Hi Liz

Thanks for your help

Regards

Brian

Hi Brian,

I’m really sorry to hear this. No workplace should ever make a person feel discriminated against and unsupported. Under the Equality Act, workplaces must support people with dyslexia if it affects their ability to work, so they should be taking this into account.

Unfortunately I cannot advise beyond that, but I would recommend that you contact a support line to describe your situation further and see what legal support you may be entitled to.

Have a look at this page about the protected characteristics under the Equality Act:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination/protected-characteristics/what-counts-as-disability/
and then take a look at this one about discrimination to see if you would like to take some next steps:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination/what-are-the-different-types-of-discrimination/discrimination-because-of-something-connected-to-your-disability/

I really hope this helps, all the best to you Brian.

Liz

I am a dyslexic in my mid 50s with a reasonably senior sales role . I have constant conflict with my internal sales colleagues with deadline demands and ridicule over my errors ? in fact one such person reported me to the HR dept complaining about my mistakes with standard forms ? she stated in her complaint that she knew I was dyslexic but she couldnt work with me going forward . I was livid and really embarrased with my treatment at work . HR dismissed this as a personality clash and changed my internal contact .

Most recently our company was taken over and our expense claims had to be put through an app involving photo uploads and data input which I found impossible to operate . My wife calculated my expenses in the traditional way and I submitted these in good faith and stating that I could not operate the electronic application demanded .I was told My expenses would not be paid on the old format and that they must be formatted electronically .

Again I am livid with the blatant discrimination against my dyslexia !!!!

Hi John,

I totally agree with what you said about asking the person directly what would benefit them most. It’s such an individual thing that there really is no one-size-fits-all approach. We definitely acknowledge that the methods discussed in this article won’t be applicable for everyone. However, hopefully it gives some simple starting ideas for employers, or even people in the early days of learning about their dyslexia, for ways to support dyslexia at work and even in their personal life.

You should absolutely feel proud of what you’ve achieved! Everyone has something they struggle with, whether there’s a name for it or not, and learning to work with it is really amazing and a sign of determination.

All the best!

Liz

I don’t need special tools to help me, I just require time when I’m put into a situation I’ve not seen before because I have to work around my dyslexia as well as the situation.

When I write documents, a lot of the time I will repeatedly re-explain what I mean in various ways; this is to ensure that I feel like I’ve explained myself in a way that others can understand because I find it harder to explain myself. Unfortunately, there isn’t a tool what helps you to explain what your thinking in your head.

As someone with dyslexia, I don’t like to admit that I am. Don’t get me wrong, I am proud of what I’ve achieved… but it’s hard not to feel judged, even if the people are trying to help you.