Tools for people with difficulties learning will help those manage situations in which learning is the goal
While a learning difficulty is not something that can be cured necessarily, there are a myriad of available tools to diminish its effects. Such utilities include both accommodating and alternative resources, and they circumvent learning difficulties by capitalizing on strong areas rather than attempting to diminish weak areas.
Accommodating Resources
Accommodating resources allow an individual with a learning difficulty to learn or express him or herself in a way that is natural for him or her. For example, many people with dyslexia spell words phonetically. Remedies for this could be predictive typing found on cell phones, auto-correction found on word processors, spelling suggestions derived from phonetic spelling such as those found on dictionary software, or software created specifically for the correction of phonetic spelling.
Other accommodating resources are:
- Independent math assistance such as the DO-IT online lessons provided by Washington University that provide math assistance specially designed for those with dyscalculia
- Lessons provided through electronic media that engage other sensory components (for example, touch) in order to help facilitate the learning process
- Associative utilities that provide examples of a component in other form, for example, words paired with pictures or sounds paired with words, while responding to feedback from the user
- Office supplies such as post-it notes, highlighters, and paper organizers that give those with learning difficulties the capacity to manually organize their ideas
Alternative Resources
Alternative resources enable an individual with a learning difficulty to enjoy the same resources that others have access to by procuring those them in another format. For example, those with a reading difficulty can purchase audio books rather than print to avoid the difficulty in deciphering written words. Other alternative resources include:
- Closed captioning for those with listening disabilities
- Concept mapping software that provides a visual representation of the relationship between concepts and ideas
- Speech recognition that allows someone with a reading or writing difficulty to dictate information rather than write it
- Reading systems that read content displayed on a screen aloud