Sir Richard Branson was yesterday challenged by the chief executive of US technology giant Intel, Paul Otellini. In a launch stunt almost worthy of the Virgin founder himself, Intel offered Branson a trial of its new digital Reader, with the catch that if he didn't "love the product" Intel's chief executive would personally come to the UK and wash one of Branson's Virgin Atlantic planes. The offer was made because the Reader, which translates printed text into spoken word, is aimed primarily at those, like Branson, who suffer from dyslexia.

In its most common form, dyslexia causes people to struggle to recognise words and spellings. It affects 10 per cent of the UK population. Four per cent suffer from more severe forms of dyslexia. Branson has talked openly about his own struggles with a relatively mild form of dyslexia and the problems it caused when he was younger. Ben Foss, Intel's creator of the Reader, is also dyslexic—severely in fact.

A smart piece of intuitive industrial design, the Reader uses a camera and some clever technology to photograph a page of text and then turn it into "spoken text" that can be played on the Reader while the words appear in large scale fonts on its screen. These files can also be turned into audio mp3 files. The Reader can handle most printed text, including pages of books, newspapers and magazines. It has a 4GB memory, which is sufficient to handle 600 processed pages (with images and text) or a massive 500,000 text-only pages.

While the principle market for the Reader is in education, Foss is clear that there are opportunities for wider applications. "This is like an access ramp for books. We use ramps to help people gain access to buildings and this device will help anyone who struggles with reading to get access to the printed word," he said. This includes the blind or partially sighted.

Dyslexia has surprisingly strong links with entrepreneurship. A study by Julie Logan, professor of entrepreneurship at Cass Business School and an expert in the connection between entrepreneurship and dyslexia, found that over a third of entrepreneurs in the US and a fifth of entrepreneurs in the UK suffer from dyslexia. This compares with a national average of just 10 per cent. According to professor Logan's research, the primary reason for the large number of North American dyslexic entrepreneurs is that the US has better systems for identifying, intervening and supporting children with dyslexia.

Judi Stewart, the British Dyslexia Association's chief executive says that dyslexics generally appear to possess the requisite skills for business ownership. "Dyslexics are naturally better at certain things such as creativity, oral communication, three-dimensional thinking and spatial awareness. These abilities mean they are good at spotting gaps in the market and it makes them good entrepreneurs," she says.

Because the UK system fails to identify and support dyslexics at a young age, many potential entrepreneurs in the UK never develop. Intel clearly hopes its Reader will help improve this situation. But there are implications too, for the many dyslexic directors running their own firms and struggling day-to-day with the sheer volume of printed text and paperwork they are expected to cope with.

There are plans for the Reader to be available via amazon.co.uk. But at £1,000 a pop, it's not a gadget for the light of wallet. For many struggling to make sense of printed text it may be a small price to pay for an easier life. Branson is yet to accept Intel's challenge. 

Richard Cree

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