Internet company Yahoo! has selected a website designed by a 13-year-old with dyslexia as one of its top sites of the year.
Barnaby Blackburn, from Godalming, Surrey, hit upon the idea of a website on dyslexia after he searched the net on the subject and, he says, failed to turn up "anything interesting". Happily, he was able to put that right.
"I learned to make a website at an after-school club when I was 11," says Barnaby. "During the summer holidays, I discovered there were few sites for children with dyslexia, so I devised one."
The content of the site - Iamdyslexic.com - varies from accounts of Barnaby's own struggle to do well at school to tips on improving reading and writing skills. He puts up a spelling quiz every three weeks and there is also information on available services for dyslexic people.
The site, among 12 recommended from the thousands submitted to Yahoo! every year, averages 150 hits a day from all over the world, especially the US and Australia. Many users send questions seeking help with their own disability.
Barnaby, who was identified as dyslexic at six, spends evenings and weekends responding to the 100-plus emails he receives each week and adding suggestions to the site. "People send loads of spelling tips, so it's not just my site," he says. "I put up suggestions that I thought would help from my own experi ence. I use listening books on tape, rather than read, and at school I use my laptop, which has a spell-check."
He says he was shocked when he received an email from Yahoo!, telling him that his website had been selected as a top portal. Resulting publicity has already lifted the number of hits by 25%.
Barnaby, who attends Charterhouse school in Godalming, is now developing software kits for dyslexic children, and two of the kits are already available online through his site. "Instead of doing French at school, I go into the IT room and work on the software," he says.
One of his products, called Days, Months and Numbers, has already found several customers, including schools in Surrey and Dorset.
