Making Room opened lots of eyes. We spent significant time discussing how dyslexia is understood in the countries our participant friends come from. Informal and formal information came together and shaped an understanding of the problems that faced by people with dyslexia.
We learned that in places, such as Sweden, with strong support systems in school and in the workplace, that dyslexia does not have to be or become a barrier to success.
Participants made posters of the structure of their education systems and diagrammed supports available for students in each level of the system. We generally agreed that Sweden had the most supportive and simple system. Our friends from Sweden get mandatory help in the form of extra teaching time and technological assistanceo like searchable audio books, computer programmes to help them write in their native language and other things. They also have support rooms and teachers. The German and Latvian participants said that their systems had very little help or support available and that it means that they have to fight to succeed. One German participant attends university in Scotland and talked about the support available to her such as text-to-voice, audio books, assistants and extended time on tests. Malta also has a supportive system, though it is a bit more rigid than Sweden's. Our group from Malta included teachers who talked about new systems for improving the teaching of reading in Malta and the supports that they are encouraged to provide.
The German and Latvian systems are also complex and force young people to make choices that might have long term consequences- such as making decisions or being forced to decide whether to go to technical or vocational schools. This means that children who have learning disabilities like dyslexia, and have difficulties in their early studies may be, when they are still quite young, and having unidentified and/or remediated learning differences, forced away from the possibility of attending university. We ended up agreeing that having good supports, whether technology or human, means that the difficulties and damage caused by dyslexia can be minimized.
We spent time talking about how youth groups and providers of non-formal education can better support people or members with dyslexia. The biggest support is simply acknowledgement and understanding. If youth groups create an accepting environment it makes it easier for members with learning disabilities to ask for assistance when they need it and to contribute in the way they feel comfortable.
On a practical level youth groups can: •Educate themselves- learn more about dyslexia and LD. •Provide technical help such as audio books and text to speech devices for those that need it •When giving information in text in seminars make sure that people either have enough time or have other people without dyslexia read information or text out loud so that people with dyslexia can understand it. •Make sure that jobs and job descriptions really reflect the work. Too often jobs are about the reading and writing part, not the real work like technical things, communication etc. •When information is provided be sure that it is in forms and formats that are accessible to all. People with dyslexia might want info in audio or video forms. •Create an inclusive environment for people with dyslexia and LD. Work could be done in pairs so that people with dyslexia don’t have to have the extra burden of reading.
The Making Room project created a booklet for non-formal education organisations to understand dyslexia and know how they can become more supportive of people with dyslexia. The group also created a seminar presentation. We delivered the seminar for the first time in Gulbene and it has been used for other presentations to youth in schools in LV.
