Every October, schools, charities, businesses, and communities across the UK come together to mark Dyslexia Awareness Month, shining a spotlight on the experiences and strengths of people with dyslexia.
It’s a month where social media lights up with hashtags, teachers roll out creative competitions, workplaces host guest speakers, and families bring bunting and ideas to bake sales. Beyond raising money, Dyslexia Awareness Month is about raising awareness: challenging centuries-old stereotypes, promoting brilliant strengths, and pushing for better support everywhere from classrooms to boardrooms.
The question is: as our culture shifts and understanding grows, do we really still need Dyslexia Awareness Month?
It’s tempting to think that, in 2025, Dyslexia Awareness Month’s mission is kind of… mission accomplished.
And you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking that. A quick look at social media or the news reveals that dyslexia isn’t that much of a mystery anymore—most people know someone with literacy differences, who have undergone a dyslexia diagnosis, and terms like “neurodiversity” have entered everyday language and make the news most weeks. The relentless stigma once attached to dyslexia is finally losing its grip, too: today, millions of educators, business owners and community champions actively celebrate diverse brains, and organisations are rolling out training and policies to support and nurture neurodivergent talent in a companywide way.
Attitudes are especially shifting among younger generations and those connected to digital culture, where stories of successful dyslexic entrepreneurs and artists abound. More public figures than ever speak openly about their diagnosis, from actors to CEOs, making dyslexia a source of pride as much as challenge.
Given all that, is there still a place for a month dedicated to raising awareness?
Much of the progress we’ve seen has been underpinned by law. The Equality Act (2010), for instance, gave people with dyslexia specific protection from discrimination in work and school, making some things feel far more equal than they did decades ago. Now, it’s no longer just a moral responsibility—it’s a legal duty to offer adjustments that help everyone thrive.
And some major employers, including EY, BAE Systems, and GCHQ, have shifted the landscape entirely by recognising the value in neurodivergent staff—sometimes even recruiting them for roles that benefit from their unique perspectives.
Exams are changing too, with access arrangements designed to level the playing field and ensure no one is left behind because of how their brain processes information. LinkedIn’s “Dyslexic Thinking” skill—a badge that signals strengths in creativity and problem-solving—has been added by thousands in just months, and success stories from lawyers, engineers, entrepreneurs and even government officials now circulate widely.
But does a new world with legal protection, workplace pride, and better access arrangements really mean there’s no longer a need for Dyslexia Awareness Month?
Not quite.
For every school or company getting it right, there’s another wrestling with patchy policies and age-old prejudice. Not everywhere is getting better at the same speed, and often, support for neurodivergent minds still comes up against resourcing issues, logistics challenges, and somebody keeping one eye on the budget—even though the right to support is a legal one in the UK, and to discriminate or fail to reasonably support a dyslexic colleague or learner is in contravention of a number of pieces of legislation.
Often, when we feel that the world is now broadly accessible and supportive of neurodivergent people, it’s important to look outside our personal networks and the spaces we inhabit online. It’s easy to find ourselves in an echo chamber of our friends and our colleagues, where we collaborate with people who hold similar beliefs to ourselves about neurodiversity, equality, learning and work. But our personal networks aren’t always representative of the world at large, and even though we’ve gained ground, the actuality remains that there are still a lot of barriers to overcome and progress to be made when it comes to equality and access.
Simply put: we’ve come a long way, but we’ve still got a way to go.
Even now, barriers persist in unexpected places. They’re embedded in systems, assumptions, and the day-to-day stigmas that people with neurodivergent minds still face, as well as more insidious business practices such as corporate inclusivity-washing. And that’s why we need Dyslexia Awareness Month more than ever—because when the world assumes it’s done enough, that’s when progress slows down.
The success stories of BAE Systems, EY and GCHQ make great soundbites, but there’s a lot of dyslexia discrimination still happening in the world today too.
Take the now-infamous Starbucks case: Meseret Kumulchew, a supervisor in Clapham Junction, London, was accused of falsifying documents when she inadvertently made errors in recording fridge and water temperatures, which happened as a direct result of the reading and writing challenges she experienced due to dyslexia. Despite having disclosed her dyslexia and asking for support, Starbucks demoted her and required retraining instead of making reasonable adjustments. The employment tribunal ruled emphatically in her favour, finding that Starbucks had failed to make reasonable adjustments and discriminated against her—a case that made headlines and started many necessary conversations about workplace equality and neurodiversity.
And it’s not an isolated case. A dyslexic employee working for UK retail giant M&S also faced similar challenges: gaps in workplace policies and failure to implement reasonable adjustments resulted in the employee being unfairly treated.
It’s a stark reminder that, despite the advances we celebrate during Dyslexia Awareness Month, discrimination continues to have real consequences for real people, and happen more often than we think… and the cases that make the news are just the tip of a very large, very problematic iceberg.
Millions more dyslexic employees experience prejudice, are overlooked for promotions, quietly let go, or passed over in redundancies, never feeling confident enough to speak out or pursue legal remedies. Many don’t even know their rights, struggling in silence and feeling powerless to challenge unfair systems and expectations. That’s why it’s important that dyslexia awareness is more than just awareness of dyslexia in 2025—it has to focus on dyslexia rights, advice, and responsibilities, too.
Progress within the education system is similarly unequal.
Yes, access arrangements and assistive technology have transformed learning in many schools, and yes, more teachers than ever understand the realities of dyslexia. But for every classroom embracing these changes, there’s another struggling with underfunding, exhausted staff, and a persistent lack of resources.
Children with SEN saw some of the biggest learning losses during the pandemic which are becoming entrenched due to lack of resourcing, and for the last decade, families up and down the country are still fighting for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) just to get basic support. And schools across the UK have been forced to make difficult decisions, from staff redundancies to streamlining and paring down SEN support programs, leaving even bigger workloads for specialist staff like SENCOs.
Teachers continue to move mountains for their students, but they can’t do it alone. Raising awareness helps keep the needs of dyslexic students firmly on the national agenda. Because meaningful change only comes when everyone sees the problem clearly—and in an era of economic downturn when budgets have to be watched more closely than ever before and schools are struggling to keep pens in hands and the lights on, it’s easy for SEN to pay the price.
Many older or retired adults are a little out of the bubble when it comes to dyslexia awareness and dyslexia positivity, because the majority of awareness and championing happens in the online sphere. Some older people will never have received a diagnosis and spent childhoods labelled “difficult”, “lazy”, or worse, leaving deep scars in self-concept and confidence; some may be aware they’re dyslexic, but may find it difficult to see it as something that isn’t a detriment to themselves, especially if it’s negatively influenced their education or career.
The stories we share during Dyslexia Awareness Month are vital for everyone, not just children, students and young professionals. They remind older generations that times have changed, that support exists, and that the past need not dictate the future. Raising awareness isn’t just about the here and now; it’s a bridge to healing old wounds and embracing new perspectives across generations… but that can only happen if conversations about dyslexia break out of the online world and into the media formats that provide older generations with a lot of their news and updates— news websites as well as LinkedIn, TV as well as TikTok, industry publications as well as pop culture magazines.
In recent years, inaccurate narratives about neurodiversity have popped up in political debate—from world leaders like President Trump making baseless claims about Tylenol, pregnancy and the ‘risk’ of neurodiversity to the current moral panic surrounding vaccination.
Attitudes like these are not just unproven, divisive and often factually incorrect, they’re deeply harmful and reinforce inaccurate views. There’s some growing worry within the neurodivergent community that hard-won protections could be undermined by shifts in policy, rhetoric, or political leadership. Dyslexia Awareness Month, at its best, represents a beacon of hope for a more inclusive future, affirming dignity and capability regardless of shifting political winds. It’s more crucial than ever to keep these conversations alive, remind society of why fair treatment and accurate narratives about neurodiversity matter.
Absolutely.
The world has moved on and provision for dyslexic people has improved in so many ways, but that doesn’t mean that no challenges remain. Dyslexic people continue to experience discrimination at work, unequal access to education, and face stigmas and false narratives that really shouldn’t exist in 2025. Millions still feel unsupported, misunderstood, or overlooked.
Dyslexia Awareness Month is vital in that it sparks conversation and drives action forward, challenging society to reform and be kinder, more equitable, and more creative. It reminds every child and adult with dyslexia that they matter, they’re not alone and that their lived experience is valid.
That’s why today, we’re asking you to share your stories too: whether it’s a simple (or not-so-simple) social media post, a piece of artwork, a video, or even just a conversation with a friend or colleague. Every single story amplifies visibility and helps to break down barriers by challenging stereotypes, so that we can build a world where dyslexic voices are heard, championed and valued.
Now, it’s on you. Tag @succeedwithdyslexia wherever you post!