Seach Load2Learn Pages:
Unit 1: Case Studies
About this course
This self-study course has been developed by Load2Learn, a service providing accessible curriculum textbooks and images to support dyslexic, partially sighted or blind learners who have difficulty reading standard print.
It is part of the “Creating and using accessible curriculum resources self-study course” available on Load2Learn. Licenced under Creative Commons.
About the case studies
The case studies for Unit 1 represent real experiences and detail a range of difficulties that learners with a print disability in a class face.
Activity 1
On a typical day you see four learners in different classes who struggle with accessing text. Read through the four different case studies and as you work through Unit 1 think about which technologies would be useful to address these individuals’ needs.
Each of the learners in the case studies have different difficulties which means that they may require different technology to assist them with their reading and writing.
Evaluate each individual case based on the evidence available and look at the suitability of different technologies available to the learner.
It is important to remember that some learners may not like suggested technology and therefore a different method will need to be found.
Exercise 1
Write an initial list of the issues that each learner faces in their academic environment.
Exercise 2
Use the information you learn in Unit 1 as a resource to find out as much as possible that could be helpful for you as their teacher and put together an individual plan to for each of the learners to help you with their difficulties.
Case study one
Harry (aged 15) is very articulate and participates in the lesson until he is asked to read any text. He refuses to read in class and becomes disruptive when the class is asked to do a reading task. He does not want to be seen to be different from anyone else. When he has read aloud it is very slow and he is unable to use word attack skills when faced with an unfamiliar word.
Case study two
Jenny (aged 12) is having difficulty reading, she says it is because the words move around and “shoot off the page”. The situation is difficult for you to assess as her ability level is very erratic and sometimes she presents with a very high reading level but other times she has difficulty reading simplistic text. When asked about this she says that there is more word movement when she is tired and sometimes the lights make it worse.
Case study three
Victor (aged 11) is very articulate and uses a wide lexicon for a year 7 student his ambition is to be a stand-up comedian and is able to make up very sophisticated satire. His reading was tested at the beginning of the year and it was four years below his chronological age. He is an active member of the class until he is required to do any written task when he presents with behaviour that he knows will result in him being removed from the class.
Case study four
Molly (aged 13) was able to get by with reading in primary school because the text books did not have too much text and the print was relatively large. Since then her sight has got worse and she is now registered blind. She still has enough vision to walk around the school and classroom without assistance. She still able to read but needs magnification of 600%. This makes her reading a very slow process and she is finding it difficult to keep up with other people in the class. She has support from the county VI specialist team.
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