2nd class

Two things in this class impressed me a lot. The first one is LD simulation. All the discussion we had before gave me a abstract concept of LD, I know what it is, but I was not sure how it felt. The simulation brought a vivid experience that helped me understand how people with learning disability struggle in many ways. Actually, many parts of the simulation remind me of the process of learning English as a foreign language, especially the early stage. One of the struggle we had in the simulation was the separation of decoding the words and understanding the meanings. Because of the misspellings,  I spent the major energy in figuring out what the word was. As a result, I focused on individual vocabularies, but not the whole sentence and text. Therefore, I did not got the main idea although I read all the words. This is a symptom of dyslexia, also a common experience of foreign language learners in the early stages. Even now, I experience it occasionally when reading sophisticated academic article with many unfamiliar vocabularies.

I do agree with Dr. Gerber that one of the best solutions to this is extra time and support. I takes longer time than most of my classmates to read the assigned material to ensure comprehension. Also, my professors and classmates never show any doubt about my reading capacity and encourages me constantly. They are very helpful during my first year in VCU. Therefore, when dealing with people with dyslexia, extra time should be allowed. It may also redue the level of anxiety and improve their performance. Plus, based on my personal experience, multi-sense input promotes comprehension. Audio book and radio broadcast are usually more enjoyable for me than reading in English. I guess it is very similar to people with learning disability. It will be great if the supporting system provides their more chance to exchange information by listening and speaking, but not reading and writing.

The discussion about how to accommodate people with LD in modern society sheds light on another benefit of technology, especially voice control technology. One of the example is Siri in Iphone. I thought it was not as impressing as it was advocated since I seldom use it.  But I see how life-changing it could mean to people with dyslexia. With this technology, they do not need to read the words on their phone to operate it, but to talk to it. This could make their life so much easier. Also, this technology has been installed in cars, so that people can just talk to the car to control the music and the navigator. To people with dyslexia, it could seriously reduce the risk of driving since they do not have to stare at the bottons and try to figure out what they mean. Now there are one more reason for me to love these human-friendly technology: it cares those who suffer more than ordinary people and promotes equality.

Another discussion we had was about adult disability law. Dr. Gerber mentioned that people with LD need to show that they have the essencial skills before getting the job. After the fireman's story, I cannot help wondering what kind of job is not involved with reading and writing skills. Words and written language are so fundamental in our society that it is also impossible to avoid them. After reading TJ's story, I realize that although reading and writing is always a part of life, reading in a limited time is just characteristic of specific jobs. Although TJ's job as a special teacher requires a certain amount of reading and writing, he could spend extra hours on it. Therefore, he is still qualifies for the job.
However, people like TJ still dazzle me. It is so hard for me to believe that people are suffering this and they are working so hard to prove themselves.