Behind the Scenes at LD Online

The following is a first for this blog... a guest post. I invited Dale Brown, Senior Manager of LD Online to write a post detailing the behind the scenes action that takes place at LD Online. I am an avid supporter of this website and use it's resources frequently. If you haven't visited the site before, I highly encourage you to do so. It is the place to go for all things relating to learning disabilities. Now, here's her post....



I'm the senior manager of LD OnLine. When Shane asked me to be a guest blogger, I was happy to do so. Managing a website is challenging, interesting work. But sometimes I feel invisible behind the computer screen. I know you are out there using our information, but you are invisible to me, just as I am invisible to you. So, it is important to me to connect and this blog post is my way to reach out to you.

Shane talked about LD OnLine in a recent post, so I won't say any more. I’ll take you right into my office where I'm working in front of a computer with two monitors. Most of my day is spent reading, watching videos, and clicking around the website obsessing over how to get you to the information you need in the easiest possible way. Just a minute ago, I was trying to figure out how many people were clicking on which link. I also write for LD OnLine and e-mail, e-mail, and e-mail. It seems like 2 letters come in for every one I answer!

LD OnLine has an incredible team of people who work with me to get the job done and they all go the extra mile to help. We read your questions and listen to your stories. I read every thing that comes into our mailbox even if I can't answer it.

My background is as an advocate and policy developer. I was a child with a learning disability and you can read a letter I wrote to my grandmother when I was young here. My experience as a child makes me determined to help other children with learning disabilities. And that means helping parents and teachers by creating and organizing our materials.

Anyway, when Shane wrote us and offered to volunteer, we were thrilled to have her as part of the team. She reviewed our recommended links section and made it better. It is worth it to familiarize yourself with it so that you can use it when you need to find a website. Many people like the organized way we set up the links. You can search by focus, by type of organization and by audience. We've selected the websites, so you are more likely to get a good result than if you just click all over the web.

Please join us on LD OnLine, sign up for our newsletters and visit our homepage. We change it the first business day of each month. At the beginning of next month, I'll imagine you reading it at your computer screen. Maybe you can think of me clicking away on my keyboard, creating what you see when you look at the screen. And know that we are connected even if we never see each other's faces.