Raising Awareness About Dyslexia

Dyslexia affects one in five people and 80-90 percent of those with learning disabilities. Yet public schools currently do little if anything to screen, diagnose and support dyslexic students.

The Hatcher Group has teamed up with the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity (YCDC) to raise awareness about the disability. In December, we launched the #IAmDyslexia campaign, a social media initiative to draw attention to the hundreds of adults who have overcome dyslexia and achieved remarkable success in their fields.

The first phase of the initiative included promotion of the expanded and updated third edition of YCDC’s book Dyslexia: Profiles of Success. The book features profiles of 61 scientists, artists, political leaders, writers, lawyers, professional athletes, doctors, journalists and actors whose prodigious work ethic and resilient spirit helped them overcome dyslexia. They are people like world-renowned attorney David Boies, who argued for marriage equality before the Supreme Court; Olympic Gold Medalist Meryl Davis; comedian Jay Leno; authors John Irving and Jerry Pinkney; and political leaders such as Senator Michael Bennet and former Senator Carol Moseley Braun.

Using striking photos of several of these “successful dyslexics,” we created a meme campaign that we pushed out intensively on Twitter and Facebook.  The campaign, which ran during the week leading up to the Christmas, also included strategically placed Facebook ads. It generated over 300,000 Twitter impressions and 300 shares on Facebook, dramatically increasing book sales and raising the profile of YCDC’s work.

Interested in learning more about dyslexia and how leaders across the country have excelled through it? Pick up your copy of Dyslexia: Profiles of Success today. You can place your order here.