The Codfather of Literacy Sites – Codpast

The codfather of literacy sites – Codpast

agent4change: 9.06.2015 by Sal McKeown

Sal McKeown meets a dyslexic educator with no time to waste – Sean Douglas

I have just come across a brilliant site for adults with dyslexia. A Google alert flagged up that a site called The Codpast was reviewing and giving away some copies of one of my favourite apps, ClaroSpeak Plus.

"Assistive technology is game changing," says the site's director Sean Douglas. "Speed is of the essence. I am a very fast touch typist and I don't want anything to hold me back." He set up The Codpast (Podcast for the non-dyslexic among you), an online resource with videos, podcasts and articles for students and adults with dyslexia.

Sean has dyslexia and faces many of the same problems experienced by others and so is well placed to offer advice: :I spell things wrong, miss words out. I can’t imagine life without text-to-speech. I now use my iPad more and more, so jumped at the chance to try out the ClaroSpeak Plus app for the iPad. It's very good because it reads straight away when you insert the cursor whereas with others you have to highlight the text. I like the fact that when I type a full stop it reads the whole sentence so I can check it makes sense."

Well developed visual skills but unaware of help for dyslexia

Sean has very well developed visual skills. He studied at Ravensbourne College of Design and Communications in Bromley. "I knew I was dyslexic from high school," he said, "but didn’t realise that this was something I could ask for help with I thought you would only be given help if teachers deemed it was necessary."

He has gone on to have a successful career in the media industry. He worked for BBC News as a cameraman/editor covering a large part of Yorkshire: "Dyslexia was not really a problem because I have good skills in other areas," he explained. "I have really good map reading skills and can remember routes once I have seen a map."  READ MORE !