£96,128, £345, mocked writing: 7 questions answered

£96,128. That's what a UK charity paid this year. A tribunal found it invented reasons to sack a dyslexic manager (Employment Tribunals Scotland, February 2026).

A different case ended with just £345. A third case is almost two years old. It still holds a lesson worth knowing today.

Below are seven questions dyslexic employees asked this month. Every answer comes with a source and a date.

How much did the Fife Employment Access Trust dyslexia case pay out?

£96,128. That's the combined tribunal award against Fife Employment Access Trust, a charity that helps disabled people find work. Two women shared the payout (Employment Tribunals Scotland, February 2026).

Dr Norma Clark was awarded £58,401. Her colleague, support worker Christina Goble, was awarded £37,727.

The Dundee hearing ran for 17 days. It found the charity invented claims against both women. It also found unpaid wages owed to them.

A workplace needs assessment had asked for IT equipment for Clark's dyslexia. It was never set up. Access to Work can fund this kind of support in the UK.

You don't need a diagnosis on file for this to count. Under the Equality Act 2010, it's enough that an employer "ought reasonably to have known."

So what for you: write down every time promised support doesn't arrive. That's the evidence that decided this case.

What happened in the Debont v Marsh Farm Futures dyslexia case?

This one is older, from 2023. It still holds a lesson. Robert Debont managed facilities at a Bedfordshire charity, Marsh Farm Futures.

His boss called Debont's written policies "illegible" in a board meeting. A follow-up email called the same work "incoherent" (Employment Tribunal, October 2023).

The tribunal ruled this was unfair treatment linked to his dyslexia. Weeks later, he was told he might lose his job. He was sent home right away, and locked out of his email that same day.

The tribunal called the whole process "a sham." It said this was built to remove him. His unfair dismissal claim succeeded.

His other claims partly succeeded too. The payout was left for a separate hearing. The public record doesn't show a final figure.

So what for you: if criticism of your work turns personal, write down the date and the exact words used. It matters more than it feels like at the time.

How much compensation did Katy Dale win in her dyslexia case?

£345. That's what Katy Dale won in unpaid notice pay. A Nottingham tribunal also found she is disabled because of dyslexia (Dale v Hudson, 18 June 2025).

Her employer didn't show up to defend the case. She was barred from taking part for not filing a response.

The judge worked out the figure from her actual pay. She worked 30 hours a week at £11.50 an hour. One week's notice came to exactly £345.

Her other claims are still going through the tribunal. The dyslexia finding wasn't even challenged. That shows how far a tribunal can go, once no one argues back.

So what for you: notice pay is a separate right from any unfair treatment claim. Chase both, even if one feels too small to bother with.

Is a dyslexia assessment worth it as an adult?

In the US, a private evaluation costs $1,500 to $5,000 or more. Most insurance won't cover it (Sachs Center, checked August 2026).

In the UK, the British Dyslexia Association charges £690 to £882 for the same kind of assessment (checked August 2026).

It pays back once you need paperwork to make an adjustment request stick. A written report carries more weight with HR than a self-diagnosis.

Curiosity alone is still a valid reason to want answers. It just doesn't carry the same urgency as a live workplace problem.

The dyslexia assessment cost guide breaks down UK and US pricing in full. It also covers how to find a local assessor.

So what for you: book the assessment before you ask for adjustments. Don't wait until you've been refused.

Does open-plan office noise make dyslexia harder to manage?

Open-plan noise raises stress by 34%. It also raises negative mood by 25%, in one controlled study of office workers (Sander et al., 2021).

A separate study found something else. People remembered fewer words after working in noisy open-plan rooms (Jahncke et al., 2011).

Neither study tested dyslexic employees directly. But both point at working memory. Dyslexia already puts that resource under strain.

Noise-cancelling headphones are the standard fix. Access to Work can fund them in the UK, once an informal request gets turned down.

So what for you: ask for a quieter desk or headphones before the noise costs you a mistake, not after.

Are engineers more likely to be dyslexic?

The IET thinks up to 30% of UK engineers could be dyslexic. That's about three times the rate for most jobs (IET, cited August 2020).

The IET is clear about one thing. This is an industry estimate, not a formal survey.

The highest-risk tasks are reading technical drawings and running calculations against codes. Writing technical reports under time pressure is another.

Each fix costs nothing to put in place. A locked calculation template catches transposed digits. A read-aloud pass catches misread decimals.

So what for you: build the check into a template once. Don't rely on catching it by hand every time.

What should I do if my employer criticizes my writing at work?

Ask what specific words or documents caused the concern. Get the answer in writing.

General complaints like "sloppy" or "illegible" aren't specific enough to fix. They aren't specific enough to justify further action either.

If dyslexia is part of the picture, say so. Ask for an adjustment the same day, if none is in place yet.

The reasonable adjustments builder turns the problem into a written request. It takes about two minutes.

Keep a copy of the criticism and your reply. If it happened in front of others, note who was in the room.

So what for you: a written request, made right after criticism, beats waiting to see if it happens again.

What this means for you

Three tribunal cases. Three different outcomes: £96,128, £345, and a result still not on the public record.

The size of the number never decided whether the unfair treatment was real. What decided each case was the paper trail.

An email naming specific mistakes. A missing piece of IT equipment. An unanswered claim form.

Build yours before you need it, not after a bad meeting. Pick the question above that matches your week. Take the step it names today.

So what for you: a written record costs two minutes now. It could be worth thousands later.