As a child I wore a watch, but I couldn’t tell time. I couldn’t distinguish my left from my right, so I did a lot of pointing….It got to be joke in the family whenever we took our car for a family outing. “Go that way,” I would tell my parents. There were a lot of things I couldn’t do. And it hurt, because I didn’t know why.

In june of 1979, I finally got tested by the Orton Dyslexic Society. It seemed the obvious thing to do because Mom and Dad had heard that children who were considered exceptionally bright but were failing in school were classified as being dyslexic.

After fourteen hours of testing, the results confirmed that I was developmentally dyslexic-whatever that means. I was told then that I shouldn’t expect too much of myself…I only had ‘normal intelligence,’ and chances of getting into a good school didn’t look very promising.

In 1988, I found myself researching a story on the Irlen Institute. Its working title: Reading by the Colors. We’ve been told that story brought more phone calls than any other story aired on 60 minutes…followed by a flood of letters…including a letter from the Orton Dyslexia Society telling us we were irresponsible in our reporting. To suggest that Helen Irlen could help dyslexics was cruel, because dyslexics couldn’t be helped. I was outraged. To suggest that all learning-disabled children diagnosed dyslexic couldn’t be helped was equally cruel. What was dyslexia anyway? And how come dyslexics couldn’t be helped?

Eleven years ago, I was tested for dyslexia. I was told there were no remedies…no cures…just a word to explain why I had failed.

In March of 1990, I was tested again [at the Irlen Institute]. This time there were no excuses, no explanations, no words-just a pair of colored lenses to help me see why I didn’t have to fail.

I still have dyslexia, but I no longer have to survive by only reading the first, middle, and last chapter of everything. I can read it all!

The preceeding was reprinted with the permission of Helen Irlen, author of Reading by the Colors revised edition. Taken from pages 107-109.