Roughly 1 in 10 eligible UK employees have ever applied for Access to Work (British Dyslexia Association, 2024). It can fund thousands of pounds of support a year.
Most people who haven't applied simply don't know what they could claim. The Access to Work calculator exists to close that gap, before you start the real application.
What Access to Work actually is
Access to Work is a UK government grant scheme. It's run by the Department for Work and Pensions.
It funds equipment, software, and specialist support for disabled employees at work, including dyslexic employees. You apply, not your employer.
Disclosure to your employer isn't required to start an application. That surprises a lot of people, who assume the process starts with a difficult conversation.
The maximum award is £69,260 per person per year, from April 2024 (DWP / gov.uk, confirmed June 2026). That figure changes each April, so check the current cap before you rely on it.
If you assumed your employer had to arrange this, that assumption is the main thing stopping you from applying.
How the calculator estimates your award
You answer five questions: your employment status, and whether you have a diagnosis or workplace assessment.
The rest cover which challenge affects you most, your employer's size, and what support you already use.
From those answers, the calculator matches you to likely support categories. These include a workplace needs assessment, text-to-speech software, speech-to-text software, an AI meeting transcription tool, or dyslexia coaching. Each comes with an indicative cost range.
Treat the categories as a starting checklist for your real application. They're not a guess to take at face value.
A worked example
Take an employed, undiagnosed person. Their biggest challenge is reading. They work for a medium-sized employer and currently use no support at all.
The calculator returns four categories: a workplace needs assessment, text-to-speech software, and a screen overlay tool.
It also includes the cost of a dyslexia assessment itself.
Estimated support range for an undiagnosed employee with reading challenges, based on the calculator's own worked example (dyslexia.vision, July 2026).
Notice that a formal diagnosis isn't a precondition here. The assessment itself is one of the funded items, not a locked door in front of everything else.
If you've held off applying because you lack a diagnosis, that's not the barrier you think it is.
What happens after you get a number
The results page sets out four next steps. First, apply directly at gov.uk/access-to-work.
Second, request a workplace needs assessment if you don't already have one. Third, tell your employer once an award is approved. Fourth, keep records of what you use.
A workplace needs assessment is usually the sensible starting point. An independent specialist carries it out, it's itself fully funded, and it identifies exactly what your role needs.
Request the needs assessment as your first claim if you're unsure what to ask for. It does the identifying work for you.
Questions people ask before applying
Two questions come up most. Will this show up on my employer's payroll or budget? No — funded support is arranged through Access to Work, separate from your salary.
Will applying take a long time? Often, yes. Processing times vary, so applying early gives support more time to arrive before you need it.
Start the application even if you're unsure how much you'll get. The number becomes clear once a caseworker reviews your case.
What this means for you
If you're currently paying for your own assistive software, the maths points one way. Apply now, rather than keep absorbing the cost yourself.
Once you know what to expect, the reasonable adjustments email builder can help you raise it.
The calculator's estimate is a starting point for the real DWP process, not a substitute for it. Use it to walk in already knowing what to ask for.