Dyslexia is 'an ability,' not a disability for Buccaneers' Peyton Barber
4:00 AM PT
Jenna Laine
ESPN Staff Writer
TAMPA, Fla. -- The words in Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Peyton Barber's playbook are sometimes jumbled, and they don’t make sense, so he has to read them over and over. He has to draw the plays up, too, and then he has to walk through them to fully understand.
"Some people can get things with classroom only, but he’s certainly gotta be in it, see it and let it happen," said Bucs running backs coach Tim Spencer, who has worked with Barber the past two seasons.
Barber has dyslexia, a learning disorder that affects 10 to 15 percent of the U.S. population. It results in difficulty with word recognition, spelling, reading comprehension, language and visual processing.
"I do read a lot slower, and there will be times when I’m reading something and I’ll read it backwards or the words will come off the page," said Barber, 23. "[But] I don't really see it as a challenge, to be honest."
Barber also has attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a condition characterized by difficulty concentrating, hyperactivity and impulsivity.
Neither has held him back on the football field, even when he must learn hundreds of plays and identify where the pressure is coming from in a matter of seconds. In fact, despite starting only four games last season, Barber finished with a team-high 423 rushing yards, 114 receiving yards and three touchdowns, becoming a candidate for the starting role in 2018.
“I think he will be right there,” Bucs coach Dirk Koetter said at the end of the season. “I think that will definitely be a consideration. Peyton did a good job with his opportunities this year.”
Growing up in Alpharetta, Georgia, Barber was diagnosed with ADHD in kindergarten and took mostly remedial courses until his junior year of high school.
"I learned a lot slower. I struggled a little bit in high school. [My grades] weren’t terrible, but I mean, I’d say I was kind of all over the place: C’s, B’s, occasionally an A in college,” said Barber, whose father also has dyslexia and ADHD.
He wasn't diagnosed with dyslexia until his freshman year at Auburn. There, Barber had tutors, received extra time on tests and took his exams in a different room with a proctor, all of which are allowed by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA).
Barber tried the medication Vyvanse for about a week and a half, but he didn't like the way it made him feel, so he stopped taking it.
Link.......... http://www.espn.com/blog/tampa-bay-buccaneers/post/_/id/20038/dyslexia-is-an-ability-not-a-disability-for-buccaneers-peyton-barber
