Dyslexia is not a disability – it’s a gift

by Sally Gardner – theguardian.com, Monday 24 June 2013

So much has changed since I was an undiagnosed dyslexic at school, but its wonders and contradictions remain hard to convey.

Steve Jobs, a famous dyslexic. Photograph: James Leynse/Corbis

Steve Jobs, a famous dyslexic. Photograph: James Leynse/Corbis

At school I was the outsider, the odd one, the word-blind child who didn’t fit in. I lived in my head – a dreamer, a dyslexic teenager, a round peg in a square hole who was told I would be lucky to get any qualifications, let alone a job. My education was a comedy of errors. It took place in the era of those two-dimensional technicolour children, Janet and John. Janet and John were my nightmare, a reading scheme that I couldn’t get out of, which I was forced to stay on until the age of 11, getting no further than “Janet and John had a ball.”

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