Dyslexia and Me: Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome/Irlen Syndrome Awareness Day?

A ribbon of my own design. The blue signifies dyslexia awareness while black and white are shades that I find especially difficult to look at. The coloured dots are my ‘pixel vision’

There are a number of events throughout the year raising awareness for dyslexia. The recent ‘guerilla’ campaign by Decoding Dyslexia to raise awareness through the tag #ShowMe1in5 through social media seems to have been pretty successful (there are still people sharing the links on Twitter a I write this blog). Also Dyslexia Advocacy Week has just passed where I shared a video per day featuring a variety of dyslexic people talking about their experiences and their progression and success. However, I want my blog to cover not only dyslexia, but also Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome aka Irlen Syndrome. Having searched on Google (as you do) I have been unable to find a specific day or week dedicated to raising awareness on this specific learning difficulty that has links to dyslexia. So for this reason, I have decided to set aside this weeks blog to discuss Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome in hope to raise awareness of what it is!

While 1 in 5 may have dyslexia, it has been suggested that 1 in 7 or as many as 1 in 6 of the population are affected by Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome. So here are some facts and issues linked to Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome to hopefully give you a better understanding of this specific learning difficulty.

March 15th – #showme1in5

My selfie for #showme1in5

On March 15 Decoding Dyslexia are raising awareness on dyslexia through the hashtag #showme1in5. 1 in 5 American’s are believed to have dyslexia. Although I am outside of the USA, I wanted to show solidarity with dyslexics around the world by creating my own 1 in 5 photo!

Dyslexia and Me: A Month of Blogging

So I’ve been blogging on Dyslexia and Me for over a month now! It really doesn’t feel that long at all! It has been very exciting so far. I’ve had a lot of positive feedback and it has encouraged me to look into a career in learning support (though I am still searching for answers on where and what to do next, but my dissertation is my main priority the next month or so).

Dyslexia and Me: Education System and Me – Primary School

I think it would be wrong to name and shame institutions in their failings. However, I am going to share a bit of my experiences within the education system in both Scotland and Ireland. I am going to look at the different stages separately to cover the next few weeks.

Question of the Month

Dyslexia Scotland asked via Twitter: Do you feel comfortable about telling your employer that you have dyslexia?

So would you feel comfortable telling your employer?

Dyslexia and Me: What you see, What I see

People often ask me what it’s like visually when I am reading. When you grow up looking through your own eyes, I guess you don’t realise that you’re seeing things so differently until someone asks. The best way I have found to describe my vision is like pixels on a computer or TV screen. Each of the pixels makes up a more solid colour through RGB. When I look at solid colours or shades, I can still see other colours flashing around, though I know it is a white wall or a red book or a pitch black room. Even when there is no light at all, I still see colours. In fact, it becomes even worse! I walk a lot slower and cautiously in the dark because my vision to make out shapes is distorted by flashing ‘pixels’ of colour that cloud my vision.