Every time I open a word document I click on page layout and change
the colour to a light blue. If I’m dealing with more than one document with
different information then I change the page to a creamy colour or green.
Purple’s and pinks don’t work for me, but then each brain is different. Here
are a couple of examples of how I sometimes see words when they’re on plain
white paper.
It’s difficult to show it accurately because of the shifting
nature of letters with dyslexia but these are the best examples I’ve seen. The bottom one is especially accurate for me; I can only see one or
two words clearly at a time.
When I was in university I was officially diagnosed with Dyslexia,
though to be honest the diagnoses did little to help me besides letting the
teachers know why my grammar and spelling was so appalling or why I had no
chance in hell of finishing all of the set texts, especially if they contained new
information. Most of what has helped me with my dyslexia I found through trial
and error.
When I worked in a library I created a alphabet bracelet so I didn’t
spend forever trying to untangle the order of letters in my brain, turning what
used to be a laborious stressful task into child’s play. Little things like this have helped me along
the path of life in a world that doesn’t accept that some people just don’t
have a short term memory or have the capability of keeping a beat. My room is covered in post-its and my phone is full of notes reminding me of all the
things I am bound to forget.
I don’t see my Dyslexia as a hindrance as such, I’ve always enjoyed
reading though a lot slower than I wanted to. I remember opening Pride and Prejudice aged thirteen after my
friend had recommended it to me and being completely at a loss as to what was
happening. I couldn’t enjoy reading it because every word I read made me feel
as though I was failing. As I child I remember telling my friends I’d read
books that I’d truly only read the back cover of because I was embarrassed at
how long it would have taken me to read them. Back then a thick novel was a
daunting prospect and when I got tired the words would simply refuse to stay
still on the page. I’d painstakingly force meaning out of one word after the
other hating how much I still had to read.
Thankfully now I have gotten over my pride and with my fancy new blue
glasses, which speed up my reading by 100%, I now have the pleasure of saying
I’ve completed Pride and Prejudice, Emma
and am working my way through Bronte’s Jane Eyre. I won’t say they’re easy to
read my brain still takes a long time to process the meaning of some of the
sentences but I now enjoy living with a novel for weeks or sometimes months and
on the very rare occasion years, dipping in and out when I want to. I still feel triumphant when I’ve finished a
particularly difficult novel but enjoy the journey almost more than the end
result. My old favourite Cornelia Funke wrote in Ink Heart:
Some
books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed anddigested thoroughly.
I re-read this quote several times. It took me a little while to know
what it meant. I have devoured books such as the Twilight and tasted many
others, but the ones that will stay with me forever I have chewed slowly and
carefully taking meaning from each word and storing it in a special place in my
heart.
To find out more about tinted lenses and visual stress follow this
link: http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/about-dyslexia/further-information/eyes-and-dyslexia.html
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