I DIDN'T KNOW YOU DID THAT...(PART 2)

Daren Kearl is the Community Development Librarian for Canterbury and Swale District and is based at the Beaney. His role includes working with partners and the local community.

A series of blogs on things you probably didn’t know The Beaney offered…

5^th to 11^th October is Dyslexia Awareness Week, so I’m going to highlight some of the support the library provides for those people living with dyslexia.

• Audio books including e-books can be borrowed free of charge. Overdrive, our eBook provider, now offers a dyslexic friendly font – OpenDyslexic or OpenDyslexic Bold

• The library stocks a range of titles published by Barrington Stoke for children and young people that are dyslexia-friendly. Their website provides lots of advice to support dyslexic children with reading

• The books are on cream paper, reducing glare, which is a factor in visual stress and may make words seem to ‘jump around’

• Dyslexia can make it hard to remember the shape of words and letters on the page, so the font and spacing are carefully designed to make everything as clear as possible

• The books use very thick paper so that words and illustration don’t show through from other pages and confuse the eye

• Search under the publisher “Barrington Stoke” or the term “dyslexic-friendly”

Image copyright Barrington Stoke

• Free computer access for two hours every day in any of our libraries. (Under 16s need parental permission to use the internet) with accessibility software to support planning, reading and writing. Book an IT Buddy to help you get on-line

• Free black and white printouts and photocopying, tinted paper available if required – up to 20 pages per session

• Sets of coloured overlays in the main town centre libraries for you to try out

• Free requests: adults and young people can order books and audio books from the Kent libraries’ catalogue free of charge

For local support or general advice contact Dyslexia East Kent Support.