Who knew that the email could be the thing that exposes dyslexia? Let me explain…
In the last few weeks I have assessed…
- A 51 year old
- A 58 year old
- A 63 year old
They all have incredibly inspiring stories, all held down professional jobs for over 20 years and are top performers in their work place. They all have very complicated and clever strategies to keep dyslexia hidden and to mask their insecurities but low confidence and self-esteem as a result! Why has it suddenly become relevant or necessary to get assessed?…
EMAILS.
All of them have been picked up by managers because of the way they deal with emails. Since the world shut down we communicate less verbally, people working from home, or even in the same building but not crossing into different buildings means the ad-hoc conversations on the stairs, whilst making tea, or at the photocopier seem to have stopped, In favour of sending an email. Also, emails are super-duper quick, well that is if you don’t have dyslexia!
However … dyslexia means that your weaknesses are exposed in black and white, there’s nowhere to hide your poor grammar, insecure spelling and lack of punctuation. Emails are also not quick to compose if you have dyslexia, so it means that our work speed and what we can produce will be impacted. Then there is reading the email as well. Reading speeds tend to be slower if you have dyslexia so it can take longer to read and we often have to read things twice, meaning that again, dyslexic people are accused of not working efficiently and sometimes even placed on competency.
So there we have it…
Technology can be wonderful… but it isn’t always the answer and can still create issues that require accessibility support. Want to know more about as assessment as an adult? Drop me an email…jo@anotherwayround.co.uk