News & events

The AchieveAbility e journal is hosted by the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama

The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama has a global reputation, with the the exceptional quality of its teaching and staff, and the positive impact the School makes on the wider arts sector.  This includes the enormous contributions of Central’s alumni community to the performing arts industries, as well as within cultural, educational, social and community settings around the world.    

Online Visual Reading course started in September 2021 through the DSA, replacing and upgrading the online

SuperReading Eyehopping course

Engagement* is currently running at 96%

Completion within 3 months is currently 83%

On completion, students are reading, on average, more than 3 times faster than before the course and with better comprehension/recall.

Before the course, 58% of students were reading slower than the postgraduate mean. After the course, every student so far is reading much faster than 99.9% of postgraduates, with a current mean reading speed of 634 words per minute.

The average time taken to achieve a speed faster than 99.9% of postgraduates is currently less than 5 weeks (ranging from 1 to 10 weeks).

You can read what students say about the course here: https://outsidersoftware.co.uk/superreading-4/about/

AchieveAbility would like to thank Lexxic for choosing us for their Christmas donations alongside The Brain Charity and the Dyslexia Association of Ireland.
Through this kind gesture AchieveAbility has received £500

THANK YOU Lexxic

All of us at AchieveAbility have been shocked and saddened to hear of Ron Cole’s death in the Covid-19 pandemic. We wish to extend our heartfelt condolences to his family.

I first met Ron shortly after his arrival in the UK from the USA, when he phoned me up out of the blue more than a decade ago, asking if I would evaluate his SuperReading course, because he had found that it appeared to be particularly successful with dyslexic readers. This started several years of constructive collaboration leading to over 1000 dyslexic university students in both the UK and Italy to more than double their reading effectiveness.

Ron’s achievement in developing SuperReading is quite remarkable. He took a big picture view of reading; identifying what it is that highly skilled readers do, and finding ways of enabling all readers to adopt their strategies. His astonishing energy and ability to focus on what matters underpinned his achievements. At the heart of SuperReading, is Ron’s ‘magic sauce’- Eye-Hopping. This practical approach to learning the skill of understanding multiple groups of words without the need to take the time to ‘say’ them, also had the hidden benefit of handling visual processing difficulties while completely side-stepping phonics. The results speak for themselves.

In typical fashion, Ron went back to basic principles when thinking about how to measure reading skills and used his concept of ‘reading effectiveness’, defined as speed x comprehension. All too often, reading tests focus either on sounding out (without checking comprehension), or reading speed (without checking comprehension), or comprehension (without checking speed). If you measure the wrong things, you get ‘wrong results’. Ron’s genius was to combine the measures of speed and comprehension into a single measure of reading effectiveness, which allows us to more accurately measure real reading progress. Students on SuperReading courses are instructed to prioritise comprehension while improving their speed. Both usually go up, but reading effectiveness always goes up. Ron famously insisted on a money back guarantee if students did not double their reading effectiveness score. Only 3 students (all of whom had significant visual impairment) were ever able to claim a refund since Ron started SuperReading in the USA in 1996.

Like most neurodivergent innovations, Ron’s SuperReading cuts across the ‘scientific consensus’ around the teaching of reading. The fact that it works so dramatically is unquestionable. In my view, the proudest legacy of Ron’s SuperReading is that it demonstrates beyond doubt that dyslexia is not a reading problem. If a group of dyslexic readers can learn to read more effectively than their teachers in as little as 4 days, how can it be? It is a teaching problem, where we are expected to learn through bottom up rule based processes, instead of a neurodivergent friendly, holistic, top-down, meaningful approach.

Ron was starting to win prizes for the development of SuperReading and I am sure there will be more to come. He deserves a significant place in the history of reading, dyslexia and neurodiversity.

Dr Ross Cooper

Press Release for 6 April 2020
The Launch of AchieveAbility E-Journal Issue 1 Spring 2020 ISSN number 2634-0798
Neurodiverse Voices: Good Practice in the Workplace

On Monday 6 April the AchieveAbility charity are delighted to launch the first peer reviewed
AchieveAbility E-Journal based on our research seminar: ‘Neurodiverse Voices: Opening
Doors to Employment’ held at the University of Westminster in May 2019. This launch will
happen by electronic dissemination through: Social Media, Web links and Email distribution.
Follow us on: https://twitter.com/achieveability1

This AchieveAbility E-Journal uniquely celebrates the notion of neurodiversity, those of us
who are *neurodivergent and the collective community who are *neurodiverse. While
maintaining the research and editorial standards expected by more formal research-based
journals, this AchieveAbility E-Journal takes an inclusive editorial policy to encourage the
particular experience, original thinking and preferred communication styles, formats and
media of contributors.

The main aim of the Journal is to: To provide a forum for exchange and debate that informs
policy, strategy and practice on Neurodiversity within our society.
The e-journal is available via the AchieveAbility website https://www.achieveability.org.uk/
and contributors include: ACAS, Prospect UK, Katherine Kindersley, Dyslexia Scotland,
Charles Freeman, Disability Collaborative Network, Dr James Richard, AchieveAbility with
St Mungo’s, Diversity and Ability (DnA), DFN Charitable Foundation, Klaudia Matasovska
and Inclusion North. The key topics are: Policy and Good Practice, Strategy in the Creative
Industries, Inclusivity and Employment and Supported Access to Employment.
Throughout April we will be actively engaging with the neurodiverse community on social
media to provide a platform of discussion. In October 2020 we will aim to set up an event to
debate the ‘Neurodiversity within our society’ Journal philosophy – going forward.

Editors: Dr Ross Cooper, Professor Debra Kelly, Dr Katherine Hewlett
Reviewers: Dr Melanie Thorley, Liz Gentilcore, Dr Katherine Hewlett
Readers: Kevin Maskell, Richard Pitts
Social Media: Becki Morris
Advocate: Craig Kennady
Email: Westcommission@Achieveability.org.uk
Mobile: 07922190357
Website: https://www.achieveability.org.uk

Westminster AchieveAbility Commission (WAC) Research Seminar
University of Westminster, The Cayley Room, 309 Regent Street, Thursday 23 May 2019

The research seminar was oversubscribed drawing attendance from the Workplace – HR – the Institute for Employment-Universities – ACAS – Unions- Charities

Seminar Title: ‘Neurodivergent Voices: good practice in the workplace’
Purpose: A research seminar profiling good practice in the workplace for the neurodivergent
Aim: To disseminate the profiled case study papers/ presentations within an E-Journal
Outcome: To inform and influence best practice in the workplace

Background and context:
In 2018, AchieveAbility produced the Westminster AchieveAbility Commission (WAC) report Neuro-diverse voices opening doors to employment investigating the barriers to employment faced by neurodivergent people. Following the report findings and to facilitate discussion on how the workplace could be made more accessible, AchieveAbility brought together stakeholders in the Workplace and Neurodivergent community. The University of Westminster kindly agreed to host this research seminar, which investigated examples of good practice in the workplace for the Neurodivergent.

AchieveAbility bringing Christmas spirit to Mirfield with Handel’s Messiah concert
AchieveAbility is set to bring festive cheer to Mirfield with a charity performance of Handel’s Messiah by a talented local choir.
Taking place at Trinity Methodist Church, Mirfield, on 8 December from 7.30pm, the concert will raise vital funds for AchieveAbility.
AchieveAbility is a charity that promotes opportunities in education, employment and training for people with autism and dyslexia. Barry Sheerman, MP for Huddersfield, is president of AchieveAbility, having played a key role in education policy and debates.
Barry Sheerman MP for Huddersfield and president of AchieveAbility, said: “Hallelujah! It’s the Mirfield Messiah concert, a chance to hear the ultimate Christmas music performed by a brilliant local choir, and every ticket sold will go to the remarkable charity AchieveAbility.”
The concert will feature vocals from talented local choir, with soloists: soprano, Rhianydd Beaumont; mezzo soprano, Sally Perkins; counter tenor, Ruairidh Pattie; tenor, David Heathcote; and baritone, Jamal Deacon. Gordon Balmforth BEM will be conductor, and Ian Abbott will be organist.
Tickets are available at: https://mirfieldmessiah.eventbrite.co.uk
For the latest updates on the concert, follow @AchieveAbility1 on twitter, or like the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/615233058879322/ #HandelsMessiahMirfield

Can you help? Neurodiverse participants needed for MA Arts based research (London)
Jess Starns is founder of ‘Dyspraxic Me’ a charity for young adults with dyspraxia. She is currently completing Inclusive Arts Practice MA at the University of Brighton.
From 15th October- 26th November 2018 Jess shall be delivering her research project.
Her Masters is arts based and shall be using art as a way together data and discussions responding to her research question.

The research question is:
How should we interpret and curate the history of labelling people with specific learning difficulties (neurodiversity)?

Jess is currently looking for a maximum of 10 participants to work with her as a group and being involved in the arts-based research. The research is for participants who define themselves as having a specific learning difficulty (neurodiversity) for example dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, ADHD, ASD and autism.
The research will take place over 7 sessions. From 15th October till 25th November for 7 weeks.

The research will take place at the:
Free Space Project, Kentish Town Health Centre, 2 Bartholomew Road, London NW5 2BX.
Apart from the 2nd session on Tuesday 23rd October will take place at:
The Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, Kings Cross, London NW1 2BE.
Each session will last for 3 hours from 11am till 1.30pm.
What is the purpose of the study/project?

The purpose and aims of the study are:
The research will start conversations through learning about neurodiversity history by exploring archives, newspaper articles and museum objects, reflecting on their own personal experiences, in comparison to, and informed by, archive items at the Wellcome Collection. Learning what is important to the neurodiverse community when telling the history of labelling people with learning difficulties including charitable, medical, educational and personal narratives.
Discuss how to tell an unbiased narrative through historical accounts and personal experiences.
The terminology to use when talking about neurodiversity, the history of classifying people with learning difficulties, challenge prejudice views, to think about why there is a focus on ‘curing’, exploring current attitudes and how we portray neurodiversity in the media.
Through the research Jess would hope to find out for museums and collections what’s important to the neurodiverse community when telling the history of labelling people with learning difficulties? Through the charitable, medical, educational and personal narratives.
Please let Jess know if you have any questions or would like to find out more about the research.
If you are interested and would like to know more information please contact Jess via her university email address: Jas35@brighton.ac.uk