Charles Schwab, the person, is dyslexic and founder of the world's largest
online brokerage firm named after him.  He still runs the company.  This
raises an important access question:  how accessible is his brokerage for
those with print impairments, including blindness and those with learning
disabilities or learning differences?  Are mutual fund perspectuses
available in alternative formats?  What about account information and
material about services offered?  Please share your experiences.

kelly



The New York times

A Big Push for Learning `Differences,' Not Disabilities

August 8, 2000
By  KRUTI TRIVEDI

Charles Schwab, the billionaire  businessman who runs one of the
world's most successful brokerage  firms, is dyslexic. But, he
insists, that  does not mean he is disabled. "I look  at it as a
difference," he said.

  At a time when school districts are  moving to standardize
curriculum  and districts are placing a heavier  emphasis on state
tests, Mr. Schwab  is spending the equivalent of hundreds of
millions of dollars leading a  campaign of Americans who refer to
themselves as having "learning differences" rather than learning
disabilities.

  To some, Mr. Schwab is on a quixotic semantic quest, something
like  making sure the bald are called "follically challenged."  But
to others, he  is using his name and fortune to  undermine a
delicate and vital financing structure it has taken years  to
erect.

  Mr. Schwab said his main purpose  was to encourage schools to see
all  children as distinct learners who  need individualized
attention.

  "What you're trying to do with all  this definitional stuff is to
make sure  you don't beat the kids down and  make them think
they're fully defective," he said.     "My fundamental belief is
that you want to emphasize the  kids' strengths."

  Mr. Schwab's initiative makes the  Learning Disabilities
Association of  America, the most powerful advocacy group for the
learning disabled,  nervous. It is concerned that children  with
learning disabilities will not get  the services they need if they
are  redefined under the broader term  learning differences. What's
more,  the group is worried that the federal  financing for which
it has fought for  years will decline or even disappear  if
"learning differences" comes into  favor with legislators.

  "The danger, and where the controversy comes from, is that there
are some parents who would not like  to have their child called
disabled,"  said Ann Kornblet, executive director of the Learning
Disabilities Association of America.



  "The reality is that a true learning  disability is a handicapping
condition.

Without understanding that,  you're not prepared to help them
prepare for a life of advocating for  themselves."

  The Individuals with Disabilities in  Education Act of 1975 uses
the term  "learning disability" to classify children with "a
disorder in one or more  of the basic psychological processes
involved in understanding or in using  language, spoken or
written."

  A learning disability may show up  as an imperfect ability to
listen,  think, speak, read, write, spell, or do  mathematical
calculations, according to the federal definition. Education
officials say that 12 percent of all  school-aged children are now
classified as learning disabled.

  Mr. Schwab is not alone in his  opposition to the term. An
increasing  number of parents seem to be referring to their
learning disabled children as learning different and teachers are
starting to use the term in the  classroom.

  He and his wife founded the  Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation,
now called the Schwab Foundation for Learning, in 1988 to address
the needs of such families.

  Along with his own foundation, he  is the co-chairman of All Kinds
of  Minds, an iconoclastic organization  that looks at every child
-- disabled  or not -- in terms of strengths and  weaknesses.



  "Our model is one where we refuse  to label anybody, so we have no
'learning disabilities,' " said Mel Levine, co-chairman of the
organization with Mr. Schwab.



  The group has already trained  5,000 teachers around the country
to  speak the language of learning differences at several regional
training  centers, including one program run  by The Bank Street
College of Education in Manhattan.

Plans are in the  works to open a chain of consultation  centers
where parents can take their  children to be evaluated.



  Eventually, Dr. Levine hopes that  every school in the country
will follow his model.

  "We are determined to start a  national movement," he said.

"As
of  now, we're swimming upstream in  many respects because people
love  to label kids, people love to medicate  kids and people love
to test kids."

  Some of the strongest voices in the  learning-disabled community
--  which includes researchers, lawyers,  and the advocacy group --
say the  term disabled may have a negative  connotation to some but
is still the  most accurate. They worry that Mr.  Schwab's
opposition to the term  could unravel an identity it has taken
years to weave.

  "We're stuck with the term partly  because we need to because of
advocacy and partly because it's true,"  said Larry Silver,
president of the  disabilities association.

  "You empower your kids by helping them understand themselves:
'learning differences' suggest that  you're just like everyone
else, except  if they add with their fingers, you add  with your
toes."

  Mr. Schwab's pronouncements  bear a special weight in the
learning-disabled community, because he is  its largest benefactor.


  To date, he has endowed what  amounts to $280 million in Schwab
stock to the groups that use the term  learning difference.

  Mr. Schwab said that he first discovered his dyslexia as an adult,
when listening to a psychologist explain why his eight-year-old son
was  having problems reading.

As he sat  in the office, Mr. Schwab said, he  realized that many
of his own problems with language had the same  cause.

  "You need a few people to step out  and say there is an issue,
there's a  stigma," Mr. Schwab said.

  "I need to say, 'I've dealt with it  and it's not going to be the
worst  thing in the world.' "


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