Adult Dyslexia Organisation home page

Projects

This page contains a number of projects, courses and services that ADO are running or working in conjunction with others.

Department for Work and Pensions
We have a contract with the Department for Work and Pensions and their agencies for a one stop shop on dyslexia and overlapping conditions, and we will also be looking at their catalogue of software and hardware for supporting staff in relations to updating it.

We were chosen as the first group to provide a presentation to the Cross Government Accessibility Network Group because dyslexia is becoming a high priority and they are reviewing assistive technology as part of a joined up government approach. We have made a number of suggestions which are being discussed at this moment as well as a service we are developing for cross government department collaboration.

Access to Work (AtW)
ADO has been working with AtW since we were the first dyslexia organisation to sit on the National Client Forum of Access to Work, who are within the Department for Work and Pensions since 2003. We have continued to lobby for improved services for adult dyslexic. As a consequence AtW have changed their policy to allow dyslexics to get support without having to first prove they are dyslexic.

Workbase Assessment Standard
ADO have formed a committee to look at developing a standard for workbase assessment for dyslexia and the overlapping conditions, which will lead to the development of an accredited course and qualifications.

This is in conjunction with the British Dyslexia Association, London Southbank University LLU+, Adult Dyslexia Consultancy, Key4Learning Ltd, Right2write, DANDA, National Access to Work Delivery Team, Department of Work and Pension-EG, Disability and Work Division. With support from Dyslexia Action, TUC, Employers Forum on Disability, RNIB, RNID, Lexxic and a number of the specialists in the field of dyslexia, employment and the supporting organisations.

As many of you may know there is no clear consistency in relation to the delivery of workbase assessments and the reports. This has caused a lot of difficulty for individuals who have lost their jobs or incur additional stress to their work, due to the misunderstanding of the support required for the individual in relation to his or her job and the requirement of the employer. We feel it is time for this situation to be changed; therefore, we are asking you for your experience of workbase assessments. We would appreciate it if you could send a short statement of your interest or/and experience of dyslexia and workbase assessments.

Dyslexia and Higher Education
We are working with a number of the leading organisations and specialist to develop a guide to dyslexia and higher education. It is a part of a larger campaign to address the difficulties being faced by dyslexic students in relation to the Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) and the current service they have in terms of the support. We are calling upon all students and service providers to come forward with any evidence of the difficulties they have been facing, since the changeover from the local authorities being responsible for the processing of the DSA.

Dyslexia: A Guide for the Civil Service and Public Sector
Which we are developing with support from the Cabinet Office, Department of Works and Pension, the Department for Communities, Disability Law Service and Local Government and the Civil Service Contact Group with support from Jonathan Shaw MP, The Minister for Disabled People and Sir Gus O’Donnell KCB, Secretary to the Cabinet and Head of the Homes Civil Service.

Office of Disability Issues (ODI)
Awareness on Dyslexia with the Cross-Government Group on Disability Communications. We are taking forward our drive for more accessible internet and intranet in relation to dyslexia and the overlapping conditions. The follow up with the discussions we have already had with the Transformational Government at the Cabinet Office and the Gross Government Accessibility Network Group, led by Department of Works and Pension.

London Tonight
ADO has assisted ITN in creating a series of short programmes on dyslexia featuring Children, Offenders and Entrepreneurs in relation to dyslexia. They filmed seminar at the House of Commons, where we were addressing the £45 million being spent by National Offenders Management Service (NOMS) on rehabilitation and employment.

NOMS (National Offender Management Service) ESF Programme 2007 - 2013
We have been successful in getting the NOMS (National Offenders Management Service) to recognise dyslexia as a priority in their project to rehabilitate offenders back into employment. To achieve this ADO wrote a briefing showing that Learning Skills Council (LSC) research shows approximately 20% of the prison population are dyslexic. NOMS ESF Project – Dyslexia Briefing

Dyslexics Get Wings2Fly
Wings2Fly is part of a pan European project, providing free training designed to develop the entrepreneurial abilities of dyslexics, enabling them to compete confidently with non-dyslexic entrepreneurs. This course is also being supported by London Business Link as a part of a European project involving Portugal, Romania, Greece and Italy. See Press Release.

Japan and Dyslexia
We were invited in October 2009, as a part of an international cultural exchange to be guests of the Japanese Dyslexia Association. We have pledged to collaborate with Japan to develop their Adult Support Group network, and developing policy and guidance on best practice in relation to adult dyslexics within Education, Employment and Day-to-day living. This culminated in a number of activities:

Meetings with the government officials from Ministry of Labour, Education, Health and Welfare.
Meetings with Trade unions and Employers.
Keynote speakers at Japan Academy for Learning Disabilities 18th General Conference with Dr Ross Cooper, Assistant Director of LLU+, which is based within London Southbank University.
A presentation on an exchange of views with Tokyo University Advanced Technology research Institute.
Meeting with ADO’s Japanese Adult dyslexia group (DX)

Adult Dyslexia Guide: A Guide for learndirect tutors and support staff Offender E-Learning Guide.
ADO has had a long established history of working with Ufi/learndirect, since the year 2000. We have been updating the guide since it was first produced in 2004 and we have continued to update the guide. We have gone on to develop the only Dyslexia E-Learning accredited course with the Open College Network (OCN) in conjunction with the B.F.A.W.U Learning Services.

Committee work

Working with the Disabled Teachers Taskforce to look at best practice and implementing models of support.

Working with the Nursing and Midwifery Council as part of their equality and diversity group project.

Making ICT easy for all
This is project that ADO was involved with the research and development as a stakeholder and user led organisation. Thousands of people who think the internet isn’t for them are getting online the easy way – thanks to myguide and UK online centres.

The myguide website – www.myguide.gov.uk – offers free, easy-to-use email and web-search tools from a simple, banner-free website. It also includes basic ICT courses – from how to use a keyboard and mouse to keeping safe online, using government e-services, social networking and even online job-hunting.

myguide allows people to personalise and save settings, change colours, font size and even choose to use a built-in ‘hear it’ function which reads the text on screen. Because it’s for absolute beginners, it’s also designed to be supported, so people’s first steps onto the internet are supervised and so positive they’ll want to keep on using it.