Dyslexia Awareness Week Scotland 2023 runs from 1 – 7 November. It is an annual event aimed at further understanding and raising awareness about dyslexia; what it means, what it is and what can be done to support people who have dyslexia.
To celebrate this important week we have created an infographic in collaboration with Dyslexia Scotland.
Download our Dyslexia infographic here.
We also caught up with Katie Carmichael, Dyslexia Scotland‘s lead for Creative and Digital to learn more about their work and how Recite Me fits into their mission.
1. Could you please tell me a bit about yourself and your role at Dyslexia Scotland?
As Dyslexia Scotland’s lead for Creative and Digital, I work on making sure we’re a recognisable and trusted brand that reaches people with dyslexia. Accessibility is a big focus of our work, making sure our website and materials are friendly and can be understood. Recite Me is a big help in achieving this.
2. What is your mission at Dyslexia Scotland?
To inspire and enable people with dyslexia to reach their potential in life, learning and work. We’re working to make Scotland a dyslexia-friendly country that values the skills and talents of the dyslexic community.
3. What sort of support does Dyslexia Scotland provide?
We run a Helpline 5 days a week to answer questions about dyslexia and signpost to help. Dyslexia affects all ages, so people come to us for help with issues around school, learning, work and employment and much more. We provide a lot of services for changemakers too, people who want to be more dyslexia inclusive, and of course do lots of awareness raising activity through events and the media.
4. What is commonly misunderstood about dyslexia?
People often think that it just means difficulty with spelling or reading. It’s so much broader than that. The dyslexic brain often struggles with short-term or working memory, with sequencing, direction and processing information. But it lends itself to making connections too, which means that often people with dyslexia thrive in creative, problem-solving tasks.
5. Why is it important for Dyslexia Scotland to provide inclusive online experiences?
We’re very much living in a digital-first world, so online experiences need to be inclusive so that no-one is missing out. We don’t just consider dyslexia when we’re developing online resources, information or services – we try to lift all the barriers we can to our content, whether that’s around how information is presented or how we can make the content available in a range of ways to suit every need.
If we can help as many people as possible to access and understand the information we share, it helps us towards our vision for a dyslexia-friendly country.
6. How does the Recite Me Assistive Toolbar help you to provide an inclusive online experience?
Recite Me’s Assistive Toolbar offers our website visitors a ‘have it your way’ experience, where they can easily change the language of the website, read it out loud to them or even choose a different typeface that might be easier on the eye for them. It does exactly what we strive to do – to lift barriers and give equal access to the knowledge we want to share.
Learn how Recite Me can Support your Dyslexic Website Visitors
If you’d like to learn more about supporting your students, workforce or customers with our dyslexia-friendly assistive software, please feel free to contact our team for more information or a book a real-time demonstration of our toolbar.
