What is it like to have dyscalculia?

I have dyscalculia. It's one of the learning and reading disorders cousins with dyslexia. They usually go by pair.

People tend to talk about dyslexia, but dyscalculia is rarely explained and therefore, much less known and understood. 

Dyscalculia symptoms involve (non-exhaustive list) difficulties with:

• Identifying numbers
• Counting
• Orientation in space
• Reasoning and solving mathematical problems

Identifying numbers 

Distinguishing them through their shape : 

Just like a dyslexic person may confuse letters that have similar shapes, a dyscalculic person may confuse the shape of numbers (2 and 5, 6 and 9, 3 and 8). 

Making the link between the numbers and their name

Making the link between the numbers themselves and their name, both when said out loud and written in letters: it will be hard for them, when they hear someone say or read the word(s) corresponding to the number(s), e.g.: "ninety-five", to transcribe it into the Arabic number 95.

Identifying quantities and measures

The notion of the quantity the numbers will represent will be very abstract and hard to identify for someone with dyscalculia. This means they will struggle with notions of measures: weights, distances, time... 

But also with grouping similar elements to identify the quantity of the elements in the group.

Counting numbers 

Sequencing numbers

People with dyscalculia may skip or mix up numbers when sequencing a string of numbers, whatever the order (in an ordered string of numbers: forward - 1, 2, 3,... - or backward - 9, 8, 7,... - or worse, in an unordered string of numbers like a phone number for example - 9, 3, 5,...)

Understanding notions of calculation

More, less, multiplied, divide, but also all other notions as the person progresses through school (percentages, square root,...). Because understanding basic notions of quantities and calculations is hard, they will struggle deeply with mental calculations. They will need to rely on more concrete ways of calculating (whenever possible), like counting on their fingers or by using objects, drawings,... 

Writing calculations

Transposing the calculations on paper car be hard: following the rules of calculation (where do you start, where you should add a carried number, division transpotion rules...), transposing a horizontal to vertical calculation... 

Orientation in space

Spacial orientation can be difficult for dyscalculic people too. Because of this, reading a table or a graph can be a struggle. Remember that it combines with difficulties to read numbers, understand them, to identify quantities and measures, to count, etc. The more complex the table or graph, the more difficult it will be. 

It also means that people who are dyscalculic are often very bad at reading the time on an analogic clock - digital clocks are easier but still requires a few more seconds to read it - and very bad copilots as they will be extremely bad at giving directions! 

Reasoning and solving mathematical problem 

People with dyscalculia have difficulties understanding the reasoning behind mathematical problem solving.

Indeed, all of the difficulties stated above, in addition to memory, and focus problems (that often come with most Dys disorders), lead to strong difficulties in reasoning. Because of all this, in a simple mathematical problem, instructions clues will be misunderstood or misinterpreted, leading to a wrong choice of calculation method. 

Often, on top of it, a calculation error will also happen, making the resolution of the problem wrong on different levels.

Dyslexia in application

Let me give you an example through a simple mathematical problem:

"In a class of 50 pupils, 32 are did their homework, of which 20 gave them ahead of time to the teacher and 16 had help from their parents.

Provide the percentage of pupils that did their homework ahead of time and of pupils who where helped by their parents."

A dyscalculic person like me could make the following mistakes:

- Calculate the percentages based on the total number of pupils in the class instead of basing it on the number of pupils who did their homework.

- Read 26 pupils had help from their parents instead of 16 pupils.

- Calculate 20-16 and then calculate the percentage - based of the number of pupils who did their homework, or,  here again, the total number of pupils, thus doubling the mistakes in their calculations. 

- calculating that 16/32 = 0.2 instead of 0.5... (because in their mind, they will know 16 is half of 32, so it's like dividing it by 2 but they won't identify the decimal ratio as 0.5 but 0.2 instead, their mind mixing everything up)

Being a dyscalculic kid vs. being a dyscalculic adult

The learning curve

Now, if a kid is helped through out school by therapists, parents, etc., it will be able to aquire enough tricks to bypass most of its difficulties with calculations, maths problems, etc. 

It was my case. My dyscalculia was detected very early - aged 6 yo - right when you start to properly count and to make basic calculations. I was supported by a therapist on a weekly basis for over 7 years, and my mother was a maths teacher, who tried all the techniques she knew to manage and get me to understand mathematics, learn the logic and surpass my difficulties. 

Don't get me wrong, I still clearly am dyscalculic. But I managed to learn enough, develop enough tricks and pathways in my mind to be able to go through a Scientific baccalauréat. This cost me all my free time during my childhood and adolescence, endlessly doing exercises after exercises to "master" mathematics to be able to reach a level similar to my classmates and to have my baccalauréat. Though "master" is a big word because I'm no "master" at mathematics, I'm mearly someone who "manages" with a lot of time and work.

The plateau

As a working adult, all this hurdle led me to be at a similar level as my peers whenever maths are involved. Indeed, in the different jobs I've had over the years, I've had to analyse data, learn how to use a pivot table in Excel for this, learn how to create some calculation formula,...etc. 

All of this is still a struggle for me. Each time, it implies that I need to:

• First manage to read, identify, quantify and group the numbers I see, whether it's in a table or a graph, either way, both are difficult. 
• Then, I need to wrap my head around what information I am looking for and then wrap my head around how to tweak the table to be able to get what I need out of it : What set of data vs. what other set of data? With which calculation? Ratios? Percentages? Averages?... 
• From there, I also need to remember how to do those calculations. They may seem basic to you. To me, it requires a lot of thinking, remembering, even some times trials and errors before I get the calculations right. 
• And then, when I managed to do all of this, which was already painful and tiring, I have to interpret the new data in front of me, match it with the knowledge I have of things in my line of work to draw conclusions. 

Most of the time, I manage to do things right in the end, pulling the wool over everyone's eyes around me so they don't see all of that struggle. Hell! I even manage to fool myself sometimes into believing I overcame it all and that I'm may be at the same level as everyone else in the end...

But sometimes, I make mistakes. Mistakes in the reasoning, leading me to make the wrong calculations, or mistakes in the calculation itself...both leading inevitably towards wrong results. 

This really brings my confidence down. It's when I realise that I'm still dyscalculic, that I'm not at the same level as my peers...

Having the support of my family, my friends, even my manager, has always helped me get back on the horse and carry on trying, taking on new chalenges whenever I have to analyse data. Because the next one may be easier, or may be I'll just manage better and get things right.

Indeed, even though it's tough to be dyscalculic, if you focus on your successes when facing numbers and carry on fighting against your difficulties, it is most rewarding when you manage to run calculations, analyse data and graphs, and find interesting insights out of it. 

It feels like you WON against your struggles and conquered new territories and THAT is priceless! 

Damned acronyms and abbreviations

"I hate acronyms/abbreviations!" Ever heard people around you say it? 

In all companies, during meetings, conversations, presentations, but also on the web in webinar presentations, on websites, in social network posts etc., acronyms and abbreviations are constantly used.

The problem with acronyms and abbreviations

Personally, I struggle with acronyms and abbreviations. It's hell for me. As a dyslexic and dysorthographic, I already have trouble remembering the orthograph of words and their signification when they are abstract. 

So with acronyms and abbreviations, it's worse.

Why is it worse? Because it requires to remember a lot of things: 

Their "orthograph"

Not mistaken the letters with one another and remember the right order of the letters, because it can mean a totally different thing.

For example ACV and AVC won't mean the same thing : ACV apparently means Annual Contract Value, while AVC apparently means Additional Voluntary Contributions.

Their transcription

Remember what each letter stands for - ok this one, forget it, unless I use it every single day... and even when using it every day, some just won't stick in my brain.

For example in my line of work as accessibility experts, we use acronyms for the name of the guidelines we refer to: RGAA* or WCAG**. Those two I remember. However, ARIA, HTML and CSS, which I use everyday as but transcribe to people less often, I just can't remember their transcription. I vaguely remember some of the words.

What doesn't help is that depending on the context, the letters may not always stand for the same word, and worse than that, it's also the case in a same context! 

For example, in finance, A can stand for Annual as well as for Average. Or in the digital industry, the P in the acronym PM can stand for Project, Program, Product and the M for Manager or Management (though they are from the same nature, it can change the sense of a sentence!). 

Their definition

Knowing the transcription of an acronym or an abbreviation does not mean you know what it means. For example, I learned while discussing with my friend today, that ARR stands for Annual Recurring Revenue, meaning the annual turnover of a company. 

Note: I'm giving examples of acronyms here but it's the same for abbreviations!

Efforts

Please avoid telling people struggling with acronyms and abbreviations that they are not making any efforts at remembering them. 

Trust me, it is not a matter of effort. It's a matter of memory. Not everyone's memory works the same. Some people remember by seeing the words, others by hearing them, others only if there's a rhythm, others only if the word has a tangible signification or can be associated to an image/small film in their mind...

Some other people can have memory issues, some others can be dyslexic/dysorthographic,... 

As you can see, there are many reasons why it can be hard for someone to remember acronyms and abbreviations!

How does it affect other disabilities?

It's hard for people with other disabilities too, for different reasons than stated above. 

For people who navigate with a screen reader or with keyboard or other assistive technologies, it can be a struggle to find the transcription too. 

Navigating in a page already asks a lot from them from a cognitive stand point so asking them to remember the transcription or definition of an acronym or abbreviation will add to their mental charge. 

And if the transcription/definition is towards the top/middle of the page but the abbreviation is repeated more towards the end of the page, it can be a struggle for them to find it again. 

What to do?

Really, it's not that hard!

It can be just be a matter of: 

• In a document (Word, Google Docs...) or a webpage: 
• add the transcription of the acronym/abbreviation the first time you are using it in the page (or the second time if it's in a title). 
• add the transcription as a footnote, with an anchor link on the reference number to move to the footnote. (Note: it may also be useful in some cases to have an anchor link back to where the acronym/abbreviation was in the text.) 
• In a long document of several pages, you may also add a glossary with the transcription and definition of the acronym/abbreviation with a link towards the glossary available on all occurrences of the acronym/abbreviation in the different pages.
• In a slide (Powerpoint, Google Slides...): add the transcription as a footnote (and don't forget to say it out loud when presenting your slide so people with visual disabilities may have the information). 

Like the Meerkat would say: Simples! 😉

What if Santa changed his corporate identity?

Foreword

This article was published initially in French on the website 24 jours de Web (24 days of Web), on December 12th 2024.

A bit of Context

Santa likes traditions just as much as modernity.

During the industrialisation era, he quickly realised the harmful effects it had on the ice floe that surrounds him every day! Since then, he always did his best to be careful of the environment with the production of the Christmas factory. 

But Santa is not just mindful of ecology! 
He’s also always been mindful of others: humans, elves, animals… 
Notably, he's always been careful that no kids, whatever their differences, would be put aside in the delivery of the presents.  

He also always adapted the workplace for his elves so they could make the most beautiful presents in the world, even when they have a disability! Yes, even elves may sometimes have disabilities! Don't you know Zach, the spy elf, who has ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder)? Or Malina, the elf who builds the fastest race cars and who is deaf? Or, yet again, Teddy, who takes care of the reindeers and who has a vision impairment?...

Illustration par Lawrence Poulet.

Enlarge image of the elves

Santa understood well enough that, nowadays, if you want to have a brand that kids as well as adults appreciate, you have to be mindful of sustainability but also inclusion. Which is perfect since it corresponds to the values of the Christmas Factory! 

Therefore, he decided to change the Christmas factory's corporate identity, so he could align it with today's trends as well as values. He wants to show the world that, in the North Pole, those are things we care for (and that it's not just greenwashing nor handiwashing !).
For this, he hired Candy Canes, an elf highly known in the whole world for creating modern and accessible corporate identities. 

Gap analysis 

The current corporate identity

Candy Canes first analysed what were the gaps in the current corporate identity of the Christmas Factory as well as the new requirements:

Colours

Santa no longer wants to be associated with a certain soda brand, which, in addition, gives him strong heartburns and makes him see red every time! 
And anyways, he wants to change his colours a bit ! 

Also, Candy Canes noticed that some of these colour combos do not respect the contrast ratios mentioned in the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) : 

• Red and Gold : Depending on the colour codes used, they are sometimes not contrasted enough,
• White and Gold : … let’s not even mention it, it’s a disaster!!!

Logo

Simple: there’s none ! Toy shops and suppliers use whatever they get their hands on! Here is Santa's face, there, a candy cane, here again, a Christmas tree…

Typeface

At the beginnings of the personal computer era, following his printer’s advice, Santa chose the Times New Roman font. 

But this font was never his favorite. 

He much prefers using cursive and italic fonts that mimic his own handwriting and bring out the Christmas spirit… unfortunately, those fonts are often hard to read for some kids, for example for those who just started to learn how to read, or for people with dyslexia or with vision impairments. 

Illustrations and photography

Mrs. Noëlle Klaus, Santa’s wife, who is at the head of the mail reception department, receives more and more complaints about the lack of inclusion of the Christmas illustrations and pictures: in some images, you will see Santa in different settings, in others, kids playing with toys, or in others again, elves at work… but never showing people with a disability.

Tone of voice and communication style

Santa was always very expressive and eloquent, often starting long monologues whenever he wrote to kids or shops and suppliers, or whenever he addressed a speech to the employees of the Christmas Factory.  

Here again, Mrs. Klaus received an alarming report from Zac, the spy elf, on the number of kids who do not understand the letters Santa addressed to them.  
In addition, suppliers, elves, Mrs. Klaus, and even the animals of the ice floe dream that his speeches would be a bit more straight to the point.

Like Julie the elf, who is in charge of tasks management:

“Time means presents! With the amount of work we have to do in less than 364 days a year, we don’t have the time for those ornamentations!”

Communication tools

Then, Candy Canes tried to understand what were the internal and external communications used by Santa and the Christmas Factory. Here are a few examples:

Letters 

Each year, Santa sends to a certain number of children, mostly the nicest of them, a letter in response to theirs. 

The Christmas Factory’s website

For a few years already, thanks to his website, Santa allowed children to know more about his history and about the making of their favorite toys, to follow his travels around the world on Christmas night, and even to send him messages!

The catalog of toys

It is essentially destined for suppliers and shops, available in print and PDF versions. For a few years already, this catalog is also available on the web.

Digital presentations

During the whole year, Santa travels the world to meet suppliers and shops and presents them with the latest products and inventions that will be available for the next Christmas. In addition, he uses more and more of those types of presentations to communicate internally with the elves of the Christmas Factory.

Social Networks

This year, Santa decided to open up to social networks in order to better communicate with the rest of the world. He even hired Cynthia, an elf for whom Instagram no longer has secrets, to animate his social networks!

Instant Messaging

Pneumatic messages are old news! Now, from the workshop to the sleigh hangar, through the reindeers barn and the mail management office, the whole Christmas Factory communicates through online instant messaging!

The new corporate identity of the Christmas Factory

The elements of the new corporate identity 

Once with all this information at hand, Candy Canes rolled up her sleeves, got to work and here is what she proposed to Santa.

Colours

Illustration par Lawrence Poulet.

Enlarge image of Santa in front of a miror

Candy Canes proposed to Santa to go back to his roots with green as the new main colour. Not just any green. Pine tree green and all its range of pine tree green shades: from the dark green of the old pine trees to the light green of the young sprouts.

So Santa does not need to change his whole wardrobe, he will be able to associate it with his eternal deep red as a secondary colour. Various shades of this red are also proposed, verging on a dark brown, mimicking the colour of tree logs and chocolate. 

However, it is important to keep in mind that dark red shades should not be matched, on paper and digital support, with dark green shades as those are not contrasted enough. They may, however, be separated by a golden colour border, which remains present as a tertiary colour, allowing to bring a light and shiny touch to the palette. 

Enlarge image of the new main colour palette

Black and White will be the colours used mostly for texts. 

Candy Canes explained to Santa:

“What is key, is to always know how to associate the colours so that you keep the best possible contrast.”

With this explanation, she provided a colour contrast matrix which indicates, for each colour combo, the validity of the contrast. 
She specified: 

“Share it with all of your elves so that, whatever documents they produce, they can make sure to apply good colour combos.”

Enlarge image of the Contrast Colour Matrix

Logo

For the logo, Candy Canes chose… Santa’s hat, of course, which colour will now be green, with three little red berries on the white fur. 

She keeps a bit of tradition and associates it with a modern and refined design.

The logo can be provided in the different shades of green depending on the background colour where it is displayed. 

Typeface

The choice of Typeface was quite a challenge for Candy Canes. 
Indeed, usually, finding a font that is legible is already a difficult thing. So, when keeping the Christmas spirit is a key criteria, it strongly raises the level of difficulty! 

Candy Canes finally decided on two fonts: 

• For body of text and long contents: Candy Canes breaks away from tradition to ensure an almost perfect legibility for kids: it'll be the Atkinson Hyperlegible font, created by the Braille Institute. Atkinson Hyperlegible is a font studied specifically to improve legibility of people with vision impairments or dys- disorders (dyslexia, dysorthographia, dysgraphia, adhd,…).
  Moreover, the rounded shape of this typeface allows to keep the softness of childhood, while remaining modern, professional and legible. 
• For titles, catch phrases and short quotes from Santa, Candy Canes decided to use the Mystery Quest font created by Sideshow, to keep the Christmas spirit while maintaining a minimum of legibility. 

Illustrations and Photography

Candy Canes commissioned Loann, the renowned elf who inspired the greatest photographers, to take pictures of his pairs busy working, but also pictures of kids around the world admiring the shining and animated shop windows, writing their letters to Santa, opening their presents, …, all of them with or without disabilities.

Elea, the Elf illustrator and a great friend of Candy Canes, proposed a few inspirations of potential christmas illustrations, showing adults, children and elves, that followed the same diversity and inclusion criteria. 

Tone of voice and communication style

For every type of communication, it is important that the messages and information provided go straight to the point and are structured and organised. 

For everyone to be able to understand the communications coming from the Christmas Factory, Candy Canes explained it is essential to keep the vocabulary and expressions at a level at which even an 8 years old child can understand. 

To ensure that Santa adapts his speeches and letters to children worldwide, Candy Canes booked for him an Easy-to-Read training with the elf Carina. 
She will teach him to combine a warm, friendly and benevolent tone with a simple  inclusive and accessible grammar. 

For letters, catalogues, communications on instant messaging  and social networks, the tone can be jolly and fun. 

However, for communications with suppliers and shops, it will need to be a more professional tone. This tone can still maintain the well known unchanging positivity of Santa. 

Implementation of the new identity

Candy Canes created new templates for the different documents and presentations that all the employees of the Christmas Factory will be able to use. These templates contain various examples of how colours should be used to always ensure good contrasts: 

For text documents templates  like Santa’s letters, contracts etc., the new logo of the Christmas Factory with a text alternative, but also ordered heading styles are predefined for the different headings levels… ;

For presentation documents, a theme was created, including slides formatting, text zones and shaped components using predefined contrasted colours ;

For PDF files, examples of catalog and other documents were provided for Lawrence and Maeva, the elves of the Christmas Factory’s design studio, to use for inspiration. 

Candy Canes also worked on a set of guidelines, for each element of the corporate identity, which will be distributed to the whole of the Factory, with, depending on the job occupation, specific accessibility and inclusion recommendations. 

Finally, following Mrs. Klaus request, several training sessions were organised, where Candy Canes will present to each team how to use the elements of the corporate identity appropriately, including accessibility and inclusivity, depending on their job occupation.

Conclusion

Candy Canes concluded her presentation of the new corporate identity by indicating that an organisation’s corporate identity lives and evolves with it: 

“The new corporate identity of the Christmas Factory will always be destined to be used in a variety of ways depending on the medium. It will also be evolving following the trends throughout the years.  
In addition, you may potentially use new communication medium that were not studied during this process, or that do not exist yet.
In any case, it will be key that you always keep in mind accessibility and inclusion when you make it evolve.”

Now that the new corporate identity of the Christmas Factory is finalised, Santa wishes to get its website redone. 

Here again, he decided to be supported by a company specialised in accessibility and ecoconception. Some well known companies have already answered the RFP: Lovely Access, Tetramagical, Noëlmensa, Deck the Alls, The Poinsettia Group inc., AbilityNight ...

Back on track

After years of leaving this blog hanging unkempt (yeah I started and stopped writting in 2012!!!), I announce this blog officially opened (again)!!! I'll try to share again my wonky thoughts but also longer articles about accessibility, dyslexia & ADHD, disabilies, motherhood, and whatever subject I like to talk about. Hopefully This will last longer than last time!

Fairies in the neon tubes

Have you ever noticed the little klinging noise of a neon tube or light bulb when you turn it on? Have you ever wondered if it wasn't the noise of the lightning fairies waking up and banging their head on the tube/bulb? Oh and when it's buzzing, it's because the fairy is annoyed or tries to get out of there! ;)

High heels

I always dreamed of kicking the heel of one of those fashion victims who wear VERY high heels and don't know how to walk with it... Well I did it today by mistake! Well it wasn't as funny as I always pictured it! Ooooops!!!

Jingle bells

A girl walks in front of me in rangers/army boots, but with the buckles around the ankles untied... Felt like I was walking besides Santa, if it wasn't for the gal to be skinny, "fashionable" and for this time
of the year to be Easter, not Xmas!
Well at least bells are also part of the traditions of Easter!