New job, zero adjustments: the 6-week window to fix it

You have 6 weeks. That's the window UK employers get to claim 100% funded assistive tech for a new dyslexic starter, at no cost to them, through the Access to Work Tech Fund. Hardly anyone starting a new job uses it, because whatever worked at your last job or your course stays exactly where you left it.

Why your old adjustments stay behind

In the UK, the reasonable adjustment duty sits with whoever employs you right now, not whoever employed you before. Your university's disability service, your last manager's informal workarounds, none of it transfers automatically under the Equality Act 2010. A new employer has to know before it has to act.

The US works the same way. The ADA's reasonable accommodation process resets with each employer, and no one at your new company can see what your last one agreed to. You start the interactive process from the beginning, every time. US courts have found that dragging that process out too long can itself count as a failure to accommodate, even with no fixed legal deadline attached.

Most people find this out too late. A UK government review published in July 2026 found that applicants and employers usually only learn how Access to Work fits alongside their own workplace adjustments once the job has already started, not before that (NatCen Social Research for DWP, "Journeys to Access to Work," 17 July 2026).

Disclosure and adjustments get treated as the same conversation, and they aren't. Telling a new employer you're dyslexic is one decision. Asking for a specific adjustment is another, and you can do the second without going into detail on the first if that's what you'd rather do.

If no one at your new job can see what you had before, the only way they'll know is if you tell them before you start, not after.

The 6-week window that works in your favour

The Access to Work Tech Fund is the exception. It pays 100% of the cost of qualifying assistive tech for a new starter, with no employer contribution at all, but only within the first 6 weeks in the job (gov.uk Access to Work factsheet for employers and customers, checked July 2026). It covers equipment and software specifically, not support workers or travel costs, so run your own numbers first with the Access to Work calculator before you make the request.

Say a £600 piece of screen-reading software qualifies. Your employer buys it, submits the claim, and Access to Work reimburses the full amount, usually landing back with them within 10 working days (LSE Access to Work Toolkit; AbilityNet Access to Work factsheet, checked July 2026). None of that happens if the claim goes in after week 6.

Miss the window and you're back in the general queue. The National Audit Office found average Access to Work processing time hit 109 days in November 2025, against a 25-day target, with 66,749 applications still waiting for a decision that February.

Rejections are climbing too. DWP turned down 33% of Access to Work claims in the year to October 2025, up from 24% the year before (Written Parliamentary Question, Minister Stephen Timms, November 2025).

There's no direct US equivalent. The ADA doesn't fund assistive tech the way Access to Work does, so the nearest free resource is the Job Accommodation Network, which talks employers and employees through low-cost and no-cost options. Your new employer still pays for whatever gets approved.

If you're within your first 6 weeks anywhere in the UK, apply through the Tech Fund route now, before the slower general process becomes your only option.

What to send before day one

Four things, sent before you start rather than after, are what actually move this along. None of them need a new diagnosis or a fresh assessment.

1. A short written note of what helped before: extra time, alternative formats, a screen reader, a later start time, whatever it actually was, not a diagnosis.
2. A direct question to HR or your new manager: does the company already use Access to Work or the Tech Fund.
3. A proposed date, in writing, for a first adjustments conversation inside week one, not left open-ended.
4. Copies of anything already written down, like a workplace needs assessment, useful as a reference even though it isn't binding on a new employer.

How much to say, and when, works differently for a first job than for a transfer. The disclosure guide walks through both, and the difference matters more than most people expect. Draft the written note itself with the adjustments builder, then send it before you're asked rather than waiting for a form that might never come.

Sending this before day one does two things. It puts adjustments on record with someone who can actually act on them, and it starts the 6-week clock with time to spare instead of losing weeks to a slow reply or a missed email.

The paperwork you already have is a head start, useful evidence your new employer still has to agree to on its own terms.

The same reset applies if you're the manager

If you manage the new starter instead of being one, the reset works against you too. HR software rarely carries adjustment notes between employers, and a graduate's university support plan means nothing to your systems unless someone reads it and adds it in themselves.

A real example

Ask the direct question in week one, not the review at month three. "Is there anything from a previous role or your course that worked well, that you'd like here too" costs one sentence and often surfaces exactly what the Tech Fund could pay for, while there's still time left on the clock.

Put the answer somewhere your systems will actually keep it, not just in your own notebook. The point of asking early is that the record survives your involvement, in case you move roles yourself before the next review.

Dyslexia tends to fall through this gap more than a visible disability does, because the adjustments are often informal to begin with. A quiet arrangement with a previous line manager was never written down anywhere official, so there's nothing for a new employer's systems to miss in the first place. That's exactly why asking, rather than waiting for a file to surface, is the only route that works.

A director who asks in week one gets ahead of a performance conversation that a director who waits has in month three.

What this means for you

If you're starting a new job within the next 6 weeks, the call is simple: apply through the Access to Work Tech Fund before anything else, because that window closes and it doesn't reopen. If you're further into a role than that, use the standard process instead, expect months rather than weeks, and start the application early regardless. For more on getting the timing right, browse our other articles on disclosure and Access to Work.

The adjustments that got you through your last job or your degree are yours to carry, not your new employer's to remember. Send them across in writing, before day one, and start the clock while it still runs in your favour.