Verbal promises, PIPs, AI tools: 7 dyslexia questions answered

Dyslexia-related employment tribunal claims in the UK have nearly doubled since 2020, according to tribunal database analysis published in 2025 (Equality and Human Rights Commission). Most of these cases don't start with an outright no from an employer. They start with an adjustment that was agreed in a meeting, never confirmed in writing, and then gradually stopped. The seven questions below are the ones that come up most often after the initial disclosure conversation is over.

Q1: My employer agreed my adjustments verbally six months ago. Is a verbal agreement binding?

No. A verbal agreement has no audit trail. If your employer later denies the conversation happened, you have nothing to show a tribunal, an HR panel, or a line manager's manager.

ACAS guidance from January 2025 is direct on this: adjustments should be confirmed in writing. The Equality Act 2010 does not specify the format of an agreement, but employment tribunals consistently give far more weight to documented evidence than to a claimant's account of what was said in a room.

The fix takes two minutes. Email whoever agreed the adjustment with a short summary: "Following our conversation on [date], I want to confirm the adjustments we discussed." List them. Send it. That email is now your evidence.

If you haven't had that confirmation conversation yet, the reasonable adjustments builder generates a draft confirmation email you can adapt before sending.

Send the confirmation email today, even if the adjustment is already in place and working.

Q2: Can I ask my employer to fund a dyslexia assessment, or do I have to pay for myself?

UK employers are not legally required to fund a diagnostic assessment. The Equality Act 2010 duty to adjust arises when your employer knows, or ought to know, about your difficulty at work. That knowledge can come from you describing the problem, not just from a formal report.

In practice, you have four routes. You can self-fund a diagnostic assessment: a full assessment from a Patoss-registered assessor costs between £690 and £882 in 2026 (BDA assessor directory, June 2026). You can apply to Access to Work, which funds a workplace needs assessment focused on adjustments rather than formal diagnosis. You can ask HR directly whether the employer will contribute (some larger employers with occupational health programmes will). Or you can ask for adjustments now, without a diagnosis, which you are entitled to do under the Equality Act 2010.

US employers under the ADA are also not required to fund assessments. Large employers often cover them as part of the interactive accommodation process, but documentation is the employee's responsibility to obtain.

You don't need an employer-funded assessment to get adjustments. Ask for adjustments in writing now, and pursue the assessment separately.

Q3: I've been put on a performance improvement plan. I haven't disclosed my dyslexia yet. Should I?

Disclose now. The Equality Act 2010 duty to make reasonable adjustments only applies once your employer knows, or ought reasonably to know, about the disability. Disclosure after a disciplinary outcome is far harder to use as grounds for challenging that outcome.

Courts and tribunals look at the point at which the employer had knowledge. If your PIP is tracking written errors, attention to detail, missed deadlines, or processing speed, these are consistent with dyslexia. Tell HR in writing, name the specific adjustments you need, and ask in the same email for the PIP timeline to be paused until adjustments are in place. Some employers will agree. Those who don't are starting to build a Section 20 liability.

In the US, the same logic applies under the ADA. Request accommodation in writing before the PIP reaches a formal warning stage. The disclosure guide gives you the exact language to use, including how to frame the request if you're already in a performance process.

If a PIP is in progress, email HR in writing this week. Name the adjustments you need and ask for the timeline to pause.

Q4: Can I use ChatGPT, Copilot, or other AI tools as an official workplace adjustment?

Yes. Reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 include any change, provision, or practice that removes or reduces a substantial disadvantage you face because of your disability. There is no rule that it must be specialist assistive technology.

AI tools that help you draft emails, summarise documents, check written tone, or reduce the time you spend re-reading your own work qualify if they address a specific barrier created by your dyslexia. Access to Work funds them. ChatGPT Plus costs around £16 a month (OpenAI pricing, June 2026). Microsoft 365 Copilot costs £16.10 per user per month from July 2026 (Microsoft pricing, June 2026). Both are well within what Access to Work covers for employees who can show the tool addresses a concrete workplace need.

Ask for them by name in your adjustments request. Name the specific barrier: "Email drafting takes me four times as long without assistance because of dyslexia's effect on working memory and written output. A subscription to [tool] would reduce this to a standard drafting time." Apply to Access to Work via the helpline (0800 121 7479) or online at gov.uk/access-to-work. The Access to Work calculator gives you an eligibility check in under a minute.

Request AI tools as formal adjustments in writing, citing the specific barrier they address and the Access to Work funding route.

Q5: My employer made adjustments six months ago but they've quietly stopped. What are my options?

Four steps, in order. First, document the gap. Write down the date the adjustment stopped and what specifically changed. You need this record before you do anything else.

Second, send a factual email to your line manager or HR: "I want to flag that [adjustment] has not been in place since [date]. Can you confirm when it will restart?" Keep the tone level. You're creating a paper trail, not picking a fight. A written record of the gap matters far more than how the conversation lands in the room.

Third, if there's no response within 10 working days, write to HR citing the Equality Act 2010 Section 20 duty directly. Name the date the adjustment stopped and the date you raised it.

Fourth, if your employer still fails to reinstate it and you have written evidence of the original agreement, ACAS early conciliation is the required first step before any employment tribunal claim. ACAS conciliation is free and does not require a solicitor.

If you never got the adjustment confirmed in writing in the first place, steps three and four become much harder. Which is why the confirmation email from Q1 is worth sending today, while everything is still working.

Email HR naming the specific adjustment and the date it stopped. Ten working days is a reasonable response window before you escalate.

Q6: I work part-time. Am I eligible for Access to Work?

Yes. Access to Work is open to employees on any contract, including part-time, flexible hours, and zero-hours contracts, as long as you earn at or above the National Living Wage for the hours you work. The rate from April 2026 is £12.21 per hour for workers aged 21 and over (DWP AtW factsheet, April 2026). Self-employed people are also eligible.

The level of support for some types of help, such as a support worker, may reflect your working hours. Software grants and one-off equipment purchases are not typically reduced pro-rata.

Apply via the Access to Work helpline (0800 121 7479) or at gov.uk/access-to-work. If you're unsure whether your earnings put you above the minimum wage threshold, or what types of support you'd be eligible for, the Access to Work calculator works it through with you.

Part-time status does not reduce your Access to Work eligibility. If you haven't applied, apply.

Q7: The adjustments I've been given aren't actually working. Can I ask for different ones?

Yes, and you should. Reasonable adjustments are not fixed for life. The Equality Act 2010 duty is to make adjustments that are effective at removing or reducing the substantial disadvantage you face at work. If a given adjustment doesn't do that, the duty to find something that does continues.

In practice, ask for a review meeting with HR or your manager. Come with a specific account of what's not working and why. The more concrete, the better: "The coloured overlay was recommended in my assessment, but my main difficulty is email drafting speed, not reading. A text-to-speech tool would address the actual barrier, and the coloured overlay does not." That framing, grounded in the specific barrier, is the evidence base for a review.

The adjustments builder maps your specific work difficulties to the adjustments most likely to address them. It takes about two minutes. The output gives you the precise language for a review conversation with HR, or a follow-up request if your current adjustments have drifted from what you actually need.

Request a review in writing, name the adjustment that isn't working, and state what you'd like instead and why it would address the actual barrier.

What all seven of these questions have in common

Every one of these situations is easier to resolve with a paper trail than without one. The employer who agreed your adjustments verbally in March is the same employer who'll say "we don't have a record of that" in September. The PIP that could have been paused can't be unwound once the outcome is issued. The Access to Work application that wasn't submitted doesn't produce a grant retrospectively.

The call here is simple: put it in writing, now, whatever stage you're at. An email confirming a verbal agreement takes two minutes. A disclosure email to HR, referencing the Equality Act 2010 and naming the adjustments you need, takes ten. The adjustments builder generates the draft. The disclosure guide handles the framing if you're not sure how to open the conversation.

Write the email today. Whatever the situation, the paper trail you create today is the evidence you'll need if anything goes wrong in six months.