Your article (“A man of his word”, TES, April 7) about the creative talents of dyslexic people curiously fails to mention that the British Dyslexia Association was the driving-force behind the CBI conference “Dyslexia - the hidden resource”.
We initiated and organised this conference, because we are determined that dyslexic people should not feel defensive about their learning differences. As Tom West, our keynote speaker, shows in his book In the Mind’s Eye, many individuals with literacy difficulties have excelled themselves in a creative field. Elsewhere in your pages you refer to the art history charity, “the Nicholas Ann Trust”, which is offering awards to young lovers of art. This charity is in fact the Nicholas Cann Trust, set up in memory of my brother, the art history scholar. Incorrectly or correctly spelled, the trust looks forward to receiving proposals from those leaving school this summer for a trip abroad to study art.
If either of these slips are the result of dyslexia, any one of the 94 local associations of the British Dyslexia Association would be pleased to provide your staff with advice and help.
PAUL CANN
British Dyslexia Association
34 Poplar Road, Botley
Oxford
