AQUILA
One very popular way of dealing with dyslexia is trying out and using different fonts. There are even different types of special ‘dyslexia fonts’. The one I have had experience with is the ‘dyslexie font’. This was designed by a dyslexic man named Christian Boer when he was at university in Holland. After designing his own typeface, Boer, aged 36 said: “Traditionally in typeface design, there are ‘rules’ that say it is best to make the letters as uniform as possible, if you make the arch of an “h” the same as an “n”, it produces a typeface that is clean and quiet for ordinary readers. For me, these letters become three-dimensional so you can turn them around and they begin to look alike. What I wanted to do was slap these 3D letters flat”. The font includes letters with different shaped bumps and sticks, so dyslexics do not muddle them up. Another strategy that has been found to help many people with dyslexia is the use of coloured paper, glasses or overlays. I am not someone who uses these things; however, I have encountered people who do. Professor John Stein from the University of Oxford found that using blue or yellow colours can help the two thirds of dyslexics who experience blurring and moving words on a page. This is due to the colours allowing people to have better visual motion sensitivity and eye-control, meaning that they can focus on the important things that they are reading without being distracted by other things. The second type of boundary that I mentioned dyslexics have to overcome is the one which people aren’t really warned about when they get diagnosed. It comes with almost everything that makes an individual stand out or differ from the crowd, and that is ‘judgement’. I am aware that I could be generalising when I say that “no-one understands dyslexia”, and I am positive that there will be numerous people reading this who either have dyslexia or are, in fact, very aware of how it affects people. But this part of my article is mainly aimed at those people who do not understand dyslexia.
When I started off by doing some basic research on dyslexia and people’s opinions about it. I came across one question on ‘The Student Room’ which was asking people whether they thought dyslexics should be allowed extra time in exams. Whilst I am not usually someone to get angry over small things, especially when they come from people I do not know, some of the responses to that question made me want to throw my laptop across the room. I know that ‘extra time’ is often a big factor in people’s negative opinions about dyslexia, and I can see why those who are not educated about dyslexia might consider it to be unfair, but in reality it is fair, and there is research behind it. Extra time isn’t just given out to everyone, students have to have evidence of their diagnoses and also evidence that we need and have used extra time throughout our schooling. There are also instances where extra time gets taken away if it isn’t needed. Although I have attempted to explain myself here, ironically, I don’t see why people with dyslexia have to explain themselves to everyone who thinks that the assistance they get is not needed. These are the type of boundaries that can limit dyslexic people. There is nothing worse than trying to work before an exam to prepare and having people saying to you, ‘but you’ll be ok - you have extra time’. Those extra ten to fifteen minutes do not invalidate the need to revise or to work hard. We have to work just as hard, if not harder, than everyone else. When I said that dyslexia teaches resilience, this is what I mean. People with dyslexia have to be tough, and have to be able to face judgements. I also know that as much as I want to, there is no need to get angry about people who do not understand dyslexia, this is for two reasons. Firstly, we have to understand that not everyone is educated about such issues, and what they know may just be what others have told them and so they have developed an opinion based on hearsay and we cannot fault them for that, merely strive to educate them. Secondly, there is
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no need to get angry, because we cannot change the fact that we have dyslexia. We cannot remove dyslexia so there is no use in getting upset about it and giving up on school. We have to keep pushing forwards when we may be a bit behind, and find our own ways of getting through it, which may seem hard, but in the long run I have found that it aids selfconfidence and the belief in myself that I can do whatever I put my mind to. For me, I almost see myself as having a responsibility, we have to help people who may not understand what things are like for us, by informing them of what it is like, and how our lives are different to theirs.
BOUNDARIES WHICH ARE NOT ALWAYS LISTED ON OUR EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST REPORTS, BUT ONES WHICH WE ARE INTRODUCED TO AS WE GROW UP WITH THE LABEL OF DYSLEXIA. Hopefully these examples have given you a bit more of an insight into what boundaries dyslexics face, boundaries which are not always listed on our educational psychologist reports, but ones which we are introduced to as we grow up with the label of dyslexia. Dyslexia itself is not a boundary, it is a door which opens up a new way of looking at and approaching tasks, a door which gives us endless opportunities and a door which makes us different...in the best way possible! So, in conclusion, dyslexia does not have to be a boundary, it does present us with our fair share of them, but I see dyslexia as a good thing. We can learn lessons from our struggles which we can keep for life, such as resilience and, in the words of this year’s Prefect Initiative, knowing that you are limitless and that you can do anything you want to, even if there are obstacles in the way, it is your drive which will get you there. A Byrne, Lower Sixth
