Living with Dyslexia: A Phenomenological Study

My study was focused on the question "How do occupational therapy students identified as dyslexic cope with professional education; within college, practice and work-based contexts?" Eight participants were selected taken from six different undergraduate cohorts. I chose interpretive phenomenology as the foundation upon which participant data were gathered and analysed.The revelatory themes constructed from the data reflected a number of issues pertaining to the participants' coping strategies. On an institutional macro-level: meeting the needs of the students identified as dyslexic; by developing processes and systems of labelling and providing specific teaching and learning support. On an individual micro-level: the focus was on being labelled, the problems associated with disclosure, achievement and maintaining a sense of self in order to cope with the professional and academic demands of the course.