News

July 2010

[ published by Dyslexia International 9 JULY 2010 ]

In this issue:

World Dyslexia Forum, 3 – 5 February 2010, UNESCO, Paris

Please go to www.worlddyslexiaforum.org for 15 filmed presentations given by leading international experts in literacy and dyslexia, including the opening speech by UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, H.R.H. The Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg.

Over 190 countries ministries of education had been invited to send teacher-training officials. All ministers were supplied with a folder with the full programme and accompanying hand-outs. 300 delegates attended in person from over 90 countries. The positive feedback has been overwhelming:

Here is a short, 14-page report with a summary of findings and recommendations.

As well as the presentations, you can find the complete programme, sponsors, exhibitors, and other documents on the site of the Forum.

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Strategies and actions

Our principal strategy is to enhance teacher education as the driving force to promote free education for all, especially adapted education for people with learning difficulties who struggle with reading and writing.

Specific actions:

  1. Offering online courses for teachers for insertion into national teacher-training programmes, both as a component in initial training and as an element in continuing professional development; inviting feedback through systematic evaluation procedures and producing revised versions of the course accordingly.

    The course, produced with a team of international consultants, approved by our Scientific Advisory Committee and directed by Dr Vincent Goetry was demonstrated at the Forum with an accompanying film. Over 40 countries have complied with our condition to involve their local education authorities, a ministerial official in addition to a local association representative and someone in research or other delegated person to ensure Dyslexia International receives feedback.

    Currently the free online learning course is available in English and French. The German is in hand with the authorities in the German-speaking part of Belgium. We are seeking additional funding for a Spanish version. It is estimated that it will cost €25,000 to develop a course in an alphabetic language. But it is not simply a question of translation – the course has to be modified to take account of the degree of transparency of the language and all the examples have to be suitably adapted. Arabic and Chinese versions would be more expensive.

     
  2. The Dyslexia International e-Campus is now in the final design stages.

    The site will serve the interests of two main user groups: education policy makers, and teacher trainers and teachers.

    The first will be offered guidelines, comparative studies on best practice and statistical surveys.

    The second group will have direct access to the courses on the e-Campus.

     
  3. Outreach through study visits and workshops by consultants and experts working with Dyslexia International and visiting countries which have requested our collaboration to share expertise in assessing learning abilities and uncovering best ways of developing pupils’ individual aptitudes and talents. The active help and sponsorship of the beneficiaries is being looked for.

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Treaty for the ‘print-disabled’

Dyslexia International attended a European Parliament meeting on how to make a binding Treaty rather than ‘soft’ law about the ‘print-disabled’.

We are also particularly indebted to our colleague in Switzerland who represented people with dyslexia at a recent meeting in Geneva.

Dyslexia International fully supports the Treaty that provides access to reading as of right for print-disabled children and adults with dyslexia. We fully support a Treaty that takes into consideration the vital interests of those with – to use the original terminology, – ‘word blindness’ (Hinshelwood 1895)

Without access to reading through text-to-speech and audio books, people with severe dyslexia – some 300 million world-wide – remain excluded from education, training and job opportunities. They are marginalised and risk remaining dependent on society throughout their lives.
We will insist that this treaty is not just for blind and partially sighted people, but for all those who are ‘print-disabled’, including those with dyslexia.

One key thing that you and your colleagues might do is to write supporting the Treaty on the WIPO forum via this link.

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For local associations in Belgium

Our summer stagiaire, Conor Garvin, is organizing the dissemination in Brussels of the Tintin CD-Rom:

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