Adult Dyslexia Organisation

About ADO & Achievements

The Adult Dyslexia Organisation (ADO)
ADO is a national organisation, with wider concerns, run by dyslexics for dyslexics and all those concerned with adults with dyslexia regardless of race, gender or background. ADO advises supports and empowers dyslexic adults, taking account of their particular and very different needs.

It provides a wide range of services to the public and to professionals, which is inclusive of service providers and policy makers. ADO is supported in its work by over 50 specialist consultants in a variety of disciplines such as education, employment, policy development, e-learning, ICT and assistive technology etc. Prior to its establishment in 1991, there was no specific voice for the large number of adults with dyslexia - currently estimated to be 4% of the population severely dyslexic (2 million), with a further 6% with some form of dyslexia in the UK.

As far as we know, ADO remains the only user-led national dyslexia organisation operating in Europe. ADO has handled up to 24,000 inquiries in any one year, comprised of Helpline (staffed principally by adults with dyslexia), post, face to face, exhibitions, emails and faxes, made by adult dyslexics, their families and professionals.

The nature of these inquiries covered:
• Lobbying government
• Policy and best practice
• Employment
• Education
• Guidance advice
• Assessments
• Tuition/Courses
• Training
• Events
• Setting up support groups
• Dyslexia friendly products
• Support issues
• Equipment
• Funding

By working with government departments, major organisations, Trade Unions, educators and employers, ADO works to ensure real change that affects the lives of adults with dyslexia. We have written definitive guidelines on dyslexia for national organisations and strive to ensure that dyslexia is recognised and individuals supported. Our aim is to demonstrate that 'user-friendly for dyslexics can be user-friendly for everyone!'. We are working to establish a network of self-help groups throughout various sectors in the UK and to link with groups overseas.

Achievements

Thus far we have contributed to:

• Greater course retention of people with dyslexia in education,
• Increased productivity within the workplace
• The setting of new benchmarks in the design of websites
• The setting up of a series of support groups within the community, and in education and employment.

These initiatives enable dyslexics and other people with disability to fulfil their full potential and make a greater contribution to society.
Other achievements of the campaign include:

Education

• Adult Basic Literacy: ADO was a founder member of the then DfES Skills for Live Dyslexia Advisory Group, inputting into the roll-out of this major initiative. Through the project Dyslexia in Different Contexts, we are providing distance learning training for skills-for-life teachers and trainers. The aim was to train about 1500 teachers and trainers. ADO sat on the reference group which directed this work.
  
• Further/Higher education: ADO sat on the National Working Party on Dyslexia in Higher Education, a group of experts who surveyed current provision for students with dyslexia and outlined good practice in the areas of policy, identification, assessment, counselling and access to examinations. ADO contributed to the ensuing definitive report: Dyslexia in Higher Education: Policy, Provision & Practice (HEFCE 1999) and also produced a digest entitled: The Changing Face of Dyslexia in Higher Education (HEFCE 1999).

• Prison education. ADO promoted the dyslexia-friendly approach in the government Dyslexia Focus Group for Prisons. Following a meeting with the Prisons Minister, the Home Office agreed to add dyslexia into the Offenders' Learning Journey so that contractors now have to demonstrate that they have the ability to identify and support dyslexics. This was written into their contracts.
  
• National Union of Students (NUS). We have continuously provided Guides to Further and Higher Education for the NUS to support their disability and welfare advisers.

Ufi/learndirect. We produced and distributed "The Adult Dyslexia Guide: A Guide for Learndirect Tutors and Support Staff" to the 2000 learn/direct centres and the 6,000 UK online centres. Other work included forming a committee to address dyslexia and its overlapping conditions; providing guidance for the design of their dyslexia websites and the contents of the site; development in conjunction with BFAWU (Bakers Food & Allied Workers Union) an accredited e-learning and dyslexia course; producing a series of awareness conferences in conjunction with the then Department for Education & Skills' (now the Department for Children, Schools & Families) E-learning Strategy Unit and UfI/learndirect.

We co-operated within the UFI Single Equality Scheme Action Plan to deliver training to learn/direct centres. We developed an accredited e-learning course: "Adult Dyslexia Organisation - supporting learners with dyslexia in e-learning and a CD-Rom on assistive technology. We are also in the process of developing three centres of excellence. A series of awareness seminars have also been organised.

• Exam bodies. We liaised with City & Guilds and Open College Network on accreditation of our courses.
  
• Making courses dyslexia-friendly. ADO provided consultancy to Habia, the Hairdressing and Beauty Industry Authority Sector Skills Body as far back as 1999 and updated in 2006 in order to make their NVQ courses dyslexia-friendly and student-friendly.
  
• The Supporting Dyslexic Learners in Different Contextsproject funded by the Skills for Life Strategy Unit, which is managed by CfBT Education Trust in partnership with CTAD and Dyslexia Action.
  

Learning & Skills Council (LSC)

• ADO provided consultation report to address the LSC's Disability Equality Scheme.

Employment

Department for Work & Pensions (DWP): As a result of the Dyslexia Friendly - User Friendly campaign, the ability of occupational psychologists to identify and support dyslexics was upgraded by the dwp's Psychology Division. DWP provided compulsory dyslexia training for two years.

We produced the CD-rom "Dyslexia and Employment, Enabling Full Potential" ,working in partnership with the DWP and with support from JJ Charitable Trust. Additional assistance was given by five government departments, and a range of specialists in the fields of dyslexia and employment law. ADO also ran a conference to support the CD-rom.

• The Disability Rights Commission undertook a formal investigation into Fitness, Standards in Social Work, Nursing and Teaching Professional, with ADO acting as professional witnesses and providing evidence of good and bad practice. This allowed us to introduce the Dyslexia Friendly - User Friendly approach.

• The National Disabled Teachers Task Force, facilitated by the National Teaching Council for England, addressed the issue of fitness to teach in relation to the Disability Discrimination Act, working in conjunction with the LLU+ (formerly London Literacy Unit). Again, we were brought in as professional witnesses and asked to provide evidence of good and bad practice, which allowed us to introduce the Dyslexia Friendly - User Friendly approach.

• Trade Unions. ADO has worked with a number of unions to develop and provide training for employers, employees, managers and union learning representatives, organizing short dyslexia and employment awareness courses.

ICT

• We have lobbied MPs throughout the UK to encourage central and local governments to make facilities for reading website contents available to the public;

• We participated in the 'MyGuide' project as stakeholders, carried out the website testing and are still in the process of developing new website accessibility guidelines. This project aimed to encourage ethnic minorities, disabled people, the 40+ age group, and economically disadvantaged groups to use the Internet.

Day-to-Day Living

• The ADO has worked with the Department of Transport over the last three years, assisting in their research on 'Transport and Dyslexia'.
  
• The Brixton Challenge. This was developed and run by the ADO, targeting dyslexics from black and ethnic minority communities.

The campaign has been so successful that industry and government departments have invested in implementing some of our recommendations. We are now working in partnership with the National Health Service, reviewing the whole service and how it works. In addition, we are working with the Disability Rights Commission on Internet accessibility, the Civil Service, on their Guide, Fitness for Work for Nurses, Teachers and Social Workers; the Fire Service, reviewing their disability policy in relation to dyslexia; the Ministry of Defence, developing dyslexia awareness training; and the Ministry of Justice, supporting their Civil Service Dyslexia Contact Group.

Adult Dyslexia Organisation (ADO)
Ground Floor
Secker House
Minet Road
Loughborough Estate
London
SW9 7TP

Helpline: 020 7924 9559
Helpline: dyslexiahq@dial.pipex.com

Admin,: 020 7207 3911
Admin, Email: ado.dns@dial.pipex.com

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