A Dyslexic Spell Checker – Holic
Posted by: ghotit on: November 11, 2009
A few days ago I went to sort out some open bureaucracy issue. After an hour of presenting my case to the clerk, the clerk handed me a form and I was asked to write on the spot my request. Suddenly I felt sweat all over me – I had just encountered my worse fear – I must write a letter without any spell checker assistance.
I started writing the letter, and after a few minutes I looked at the paper and saw that my worst nightmare had come true. The paper looked graphically like it had suffered a tsunami… the lines were so crooked … the size of the letters uneven… the paper full of words that I had absolutely no idea if I had spelled correctly, but being familiar with my spelling track record, assumed were spelled completely wrong… The language too was really plain and dull as I tried to express myself in words which I had some confidence that I could spell right…
When I reread what I wrote, I felt that the overall presentation of my case was really poor, and that I would not get very far with such a written request… I quietly approached the clerk, and told him that I had to run and that I would return with the written request soon… Of course I was running off to my computer with my word processor and friendly spell checker…
I am not used to writing any more with a pen and paper. I believe that is true for many of us who perform most of their writing using a computer. As a heavy dyslexic, I have struggled my whole life with very poor spelling. My spelling is so poor, that I even found conventional spell checker not providing the assistance I required. I finally went and developed (with assistance of course) a spell checker optimized for people like me, for people with dyslexia. And today following this paper-writing exercise, I must admit that I have become a true Spell Checker – Holic – I just cannot write anymore without a friendly SpellChecker at my side…
Disabled – maybe… but the disability appears only in very rare occasions, and when I have my friendly spellchecker at my side I can write my case as well as anyone else…
Try the Ghotit SpellChecker at: www.ghotit.com
Teaching Disabilities of a Parent with Dyslexia
Posted by: ghotit on: October 15, 2009
“If you don’t want your teacher to think you are an idiot, you better ask your mother to help you in this homework writing assignment”.
This is what I spurted out to my daughter who recently started 1st grade. My daughter asked for my assistance in one of her first writing homework assignments. Just to clarify I am a heavy dyslexic and a terrible speller. A second after I said this sentence I regretted it. My 6 year old daughter did not really catch the meaning of what I said, except of course to understand that to get homework assistance she better go to my wife.
The homework assignment of my daughter who has just started first grade was simple enough. She had to write a certain letter in a row of squares drawn on a sheet of paper. My daughter asked me to see if she had written the letters properly inside each one of the squares. Sounds simple enough. But my “dyslexic eyes” couldn’t for the life of me figure out if the letter was written inside or outside the square. To my eyes, the letters just floated around on the paper…
When I started to think about it, it occurred to me that helping my daughter in language assignments was very problematic:
- Most of the homework assignments of kids in first grades are technical writing and spelling assignments – directly focusing on my main dyslexic spelling weaknesses
- I realized that since my daughter has no previous “spelling knowledge”, so if I teach her a wrong spelling of a word, she will automatically learn and adopt the misspelling
A few days later, we were driving in the car. My daughter had learned her first 8 alphabet letters, and my wife was saying out words that included only these letters and asking my daughter to spell them. I stayed quiet during this session, and was quite happy when my second daughter who is in kindergarten asked to also participate by asking her simple arithmetic questions. Thank God I don’t have dyscalculia and could participate in this educational family game.
All of these minor incidents made me start thinking: Which role can I play in my daughters’ studies? Do I suffer not only from learning disabilities but also from teaching disabilities?
No Ifs or Buts – Dyslexics Deserve Extra Exam Time
Posted by: ghotit on: August 3, 2009
I remember a while back when I was working at a previous workplace, I entered the coffee lounge and heard two work colleagues talking about the injustice of giving students additional exam time. They raised the issue that many students are abusing this “benefit” unjustly. I remember how I impolitely interrupted their conversation stating that what they just said was complete nonsense and explained that denying students with learning disabilities such as dyslexia and dysgraphia extra exam time was simply unjust and reflected the general’s public general ignorance on these topics. They of course lacked the ardor that I demonstrated in this discussion and soon enough retreated back to their offices.
IF only these students would work harder they would not need this extra time?
BUT so many students are abusing this extra time loop hole to get improved testing conditions?
My work colleagues were not malicious, dyslexia-phobic people… they simply were quite ignorant to what people with Reading and Writing disabilities experience and did not have the understanding that providing this extra exam time for people with dyslexia can make a real difference between Success or Failure.
“Just as a diabetic requires insulin, an individual who is hearing impaired requires a hearing aid, a man or woman who is a quadriplegic requires a wheelchair, a person who is dyslexic has a profound physiological need for additional time to complete examinations.” – http://dyslexia.yale.edu/Policy_WhyChange.html
Dyslexia is a physiological condition that people are born with. Special learning techniques, together with hard word and special reading and writing assistive technology can ensure that a dyslexic student succeed in both education and his workplace. However, the fact remains that for most dyslexics Reading and Writing will always be more difficult and time-consuming then non-dyslexics. The objectives of examinations are to test the intelligence and knowledge of the examinee on a specific topic. The objective is not to test the speed at which he reads the questions and writes the answers.
Regarding the claim that there are non-dyslexics that abuse this extra time for exams policy, there are 2 replies that I wish to make:
- “Data now demonstrate that it is only students who are dyslexic who benefit from additional time. Thus, such college students increase their scores substantially (e.g., 13th percentile to 76th percentile), while typical readers when given extra time on exams increase their scores few to no points (82nd percentile to 83rd percentile).*” – this is taken from Yale’s University website. This research demonstrates that people who really do not have a real difficulty in Reading and Writing will not gain real benefits with the extra time allocated to exams.
- So if everybody cheated in a test, should someone who did not cheat be punished too? The obvious answer is NO. By getting additional exam time, the dyslexic student is simply getting equivalent testing conditions as other students. He is not cheating the system. If other students are supposedly “cheating the system”, then let the system take responsibility to stop this cheating without punishing the ones who deserve this benefit; and the system should do so without making the person with dyslexia feel subconscious about getting the benefit he justifiably deserves…
So was I rude when I interrupted my work colleagues’ conversation and loudly stated their ignorance on this topic, perhaps. But it is time to loudly state the rights of the dyslexic community and to educate the public regarding what is dyslexia and what must be done in order to enable dyslexics to fully and hopefully easily integrate into society… and this definitely includes GETTING EXTRA EXAM TIME.
* M. K. Runyan, The Effects of Extratime. In S. Shaywitz & B. Shaywitz, eds., Attention Deficit Disorder Comes of Age: Toward the 21st Century; Austin, Texas: Pro-Ed, 1992.
The holly mission of “Dislecksia the Movie”
Posted by: ghotit on: July 16, 2009
When I first read about the movie “Dislecksia the Movie” I was excited. A dyslexic man named Harvey Hubbell V was making a full length documentary about Dyslexia. One of the main goals was to educate the public regarding dyslexia. Being a dyslexic, and working in the area of dyslexia, I am fully aware of how far away we are in educating the general public on what is dyslexia. In my mind, the more the public is aware of dyslexia, the more openness can be directed to dyslexics in dealing with their challenges in both educational institutes and workplaces.
However, I want to share with you my recent reaction to viewing “Dislecksia the Movie” promo in YouTube. The truth is that when I saw the promo, I experienced a strong flash of déjà vu. In the promo, Harvey Hubbell describes how his idyllic childhood changed dramatically the minute he entered school in first grade. I was flooded with my personal memories, of how I too spent my elementary and high school years encountering the school teachers’ and system’s negativity toward my reading and writing difficulties and how I was fully judged and graded based on these same capabilities.
I seldom look back at my school years. I don’t remember my years at school favorably. I might even say that in many ways I have become quite cynical regarding schools and teachers. It is so in-grown in me, that many times my wife needs to nudge me to talk more favorably about school in front of our kids. My negativity about schools is so deep, that sometimes I just can not control those negative feelings.
I give full credit to my parents and my parents alone, that I was able to learn with much effort to read and write. They sat with me hours on end, practicing with me reading and writing. I am sorry to say, that I give zero credit to the school system. The schools I attended provided no special support to my dyslexic condition, and provided no sensitivity and patience to my condition.
It is quite easy to understand the direct incompatibility between a person with dyslexia and the existing school systems. From age six and onwards the dyslexic has to attend every day an institution that places the highest value on how you Read and Write, exactly the two area points that dyslexics experience relative difficulties. As someone in his early forties, I know things have changed since my days at school. Education about dyslexia has grown, especially in schools. In many schools extra tutoring and special reading and writing assistive technology is offered to dyslexics. Diagnosed dyslexics receive special conditions in order to enable them to display success in tests scores and in their studies even with their reading and writing limitations. Education is slightly improving for dyslexics, but the Holy Grail is still far, far away.
“Dislecksia the Movie” in my mind has undertook a holly mission. If it succeeds in educating some of the people, some of the schools, some of the teachers what is dyslexia, and how a dyslexic boy or girl can so easily get lost in a classroom without special attention or sensitivity, then in my eyes it would have achieved its mission.
I will be anxiously awaiting the release of the full-length documentary film…
For those of you who want to see the promo, here it is:
Adult Dyslexics – Follow Technology Trends
Posted by: ghotit on: June 29, 2009
I am an adult dyslexic in his early 40’s. Personal desktop computers made their household entrance during the 80’s, about the time I was in high-school. So from high school onwards, computers have accompanied my life. Younger adults in their 20’s and 30’s may have had computers introduced into their lives since elementary school.
There is no arguing the fact that computer technology has leaped forward in the past 30 years. Moore’s Law that predicted that computer power would double itself every 2 years or so has proven it correct since the early 1970s till this very day. Current Cloud Computing paradigms, enabling consumers to purchase computing and storage resources based on a utility consumption model (such as the consumption of electricity) from huge computer farms owned by the likes of Google and Amazon forebodes the next revolution in computing technology.
From the software side, dramatic advances are also continuously taking place. Open Source Code has enabled core infrastructure software components such as Operating Systems, Databases, Development Environments etc. to be widely available at low cost. Software trends such as the publishing of Application Programmer’s Interfaces (APIs) and developing Software Oriented Architecture (SOA) has made external software components suddenly interoperable and “meshed”-enabled with other software components.
So what does all this have to do with adult dyslexics and giving their writing another chance?
Well, I know many adult dyslexics that have struggled with their writing for years (myself included). They have worked with various built-in Word Processors’ spell-checkers. Usually at certain points in their education or careers they have even investigated and tried specialized dyslexia text correction solutions.
However, at a certain point, these adults have settled into a self-defined routine of working around their spelling and writing limitations. Their disappointments in finding a real working solution for their writing turn them off from continuing to seek a working solution. In a sense, they have given up hope in finding a truly effective solution.
But here is where the technological advances listed above come to play. The new technological innovations being introduced at a phenomenal pace bring with them new capabilities that may dramatically change the quality and effectiveness of assistive technologies, and writing assistive technologies in particular.
Ghotit develops innovative writing software for people with dyslexia. As a founder of Ghotit, I can confidently say that an offering like Ghotit could not have been delivered to the market 2 years earlier, without the dramatic technological leaps described above.
It is difficult to change ones’ habits, even more so for somebody that has tried so in the past and has been disappointed…
But the reward here is great…
The reward is acquiring the capabilities to dramatically improve ones’ communication skills and to convert ones’ poorly spelled writing to mainstream writing.
Do you reveal your dyslexia in a job interview?
Posted by: ghotit on: June 17, 2009
I was recently quoted as saying that I do not recommend to reveal your dyslexia at a job interview. At the same time I have repeatedly stated that I am a Proud Dyslexic. Recently I was approached and asked to explain this contradiction.
How can I be a proud dyslexic and at the same time claim that during a job interview one should not reveal his dyslexia?
So the aim of this blog is to attempt to explain what I define as a “Proud and Realistic Dyslexic”…
So let’s start with the “Proud” part. Why am I proud? Why should one be proud of being a dyslexic? Well here are my main reasons:
- Dyslexics are on average highly intelligent people, so from an intelligence point of view I am in great company (Albert Einstein is just one genius example)…
- Dyslexics are innovative thinkers. From the dyslexic people I know, and from what I have read about people with dyslexia, we usually can boast of highly imaginative thinking. And to quote our friend Mr. Albert Einstein “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
- Dyslexics tend to just fight on and deal well with setbacks. Many of us have grown up in what I call “struggle mode”. From more or less age six and onwards we have to go every day to an institution that places the highest value on how you Read and Write. Exactly the two area points that we dyslexics have many difficulties. This may explain the “30% Entrepreneur are Dyslexics” study…
Okay, so where does the “Realistic” part come to play….
Well, even though we may be very proud of what we are and of where we have gotten to even though in many manners the ‘institutions’ were designed against us…we still live in a world where many people who see how slowly a dyslexic reads may get the impression that the reader is not too intelligent… or where people who see the spelling of a dyslexic may assume that he is not too scholarly or a sloppy thinker etc., etc.
The world is not an ideal place, and justice can not always be found. Therefore, I believe that a dyslexic must be realistic. There is a very high chance that your interviewer is not familiar at all about dyslexia. You usually have 10-60 minutes to convince your interviewer that you (out of many others) are best suited for the job. So is it realistic to start educating him in this time period that though you may have some writing and reading limitations you have these other great characteristics that simply outshine all other candidates…
No, I recommend being realistic. Of course do not lie, if the topic arises, you should be forthcoming on your dyslexia. But if it does not, then get the job, and once in the system, PROVE THEM ALL WRONG 
.
BTW – If you have dyslexia, please cast your vote in Ghotit’s Blog “Do you reveal your dyslexia in a job interview?” Poll. It is located in the right frame of the Ghotit Blog…. Thanks.
Dyslexia and Campus-aware Writing Technology
Posted by: ghotit on: June 12, 2009
The student body, especially in colleges and universities has become mobile. Laptop penetration and wireless connectivity is very prevalent in many schools. This translates from a technological perspective, that any student can access the internet and the services it offers from anywhere in the school’s campus.
For a student with dyslexia, ESL or ADHD or any other student needing a writing assistive solution this can mean a dramatic change. Many schools today offer writing assistive solutions. But in order for the student to enjoy these services, the student usually needs to go to assistive technology/computer center since the assistive technology is installed only on the desktops found in these centers.
Now what if these very same assistive technologies would be available for all students and they can be accessed from anywhere in the campus?
Imagine the benefits to a student that can open and use the required assistive technology during class, in the library, or anywhere within the school’s campus?
There are some key challenges that need to be addressed by writing assistive solutions to make this a reality:
- The current licensing models and pricing strategies of writing assistive solutions do not fit this mobile environment (this includes USB-based software licenses)
- There are technical issues that must be supported within the assistive solution to enable “campus-wide” connectivity
- Online upgrades must be supported by the assistive technology vendor to minimize maintenance issues
- The IT department of schools must be open to these changing models.
It is because these challenges are not being addressed, there is today a grand miss of leveraging mobile technologies to benefit students with writing disabilities.
Ghotit, an innovative provider of writing assistive technology, addresses these issues and limitations with an innovative campus-aware licensing model that gives all students within a campus FREE USAGE of all of its services.
For more details on this subject you can read my article: Assistive Technology and the Mobile Student Body.
Dyslexia, Writing Assistive Technology and Text-to-Speech
Posted by: ghotit on: June 4, 2009
People with dyslexia usually have a hard time in both reading and writing. Letters and words get jumbled up in their minds during both reading and writing processes. Reading abilities may be affected by how tired the dyslexic reader is, or how much concentration is needed to comprehend the reading of a certain page.
Writing is usually a stressful process for a person with dyslexia. The person with dyslexia is aware of his problematic writing and knows that he must be on full alert in order to minimize his spelling mistakes. He must dedicate his full concentration to the writing process.
Writing Assistive Technologies focus on providing advanced spell checking algorithms for dyslexics. These are specially tuned algorithms that take into account that dyslexics usually spell really badly and that many times even when giving their full attention can not determine what is the correct spelling.
Integrating Text-to-Speech (TTS) to Writing Assistive Technologies can dramatically improve the writing experience of a dyslexic. There are two main benefits:
- The first benefit is using Text-to-Speech as the dyslexic’s writing gatekeeper. Sometimes, a person with dyslexia just can not figure out himself the correct spelling of a word, even after proof-reading what he had just written. However, if the text can be read out loud to him, then usually by his understanding of what is being read, and by the pronunciation of the words that he is hearing he can confidently determine if what he had written is correct.
- The other benefit is that the integrated Text-to-Speech feature enables a person with dyslexia to focus better on his writing. As mentioned above, reading for a dyslexic may also be a stressful event requiring his full attention. If the reading “effort” can be reduced then the person with dyslexia can be more “mentally free” to focus on his writing. The Writing Assistive Technology should have Text-to-Speech integrated at all levels of the product, enabling the user to decide, what he wants to be read out loud: the suspicious word, the meaning of the word (if provided), the full or part of the sentence he just corrected.
Ghotit Writing Assistive Technology solution has a fully integrated Text-to-Speech functionality. Today, whenever I write, I wear my headphones, and have the Text-to-Speech feature assist me in my writing.
Dyslexia and Marriage
Posted by: ghotit on: May 30, 2009
I celebrated this week my 10th wedding anniversary. My wife recently submitted an article titled “Dyslexia and Marriage”, summarizing her 10-year ride of being married to a dyslexic (meaning me). In the article, my wife narrates our 10-year relationship that starts with the initial understanding of what is dyslexia, continues with understanding the implications of living with a person with dyslexia, and ends with the dreams and hopes wished for our children.
I would like to share with you this article. It is in the initial process of being distributed and can be found at: Dyslexia and Marriage.
I will let Mr. Frank Sinatra be my voice about “Love and Marriage”:
Dyslexia, Charlie Brown and Dilbert
Posted by: ghotit on: May 27, 2009
For many years I have been a big fan of both Charlie Brown and Dilbert. That of course is not surprising. Charlie Brown and Dilbert are two extremely popular comics’ heroes. However, when I read somewhere that both the creators of Charlie Brown (creator Charles M. Schulz) and Dilbert (creator Scott Adams) where dyslexic I started wondering if perhaps there was a connection. Perhaps it was not accidental that the two characters that I adored, their creators where dyslexic, exactly like me.
Charlie Brown is presented as a boy that nothing ever goes right for him. But Charlie Brown refuses to give up and possesses an endless amount of determination and hope. I love Charlie Brown’s motto “NEVER EVER GIVE UP”. As you can see, I have adopted the picture with this motto as the graphical icon of this blog…
Dilbert on the other had is a grownup working in a work environment where employees’ skills and efforts are not rewarded and where the most ineffective and least-competent workers are the ones that are promoted to management positions.
When I started thinking about it I realized that as a person with dyslexia it is quite easy for me to identify with these two characters.
As a child, my struggle with learning, reading and writing was a continuous one. I have many negative memories from school and remember it mainly as a place that promoted my insecurities due to my learning differences. However, these experiences drove me to “NEVER EVER GIVE UP”, no matter the difficulties, insecurities and failures. And in this point I truly relate with good old Charlie…
When I grew up and joined the workforce, I felt sometimes that I was working in a Dilbert-like workplace. This too may be related to my dyslexia. Being a dyslexic, my written communications and presentations where not as well “packaged” as those of my co-workers. Sometimes I felt that I was being judged not by my actual contribution, but rather by this external “package” that I carried.
Well here’s to you Charlie Brown – thanks for providing me with multiple scenes where even though your luck seemed to be running out – you never lost your good-heartiness and hope…
And here’s to you Dilbert – thanks for demonstrating in a comical, cynical light the ridiculous aspects a workplace may have…
