1. Coping Strategies & Assistive Technology Neil Cottrell ADSHE Annual Conference, 28 th May 2013

2. Timing and Questions

3. Overview Personal Perspective Assistive technology as coping strategies How I chose strategies Reading Memory Organisation Spelling Practical examples Developing, adapting and sharing strategies

4. Background Dyslexic Age 15: Reading speed: 7 years, 3 months Spelling: 8.5-9 years Support and coping 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-) AbilityNet Technology4Good award (2012) Run workshops internationally I rely on assistive technology

6. Why Coping 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 Coping 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. People Reading to Me Traditional strategy Not a primary strategy Slow, embarrassing and a burden Occasional (e.g. film subtitles) Please don’t paraphrase (except with permission)

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

14. Prizmo (iOS app)

15. 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

16. Dictaphone I didn’t like it (personal opinion) Hours of un-sorted audio Too much time and energy

17. Livescribe

18. 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

19. Errands (iOS app)

20. Organisation: tasks & thoughts My issues Forgot what I was thinking Where and when Irrelevant thoughts What I needed Store irrelevant thoughts Be told where to be and when Quick to input system

21. (Smart)phone Always with me Jotting down thoughts Quick Organise later Calendar & alarms Tips Sort to-do’s by urgency/importance Sync with computer (e.g. Google calendar) to visualise day/week/month Automatic backups

22. 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

23. 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

24. In 2009, 6 years later …

25. 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!

26. 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

27. Global AutoCorrect Released in 2009 Now 7 of us in the team Used in the UK and internationally

29. Coping Strategies Specialist Simple Discreet Wacky Mainstream Complex Overt Common sense Tackling a specific issue for the individual Simplicity

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

31. 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

32. Conclusions Keep up the good work!