“Overcoming Educational Barriers: Strategies for Success,” is a workshop designed to bring together students with learning disabilities.

The workshop will convene at 4:30 p.m. on September 14th, in Graham Hall, Room 237. It will be moderated by NIU doctoral student, Sue Rudolph, who listed some of the more noble members of the history books to have learning disabilities.

“Leonardo Da Vinci, Gen. George S. Patton, Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill and Albert Einstein all had learning disabilities,” Rudolph said.

The workshop was developed to provide an opportunity for students to meet others with the same problem in order to dissolve feelings of isolation and anonymity.

At the meetings, students can share common problems and solutions of learning disabilites, as well as learn about campus resources and work on chosen projects and issues.

“Learning disabilities can have an impact on a person’s ability to acquire, retain or express information,” Rudolph said. “It can be described as being similiar to what happens when there is interference when trying to listen to the radio, or when the picture is fuzzy while watching TV.”

The workshops are a continuation of TAPE (Teaching Assistance and Post-secondary Education), which formed when the NIU’s Department of Special Education saw the need to provide service to special education students.

Rudolph said special education covers problems such as dislexia (difficulty reading), disgraphia (difficulty writing), audio or visual disabilities and various other impairments that make learning certain subjects difficult.

“These students are all of average or above average intelligence, but have some disability in learning a certain area,” she said.

Last year, the workshop attendants developed a brochure that was sent to all general education faculty explaining learning disabilities and how NIU faculty could be of assistance to these students.

“This year, the workshop hopes to help students deal with their problems through other students, and learn techniques for communicating with faculty,” said Rudolph.