From the Associated Press/MSNBC:

Amazon.com Inc. has announced that it will add two features to the Kindle that are intended to make the e-book reader more accessible to users who are blind or have limited vision.

The company has come under fire from disability advocacy groups for allowing publishers to opt out of a read-aloud feature on the device that converts text to robotic speech. They say the decision will unfairly limit access for the estimated 15 million Americans who have difficulty reading printed material, including people with limited vision; dyslexia; learning or processing issues; seniors; people with spinal cord injuries, and people who have had strokes.

Amazon said it is developing audible menus and an extra-large font for people with limited vision.

Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y., and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have said they will not adopt the device until it is accessible to all students. The National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind have launched legal challenges to the use of Kindle for distribution of textbooks.

Earlier posts here.

In a conversation with Claudia Dreifus from the New York Times, Nobel Prize winner Dr. Carol W. Greider acknowledges her struggle with dyslexia and says it influenced her to pursue the study of science. Greider, of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, shared a Nobel Prize this week for her research on telomeres.

Q. Did you always want to be a biologist?

A. My parents were scientists. But I wasn’t the sort of child who did science fairs. One of the things I was thinking about today is that as a kid I had dyslexia. I had a lot of trouble in school and was put into remedial classes. I thought that I was stupid.

Q. That must have hurt.

A. Sure. Yes. It was hard to overcome that. I kept thinking of ways to compensate. I learned to memorize things very well because I just couldn’t spell words. So later when I got to take classes like chemistry and anatomy where I had to memorize things, it turned out I was very good at that.

See also:

Mild autism has ’selective advantages’; Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith discusses his personal challenges with Asperger syndrome — NBC News

Theo Emery writes in the New York Times: The Choice Blog that applying to college can pose more hurdles for students with learning disabilities than for their nondisabled peers.

After attending a workshop titled, “Supporting the Transition to College for Students with Learning Disabilities,” at a conference of 5,000 admissions officers and counselors in Baltimore, Emery offers some suggestions for applicants with disabilities including dyslexia, ADHD and Asperger’s Syndrome.

• Decide whether you want to disclose your disability and take advantage of campus disability services. While it is illegal for admissions officers to ask, applicants may benefit if their disability status is known.
• Assess a college based on accommodations it is willing to make, services it will provide, and availability of programs for people with disabilities.
• Be aware of the contents of your transcript and psychoeducational evaluation, and let that information help guide your choice of where to apply.

In the New York Times, a profile of Ariel Z. Emanuel, head of William Morris Endeavor Entertainment and one of Hollywood’s pre-eminent players. His brother Rahm is the White House chief of staff.

Speaking at charity benefit for the Lab School of Washington and Baltimore two years ago, Ari Emanuel said his business style has its origins in his struggle with dyslexia. An excerpt:

Captured in a video now posted on YouTube, a nervous Mr. Emanuel said that dyslexics, if they overcome their disability at all, do so by inventing a path of their own. The effort “actually provides them with insight to find inventive solutions to life and in business that others when they’re in those situations probably never find,” Mr. Emanuel said.

(Photo from New York Times)

From Forbes, WLS-TV Chicago, Reuters UK:

A new study in the journal Pediatrics reports that writing disorders are just as common as reading disorders, although they are not well researched or understood. Writing disorders are more frequently seen in boys.

Researchers found that between 7 percent and 15 percent of the children studied had the condition, depending on the criteria used.

Educators define written-language disorder as the inability to write near the level expected based on a person’s age, intelligence and education. People who have the condition may have problems with such skills as grammar, spelling, paragraph organization and handwriting.

While the majority of children with a writing disability also had a reading disability, researchers said one quarter of those diagnosed with a writing problem did not have trouble reading.

Last ‘Percy Jackson’ book is released as Fox shoots movie version of earlier title

From the Wall Street Journal, Publisher’s Weekly,  Austin American-Statesman:

Former middle-school teacher Rick Riordan, left, is “one of the hottest writers on the planet today,” thanks to his series of children’s books that pairs Greek mythology with a hero who has learning disabilities.

The series, which has already sold more than five million copies in the U.S., culminates this week with the release of the fifth and final installment, “Percy Jackson and the Olympians.” Central to the concept is a hero who learns that he is the son of Poseidon. He also has ADHD and dyslexia — traits he shares with Riordan’s son, who inspired the series — and comes to understand that his learning disabilities are signs he was sired by one of the gods.

Dyslexia, you see, is simply the natural confusion that arises when you’re hard-wired to read ancient Greek but forced to read English. And ADHD? A side effect of the need to constantly survey your surroundings for monsters eager to destroy children who are part-mortal, part-god.

Twentieth Century Fox is shooting a movie version of the first book in the series. Starring Uma Thurman and Pierce Brosnan, it is expected to be released next February.

(Photo from Wall Street Journal)