at www.mygiftofdyslexia.blogspot.com
Why is America not there yet, we are as dyslectics if the schools let us.. The by-product would be the Education System in America would be brought into to the 21st Century and there would be no barriers to learning..
There are so many changes in technology which has broken the learning barriers which kept me from being measured with knowledge which is gained by reading.
Text to speech and speech recognition have for me almost leveled the written knowledge world to where I am excelling.
If I were a student today, Bookshare.org and Readplease.com would be as they are in my day to day life my enablers to the written word.
Dyslexia is a Gift, which is barely ever mentioned. The ability to think or as I call it seeing in multi-dimensions is a Gift which creates solutions. Most dyslectics see the end or anticipate the end before the means are even considered.
View the greats, Einstein, Edison, Charles Schwab and others and then you can see it is a Gift, not a disability.
The archaic learning processes we have in place today are restricted by people and traditions, they are not thinking ahead. Take for instance Bookshare.org tools. Read:OutLoud and Bookshare.org turn any book or text book into a virtual book.
Check out my Youtube at www.mygiftofdyslexia.blogspot.com
Why is America not there yet, we are as dyslectics if the schools let us.. The by-product would be the Education System in America would be brought into to the 21st Century and there would be no barriers to learning..
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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