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Rethinking Dyslexia and Literacy: an Investigation of Assistive Technology and the Literate Practices of College Students with Dyslexia

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Rethinking Dyslexia and Literacy: an Investigation of Assistive Technology and the Literate Practices of College Students with Dyslexia RETHINKING DYSLEXIA AND LITERACY: AN INVESTIGATION OF ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY AND THE LITERATE PRACTICES OF COLLEGE STUDENTS WITH DYSLEXIA By James Edward Jackson A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Digital Rhetoric and Professional Writing – Master of Arts 2013 ABSTRACT RETHINKING DYSLEXIA AND LITERACY: AN INVESTIGATION OF ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY AND THE LITERATE PRACTICES OF COLLEGE STUDENTS WITH DYSLEXIA By James Edward Jackson This thesis details a research study supported by Michigan State University’s Usability/Accessibility Research and Consulting center (UARC) and Writing in Digital Environments (WIDE) research center, which sought to better understand both the writing and reading practices of college students with dyslexia and the role that assistive technology plays within them. To do this we utilized usability testing as a methodological base and focused on tasks that were indicative of the types of literacy skills required of college students, which included a heavy emphasis on tasks that involved both reading and writing (e.g. writing a summary of a paper being read) and skills associate with what Jeanie Chall calls higher level literacy (1983). Overall this study had two significant findings: 1) dyslexic participants were just as likely to utilize strategies indicative of higher level literacy skills as non-dyslexic counterparts, and 2) strategy (the way that participants approached the tasks) was a much stronger determiner of participant success than either whether or not they were dyslexic or used assistive technology. These findings have implications for the design of future assistive technology, the policies of university disability resource centers, writing and reading pedagogy, and future research into the literate practices of individuals with dyslexia. Copyright by JAMES EDWARD JACKSON 2013 This work is dedicated to my mother, Katherine Ann Jackson, Whose own struggles as someone with dyslexia will never be fully understood By those she left behind iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the members of my committee for all the time, energy, resources, and patience they devoted to me and this project. Bill Hart-Davidson Sarah Swierenga Dianna Baldwin As well as my friends and colleagues, whose advice and emotional support were something I could not have done without, including Erik Sembroski Dean Holden Katie Dobruse Racheal Hodder Donnie Sackey Minh-Tam Nguyen Elena Garcia Ben Goodwin And especially Casey Miles, who’s been a surrogate big sister to me. But most of all, I want to thank my wife and life-partner Karly Mitchell whose support and personal sacrifices during the course of this project I can’t even being to figure out how to repay. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... ix Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Rethinking Reading .................................................................................................................. 4 Alternative models. ............................................................................................................. 5 Reading and knowledge work. ............................................................................................ 9 Dyslexia and high level literacy. ....................................................................................... 13 Methods......................................................................................................................................... 15 Overview ................................................................................................................................. 15 Study design. ..................................................................................................................... 16 Usability testing. ......................................................................................................... 16 Writing studies. ........................................................................................................... 17 Location and equipment. ................................................................................................... 18 Dyslexic Participants Using Kurzweil 3000 (Group One) ..................................................... 19 Recruitment. ...................................................................................................................... 19 Pre-session procedures and questionnaires. ...................................................................... 21 Tasks. ................................................................................................................................ 23 Task One. .................................................................................................................... 23 Task Two. ................................................................................................................... 23 Task Three. ................................................................................................................. 24 The document.................................................................................................................... 24 Post session questionnaire and interview. ......................................................................... 25 Dyslexic and Non-Dyslexic Participants Using Paper (Groups Two and Three) ................... 26 Recruitment. ...................................................................................................................... 26 The document.................................................................................................................... 26 Audio and video recording................................................................................................ 27 TAM questionnaire. .......................................................................................................... 28 Analysis................................................................................................................................... 29 Measuring task times. ....................................................................................................... 29 Analyzing participant strategies. ....................................................................................... 31 Evaluating participant responses....................................................................................... 31 Breakdown analysis. ......................................................................................................... 31 Results ........................................................................................................................................... 33 Demographic Overview .......................................................................................................... 33 Group One (Kurzweil 3000) ................................................................................................... 33 Higher level literacy strategies result in faster task times................................................. 33 Higher level literacy strategies raised submission quality indicators. .............................. 35 Breakdown analysis. ......................................................................................................... 36 Additional Groups ................................................................................................................... 38 Task time data comparable with Group One. ................................................................... 38 vi Strategy analysis. .............................................................................................................. 40 Dyslexic and non-dyslexic participants just as likely to utilize higher level literacy strategies. .................................................................................................................... 40 Dyslexic participants utilize non-textual techniques to aid in higher level literacy strategies. .................................................................................................................... 41 Kurzweil 3000 had a negative impact on submission quality metrics. ............................. 42 The Role and Importance of Higher Level Literacy Strategies .............................................. 46 Strategy and technology. ................................................................................................... 46 Higher level literacy strategies and dyslexia. ................................................................... 47 Implications................................................................................................................................... 49 Research .................................................................................................................................. 49 Pedagogy ................................................................................................................................. 51 Policy ...................................................................................................................................... 54 Design ....................................................................................................................................
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