EDEN’s trainers, Joseph Aquilina and Atif Choudhury, have higher-education degrees and have both been diagnosed with dyslexia. They were inspired to create EDEN having had first-hand experience of the shortcomings that exist within the current student training provisions.

Joseph Aquilina is a graduate in Fine Art and a singer-songwriter. He has tutored at many levels of education, from primary and secondary through to F.E and H.E. He has also been a workshop leader and co-ordinator for various local education authorities and charities, including Kids Company, and has worked with young people with severe learning disabilities. Joseph has been an assistive technology trainer for four years and is a qualified study-skills tutor. He is now focussing his training skills on dyslexic adult learners.

Over the years, Joseph has developed effective coping strategies which he passes on to the students he works with. He has provided positive empowering support for a wide range of disabled, dyslexic and disadvantaged people, especially for students who need support with dyslexia and A.T.

Atif Choudhury is an assistive technology trainer and a qualified study skills tutor. Having completed a BA (Hons) in Sociology and an MSC in Social Development, he went on to complete a advanced national diploma in teaching dyslexic adults in 2002.

Atif has provided learning support for dyslexic students for over five years. He has developed empowering teaching techniques which ensure that his students can confidently embrace enabling technology. In addition, Atif encourages students to take advantage of the perceptual strengths that dyslexia can provide. Many of Atif’s students will testify that his empathetic and proactive dyslexia support was as useful as his I.T training.

Having worked with a combined total of over 500 dyslexic students on a one-to-one basis, we fully understand how support should be tailored to the individual learner. With the use of empathy and experience we are able to train and share a vast amount of coping mechanisms that students find invaluable in overcoming some of the hurdles in higher education.