Thoughts and ideas of a dyslexic designer/developer
A while ago, Brock & Fernette announced they were working on an update to the Dyslexic advantage. As the book had such a profound effect, I pre-ordered it and it came a couple of days ago.
Of course I’ll be seeking out the audiobook but judging by the books side by side, there is quite a lot more in the new edition. I look forward to listening to it in full again real soon.
Also a big thumbs up on the new cover!
I’m currently looking to do something similar but for organisations working in the space of the public service internet (best way I can describe it right now). But its got to be collaborative and the connections between them isn’t just their location, but their focus, their specialities, etc. On top of all this is the common connections between them.
I’ve been considering a number of things including Tagtool, some light semanticweb technology, a distributed model like Friend of a Friend and Human.txt. Been also considering scraping or getting the data from other sources like linkedin too.
What I’m doing is really recreating a customer relationship management system (CRM) like Salesforce but open, collaborative and distributed. Someone must have done this already?
As a proud man with dyslexia, I’m always happy to talk honestly about it with people willing to really listen about my superpower.
If you spend any time with me, you will get a sense of how my mind will blend from one thing to another. Its that flow state which my mind feels comfortable in but others wonder how I made that leap? I actively have to stop myself from doing it. Thinking about what I should write for the week I just started writing as my mind works…
I feel unprepared for #Dyslexia week.
Should have done something for it— Ian | #blacklivesmatter | @cubicgarden (@cubicgarden) October 7, 2020
One important thing to say always is, each person is different and each person with dyslexia has different experiences and different ways of managing or thriving. Some struggle all their lives trying to fit into a neurotypical world. I remember when I heard Dr Jonathan review Disability: the book, there was a quote which stuck me.
“some people have physical impairments, but it’s society through exclusion, through stigma, through oppression that makes people disabled”
I found this quite powerful. Dyslexia is classed as a disability and the quote above summed up a lot. The stigma of dyslexia from a stereotypical society is what makes people with dyslexia disabled… Although its exactly right, I don’t feel disabled in anyway, except when I rub against societal norms.
Last year I asked at the Mozilla Festival in the brand new Neurodiversity space. What do people think of when they think about when thinking about dyslexia? The results were different from what I was expecting. Zero of them said disabled or indicated that. However I had put up a bunch of the M.I.N.D strengths straight out of the Dyslexic Advantage. A book I recommend and lend to other people with Dyslexia when ever I can. I recently subscribed the dyslexic advantage site as it helps fund more academic research, which is very much needed.
When they asked me to be interviewed, I of course happily said yes!
I will never forget the conversation myself and Kate (two dyslexic minds in conversation) had for the listening project. A conversation which you could hear on BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio Manchester and finally in the national archive. Only half the dare/bet/conversation has actually happen with Kate taking me to Ireland in a bright yellow camper van.
We just bounced off each other and it sums up the good things which can happen when you have confident dyslexics in a room. Of course its not all positive as describe in the posts what is daily life like and what its like to love someone with dyslexic (something I was expecting a lot more criticism about, although I likely did most of the damage previously).
A lot comes from experiences and talking with other people with dyslexia. Lots cover it up or won’t reveal it to others, but they have good reason. Like lots of others I was finally diagnosed in University not junior school although they had thought I might be dyslexic. I do wonder about what might have been different if I was rightly diagnosed back in junior school?
Think about all those young people growing up (even now) not aware of their strengths. All those people who don’t understand how powerful it can be. Of course there is a petition for this.
I have been thinking about this quite a lot over the last few years. I choose to say little simply because of the negativity I will get. However I want to make one thing clear… Regardless of Trump’s politics, lies, sexism and racism (for this post) I have been considering my own experience of dyslexia and also helping others with dyslexia.
I’m pretty sure Trump has dyslexia…?
There is a growing number of incidents which are very common mistakes for dyslexics. The latest one being misreading from a tele-prompter. I recently had to read something out from a screen to be recorded – It was Hell! I almost just gave up at 2am but with some audio editing handed something in. Reading from a tele-prompter would be a real problem and its a common problem for some people with dyslexia.
Theres a real question about how much he reads (lots of dyslexics read a lot but its not usually for pleasure in my case) and its interesting to see how he acts under pressure to read out-loud. As person with dyslexic I recognise its the kind of thing I do a lot and its a common trait. My brain tends to change the words I see when they come out my mouth.
Its also clear a lot of people with dyslexia are charming for example Steve Jobs, Keira Knightley, Richard Branson, Whoopi Goldberg, Tom Cruise, etc. This doesn’t excuse the way people are treating him as a person with dyslexia. Its highly likely he does and his daughter even says it.
GO: Is Trump illiterate?
NC: He is severely dyslexic, and has been his entire life. Ivanka would joke about it off camera.
Although its not directly from the source, so its still not confirmed
If he does have dyslexia or any other learning disability. Its says something positive that a person with dyslexia could be the president of America. But like Jobs there is a dark side which masks the hidden disability which he might not want to admit to himself, and certainly not anyone else? The best thing to do is to be honest but its not going to happen.
So till that moment, expect much more…
There are a number of blog posts I need to write about the last Mozilla Festival in the UK but I wanted to start with this one about my art piece in the all new neurodiversity space.
I started a physical mindmap on Saturday morning in the neurosiversity space and hung up information from the dyslexic advantage book, something I have written a lot about. I then invited the public to read and write on postage tags what they thought the advantages of dyslexia look like. These were hung up for others to read and explore.
Here is the document I wrote if you want to read the MIND strengths in more detail.
I left it over the weekend and let people just add more and more. I also had some great conversations with different people about the advantages. One lady didn’t know there were advantages and lived with dyslexia all her life. As a whole lots people were correctly diagnosed at University and College, which is the norm as the book says. I think I met about 4 people who were diagnosed in School.
I have some great photos and when Mozfest finished I took them with me. Reading them in full it was quite amazing to read.
Here’s the almost complete list (I couldn’t read some of them and I removed the duplicates)…
Glad I did it and the conversations were amazing, shame I couldn’t be around in the ND space all weekend. Massive thanks to the Spacewranglers of neurodiversity for accepting my session and helping out.
Facing no deal and the abuse of democracy which is happening in the UK. I’m rethinking again my plans for the future of living in the UK. I think its getting to that point when I need to think about cutting my losses?
It doesn’t seem on paper not too horrible but of course there’s a lot more to it than just the logistics…
After much thought, it seems these are the biggest things which are stopping me. Not to say family, friends, my partner, etc are not a big consideration.
If the right company/public service organisation got in touch and offered me a position/career similar to my current role but in Europe. I would seriously think long and hard about it; then in this Brexit climate likely accept the offer. Its hard to say, as I love what I do for the BBC and there are great people I work with; but there is no way I can ignore whats happening in the wider country. I’m sure colleagues, management, etc would understand and wish me the best.
I’m not totally sure why but languages don’t come easy to me. I have been to many places in the world, and each time I struggle to remember even the basic stuff (please, thank you, etc). I read there might be difficulty being dyslexic with learning languages. However I’ve never let it hold me back and in a Brexit climate, I believe its certainly worth the struggle/effort!
… and where?
Where would I go is a little more fun to think about, but realistically the freedom of movement means I could be flexible… Ideally it would be somewhere with a lot of interest in technology but with a strong public ethos. Somewhere with its own strong creative sector and well thought out public transport system. It would be a place of eventfulness and cosmopolitan culture.
If I was pushed to name a few places, the cities in the Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium and even France? After visiting Antwerp, I have to say the second cities are quite attractive, just as Manchester is to London. (Yes I know Birmingham is the 2nd biggest but thats only one type of metric).
I was reminded that I have friends in many cities who could be extremely useful to ask practical questions and visit sometime.
I couldn’t find my dyslexic advantage book for a friend, so I had a look for the key point about MIND strengths in video form and found this video. Not so keen on the presenter but I guess he gets the point across.
Noticed the Made by dyslexia youtube channel recently added a number of interesting videos. 2 from GCHQ were quite interesting.
Clearly taking advantage of the dyslexic traits?
How to Retrain Your Brain was my 3rd Funzing talk I have been to. The 1st I wasn’t that impressed with, while the 2nd one (Neuroscience of Decision Making) was great. With my interest in power of the brain. I’m happy to say retrain your brain was
I had no heard of Lisa Upton but during the evening hosted at MadLab, we got to learn a lot more about her.
Just over a year ago, Lisa was faced with a decision that would change her life forever. She had to decide whether to have awake brain surgery to remove a tumour which lay deep inside her brain in the left temporal lobe, close to the area responsible for speech and language. This decision came with extremely high risks – having the operation meant that she could have a stroke, may have to learn to talk, read and write again, or worst-case scenario, not survive the surgery.
Not having the operation meant living a life with four/five epileptic seizures every day and the chance that the ticking time bomb inside her brain could go off at any moment and this could take her life.
Lisa made the brave decision to have surgery.
It was weird hearing Lisa talking about her experience and noticed some interesting parallels in my own experience and outlook on life.
In the months following her operation Lisa’s life changed beyond measure, she thought about life in a completely different way, she approached things with a different attitude and as a result of this, saw new and amazing opportunities presenting themselves every day.
Its incredible to see the opportunities just presenting themselves. I’ve lived by those opportunities ever since. I always remember Derren Browns show about the secret of luck, facing my fear of injections (Belonephobia), facing the fear of rejection, going on dating shows and much more…
Lisa wanted to understand why this was happening and couldn’t accept that it was just “all part of the recovery”. She spent months researching the brain and its many functions, spending time with neurologists, neurosurgeons, neuro-researchers, neuropsychologists and patients at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.
Now thats really cool, if I hadn’t spent so much time in hospital and had the issues I had; I likely would have gone back to Salford Royal to thank the staff again years later. But spending time would have been amazing (too be fair it still would be).
With a heart filled with gratitude, Lisa will share with you the amazing things that she learnt about the brain, and how we are all capable of reprogramming our brains so that we can achieve greatness and euphoria.
I reflect back on a blog I wrote years ago, while trying to explain to others how different life was since. My parents always thought I’d want to forget about the whole thing but I refuse to forget. I didn’t put my cards away for a whole year and still have them stored away even now. It gives me power and brings a new emphasise to life. Some people near me noticed how much I changed and some couldn’t quite comprehend the changes.
Lisa and others have called it living a conscious life. Its something I’ve noticed in myself, but weirdly very fitting with some of the dyslexic advantages, especially living in the moment. It might not come as a surprise the doctors also found an increase in the right brain activity (usually commonly associated with dyslexics, I know this is massively contested!) in Lisas brain. This reminded me of the early months after my brush with death, it was suggested by the professionals that I might have forgotten/unlearned a lot of my coping mechanisms for dyslexia. Almost switched back to my natural state of some kind?
It also reminds me I need to do more about writing my gratitudes down following Sarah Raad’s workshop at Thinking Digital Newcastle last year.
I honestly really enjoyed the talk and it was a joy to hear from someone else as interested in the brain/mind due to similar reasons…
Been looking at Grammarly for a while and to be fair they have been massively advertising too. Obviously Google & Facebook know I’m dyslexic and I imagine Grammarly are targeting people like me.
But I’m not keen on the process of sending the text to their centralised server. I understand but I think there is another way to do this, however that way conflicts with their business model. Maybe its a another case for something which should be a public service not left to the private sector?
I’m not the only one asking questions; I have been browsing the terms and conditions too and not keen on what I’ve read so far, the privacy policy alone speaks volumes.
we do not currently respond to web browser “Do Not Track” signalshttps://t.co/adj4tH1sSV
Not looking good— Ian Forrester (@cubicgarden) December 2, 2017
I’ve been using Language tool as their privacy policy seems more reasonable to me and it can work offline and in a more decentralised manner.
Be interested to hear how others get on with it, maybe the benefits greatly outweigh the data ethical concerns?