Bermuda’s laws have to change to protect the rights of learning challenged students, a learning support teacher recently told a Bermudians Overcoming Learning Disabilities (BOLD) meeting.

Teacher Phyllis Harshaw, who is herself visually impaired, was one of several successful people who spoke at a BOLD meeting about moving beyond learning differences.

“Currently, the legislation for students with disabilities, is almost non-existent,” said Mrs. Harshaw who has been a teacher for 25 years. She currently teaches at CedarBridge Academy. “If you look at the education act it says almost nothing about meeting the needs of students with challenges.”

Mrs. Harshaw said there needs to be specific legislation in place to address any type of education or learning challenge, whether it be physical, educational, learning or whatever.

“The Ministry of Education puts special education teachers in the schools and there are interpreters and there are many other services but it is not enough,” she said. “There are no laws to support students identified with legitimate needs.”

She said if there was legislation, all schools, whether they be public or private, would have to comply and thus couldn’t be selective in their choice of student.

“Further, the parents would have more rights for their children as they would have laws to support the needs of a special child,” she said. “Right now they have nothing to fall back on. Until we have legislation we can only do so much.”

Mrs. Harshaw started to lose her vision at the age of eight, and her left arm was also amputated.

“The arm wasn’t so much of a problem for me as was my eyesight,” she said. “I can relate to people with dyslexia. Even though I could read and learn, problems with reading and writing became more difficult as my sight continued to diminish.”

Mrs. Harshaw refused to be put into a “special school” and went through the Government school system, which would not make concessions for her.

“At that time the teachers didn’t help me in any way, shape or form,” she said. “Whether it was private or public, the teachers really had no way of helping and didn’t know how to.”

In primary school, because of her vision problems, she had to go right up to the blackboard, memorise what was there, and then sit down.

Mrs. Harshaw went to Whitney Institute for part of her secondary school education where she was eventually made a prefect and vice head girl. It was there that she began to develop her own coping strategies.

“I would sit next to a friend and they would read out any handouts,” said Mrs. Harshaw. “I would use a magnifying glass. The only teacher that ever did anything special was my typing teacher at Whitney Institute, Pat Hide. She actually found a book to teach typing for one hand. That was the greatest thing as I touch type on the computer now at a very good speed.”

After graduating from high school she found that the world did not have high expectations for people with physical disabilities.

“I realised Bermuda was not disabled friendly,” she said. “Getting a job was very difficult. That’s when I decided to investigate careers and scholarships, and thus ended up in university.”

When she went to college it was a time when large print typewriters had just been developed, and she found the typewriting skills taught to her by her old Whitney Institute teacher, invaluable.

“I was able to use that as an accommodation and they didn’t mind tape recorders in the classroom,” she said.

She also used books on tape through the ‘Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic’ service.

“If they don’t have the book for you,” she said. “If you buy two copies and send it off to Princeton they will read it and send it back to you.”

Mrs. Harshaw went on to obtain a Bachelor of Science in education with a minor in Portuguese, and a Master of Science in special education and learning disabilities from Adelphi University in Garden City New York. She also has a Masters of Arts, management and human resource development from Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri.

Mrs. Harshaw said, as a learning support teacher, she would like to see more technology used in the classroom to help students with learning challenges. She said CedarBridge Academy is actually progressive when it comes to technology and special needs students.

“I know one student who has been identified with dyslexia has been given a laptop, also a student with dysgraphia (the inability to write) has been given a laptop,” Mrs. Harshaw said. “One blind student had a laptop with her own speech software like me. A visually impaired student who was here had a CCTV on a cart that went from classroom to classroom, this enlarged print on a monitor.”

However, she said she’d like to see more textbooks on tape available to visually challenged students in all Bermuda’s schools.

“I have not seen textbooks on tape, except for the ones I ordered myself for the blind student,” Mrs. Harshaw said. “Where we are all weak is in the area of textbooks on audio for students with identified reading disabilities. I know textbooks can be put on audio if not already done so and many of the publishers have the books on disks for computer access.

“I don’t think schools are using technology enough to help kids with special needs,” she said. “Technology can allow learning to be easier for kids with reading and writing problems.”

Mrs. Harshaw said people with dyslexia or dysgraphia can use voice recognition software on the computer. “Kids with problems with dyslexia should have books on tape,” she said. “Every computer today has a programme already, both the narrator and the voice recognition.”

She said it is not that people with dyslexia shouldn’t work on their reading or writing, but that the computer allows them to move their learning forward in other areas.

“I don’t say force them to not read, but when they have large quantities of material, there should be an alternative way of understanding the information,” she said. “Are you testing reading, or testing their comprehension of what they have read? I always say to the teachers it is going down for the drivers test, are you tested on your ability to read the questions, or your ability to know the answers?

“If I had to read everything I had to in college using my eyes, I might never have finished college.”

She said that now she listens to between three and six books a week on tape, and also accesses articles in journals and online newspapers on the computer.

“Am I getting the same information? Yes,” she said. “Am I reading it myself? No, but I am still learning.”