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You’ve got your diagnosis and you're officially working with dyslexia! Congratulations— this is the beginning of your support journey and the pathway to a more comfortable relationship with work, reading, and everything in-between. You’ve even emailed your employer to let them know, and they’ve been very supportive… but what happens now?
The reality is that the practical changes implemented within the structure of our working day are where your employer really has the potential to impact your dyslexia at work experience. Unfortunately, we do still live in an era where a number of businesses aren’t necessarily as informed as they need to be about neurodiversity and their support responsibilities, and these scenarios have the potential to exert a lot of pressure on the individuals who come to them with support requirements.
Essentially— is it your place to educate your employer about dyslexia at work?
Dyslexia at Work: Confusing the educator role with self-advocacy
Following a diagnosis and/or Workplace Needs Assessment, it’s likely that you’ll have a list of things that would improve your working day-to-day. You’ll likely need to submit these to management and HR if they haven’t received a copy of them already via you and your WNA provider, but issues can arise when we reach this step of the game when it comes to knowledge about dyslexia at work.
Smaller businesses in particular who don’t have dedicated HR departments might find that these changes are often laid at the feet of an office manager, team leader or administrator who hasn’t necessarily had the training and experience to adequately understand neurodiversity. This is where many dyslexic colleagues find themselves having to explain what dyslexia is to their employer, and some even have to defend themselves against queries about their performance because the topic isn’t being fully understood.
It's probable that off the back of these interactions you’ll have to have some input on what changes are made and what’s possible, and how they’re going to support you going forwards. These conversations are very normal and a dialogue is often helpful when making day-to-day alterations, and understanding what they mean.
What isn’t is having to go through a meeting where you have to explain what your dyslexia is and explain the nature of being neurodivergent. It’s still distressingly common in 2023: having to walk leadership through the impact that dyslexia has on reading skills, the differences in how people experience it and defining dyslexia isn’t your responsibility at all, but many people still find that they become unpaid workplace educators off the back of a support conversation.
It might look like…
- Having to explain the concept of neurodivergent minds
- Having to explain the concept of dyslexia, or any other single neurodiversity
- Having to explain to your employer that they have legal support responsibilities because you have dyslexia
- Having to explain common neurodiversity terminology
- Having to explain that neurodivergent status doesn’t mean that you’re struggling with your mental health
- Having to explain that neurodivergent status has no bearing on intellect
- Finding yourself being tasked with educating the rest of your team about dyslexia at work, either relevant to you or generally
Working with dyslexia and becoming unofficial educators
Some people do relish the idea of being able to take the neurodiversity conversation to their peers, and advocate for change and better support in the workplace— but this should be your choice, as opposed to something that your employer feels like you should do.
Bigger issues arise when dyslexic and neurodivergent colleagues find themselves having to talk their employers though what it means to be dyslexic and what responsibilities they have to fulfil. If you find yourself in your manager’s office explaining how to use the Access to Work Grant (or equivalent) to them, then there’s something that probably needs fixing.
Becoming an unofficial workplace educator against your will can leave neurodivergent people feeling observed, stressed and singled out— and some might even be feeling that way anyway, due to previous anxieties that stem from their experiences of having dyslexia at work. It’s a large mental load to assign to somebody, and completely goes against neurodiversity best practice, as well as confidentiality legislation in the workplace in most countries.
Who does the education responsibility lie with?
It’s your employer’s job to make sure that they’re neurodiversity confident enough to support you though having dyslexia at work and create positive outcomes for all. It’s a new landscape, and nobody is expected to know it all first time: there are so many professionals who haven’t dealt with neurodivergent support needs before, and it requires a degree of knowledge about what these terms mean in theory and in practice.
That’s where workplace training comes in.
Specialist, expert-led dyslexia training for businesses is a cornerstone of the new neurodiversity movement. Professionals work with employers to develop their understandings of neurodiversity, their responsibilities, legislation and how they might implement support, as well as respond with best practice to employee enquiries. If you find yourself taking on the unofficial educator role, it might be difficult and a little frightening to point this out to your employer— but it’s not your job, and depending on where you are in the world, it might even be against the law.
