“We are all dependent on others in


some way,” he says, noting ironically that the higher one rises on the totem pole of a corporation or position in government, the more he/she needs to rely on other people and delegate responsibilities. In seventh grade, he returned to


the general school population, and like most dyslexics who become successful, he began to focus on what he could do well—in his case, sports. “It was a place to show my


competence,” he says. “I was diligent and hardworking. T e knock on dyslexics is that they’re lazy, but the opposite is true. You work three-to- four times harder.” He excelled as a goalie on the


soccer team and a member of the downhill racing ski team in high school, both of which won state championships. Still, he tried to hide his learning disability. “I decided I wanted to learn


Shakespeare because I could get the


plays on videotape,” he says. “Everyone assumed that I liked it, but I did it only because it was easier for me. I was hid- ing the real reason. It was part of the psychological stigma I was facing.” All people with disabilities have


to deal with people who do not understand their issues, he explains. T is is an issue that is “omnipres- ent” for him. As an undergraduate at Wesleyan College, he relied on the school’s writing workshop or his mother for assistance. He often faxed his term papers to her to proofread with him over the phone. He was very successful, and he was awarded a Marshall Scholarship to study in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he majored in philosophy. “I wanted to study there because I


had done a lot of parliamentary debat- ing, and the Scots are good at that.” Foss has a natural talent for public


speaking and never uses notes. To have an unusual talent or intellectual gift is not uncommon among dyslexics or


those with other learning disabilities.1 His contribution helped his debating


team win an important competition in the United Kingdom, the John Smith Memorial Mace, winning him an audi- ence in Buckingham Palace with Prince Philip, the Queen’s husband. From Scotland, he enrolled at


Stanford Law School. “T e standards are so high there,


you need the technology to succeed,” he says. “It was like I was back in special ed because they had all these accommodations for me. At that point, I had a talking computer, books on tape, things we don’t think of as accommodations anymore.” Buoyed by his successes in sports


and debating, Foss wanted to connect with others who had similar experi- ences to help them achieve like he did. “I was frustrated that all the infor-


mation about dyslexia was in books,” he says. “I thought that communicat- ing through fi lm would be a great way to reach out to people.”


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