"Could Dyslexia Be a Gift?" Insiders Define Learning Disabilities

• In Event: Hilton Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: On the Violences of Disablism: Finding Strength in Dis/Abled Voices

Abstract

While the diagnosis and definition of learning disabilities (LD) and dyslexia continue to be controversial in special education and educational psychology, the perspectives of individuals who identify with LD and/or dyslexia have been absent from the discussion. Using a collection of memoirs and interviews, we ask how insiders with LD and/or Dyslexia define these terms, and present their counter-narratives to the medicalized, deficit-based narratives present in academia. This paper focuses on how insiders conceptualized learning disabilities and/or dyslexia, and how insiders understood their cognitive gifts. While some insiders accepted a normal/abnormal binary around LD, others resisted this framing, insisting “everyone learns differently.” Others conceptualized LD as a mismatch between classroom instruction and unique learners with LD.

Author

• Rachel Lambert, Chapman University