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Submitted by PatientsEngage on 25 April 2018
Image: A woman and a young boy looking at the special menu for dyslexia awareness

Writer’s Cafe, Chennai, in association with Madras Dyslexia Association (MDA) have come up with a unique way of creating awareness for Dyslexia by changing the spelling on their menus. 

For the entire month of April Writer's Cafe they were serving “vejetarien and non-vejetarian fare — grild chkein, grik caled, and flammenkuchen, for starters.” This is an awareness campaign to show how a person with dyslexia views the world, and how difficult it is for them to “navigate in a world that does not comprehend them”. For the one-month period, the menu cards at the Café have been reworked to have alphabets in reverse – which is one of the challenges faced by persons with dyslexia. There will also be specialists stationed at the Café for two hours every day for those who wish to consult experts about dyslexia. PatientsEngage spoke to representatives from both MDA and the Writer’s Cafe to understand how this unique venture was put together.

Rashmi Wankhede, Special Educator with Madras Dyslexia Association, talks about this well conceived programme with the Writer’s Cafe

MDA was founded in 1991 by a group of concerned parents, special educators and philanthropists to offer help to children with learning disabilities.

Please tell us how it operates.

Work of MDA since its inception in 1991:

  • Creating awareness in society
  • Providing remedial help and support to children with dyslexia -Pull out from school and also after- school remedials
  • Evolved the remediation methodologies and strategies in Tamil
  • Academic Assessments
  • Helping schools to set up resource rooms
  • Conducting teacher training programmes in Special Education.

What was the thinking behind tying up with Writer's Cafe? Is it the first of its kind for you?

Writer's Café believes in an inclusive society and has been gracious in offering their space to MDA for an entire month. Dyslexia Café aims to provide an experience of how a person with dyslexia views the world, and understand how difficult it is to navigate in a world that does not comprehend them. Guests to the café can also interact with experts from MDA if they wish to know more about dyslexia. An awareness talk on dyslexia was also given by one of the experts from MDA. More events like Puppet Show and Book Reading are lined up for the month.

We have conducted awareness talks on dyslexia but this is the first time that we have held a programme like this at a cafe.

What has the response been like? Have people appreciated the effort?

The response so far has been overwhelming. This is what we were hoping to reach. We have documented responses of people. Many of them were able to empathise with the dyslexic child.

What are some of MDA's forthcoming plans?

Some of Madras Dyslexia Association forthcoming plans includes:

  • Empowerment of Primary Class Teachers across the country using both face to face as well as the digital training.
  • Development of inexpensive assistive devices.
  • Career guidance workshops for the grown up dyslexics
  • Effective parenting programme

Sharadha Dharmaraj, Business Development Manager at the Writer’s Cafe, Chennai, talks of this unique tie-up with the Madras Dyslexia Association (MDA)

Why did Writer's Cafe run this initiative with Madras Dyslexia Association (MDA)? 

Writer's Cafe is known as a cafe with a heart. Other than supporting 8 burn survivors who are now employed with us ( our entire profits go towards their NGO -- PCVC or the International Foundation for Prevention of Crime and Victim Care ), we are also associated with other NGO s such as Banyan, Vidya Sagar, Spastic school and VXL. We believe strongly in inclusivity of differently abled children and the only way to do this is by spreading awareness . Yes, it is our first venture where we are running a programme for this period of time although we do support other NGOs in other ways.

Who conceived of the plan? And how it should be executed including the innovative menu card etc?

The entire plan was conceived by MDA, and their innovative ideas of spreading the word of dyslexia have been very well received at the cafe

When the MDA approached Writer's Cafe, we thought it was a wonderful way to enlighten people on a neural condition that so many are not aware of.

The response from customers has been very positive and encouraging. Our customers ask questions which are answered at the dyslexia help desk . Both adults and children seem eager for more information.

Please tell us about other such initiatives run by Writer's Cafe.

We also celebrated World Autism Day where all our staff wore blue ribbon badges in solidarity and support of the day.

What do you intend to achieve with this?

Spread awareness of course, and to teach ourselves and others to be more observant, patient and tolerant to others’ needs as well as practise inclusivity and spread social awareness.

What's planned next?  

Writer's Cafe has started a new venture, " a School of Creamery" where we will be teaching women with cerebral palsy, and destitute women, including burn victims, the art of making ice creams.

All pictures credited to Nikhil Viswanath