My son is Autistic but none of the material I have seenin this area ahs been particulary well or poorly designed. I am glad to see there are some people who have considered well their audience. Can you post a scan or a link, James?

ChrisL

Would love to get a copy of that mag James. Can you post the details (name, where it can be bought etc.). Might be relevant to my research on dyslexia.

http://www.additudemag.com/

I haven’t spotted it in a bookstore here (I saw it in a waiting room and couldn’t take it), but our magazine offerings are weird in DC. Chris, you might have more luck out there in Reston where there are a lot of people with kids.

We should get the designers to speak at Typecon next year. Of course, this all assumes that they actually design the magazine with ADD in mind, and that they don’t just handle hierarchies especially well.

James,
Actually, I live in Falls Church but I will check the local stores. Most likely, it is subscription only for a vertical market like this one.

ChrisL

ADDitude Magazine

When I lived in the DCMetro area, there were several pubs specificially for the visually/hearing impaired: you might also want to check out the mag shelves at Gallaudet, which should have a range for you to investigate....

In doing my Masters, it was pretty obvious that when one sense was atrophied, others took over: folks who were hearing-impaired needed more obvious visual clues, and the visual-impaired needed both aural and touch-sensitive materials.

Disabled is a bad word. ADD isn’t really a disability. Just a difference. And I have to find me a copy of that magazine. Oh, look over there!

Actually, I live in Falls Church...

Sorry, mixed you up with William. I get all my old haunts in Virginia confused.

...folks who were hearing-impaired needed more obvious visual clues...

I never thought about it that way. Thanks for the tip!

Yes, William does live in Reston.
I get myself confused too :-)

ChrisL

AD(H)D is, by any fair definition, a disability. Whether that fact bothers you or not is a separate question.

There aren’t many magazines about disability at all; they tend not to want to bite the hands that feed them. There’s a small Canadian magazine. The successor to the Disability Rag might still be in business.

—
Joe Clark
http://joeclark.org/

I’ve got a profound hearing loss and therefore have a disability. I’ve got no issues with the word “disability”. However if people asked me the question, “are you disabled”, I’d simply answer “no” purely for political or social reasons. There are people who equate disability with “crippled” or someone with an inability to achieve anything substantial at all. This is a complete nonsense. A disability is simply an obstacle in life, if you can’t hear, see, taste, feel or walk, you gotta work around the problem like anything else, that’s all. It’s disappointing sometimes how people perceive disabilities but it’s improving all the time with increased understanding and also support for braille, captioning etc.

I’m all for magazines about disabilities.

I’m not against the term disability, but the problem I have with it is that it focuses on people with ’lesser’ ability rather than focusing on the fact that people, in general, are all different. I prefer terms like ’universal design’ as it is more inclusive of all people rather then exclusive.

But, that’s just me. No biggie either way.

James,

You may want to contact the Lighthouse in Manhattan. They have all sorts of tools to help the disable learn. My stepson is legally blind and during his time at school, the Lighthouse was fantastic. Getting him schoolbooks in large type, on records (yep in those days it was still record albums) helping where they could. It’s a wonderful organization - and extremely helpful. They were located on 58th or 59th Street - and are probably still there plugging away. It’s been years since I’ve been in touch with them.