Accessibility
scenario
Negotiating live with dyslexia: 4 tactics that hold up

A November 2025 study of 400 UK employees found dyslexia traits predicted a rise in real-time workplace execution errors, even after ruling out ADHD, personality, and workload (Smith-Spark & Huang, Behavioral Sciences). Four tactics protect a dyslexic negotiator without disclosure: get the agenda and numbers in writing first, build in one pause before answering, repeat the number back before agreeing, and send a same-day written recap.

Read article →
rights update
EEOC scrapped its AI hiring guidance in 2025. The ADA didn't.

In January 2025 the EEOC deleted its guidance explaining how AI hiring tools can illegally screen out disabled applicants, and the pages still 404'd when checked in March 2026 (National Law Review). The ADA itself didn't change: hiring tech that screens out qualified disabled candidates is still illegal, DOJ's own version of the guidance is still live, and Illinois, California, Texas, and Colorado have since written their own AI hiring laws.

Read article →
decision
US ADA damages cap at $300,000. UK tribunals have no cap.

US ADA compensatory and punitive damages for disability discrimination are capped by employer size, from $50,000 up to $300,000 combined (Civil Rights Act of 1991). UK Equality Act 2010 tribunal awards have no cap; Lloyds Banking Group paid £470,000 to one dyslexic employee in 2024. If a US and UK offer are close in salary, the uncapped protection and UK-only Access to Work funding both favor the UK role.

Read article →
toolkit
Otter.ai vs Teams transcription: the £190 question

Every paid Microsoft Teams licence already includes free meeting transcription, but it's a raw unstructured transcript with no AI summary. Otter.ai Business costs up to $239.88/year (about £190) for AI summaries and cross-platform search, but if your employer already licenses Microsoft 365 Copilot (£16.10/user/month) or Teams Premium (£7.70/user/month), similar AI notetaking may already be available at no extra personal cost.

Read article →
myth buster
Dyslexia diagnosis dropped the IQ test requirement in 2013

DSM-5 dropped the IQ-achievement discrepancy requirement for a dyslexia diagnosis in 2013 (American Psychiatric Association), and the UK's SASC confirmed in May 2024 that the same model is neither valid nor reliable. Doing well at school or on an IQ test does not rule dyslexia out; assessors now look for an uneven cognitive profile instead of a low overall score.

Read article →
qa
Tech Fund, re-assessment, Bench Book: 7 questions answered

Seven dyslexia workplace questions answered: AI tools like ChatGPT and Dragon are a legal adjustment not a shortcut to justify, the Access to Work Tech Fund pays 100% of assistive tech costs for the under-six-weeks window, employers can't make you fund your own re-assessment, and UK tribunals must now follow the Equal Treatment Bench Book for dyslexic claimants.

Read article →
profession spotlight
Being a dyslexic electrician: 4 high-stakes tasks and what works

A quarter of UK construction workers identify as neurodivergent, and dyslexia is the second most reported condition among them at 31% (National Federation of Builders, June 2023). The four highest-friction tasks for dyslexic electricians are reading circuit diagrams, writing EICR and Part P certificates, cable calculations, and client quotes, each with a low-cost fix and an Access to Work funding route.

Read article →
scenario
3% of UK managers are dyslexic. Delegation is your edge.

Only 3% of UK corporate managers are dyslexic (Julie Logan, Cass Business School, 2009), which means most who reach management already built strong delegation habits as a childhood coping strategy. The article covers giving written instructions, running meetings and 1:1s, managing up, writing performance reviews, and whether to disclose to your own team, with tool links for each.

Read article →
rights update
The EAT ruled: dyslexia symptoms aren't proof of lying

An Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling (Habib v Dave Whelan Sports Ltd t/a DW Fitness First, [2023] EAT 113) says UK tribunals must apply the Equal Treatment Bench Book when judging a dyslexic claimant's credibility, and cannot treat dyslexia-linked inconsistency as evidence of dishonesty. The tribunal that got this wrong had its decision voided entirely; the whole case, all eight grounds of appeal, was sent back for a full rehearing.

Read article →
decision
Your employer wants you re-assessed. The £882 bill isn't yours.

Employers can't lawfully make an employee fund a new dyslexia assessment, or pause adjustments already in place, over doubts about an existing diagnosis. Acas guidance (updated 30 January 2025) and EEOC medical-examination guidance (issued 2000, still current) both put the cost of any employer-required assessment on the employer, not the employee.

Read article →
toolkit
The Tech Fund pays 100%. Here's what it actually covers.

The Access to Work Tech Fund pays 100% of assistive technology costs, software and hardware, for employees under six weeks in a role, with no employer contribution required regardless of company size (DWP Access to Work guidance, 2026). Outside that window, standard cost-sharing applies based on employer size, capped at £69,260/year for 2026-27.

Read article →
myth buster
1 in 2 workers hide their AI use. Yours is protected by law.

Nearly half of US employees hide their AI use at work out of fear of looking incompetent (Laserfiche/Reworked.co, August 2025). For dyslexic employees, assistive AI and dictation tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Dragon are a standard reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act 2010 and the ADA, not a workaround that needs justifying, and Access to Work already funds them.

Read article →
qa
Tech Fund, ADA vs UK law: 7 dyslexia questions answered

Seven dyslexia workplace questions answered: a 'mild' assessment result doesn't block an Access to Work claim, the Tech Fund covers more than Dragon and Read&Write, US ADA damages are capped by employer size while UK tribunal awards aren't, and the legal principle behind the £470,000 Lloyds case reaches beyond speech to any dyslexia-linked mistake with documented evidence.

Read article →
profession spotlight
Being a dyslexic accountant: 4 high-stakes tasks and what works

Dyslexia's real risk in accounting sits in reading and writing tasks, not arithmetic, since modern software checks the sums. The four highest-friction tasks are bank reconciliation, audit working paper cross-referencing, financial report writing, and client email correspondence, each with a low-cost or free adjustment under the Equality Act 2010.

Read article →
rights update
1,345 ADA learning-disability charges: what filing actually does

The EEOC recorded 1,345 learning-disability ADA charges in FY2023. The article explains the five stages of an EEOC charge, the employer's interactive process obligation under the ADA, and what dyslexic employees should do when their accommodation request is refused or ignored.

Read article →
rights update
Lloyds paid £470,000 for a dyslexia dismissal. What went wrong.

Lloyds Banking Group dismissed Carl Borg-Neal, a dyslexic manager with 30+ years' service, for using an offensive word during a race awareness training session. Medical evidence showed his dyslexia caused him to 'spurt things out' under cognitive pressure. The tribunal found this was unlawful under Section 15 of the Equality Act 2010 and awarded over £470,000 in compensation (ET UKET 2202667/2022, remedy judgment 2024). Section 15 does not require employer intent: if the behaviour arose from the disability and the employer knew about it, the test is met.

Read article →
decision
Your employer agreed verbally. ACAS says that's not enough.

Verbal adjustment agreements are common and legally real. The problem is evidence: without written confirmation, a Section 20-21 Equality Act 2010 claim cannot be proved at a tribunal. ACAS published a free written confirmation letter template in January 2025 (acas.org.uk/reasonable-adjustment-confirmation-template). The recommended action is a same-day summary email after every adjustment meeting, asking the employer to confirm or correct it.

Read article →
toolkit
Dragon vs Copilot for dictation: the £600 question

Dragon Professional Anywhere costs £600+VAT/year (Access to Work covers this fully). It beats Copilot and ChatGPT at one task: composing text via voice in any application, including CRM systems and bespoke enterprise software where AI tools have no access. Three setup settings (custom vocabulary, auto-formatting, consistent microphone) determine whether it works at 99% or 85% accuracy.

Read article →
myth buster
Mild or severe? Your employer's grading has no legal weight

The Equality Act 2010 defines disability by functional impact, not clinical severity grade. 'Substantial' means more than minor or trivial, a threshold most dyslexic employees meet. An assessor's label of 'mild' has no legal meaning under the Act, and an employer who refuses adjustments on that basis is applying the wrong test.

Read article →
qa
Verbal promises, PIPs, AI tools: 7 dyslexia questions answered

Seven dyslexia workplace questions answered: verbal adjustment agreements have no legal weight without written confirmation (ACAS, January 2025); AI tools including ChatGPT and Copilot qualify as reasonable adjustments and Access to Work funds them; disclosing during a PIP triggers the Section 20 duty immediately; part-time workers are eligible for Access to Work.

Read article →
profession spotlight
Being a dyslexic lawyer: 4 high-stakes tasks and what works

8% of lawyers declared a disability in 2025 vs 17% of the UK workforce (SRA, 2025). The four tasks that create the most friction for dyslexic lawyers are contract review, legal drafting, caselaw research, and court bundle preparation. Each has specific, tested workarounds; most adjustments cost nothing to implement under the Equality Act 2010.

Read article →
scenario
Board presentation with dyslexia: 4 strategies that work

Four strategies for dyslexic directors presenting to the board: design slides with one claim each (navigable in two seconds), write speaker notes as full sentences not bullets, brief the chair ten minutes before the meeting, and set Q&A at the end. All four are reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010; none require disclosure to implement.

Read article →
rights update
Access to Work: 480 caseworkers hired. The wait: 37 weeks.

The DWP announced 480 new caseworkers in May 2026, a 72% workforce increase, targeting the 66,000-application backlog by September 2027. Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (June 2026) branded current 37-week waits 'unacceptable'. Urgent cases (start date within 4 weeks) are still decided within 28 days. Your employer's Equality Act 2010 duty to make reasonable adjustments runs independently of Access to Work and cannot be delayed by the application backlog.

Read article →
decision
Adjustments now or a £540 formal report: how to choose

You can request dyslexia adjustments from your employer in writing today under the Equality Act 2010. A workplace needs assessment (£540 at the BDA, June 2026) produces a formal independent report that carries more weight with HR, supports an Access to Work application, and is harder to dismiss than a self-identified list. In most cases, do both: request immediate adjustments this week, book the WNA in parallel.

Read article →
toolkit
ChatGPT vs Copilot for dyslexic employees: 4 tasks, which wins

ChatGPT Plus ($20/mo, ~£16) and Microsoft 365 Copilot (£16.10/user/month from July 2026) cost nearly the same. For most dyslexic employees in Microsoft 365, Copilot wins on email (Outlook), meetings (Teams), and documents (Word) because zero copy-paste. ChatGPT wins for varied PDFs, non-Microsoft tools, and voice-to-text drafting outside meetings. Both qualify for Access to Work funding in the UK.

Read article →
myth buster
Dyslexia's biggest workplace problem is memory, not reading

A November 2025 study of 400 UK employed adults (Smith-Spark & Huang, Behavioral Sciences, PMC12649733) found dyslexia traits predict 3 types of workplace cognitive failure: memory, attention, and action. The adjustments that address these are about how information is delivered and confirmed, not font size or reading support.

Read article →
qa
Mild dyslexia still qualifies: 7 workplace questions answered

Mild dyslexia meets the Equality Act 2010 threshold ('more than minor or trivial'). Seven questions answered: severity grading, screening vs full assessment, employer disclosure privacy (UK GDPR), adjustments being removed, Access to Work at a new employer, evidence employers can require, and requesting interview adjustments without full company disclosure.

Read article →
profession spotlight
Being a dyslexic software engineer: 4 coding tasks and what works

Eye-tracking studies find no significant code comprehension gap between dyslexic and non-dyslexic developers. The November 2025 Cruz et al. empirical study identifies documentation and code review as the main friction points. IDE tools (autocomplete, linters, syntax highlighting) function as effective accommodations. Statically-typed languages, AI writing tools, and pair programming are the highest-return strategies.

Read article →
myth buster
The $300 accommodation that saves your employer $30,000

JAN survey data shows 49.4% of workplace accommodations cost nothing; median one-time cost is $300. CIPD puts UK employee replacement cost at £30,614. JPMorgan found neurodivergent employees 90–140% more productive with support. The business case for adjustments, with sources.

Read article →
scenario
Chairing with dyslexia: 4 adjustments that look like good governance

Four adjustments for dyslexic board chairs and directors that are indistinguishable from standard governance practice: a standing paper deadline, delegated minutes, an agenda format with page references, and verbal author summaries before each item. All are reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010; none require disability disclosure to the full board to implement.

Read article →
rights update
Access to Work frozen at £69,260 for 2026-27 — what dyslexic employees lose

The DWP quietly froze the Access to Work cap at £69,260 for 2026–27 (second consecutive year, no ministerial announcement), a real-terms cut of ~7% over two years. Most dyslexic employees won’t hit the cap, but award reductions at renewal are widespread; 37% of BSL users surveyed had grants cut at renewal (RNID/DeafATW, April 2026). Reconsideration in writing is the main challenge route.

Read article →
decision
Tell HR or your manager first? The post-diagnosis decision tree.

Going to HR in writing is the recommended first step after a dyslexia diagnosis. HR knowledge is unambiguously employer knowledge under the Equality Act 2010 sections 20–21, and an email creates a timestamped paper trail. Going to a manager first is common but leaves you in an informal process with no written record. Confirmed adjustments in writing is required per ACAS guidance updated January 2025.

Read article →
myth buster
61% of reasonable adjustments cost employers nothing.

JAN's 2024 employer survey (updated September 2025) found 61% of workplace adjustments cost nothing to implement. The median one-time cost for those that do: $300. Under the Equality Act 2010 and ADA, the 'too expensive' defence is rarely available for most dyslexia adjustments, and UK employees can route software costs through Access to Work at no expense to the employer.

Read article →
myth buster
Undiagnosed dyslexia still triggers your employer's legal duty.

ACAS confirmed in January 2025 that a formal dyslexia diagnosis is not required before an employer must make reasonable adjustments. Under the Equality Act 2010, the duty arises when an employer knows or ought reasonably to know about the difficulty. This article covers the legal test, how to ask without a diagnosis, what to do if your employer refuses to engage, and the US position under the ADA.

Read article →
qa
£690 assessment, 100% Tech Fund: 6 dyslexia questions answered

A dyslexia diagnostic assessment costs £690–£882 in the UK in 2026. The new Access to Work Tech Fund covers 100% of assistive technology for employees under 6 weeks in post. Six questions answered: assessment costs, Tech Fund, what adjustments to request, dismissal risk, ADA qualification, and workplace needs assessments.

Read article →
profession spotlight
Being a dyslexic teacher: 4 paperwork tasks and what works

The NEU confirms paperwork is the most challenging and stressful part of teaching for dyslexic staff. This article covers 4 writing-heavy tasks (marking, report writing, lesson planning, SEND documentation) and the specific adjustments schools are legally required to provide under the Equality Act 2010.

Read article →
scenario
'Attention to detail' in your appraisal: 4 ways to respond

An 'attention to detail' appraisal comment is legally challengeable if you have dyslexia. The Equality Act 2010 requires employers to discount disability-related performance issues from formal scoring. This article covers 4 responses depending on where you are in the process, with UK legal framing and specific email language.

Read article →
rights update
Access to Work rejects 1 in 3. Here's how to push back.

The DWP rejected 33% of Access to Work applications in 2025–26 (to October 2025). There is no formal appeal, but a reconsideration by a different Adviser is available, and the DWP complaints process covers service failures. This article covers both routes step by step.

Read article →
decision
Disclose before or after the offer: what the maths says

Section 60 of the Equality Act 2010 bans pre-offer disability questions in the UK; ADA Section 12112(d) does the same in the US. For most dyslexic applicants, the right disclosure window is after a conditional offer and before Day 1. The only reason to move earlier is if you need interview adjustments.

Read article →
toolkit
Read&Write vs Speechify: the £245 price gap and which to buy

Read&Write costs £354.99/year UK retail; Speechify costs $139/year (about £110). Both are Access to Work approved. Speechify wins for most dyslexic employees because reading incoming content is the bigger daily barrier — but Read&Write earns its higher cost if writing and word prediction are the core need.

Read article →
myth buster
The visual dyslexia myth is costing you the wrong adjustments

The 'seeing letters backwards' story is wrong, and it steers workplaces toward coloured overlays and font changes that miss the phonological processing mechanism. The adjustments that work target processing time, written-over-verbal formats, and text-to-speech access.

Read article →
qa
7 dyslexia-at-work questions: answered straight

7 questions dyslexic employees search most, answered directly: adjustments without a formal diagnosis, telling HR vs manager, Access to Work rejection appeals, redundancy scoring, whether employers can ask pre-offer, disclosure timing, and Access to Work timescales.

Read article →
myth buster
Tom Holland said no to SNL. What his dyslexia strategy teaches.

Tom Holland has turned down SNL every time because live cue-card reading creates a freeze. His three documented strategies translate directly into workplace adjustment requests any dyslexic employee can use.

Read article →
profession spotlight
Being a dyslexic nurse: 4 high-risk tasks and what works

Dyslexic nurses triple-check medication — the research shows hypervigilance, not errors. Here are the 4 ward tasks most affected by dyslexia, and the adjustments NHS trusts must provide.

Read article →
scenario
40 pages at 6pm: the dyslexic director's board pack system

Adults with dyslexia take 45% longer on reading tasks. A 40-page board pack is solvable. The prep system that works at senior level — most requires no formal disclosure.

Read article →
rights update
Fired for email errors: M&S paid £53,855 for ignoring dyslexia

Rita Jandu was marked down in M&S's redundancy scoring for 'rushed emails' — a direct dyslexia effect. The tribunal awarded £53,855 in Jandu v Marks and Spencer. Launch-day article, added to the index this week after being missing since June 4.

Read article →
rights update
UK neurodiversity tribunal cases hit 517 in 2025, up 95% in five years

UK neurodivergent tribunals nearly doubled in five years. Two 2025 dyslexia cases show what failure costs employers — and what it means if you're deciding to disclose.

Read article →