Filed under: iPod Family
Dyslexic cops get iPod accommodation
Dyslexic police officers in Liverpool, England will soon be given iPods as training aids. Student police in training classes will use the iPods to view images of road signs and listen to 900+ hours of material from the police force's official training manual. 900+ hours!!??
According to my calculations, this should take the dyslexic police cadets 22 weeks or more to listen to. This assumes they do nothing else during their 8-hour shifts although I suppose you could continue listening to lectures during potty breaks.
A police spokesman described the training-with-iPod scheme as "really worthwhile as it accommodates the needs of those officers with hidden disabilities such as dyslexia who would find it difficult to digest such a vast amount of information in written format."
I may be way off base here, but I can't imagine listening to, let alone digesting, 900+ hours worth of training material, dyslexia or no.
Special spell check thanks to Jon Grimshaw
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tom said 4:05PM on 12-04-2006
They probably just have the 900+ hours of material available to them, and only need to listen to the parts they need to work on.
Like if I get a 1000 page manual on programming in Java or something I sure as hell don't read it cover to cover, I pick the parts I need.
If a dyslexic cop has trouble reading certain road signs he can focus on that, etc.
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Macskeeball said 5:52PM on 12-04-2006
˙ʎ-l-ʍ-o-l-s ʎɹǝʌ uǝʞods ʇsnſ̣ sı̣ uoı̣ʇɔnɹʇsuı̣ ǝɥʇ sdɐɥɹǝd
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Sherman Homan said 4:18PM on 12-04-2006
What is a lysdexic cop?
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Jonathan Baldwin said 5:51PM on 12-04-2006
Dyslexia isn't an inability to read, it's a difference in reading ability. 900+ hours of materials are there presumably to aid quick revision of key aspects, or to help with understanding of a manual which, if you saw it, you'd realise was not exactly the most user-friendly of items, dyslexic or not.
And as the first comment said, it's not as if you start listening at the beginning and go all the way through, the same as someone reading the book would start at the beginning etc. A training course for the police is far more structured than that. (Anyway, it will take many more than 900 hours to read it rather than listen to it. I pity the poor sod who had to record it. Maybe it was Martin Jarvis? [Brits will get the joke, I'm sure...])
I think this sounds like a good idea and is similar to things some of us are doing in higher education. It's also not dissimilar to how aI got my own degree and MA via the Open University.
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Jon Grimshaw said 5:01PM on 12-04-2006
Was your spelling of 'accommodation' deliberate in the headline?
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Stuart said 5:19AM on 12-05-2006
I thought Dyslexia was meant to be a myth:
http://www.channel4.com/news/microsites/D/dyslexia_myth/dyslexia.html
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Jon Grimshaw said 5:22PM on 12-04-2006
Nice to see how quickly you respond to constructive criticism... And without acknowledging your correction, you make me look a goof into the bargain!
lol
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Matthew Dearden said 3:15AM on 12-05-2006
haha im from Liverpool, they dont need to worry about road signs they need to worry about people getting stabbed. Infact i bet people will jump the cops for there iPods
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quandmeme said 9:01PM on 12-04-2006
Wait isn't the real story getting someone to read 900+ hours of instruction manuals. Or can we just assume that it is read by computer? Try staying awake through that!
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Annika Hallsvik said 7:02AM on 12-09-2006
It seems like a very good thought and to acknowledge the Dyslexia problem. However it would be better to give the ones having dyslexia/redaing problems help to
be able to read.
With Lexion,a computer based multitool program the dyslexic person can get exercises tailored to his/hers very problem to practice at home or at work. In less than 900 hours they will have made noticeable progress in reading.
check: www.lexion.co.uk
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