1. Success Strategies & Assistive Technology Neil Cottrell BDA International Conference, 28 th March 2014

2. Timing and Questions

3. Overview Personal Perspective Assistive technology as success strategies How I chose strategies Reading Memory Organisation Spelling Practical examples

4. Background Dyslexic Age 15: Reading speed: 7 years, 3 months Spelling: 8.5-9 years Support and success strategies Cardiff University Graduated top of my class in psychology (2009)

5. Background Founded LexAble British Dyslexia Association Young achiever of the year (2010) Technology committee (2012-) I rely on assistive technology

6. Why Success Strategies Specific learning difficulty Important to work on key skills But don’t let higher level skills get left behind

7. Example: Analysing a Poem

8. Someone reads aloud Scan and use text-to-speech

9. Why Success Strategies? What’s important in: Education? The workplace? Individual Strengths and weaknesses

10. Assistive Technology Tackling a specific issue for the individual Simplicity

11. Reading My issues Reading speed Stressful Almost everything relies on reading What I needed Access all written information Independent Instant

12. Text-to-speech Most important strategy for me Learning curve I could “read” faster than my peers

13. Prizmo (iOS app)

14. Memory My issues I forget very quickly Franticly scribbling notes in seminars Couldn’t focus properly at the same time What I needed Think and contribute in seminars Write very little Remember what was said

15. Livescribe

16. Organisation: preparation My issues Psychology experiments, sports competitions, orchestra concerts Preparation / packing was stressful Always forgot something What I needed Lists Always know where they are Tick things off as I packed them

17. Errands (iOS app)

18. Spelling My issues Distracted by spelling mistakes and typos Red underlines Reports and emails weren’t well written Spell-checking was long & disheartening What I needed Stop worrying about spelling Focus on content Reduce workload A solution that worked in all of the programs I use

19. No Solution Failed strategies Ignoring mistakes Spell-checking was long and disheartening AutoCorrect Not for email, mind maps, online At age 15 Frustrated while writing Developed my own assistive software

20. In 2009, 6 years later …

21. Global AutoCorrect How it helped me Focus on content Fewer red underlines Reduced workload Less time spent spell-checking Learning spelling I knew which words to work on My best strategy yet!

22. Global AutoCorrect Cardiff University (Dr Trevor Humby) Dyslexic participants Remembered 18% more of what they had written 10% more confident in the accuracy of their answers

23. Assistive Technology Tackling a specific issue for the individual Simplicity

24. Resources Getting around my dyslexia: A personal evaluation of coping strategies Published in the PATOSS Bulletin (Winter 2010) Choosing, evaluating and using assistive technology Published in British Dyslexia Association’s book, “Dyslexia and Useful Technology” (October 2012) Ability Magazine article My story

25. Conclusions Keep up the good work! neil.cottrell@LexAble.com