Fulcrum Literacy Shares Incarcerated Writer’s Call for Dyslexia Action

Giovanni Gladden’s essay reached audiences in Albany and Toronto during Dyslexia Awareness Month

SAN QUENTIN, CA, UNITED STATES, October 28, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Incarcerated writer Giovanni Gladden is calling on educators, lawmakers and the public to confront the reading needs that go unmet in classrooms and prisons. Fulcrum Literacy is distributing his essay during Dyslexia Awareness Month after excerpts reached education audiences in Albany, New York, and Toronto, Canada.

“Dyslexia should not be a sentence within a sentence,” Gladden writes.

In “The World Without Our Geniuses, The Dyslexics,” Gladden challenges the gap between society’s stated belief in rehabilitation and the help available to people who struggle to read. Written from San Quentin Rehabilitation Center and edited with his permission, the essay calls for screening, effective instruction and clear expectations for correctional education.

Kareem Weaver, executive director of Fulcrum Literacy, shared excerpts and a link to the complete essay during his October 24, 2026, keynote at researchED Toronto. Earlier, he brought Gladden’s message to professors, district leaders and state leaders at the October 14 Leading Literacy Summit in Albany. Hosted by the Science of Reading Center at the State University of New York at New Paltz and EdTrust-New York, the summit gave Gladden’s words an audience among education decision-makers. Weaver said participants were struck by his message’s clarity and earnestness.

Gladden begins with a screening of Left Behind, Anna Toomey’s documentary about mothers seeking an appropriate education for children with dyslexia.

“As I sat in the multipurpose room of the Learning Center at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center watching Left Behind, I saw everyone’s eyes glued to the screen. So many of us could relate: we are either dyslexic ourselves or know someone who is,” he writes.

From that shared recognition, Gladden asks whether California’s investment in rehabilitation will reach people whose reading needs were missed. He calls for dyslexia screening in prisons and juvenile detention facilities, followed by appropriate assessment and instruction. He also urges support for older students and adults who were not identified in the early grades.

The essay argues that access to help should not depend on a particular institution, a sympathetic staff member or a student’s ability to navigate written requests. Gladden calls for clear legislative expectations for correctional education and challenges the public to make its stated belief in rehabilitation meaningful.

“We should not confuse difficulty with inability,” he writes.

His argument also asks readers to consider the human potential lost when learning difficulties are mistaken for an inability to learn. He points to the contributions of people with dyslexia and questions how many others have been denied the instruction and support they need.

“Remove the hurdles. Tear down the brick walls. Strengthen the policies. Make rehabilitation through education mean what we say it means,” Gladden writes.

Gladden closes by challenging public promises about education and rehabilitation: “We say we care about humanity. We say we believe people can rehabilitate, and we say education can transform lives, including the lives of people who are incarcerated.”

“Then we must prove it.”

Read Giovanni Gladden’s complete essay

Kareem Weaver
FULCRUM Literacy
+1 510-289-8719
info@fulcrumliteracy.org
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