66% of HR think they support dyslexia. Only 16% agree.

66% of HR teams think their company already supports dyslexic staff. Only 16% of dyslexic employees agree (Made By Dyslexia & Randstad Enterprise, published 1 May 2023). That is a 50-point gap between what HR believes and what you feel.

Most dyslexia policies are written for one person: whoever signs off the checklist. A policy can exist without ever helping you. You are not imagining that gap, and this article shows what closes it for you.

Why a policy doesn't equal support

A dyslexia policy usually means two things happened. Someone in HR wrote a document, and staff clicked through an online training module. Now the company can say it "supports staff" in its annual report.

None of those three things asked what you find hard. None of them asked what would help with a rushed email or a 40-page board pack. That is the real disconnect.

66% of HR professionals said they had support in place for dyslexia. Only 14% of dyslexic staff said their workplace understood how they think. Just 16% said they felt supported day to day (Made By Dyslexia & Randstad Enterprise, published 1 May 2023).

A policy measures intention. Feeling supported measures whether anyone acted on it.

So what for you: a training module only proves the policy exists. It doesn't prove anyone has asked what you need.

What the gap looks like on a normal Tuesday

The policy gap shows up in small ways. A manager assumes the training already covered it. So they never ask what you need.

Meeting papers still arrive five minutes before the meeting, not the evening before. Nobody follows up on the one adjustment you mentioned six months ago. None of this requires anyone to be unkind.

Most managers believe the policy is doing the job. Nobody has told them otherwise. UK and US law agree on one point.

The duty to adjust sits with your employer, not with head office (checked September 2026). The Equality Act 2010 covers this in the UK. The Americans with Disabilities Act covers it in the US.

Most dyslexic employees never ask for adjustments directly. They assume the policy already covers it, or they don't know where to start.

The reasonable adjustments builder turns your specific challenges into a conversation plan. It drafts the email for you too, in about two minutes.

So what for you: a written conversation about your role is what closes the gap. If you haven't had that talk yet, go start it this week.

Four signs your policy has never met you

Some quick checks show which side of the gap you're on.

• No one has ever asked you, one to one, what makes your job harder.
• Your only adjustment came from your own request, not from any company process.
• You don't know who owns dyslexia support at your company, only that a policy exists somewhere.
• Your manager talks about "the policy" but has never asked about your exact role.

So what for you: if any of these sound familiar, the policy hasn't reached you yet. That's common, and it's fixable.

What staying unsupported costs you

Feeling unsupported has a real cost. You re-read emails three times. You rebuild meeting notes from memory. You stay late to catch errors no one flagged.

That work is invisible on a timesheet. It is not free. The masking cost calculator puts a number on it.

Enter your salary and the workarounds you already use. It estimates what that unpaid effort costs you each year.

So what for you: knowing the real cost often turns "I should ask" into asking, this week.

Why HR still thinks the job is done

HR teams measure support one way. You feel it in another. Most track training completion rates, and whether a policy got signed off.

A support network might exist on paper too. That is still not the same as someone checking in on you.

All three can hit 100%. Meanwhile, zero staff may have had one real adjustment talk. That gap likely explains the 14% figure above (Made By Dyslexia & Randstad Enterprise, published 1 May 2023).

A dashboard can look perfect and still miss you completely. It counts activity, not outcomes.

So what for you: don't wait for HR's dashboard to catch up with your week. The dashboard is tracking something else.

Converting a policy into your own adjustments

Start with what you struggle with this week. Lead with the task, not the word dyslexia.

A UK request might sound like this: send meeting papers the evening before, not the morning of. A US version asks for the same thing.

It's worded as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA. Either way, name the task, not the label.

Put it in writing, even after a verbal chat. UK tribunals have found that a verbal promise, later dropped, is not enough protection on its own. ACAS's neurodiversity guidance (updated 30 January 2025) recommends written confirmation of anything agreed. Keep a copy of that email for yourself, too.

The same logic protects a US employee. A dated email creates the record an EEOC charge would need later.

A company policy gives you	An individual adjustment gives you
A training video everyone watches once	Meeting papers sent the evening before, every time
A line in the employee handbook	A written, dated agreement specific to your role
A support network you can join	A named manager who follows up if it lapses

A real example

Picture a new starter under six weeks into a UK role. They can ask for text-to-speech software and a reading pen.

Access to Work's Tech Fund pays 100% of the cost. The employer pays nothing (LSE Access to Work Toolkit; AbilityNet Access to Work factsheet, checked July 2026). Claims are usually paid back within about 10 working days.

Use the Access to Work guide to check what you would qualify for.

So what for you: the request that works is specific, written, and about your week, not your diagnosis.

What costs your employer nothing

One quiet reason adjustments get skipped: managers assume they cost money. Most don't. The Job Accommodation Network found 49% of workplace accommodations cost nothing at all (JAN, Workplace Accommodations: Low Cost, High Impact, 2023).

Most of the rest cost under $500. Meeting papers sent the evening before cost nothing. A written follow-up after a verbal briefing costs nothing too.

Text-to-speech tools in Word, Outlook, and Teams are often free. They usually come with your employer's Microsoft licence.

So what for you: if cost is the unspoken reason, most real fixes still cost nothing.

What this means for you

Your employer may have a dyslexia policy. If no one has asked what you need, don't count that as support yet.

Treat the policy as permission to start the conversation, not as the outcome. Write down the one thing that would help you most this week. Then ask for it directly. One short email is usually enough to start.

So what for you: 66% of HR already think the job is done. Only you asking, in writing, moves you into the 16% who feel it.