Guest Blog: 5 Ways to Accommodate Dyslexia in the Workplace

By Jeyashree Haridoss

In 2020, the International Dyslexia Association asserted that 15-20% of the population may have symptoms of dyslexia. Statistically, that means 1 in 5 of your colleagues may be affected and may require accommodations in the workplace. With that prevalence in mind, it’s important to know what dyslexia is, what it is not, and how you can help employees with dyslexia to do their best work.

What it is; what it is not

Dyslexia is a neurobiological learning disability that can make it difficult to recognize words, make sense of numbers, or spell accurately. According to the Mayo Clinic, dyslexia most explicitly affects decoding: a process that relates letters and letter combinations to their sounds. Dyslexia does not have a cure, but simple tools can help people with dyslexia to be more successful at work.

It is important to understand that dyslexia is not correlated to intelligence. In fact, the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity identifies dyslexia as “an unexpected difficulty in reading in an individual who has the intelligence to be a much better reader.” An EY report on the value of dyslexia focuses on how the future of the workforce will need employees with skills like leadership, idea generation, and social influence – all competencies that come naturally to people with dyslexia. Famous examples of creative, intelligent, influential people with dyslexia help to drive this point home: Albert Einstein, Steven Spielberg, Whoopie Goldberg, Cher, Richard Branson. In fact, it could be said that many of these people thrived in their fields specifically because of their diverse perspectives and dynamic thinking styles.