Dyslexia+Wiki's+all+web+2.0+tools

**Dyslexia~Wiki's (all web 2.0 tools)**
In your world you may know several students, friends, peers, or family members that have a disability called Dyslexia. Think about all the others that have to live with this and may not be able to access or understand blogging, wikis or social media. The ability to comprehend letters or words on these Web 2.0 can be difficult or hard to follow if not orally given to students. I've chosen to investigate a learning challenge of dyslexia. I believe that most Web 2.0 tools might make it difficult for one who is dyslexic. The ability to truly see the font on ones page can be a barrier, i.e. color, font, size.

On October 26, 2011, Jennifer Nalewicki wrote an article in the Scientific American, about a new font called "Dyslexie". A font designed for students with dyslexia to help aid in reading, comprehension, and writing. Christian Boer, a graphic artistic from the Netherlands and someone who has dyslexia developed this new font. Jennifer Nalewicki, a reporter for Scientific American states that students with dyslexia have trouble reading written words and tend to rotate, swap or mirror letters, making it difficult for them to read and comprehend. They tend to misread the letters "d" and "b" which can change the word and meaning while reading. This was also suggested that students with dyslexia also had a vision problem, but not we know that this disability stems from the brain.

In her article she explains "The font works by changing the appearance of the letters, making some thicker at the bottom and thinner at the top. One of the first things he did was increase the boldness of letters at their bases, to make them appear weighted, causing readers' brains to know not to flip them upside down, as can occur with "p" and "d." Boer also enlarged the openings of various letters, such as "a" and "c," to make them more distinguishable from one another, and increased the length of "the tail" of other letters, like the "g" and y." He also put certain letters at a slant so that they would appear to be in italics, like the "j," a tactic to increase the brain’s ability to distinguish it from the letter "i." Finally, he boldfaced capital letters and punctuation, and provided ample space between letters and words, to allow the brain more time to compute the letters and begin forming them into words and sentences." (Nalewicki, 2011)

Wouldn't it be great if publishers, educators, and students could use and have access to this font? At an early age, how might that person's educational life be different? If you read the article pdf listed below you will be able to see the font, as it's written in it. I feel that it could be a break through to students with dyslexia using Web 2.0 more efficiently, more often, and with ease.

__Resources:__ Nalewicki, J. (2011, October 26). //Bold stroke: new font helps dyslexics read [slide show]//. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/media/inline/partner/new-font-helps- dyslexics-read.pdf

http://www.studiostudio.nl/bestellen/

The article //Blogs, Wikis and Text Messaging: What are the Implications for Students with Learning Disabilities//, by the Center for Implementing Technology in Education, does an excellent job boasting the benefits someone with Dyslexia receives when working with Wikis. Dyslexia scholars often struggle with writing from the persistent strain it puts on the nervous system. This struggle limits the enthusiasm scholars have when writing large research papers. Scholars with dyslexia have to put forward more focus and energy than the average student. Also, long research papers deter dyslexic students because the process is very interdependent and lonely. Wikis on the other hand, allow for group collaboration and are an engaging writing process; with friends and colleagues commenting, critiquing, and combing through each other’s works. Wikis are often shorter writing pieces and also engage the dyslexic student into write more because less writing is required during one submission than a standard writing piece. According to the formality of the wiki, students can even write in slang and abbreviated language putting less stress on grammar, and more focus on content. These aspects allow a dyslexic scholar to feel more empowered and confident while writing.

A barrier a scholar with dyslexia might face while using wikis is that other people may update the project too fast, and not allow the scholar genuine time to participate. Often scholars with dyslexia receive accommodations like extra time while taking a test, so a group project that requires scholars to submit their work to a group wiki in a limited time, might cause the dyslexic scholar to struggle and stress significantly. A way to work around this dilemma is to have the teacher and the participants of the project be aware of their fellow’s needs, and to be more time sensitive to them. Also the teacher can help by granting that scholar more time to submit their inquiry compared to the average student. Another challenge a dyslexic scholar might face while dealing with a group wiki is a sense of insecurity when putting forth their contribution. Often scholars with dyslexia struggle to put forth grammatically correct sentences. If the scholar is contributing to a group wiki and is nervous about their writing, it might hinder them from putting forth their best quality work. A good way to rectify this concern is to pair the LD scholar with a peer editing tutor (it could be a classmate). The LD scholar could forward their writing piece to their tutor and get corrections first before uploading their entry to the wiki.

Resources:

Center for Implementing Technology in Education (2015) //Blogs, Wikis and Text Messaging: What are the Implications for Students with Learning Disabilities.// []