7. Do you feel Dyslexia has affected your performance at work?
“My dyslexia does affect my work sometimes. That is why I have people check my work or if it is very important I have a couple people I trust check it.”
“YES in stressful environments.”
“It has affected my job and made worse by the attitude of people around me, which has caused me a lot of stress.”
“Yes but in a positive way as it make me work harder and able to have attention to details, be able to explain to clients thinks in a simple way and provide a bit a fun for the team with some interest spelling errors in team emails.”
“It takes me longer than an average person to complete for example a report. I find following fast moving meetings/ conferences and conversations difficult, as sometimes I am still trying to process the information (particularly long/or unknown words) and suddenly I may be asked for a opinion.”
8. Has your employer made any adjustments at the workplace for you?
40% of the responses have said their employers have made reasonable adjustments, 12% of this have indicated they have had funding from the Access to Work fund and only 3% are from organisations who are members of the employee assistance programme.
9. If not what sort of adjustments would you like to be implemented?
“Sweeping changes is not possible. Each and every dyslexic person must find their own way. It’s not that we can’t adapt we just need to be empowered to adapt. We each build our own tool kit that we will carry through life.”
“I would like to able to have my own special software but they are not keen as it may upset other people in my team”
“I will always need more time and i will want someone to view my work without making me feel like I’m stupid and incompetent”
10. In general what kind of preconceptions do you think employers have of people with dyslexia?
“The myths surrounding dyslexia are extensive and many have been busted. I hear that some employers seek out dyslexics because of their great attributes; creativity, logical rationalising, problem solving abilities and critical thinking skills.”
“They can’t do the work and that they are too slow”
“one employer said to me that it is an excuse for unsatisfactory work and that we are emotional with a bad attitude.”