LITCHFIELD - Learning disabilities should not be viewed as insurmountable barriers to success in life and can be overcome.

That was the message sent yesterday by a dyslexic speaker, Citicorp/Citibank Vice President Donald A. Winkler, to students at the Forman School. The private school offers specialized programs for the learning disabled.

The father of two of the school's recent graduates gave the address during the annual Leadership Forum, which is designed to present successful role models to the school's students.

"This is about the misery I was caused in my life and how I turned it to my best," he said at the start of his talk.

Winkler talked about not having confidence in himself as he grew up because of the difficulties he has with words and numbers. He said he was always in the slowest reading class even though he socialized with friends who were in the faster classes. He was unable to follow hymns in church.

"I just shut up. I didn't sing anymore. I sang four lines and was behind everyone else," he said. "I asked the minister to tell me on Thursday what would be sung on Sunday so that I could practice; ahead of time."

As a result of his learning disabilities, he said he had to struggle through school. After high school, he attended Rye Technical Institute in Chicago and then Northrop University in California. He eventually went on to the University of California at Los Angeles and the Wharton School's Executive MBA program in Philadelphia.

To weather those programs, he said he had to work much harder than most students and needed to do considerable advance preparation for his classes.

"When I was going to college, there were a lot of kids out playing Frisbee. I was inside working," he said. "Now I take on all the great guys from Harvard Business School."

Even so, he also had to master vices such as smoking and eating too much, to which he turned as an escape from his problems. At one point he weighed 265 pounds, but has since lost most of the excess weight.

Overcoming a learning disability also involves accepting it, Winkler said. Relying on technology and not being afraid to consult people who could provide technical assistance with calculations allowed him to surmount his learning disabilities, he said.

Winkler, who manages the global information needs for his company's financial institutions group, shared a few practical tips with the students.

"Time management is one of the key problems for a person with a learning disability," Winkler said.

He brought along an array of miniature gadgets that have helped him to compensate for his learning disabilities, including a tape recorder, an electronic thesaurus and spelling checker, a cellular telephone and pager and a $5,000 pocket-sized computer.

"Take some things and use them every day," he said.

Reprinted with permission from the publisher.