The value of disability

In many cases, disabled researchers were unfairly disadvantaged in their earlier education. Professor Negroponte has said that he was thought to be simply lazy at school. A researcher with mental health difficulties said that he was in remedial streams throughout his secondary education and has just completed his doctorate as part of a prestigious science research project. At an early age, a researcher with a mobility impairment was advised by their consultant not to disclose their disability because they would be shunted down a segregated educational route. All have brought their strengths and unique perspectives into the research community. 

There are many extreme examples of high achieving dyslexic people. The scientist Dr Simon Clemmet claims not to be able to write a letter without the help of his computer spellchecker and was labelled as a slow learner at school. At 28, he analysed the carbon compound found in the meteorite from Mars at Stanford University. Richard Branson, the entrepreneur, could not read at the age of 8 years old. Hamish Grant is now the Chief Executive of Axeon, a technology company, but remembers his dyslexia causing him to inadvertently omit a huge part of a question in his BSc finals. Albert Einstein had great difficulty at the lower levels of the conventional education system, yet discovered the theory of relativity. Examples of talented people with dyslexia abound in all disciplines: Jackie Stewart, Duncan Goodhew, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney and Cher. 

Although the term dyslexia is not synonymous with the term genius, the origin of the talents of these high achievers is common to all people with dyslexia. It has been generally accepted that in the ‘dyslexic brain' there is greater utilisation and dependence on the right hemisphere than the left. The mode of thinking in the left hemisphere is verbal, analytical, sequential, rational, linear and logical, whereas the mode of the right hemisphere specialises more in visuo-spatial, global creative thinking with a Gestalt frame of reference. This superior development of right hemisphere cortical regions could account for the exceptional talents found amongst dyslexic researchers. 

In The Gift of Dyslexia, Ronald Davis summarises these talents as the ability to:  

• Alter and create perceptions
• Be highly aware of the environment.
• Be more curious than average.
• Think mainly in pictures instead of words.
• Be highly intuitive and perceptive.
• Think and perceive multidimensionally (using all the senses).
• Experience thought as reality
• Have a vivid imagination. 

(Davis 2003, p. 5) 

West (1997) endorses this list, claiming that the high levels of creativity and originality are due to a heavy reliance on visual modes of thought.  Einstein, unable to master basic mathematics, had an amazing understanding of higher mathematics because in his mind's eye he could visualise what we could only see with the aid of a computer screen. Einstein's theory of relativity, for example, originated from a vision of himself travelling beside a beam of light. In contrast to verbal thought, picture thinking is not tied to the linear and can be multidimensional, involving all the senses and allowing the thinker to experience the thought as reality. 

This concept of disorientation or ‘daydreaming' enables us to appreciate how Leonardo da Vinci conceptualised submarines and powered flight centuries prior to the reality. Visual modes of thought may also underlie the intuitiveness of the dyslexic researcher. If, as Davis (2003) suggests, ‘picture-thinking' is 400 to 2000 times faster than verbal thinking, this is likely to be advantageous in many academic environments. A possible explanation is that the speed of such thinking may mean the person becomes aware of the product of the thought but not aware of the process, which remains subliminal. Hence the thought appears intuitive. 

It is particularly at the postgraduate level that the implicit strengths of this difference can be seen. Before this, the traditional ‘left-brain' approach to teaching and learning in our education system can cause the dyslexic researcher to under-achieve and develop low self-esteem. The high value put on correct spelling, neat and fast writing, rote learning of detailed factual information, verbal interpretation of routine numerical data and assessment through timed, written examinations on a specified day can cause great difficulty. When postgraduate level is reached, however, not only can the student utilise the increasingly sophisticated technology to mitigate challenges, but the emphasis shifts from absorbing and regurgitating facts and working in a linear, sequential mode to the fostering of creativity and originality. 

It must be reiterated that not all dyslexic researchers possess extraordinary creative abilities. They do, however, have an inherent natural ability which, when released from the restraints of conventionality and developed, equips them to ‘think beyond the box'. This, together with the increased self-awareness and determination which frequently results from coping in a non-dyslexic society, renders researchers with dyslexia highly suitable for postgraduate research.

References

• British Dyslexia Association website
• Davis, R.D. (2003) The Gift of Dyslexia, Suffolk: Souvenir Press
• West, T.G. (1997) In the Mind's Eye, New York: Prometheus Books

The Cabinet Office has produced a Disability Toolkit based on best practice developed by GCHQ and other areas of the Civil Service. In the introduction they write:

‘In the interest of the organisation, difference needs to be accepted and accommodated throughout. In fact, if difference is harnessed and developed in a dynamic way, the organisation becomes more exciting and vibrant for everyone. The individual is valued for their strength, rather than accommodated because of their difficulty ... For every individual who has dyslexia or dyspraxia the experience is different. The differences occur independently of race, culture and social background. They have nothing to do with intelligence.’

Cabinet Office Disability Toolkit

A leading computer science academic, Professor Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who has dyslexia, said:

‘Links between dyslexia and talent are often observed at MIT--indeed, these observations are so frequent that sometimes locally dyslexia is called the MIT disease.’

Professor Nicholas Negroponte, Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

A doctoral researcher with dyslexia has talked about their alternative approach to their research:

‘For me dyslexia is normal. The positive aspect is that, unlike neurotypical people, I'm not tied down by the shackles of literacy. .. I can think outside of the written word...

Dyslexic individuals organise themselves differently. If I'm doing something, my friends would go A, B and then C and I would go A, D and F. because I go round it. But for me that's A, B, C. I've got the same outcomes but I go round it a different way. By going round it a different way... if someone's teaching you, they'll tell you that's wrong.’

Doctoral researcher with dyslexia

It is valuable to look at what might be the strengths of researchers with different approaches to learning and academia.  Sally Agobiani, Head of Dyslexia Support at the University of Plymouth, writes:

‘Although universally accepted, the term dyslexia is unfortunate. The prefix dys is defined as, ‘ill, bad, abnormal' (Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary). The Greek root word lexis relates to the usage of language, leading us to a literal interpretation ‘abnormal or bad use of language'. The clear negativity created by this choice of label may be appropriately associated with other dysfunctional states - dysentery, dystrophy, dyspepsia, dyspathy - but not this condition. When we imply abnormality, we suggest that the normal state is the optimum and the one to which the ‘sufferer' should strive to return. However, dyslexia is not a dysfunction or a disability, but a difference. It is a difference which not only must be valued in its own right but also encouraged and developed if the individual and society as a whole are to reap the benefits.’

Sally Agobiani, Head of Dyslexia Support at the University of Plymouth