37 weeks, a judge’s software, £270 pens: questions answered

A tribunal judge went two years without software her employer had already agreed to give her. If a sitting judge can lose an adjustment in the system, so can you.

This week's six questions cover that case, plus a fresh tribunal ruling on disability. They also cover the Access to Work wait, a £270 reading pen, and budget sign-off checks.

What happens if my employer agrees to an adjustment and never delivers it?

It can still be unlawful years later. A Reading tribunal found the Ministry of Justice broke its duty to a dyslexic judge. Software it had agreed to give her never arrived on time (Judge Eeley, 13 January 2022).

The software was missing from September 2016 to December 2018. Training on it did not arrive until May 2019, nearly three years after the request. The claimant is Zorina Clarkson-Palomares, a UK tribunal judge.

The tribunal also criticised the ministry for never offering a proofreader instead. Officials had tried to help, the judgment said. But no procedure told them who was responsible.

That gap matters beyond the civil service. Most adjustment failures come from a request nobody owns. It drifts between departments until it quietly stops moving.

Private employers are not exempt from this. The Equality Act 2010 duty applies whether you work for a government department or a five-person company.

So what for you: if an adjustment stalls, put a date on it in writing. Name one person as owner. The reasonable adjustments builder turns a stalled request into a written escalation in minutes.

Does winning a disability finding at tribunal automatically win my case?

No, and a fresh case shows why (Miss K Dale v A Hudson, 2602054/2024, heard 18 June 2025). A Nottingham tribunal found a claimant disabled because of dyslexia. It ordered her former employer to pay £345 in unpaid notice pay.

Her other discrimination claims were still to be heard, separately. A disability finding brings Equality Act 2010 protection, but it does not prove every later claim automatically.

The employer in this case did not defend the claim at all. She had not filed a response, or asked to take part. That will not be true of most employers.

A well-resourced employer will fight a disability finding. Your paperwork needs to hold up under real scrutiny, not just read convincingly. A formal assessment gives you paperwork an employer or tribunal can trust.

See what a dyslexia assessment costs in the UK before deciding whether to book one.

So what for you: a disability finding is a foundation, not a full verdict. Keep building evidence for every claim, even after one finding goes your way.

How long does Access to Work actually take in 2026?

Your employer's Equality Act 2010 duty runs on its own clock. It does not pause while you wait on a government decision.

For lower-cost items, ask your employer to pay upfront first. Claim the money back from Access to Work once it comes through. Repayment to an employer usually lands within about 10 working days of an approved claim.

One exception is worth knowing. The Access to Work Tech Fund runs an urgent track. It decides claims in 28 days if you start a role within four weeks.

Outside that window, the standard queue applies to every applicant. Seniority or job title makes no difference. Use the Access to Work calculator for a realistic estimate before you apply.

Self-employed dyslexic workers can apply too, without an employer to front any costs first. The claim runs directly between you and Access to Work.

So what for you: do not wait 37 weeks to ask for help you need now. Start the conversation with your employer today. File the Access to Work claim at the same time.

What did the PHSO dyslexia discrimination case actually decide?

Three separate wins came from the same facts. A tribunal upheld direct discrimination, discrimination from disability, and a failure to make adjustments. All three claims involved one employer and one dyslexic hire (Rashid v PHSO, analysed by Thrive Law, 21 July 2026).

The employer's occupational health advice never reached her line manager. Verbal promises counted as evidence against the employer. So did a missing set of meeting minutes.

The same duty exists in the US, under a different name. FedEx paid $280,000 in April 2026 to settle an EEOC lawsuit. It had refused disabled dispatchers' telework requests without exploring alternatives (EEOC press release, 17 April 2026).

Both cases share one failure. The employer had the information it needed. But it never reached the person who could act on it.

"Discrimination arising from disability" is a different legal category from direct discrimination. It covers unfair treatment linked to dyslexia, even if nobody meant any harm.

So what for you: a verbal "it's sorted" is not evidence. Ask for adjustment decisions in writing. Keep your own copy.

Is the C-Pen Reader 3 worth buying, or should I just use my phone?

It depends on the task. The C-Pen Reader 3 costs £270, down from £324. It reads printed text aloud, offline (Dyslexia Action Shop, July 2026).

That offline reading matters in meetings, where pulling out a phone can feel exposing. The pen does the same job without a screen at all.

Free apps do a similar job for occasional reading. Microsoft Seeing AI and Google Lookout cost nothing at all. Buy the pen only if paperwork is a daily part of your job.

Discretion is the other reason to choose the pen. Check whether Access to Work will fund either option first. Software and small hardware like this usually qualify.

OrCam Learn is a pricier third option, aimed at more complex reading needs. It is only realistically available through an Access to Work claim, not as a casual purchase.

So what for you: try the free apps first, for a week. Only spend £270 if you hit their limits daily, not occasionally.

How do I stop transposing numbers before I sign off a budget?

Build in a named second check, not a private one. A colleague agrees, in writing, to check your numbers. A fixed pause before signing catches transposed digits early.

Dyslexia and dyscalculia overlap more than most workplaces assume. Around 1 in 4 dyslexic adults also has some dyscalculia (BDA, 2024). That is a separate difficulty with number sense.

A plan built only around reading and writing can miss that. If numbers, not words, are where your mistakes happen, say so directly.

A workplace needs assessment can cover dyscalculia specifically, not just dyslexia. Access to Work can fund that assessment for employed staff in the UK.

Checking every number twice yourself, quietly, is unpaid extra work. The masking cost calculator puts a number on what that habit costs you each year.

So what for you: ask for a named second reviewer this week, in writing. Do not rely only on your own checking to catch every error.

Does dyslexia have to be formally diagnosed for a case like this to work?

No. UK law protects you once your employer knows, or ought reasonably to know, about the difficulty. A formal diagnosis is not required first (ACAS, updated January 2025).

That protection covers undiagnosed dyslexia too. But proving the underlying difficulty gets harder if an employer pushes back, and there is no paperwork behind it.

The judge in this week's case had a documented diagnosis. That made her impairment straightforward to establish, so the fight moved straight to what her employer failed to do.

So what for you: strong suspicion alone can trigger your employer's duty. A formal assessment makes that duty far harder for an employer to argue against.