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Dyslexic Advantage Newsletter


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Dyslexic Advantage is a 501(c)3 non-profit charitable organization

June 10, 2014
Greetings!

We (Fernette and Brock) would like to extend our deepest thanks to the many members of the Dyslexic Advantage Community who joined in the outpouring of support we received after the death of our beloved daughter Karina on May 9, and to all those who have supported our family during the seven preceding years that Karina battled cancer. Karina, who was herself dyslexic, deeply loved being part of the DA community, participating in the conferences, helping with our website and Gamemakers club, and meeting and learning about so many of you. You can learn more about Karina's inspiring life and journey by visiting the  KarinaEide.com website, where we have posted pictures, samples of her writing, and a link to the biographical video we prepared for her memorial service. In coming weeks we'll be announcing a new program named in Karina's honor that will be administered by Dyslexic Advantage and whose purpose will be to inspire and equip talented dyslexic students, to which those who wish can contribute. 

In This Issue
Dyslexia & Innovation Videos: MacArthur Genius Dr Mimi Koehl; Research Engineer Brandon King
Dyslexic Advantage Rocks with James Taylor
Accommodations Breakthrough for Students taking the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT)
Congrats Dyslexic Gamemakers!
Conference on Dyslexia and Innovation Videos

Dyslexic Advantage - MacArthur Genius Biologist Dr Mimi Koehl
Dyslexic Advantage - MacArthur Genius Biologist Dr Mimi Koehl
Dr. Mimi Koehl was once discouraged from going into science because her father thought it was "too hard". As a result she first got her start as an art major in college. Now she is a professor of integrative biology at Harvard, MacArthur Genius, and member of the National Academy of Sciences. She sees her dyslexia as helping many aspects of her work, including having a deeper understanding of processes, 3D spatial thinking, and seeing temporal patterns like Jack Horner does in his dinosaur work. Don't miss it!

Dyslexic Advantage - Entrepreneur Research Engineer Brandon King
Dyslexic Advantage - Entrepreneur Research Engineer Brandon King
Also check out research engineer and entrepreneur Brandon King as he shares a poignant story of high school failure, then life turnaround through an encounter with In the Mind's Eye author Thomas G West and a summer with his Nobel prize winning and fellow dyslexic grandfather.
Dyslexic Advantage Rocks with... Music Legend James Taylor

Thanks to our friend, non-profit executive and brilliant dyslexic Dean Bragonier, who just happens to be James Taylor's son-in-law, we had a chance to sit down to dinner with James before his concert in Seattle's Key Arena and to discuss...dyslexia and dysgraphia! James gave us two main floor seats to his concert (each of which cost more than Brock's first year of college), and we gave him a signed copy of "The Dyslexic Advantage". We also spent the next morning speaking with Dean about his own inspiring plans for helping the dyslexic community, which involve focusing on strengths, and about his amazing "all dyslexic" household, which includes Dean, his wife Sally Taylor ("Sarah Maria" for those whose James Taylor record collection goes back as far as ours), and their son Bodhi. The following excerpt is taken from Sally's website, sallytaylor.com:

 

Sally Taylor is dyslexic.  Far from being ostracized for her learning disability, her artistic family (Mother: Carly Simon. Father: James Taylor) welcomed the designation as if to say: "Great, you're truly one of us now."  Around the time of her diagnosis, her mother started playing a game with her called "Essences" in which one player selects a person in their head and the rest of the players have to guess the individual by asking metaphoric questions like: "If this person were a house what type of house would they be?"  "If they were a time of day what time would they be?" "If they were an animal... a car... a color... a tree what would they be?" and so forth.  The difficulties Sally was having decoding meaning from words and sentences seemed abated by this game where she could communicate, through metaphor, her understanding of the world.

 

Dyslexic Advantages are everywhere.

 

Accommodations Breakthrough for Dyslexic Students taking the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT)

 


Good news for dyslexic pre-law students who need to take the LSAT: the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) has recently settled a suit brought against them by the Justice Department, agreeing to a large financial penalty and sweeping reforms in its practices. The suit alleged discriminatory practice against test takers who had asked for accommodations, including dyslexics. From the Wall Street Journal: "one litigant with dyslexia was allegedly denied despite extensive documentation of the diagnosis and his long history of testing accommodations on AP exams, the SAT and other tests."

 

Terms of the settlement include:

 

- $7.7 million civic penalty for a victims' compensation fund to compensate the "more than 6000 people who requested accommodations such as extra time" but were denied

- streamlining accommodations requests, so that candidates with previous accommodations (such as SAT, ACT, GED) can be granted accommodations for the LSAT

- implementing best practices for evaluating and reviewing test accommodation requests

- ending the practice of "flagging" LSAT scores (i.e., indicating on the score report that accommodations were provided)

 

We applaud this long awaited change in the LSAT! However, the battle continues, because discrimination still exists in many other tests, like the Medical College Admission Test and Medical Licensing Exams.

 

 

Congrats Dyslexic Gamemakers!

 
Congrats Team AC Gamers for Best Mod, Potato Gaming for Best Level Design, and The Funny Foxes for Best Use of Color. Please send Fernette your email addresses so you can receive your Amazon gift certificates!  The Black Bunnies design team previously won the Best Logo Award and are recognized by all for their strong art and design skills.
 
Donations to Dyslexic Advantage are 100% tax-deductible by the IRS. 

Dedicated to increasing the Understanding, Building, and Use
 of the Strengths of the Dyslexic Mind!

Thanks for Your Support!
Fernette and Brock Eide and the Dyslexic Advantage Board