Me? Lazy and Infirm?

Today’s posting is about treating people with dignity and respect.

Looking at all the press, ironically, my favorite were the blog entries that used the following words to describe our users – the blind and dyslexic as (and I am quoting here):

“THE LAZY AND INFIRM”

First, I want to say something I mean in complete earnestness: THANK YOU.

Thank you to the journalists who wrote these sorts of headlines.  I am guessing that their editors thought it would generate traffic to have an edgy headline, so thank you to you too editors with this sentiment.  Thank you because you voiced the thoughts of a lot of people.

Let me speak here to the general population who may have very little exposure to these issues. First some facts: I have a brain-based neurological disorder characterized as a specific learning disability.  This means that when I read it is like having a bad cell phone connection to a page.  Having a person read print aloud to me is like having a landline. 

When you are five and your mom reads to you, it is not that big a deal.  But try Stanford Law School.  That is where I did my JD/MBA, ordering every book on tape or getting them all scanned and having a Stephen Hawking voice read them to me. A reaction I often get is, “you are not that dyslexic, you went to Stanford!”

The issue is that I am. Look at the brain image below – that is my brain on the right, the one with next to no activity while reading, imaged at Stanford Medical School a few years ago in a study of adults with dyslexia.   It showed that this is not just a kid’s issue — I am still that dyslexic.  And I like myself for it.

Have a look at the raw version of this blog text below (titled “raw” version) this is the original version that I wrote, then put through spell check, then had the Stephen Hawking voice (my screen reader software) read it back to me not once but four times, then passed it to our marketing people to find any homonyms — I can’t tell the word ‘counsel’ from ‘council’, or ‘your’ from ‘you’re’, because the Stephen Hawking voice says them the same way.  This extra effort and time applies to everything, everyday like writing and sending an e-mail or filling out a form when checking into a hospital.

Being dyslexic is the opposite of being lazy.  It is being diligent, dedicated, relentless and indefatigable.  Some of us can do great things and some cannot, but that is up to people with this disability to figure out

People also make assumptions about blind people–some think they are pitiful, or as some blogs stated: infirm. We people with disabilities are neither.

Reading is personal and intimate, and for me and for the 10-15% of the population that is dyslexic like me, it is a labor.  The Intel Reader is making this easier, but that does not equal laziness. 

My point is no one I know who is dyslexic is lazy.  Indeed, no one with disabilities is lazy – just getting through the day demands focus and effort.  My business school roommate at Stanford was a guy in a wheel chair. He was also a Harvard grad (before his injury in a diving accident) and a White House Fellow (after).  At a job interview in business school, the organizer, who knew he was in a chair, picked a restaurant without ramps.  He could have rolled away. But he insisted that the hosts carry him up two flights of stairs.  Was he lazy for asking them to carry him up? 

The Intel Reader is that ramp into a book for people like me and if you find it bothersome I take that ramp, feel free to say we are lazy and/or infirm.  It lets us know where you are at. 

Talk to you later. After all this, I need a nap.

N.B.:  The text below was the raw version of what I wrote for my first version of this blog on the use of LAZY AND INFIRM.  To write, I write what I am thinking, then put it into a speech engine and proof it three or four times, then hand it to an editor to assure the written language is not a barrier for other to understand.  The key point here is I have command of the language in terms of literacy and vocabulary, but not the code of the written language.  I am publishing this to show people the work behind the curtain.