Personal Discovery on Dyslexia May Aid Many
15th December 2015
Astrophysicist Matthew Schneps was waiting at a bus stop, scanning a scientific paper he had downloaded onto his smartphone, when it dawned on him: he was reading with ease.
That realization surprised Schneps, who has dyslexia, a learning disability that makes reading difficult. He had always felt comfortable in the lab, not the library.
“Prior to that [moment], I hadn’t really been able to get through papers like that,” said Schneps, who directs a laboratory at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “I would rely on what people would tell me about what was in them.”
His bus stop epiphany led Schneps to wonder whether hand-held gadgets might be an effective reading platform for people with dyslexia. Now, eight years later, his research, which has shifted from studying stars, is beginning to show there may be some benefits. The timing couldn’t be better.