Mal O'Donnell.

A dyslexic Cardiff man has taken up the offer of a place on the BBC 'Capture Wales Digital Storytelling Workshop'.

Mal O'Donnell, aged 56, participated in the successful ESF funded Second Chance Project which aims to help unemployed adults take the step forward into Employment or Training through the use of ICT, based in the Ian Karten CTEC computer suite at the Dyslexia Institute in Cardiff. Mal was not identified as dyslexic until he came to the Dyslexia Institute and through support at the Karten Centre has made rapid progress.

Encouraged by his reading and writing success at the Second Chance Project, he next completed an Access Course at a local FE college and is now half way through a University degree course in Creative Writing.

Mal said: "Computers have been fundamental in helping me achieve this. Without the programmes and technology available at the CTEC Centre I would not have achieved half of this. It has given me the freedom not to worry about spelling, punctuation etc. The talking spell checker programme in particular has been helpful in reading the work back to me and helping me to proof read.

The computer suite is helping me and lots of other people to achieve what they want and is teaching us to look upon the computer as a friend. Although Ian Karten is not here himself in person, he is making his presence felt every day. A computer does not discriminate because it helps people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities."

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