Learning Disabilities, Literacy, and Adult Education

This book focuses on adults with severe learning disabilities (LD) and the educators who work with them. In this volume, experts in the fields of learning disabilities and adult literacy describe the characteristics, demographics, and educational and employment status of adults with LD and discuss the laws that protect them in the workplace and in educational settings. Combining cutting-edge research findings with firsthand instructional expertise, the authors examine the various screening procedures used to identify learning disabilities, present a range of instructional strategies and staff development programs for teaching literacy skills to adults, and showcase exemplary programs that assist adults with LD to find the right job and to be successful.

Sample forms, checklists, resource lists, and examples from successful staff preparation programs make this in-depth book an invaluable resource for educators, reading and learning disability specialists, literacy professionals, and administrators.

Susan a. vogel is Professor of Special Education in the Educational Psychology,Counseling, and Special Education Department at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, Illinois. Shea has published more than 50 articles as well as several handbooks, chapters, and books on adults with learning disabilities(LD) that have concentrated on factors contributing to student success; postsecondary support services; and, most recently, adults with severe difficulties with literacy. The 1997 edition of her handbook, College Students with Learning Disabilities, which is distributed by the Learning Disabilities Association of America, has sold more than 45,000 copies in the United States and Canada.

In 1992, Dr. Vogel was appointed by President George Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as a founding member of the Advisory Board of the National institute for Literacy in washington, D.C. and served on the national advisory boards of the International Dyslexia Association and HEATH (a national clearinghouse for informationon adults with disabilities). In addition, she was the founding editor of LearningDisabilities Research and Practice and serves as consulting editor for six journals, including Annals of dyslexia, journal of Developmental Education, and the Journal of Learning Disabilities.

Presently, Dr. Vogel serves as President of the International Academy for Research in Learning Disabilities, which is composed of 300 elected fellows from around the world. The Academy is involved in cutting-edge research on LD. Dr. Vogel's research interests include the prevalence of adults with LD in formal and informal eductional settings;literacy proficiency; educational attainment;employment; financial and occupational status; gender differences; and support services, accomodations, and faculty attitudes toward students with LD in higher education.