Dyslexia in the Workplace: Disability or Talent?

by Richard Whitehead

In the UK, dyslexia is covered by the provisions of the Disabilities Discrimination Act, and meaningful protection is afforded to dyslexic thinkers through this means.

However, is the disability framework for understanding dyslexia actually harming dyslexic interests rather than furthering them?

Essentially, there are four distinct challenges involved in creating a dyslexia-friendly workplace, each of which needs to be addressed comprehensively in order to create a workplace culture in which diversity of thinking style can be comfortably accommodated - and harnessed to the creation of commercial success.

First, there is the issue that, as we discovered through our NOP-commissioned research last summer, around 2 million adult dyslexic thinkers are not aware of their dyslexia. This is most likely the result of poor diagnosis a generation ago, but also of lack of clarity around what exactly dyslexia is.

There is a huge need for employers' awareness training that is not clinical, but rather gives a direct and subjective experience of what it is like to be a dyslexic thinker - so employers can start to use their intuition to determine when an employee may be a dyslexic thinker, and provide appropriate help.

Secondly, all the dyslexia support in the world will be of no avail to an employee who is frightened or ashamed to own up to being a dyslexic thinker. In our organisation, we have worked with dyslexic adults who had never told anyone about their dyslexia, who woke up with repetitive nightmares about "being found out", and who felt it was easier to "come out" as gay in the workplace than as dyslexic.