For readers with dyslexia, access can depend on whether the adults around them recognize a need and offer more than one route into reading. Three educators describe a practical mix of structured instruction, varied formats and student choice—approaches that support literacy while helping young people see reading as something they can claim for themselves.
One in five people in the U.S. show signs of dyslexia, according to the source article. Dyslexia is a neurodivergence associated with lifelong difficulties in language skills, including reading, spelling, writing and pronouncing words. For some students, those difficulties complicate academic progress; severe cases may qualify them for special education, classroom accommodations or support services. The educators’ accounts point to a common concern: when a student struggles, the answer may involve changing the support and materials available, not simply asking that student to try harder.
Libraries can make room for different reading paths
Karen Jensen, collections development librarian at the Fort Worth Public Library, came to the work both as a librarian and as the mother of a daughter with dyslexia. Her effort to understand her daughter’s needs expanded into a professional focus on awareness and access. Jensen worries that children who struggle to read may be overlooked when early signs aren’t recognized. That concern, she said, led her to bring what she was learning into her library work.
Her first response was to expand the formats available. Jensen ordered decodable texts, e-books, literacy readers and audiobooks, along with Wonderbooks, which pair a print book with an audio player. She also sought titles with dyslexia-friendly fonts and characters. The point, in her view, is not to assume that one format will work for everyone. “No two readers with dyslexia are alike,” she said.
That principle has shaped training Jensen developed for librarians across her library system. The sessions cover what dyslexia is, how it can affect a reader’s self-esteem, why early intervention matters and which resources librarians can offer. Jensen also wants colleagues to challenge the idea that people with dyslexia are lazy or unable to read. For a public library, that work connects staff knowledge with the choices patrons can actually find on the shelves and in the collection.
Jensen has also created a dyslexia toolkit that is expected to circulate soon. It will include reading lists for parents and children, as well as intervention tools such as overlays that highlight words. She hopes the kits will help staff serve patrons and make it easier for families to start conversations about dyslexia. Libraries routinely discuss programming, genres and reading recommendations, she observed, while dyslexia can receive less attention.
Multisensory teaching makes language tangible
Daniela Mladenovic’s path into reading support began at home: as a child, she taught her Serbian grandmother to read. She now works as a reading specialist and academic interventionist at a charter school on Chicago’s Southwest side, supporting students in small groups. After earning a master’s degree in reading, she pursued training in the Orton-Gillingham approach because she felt her existing methods weren’t enough for the students who needed extra help.
The program teaches students how language works, including word patterns and the relationships between reading and spelling. Mladenovic brings those concepts into lessons through activities that engage several senses. Students might form letters and sounds in sand, tap out sounds while dividing words into consonant and vowel patterns, or connect beginning sounds to familiar objects they can touch. The activity changes, but the teaching stays focused on making written language easier to notice, practice and remember.
Food can become part of that practice, too. For the “wh” sound, Mladenovic has students write letters in whipped cream. Cookies have helped teach the letter C. These examples show how she adapts lessons to make abstract sound and spelling patterns more concrete. She says using the senses can help strengthen brain connections and make a lesson personal enough to stick.
Her work also extends beyond reading mechanics. Mladenovic encourages students to ask for help and speak up when they know an answer. She follows up by asking whether they raised a hand or sought assistance after returning to their regular classrooms. The aim is for students to identify the support they need and draw on both their own efforts and the people around them.
Choice helps older students return to reading
Suzanne Osman, a teacher librarian at Van Nuys High School in Los Angeles, works with students across reading levels and abilities, including students with dyslexia. She wishes she could reach them earlier, before some felt pressure to move quickly past picture books toward early readers, chapter books and novels. In her view, time with books that match a reader’s interest and access needs can help build both skill and pleasure.
At the high school library, Osman makes space for books students may already recognize and enjoy. She circulates middle grade novels by Jerry Spinelli and Judy Blume, as well as graphic novels and manga. When students are assigned a book in class, she looks for those formats when available. She also urges teachers to consider contemporary titles that more students can read with interest and understanding. Greater accessibility, she argues, doesn’t require reducing academic challenge: when students can follow the material, they can take part in deeper discussion.
Osman helps students choose independently through book talks, displays and a demonstration of the five finger rule, a way to judge whether a book feels appropriately challenging. A request for the shortest book—or a claim that reading isn’t appealing—may reflect a history of struggling to find books the student can understand on their own. Osman’s approach is to help each reader find a book that works, since enjoyment can lead to a request for another one and a greater willingness to persist.
She has also volunteered to help a developmentally delayed student learn to read, despite that work falling outside her job description. Osman describes him as intelligent and says she wants to help. For her, that effort reflects a wider belief that the school library should matter in students’ lives, and that finding an accessible book can be the moment when a young person starts to feel reading belongs to them.
Access is part of the teaching
Across a public library, a small-group intervention setting and a high school library, these educators are working on different parts of the same problem. Jensen expands the resources and staff knowledge available to families. Mladenovic teaches language through structured, sensory practice and builds students’ confidence in asking for help. Osman pairs accessible formats with choice, aiming to make reading inviting as well as demanding.
Their examples suggest that support doesn’t end with identifying a reading difficulty. It also means offering ways to practice, materials a student can enter, and adults who treat questions as part of learning. For educators and librarians, the concrete takeaway is to make those options visible and keep adjusting them to the reader in front of them.
