ADSHE, the Association of Dyslexia Specialists in Higher Education, was formed in order to share knowledge, and inform good practice. In order to avoid reinventing the wheel in each institution, a group of specialists convened to achieve the following:
1. Avoid unnecessary duplication of work
2. Establish commonly accepted codes of good practice
3. Share experiences and overcome feelings of isolation
4. Work towards establishing parity of provision so that any dyslexic student will be assured of appropriate support throughout the HE sector
The recent ADSHE Networking Day and AGM on June 18th in London was a great success, both in terms of networking and feedback on the lectures and workshops. Evaluation forms are being looked at over the summer; any suggestions you have made will be taken into account when organising next years event, which is being held once again at Friend's House in Euston, on June 18th 2009. Due to the popularity of this years event we have made room for more workshops. If you would like to run a workshop, or have any other comments or suggestions about the event, contact Mary Kountouris at adshedyslexia@yahoo.co.uk
The first Liz Ahrends award for freelance SpLD support tutors, was presented at the day, by Peter Ahrends, the husband of the late Liz Ahrends. It was presented to Patricia Ware, who will use it to support the continuing and further development work to be done on supporting Student Nurses, and other students, in the placement/ working environment.
The new executive committee is now in place, headed by Ros Lehany as Chair and Sally Freeman as Deputy Chair. For all information and contact details of all committee members, see the Executive Committee page. One post, the Freelance Tutor representative, has not been filled. Contact Mary at adshedyslexia@yahoo.co.uk if you would like to know more about this post and maybe nominate yourself.