Is dyslexia a disability

[Anon9898]

Have a meeting with manager tomorrow about other things but wanted to ask about dyslexia and how it's a learning difficulty not a disability.

All the websites I have looked at day it is considered as a learning disability. I don't think it is. I'm not disabled because of it I just have difficulty doing some things. That doesn't disable me.

I know people will have severe dyslexia and I'm not saying for them it isn't disabling but for me it isn't.

Am I being unreasonable to argue about it at the meeting tomorrow?

Typical dyslexics have very high IQ's, are great at problem solving and strategic thinking all the skills useful in the workplace it's just that they struggle with reading and or writing and are sometimes slow processors which just means it takes them a bit longer to think through stuff.

What do you mean "classified"? Where and by whom? Every time I start a new job, I am sent a questionnaire which asks Do you consider yourself disabled? I answer no and move on. So far, nobody forced any classification on me, insisted I have a workplace assessment or force me to accept reasonable adjustments despite my diagnosis.

There are however lots of different types and dyslexia presents slightly differently in everyone but they typical 'spikey profile ' is high iq combined with low reading level.

In employment law terms it can be considered a disability if it meets the legal test which is '"a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities".
Substantial is defined as 'more than trivial'.
So for some people it may not be, but for others it would be.

Well that is what I think OP's issue is - that the employer is classing her as disabled when she feels she isn't. Perhaps she hasn't been asked.

It is classed as a disability in law and is covered by the Equality Act. What this means is that legally the company is required to make / provide suitable / appropriate adjustments to enable an employee to work i.e. for some dyslexics a yellow tinted screen cover helps for others pink coloured. So to answer your question the company refers to it as a disability to comply with law.

Because by law it is a disability, it is that simple

It's legally recognised as a disability in the UK so your supervisor is correct to call it a disability. It would be incredibly offensive to suggest it's a 'difficulty' - that could imply you're just being difficult or play down it's potential impact.

If it has absolutely no impact for you then why would you would you have a diagnosis? you wouldn't need to mention it when applying for jobs and you wouldn't need any sort of arrangements made to facilitate it. If it does affect you and you do need arrangements made then you declare it and you get the support you need BECAUSE it's a disability.

It's your choice, either it's disability and you need some kind of support or arrangements made or it doesn't affect you in any way and there's no need to say you have it. It's not up to you to decide what does and doesn't constitute a disability so YABVU.

Do you have a dyslexia diagnosis? There seems to be a lot of people self diagnosing these days.

You can have Dyslexia with a comparatively low IQ, it's unrelated.

It is not recognised as a disability in the UK just because someone has it, it has the potential to be recognised a disability in some circumstances where they are adversely affected by their experience of dyslexia.

A lot of people who live with many different conditions don't consider themselves disabled. Some are so traumatised by their experiences of dyslexia and other people talking about it that they rarely want to talk about it to anyone or therwise feel embarrassed by it, we don;t know in the OPs instance because that isn't what is under discussion.

As for being diagnsed with something like dyslexia, it could have been diagnosed years ago or yesterday. In this instance we don't know when the OP was diagnosed or the context behind it, it could have affected them just prior to the diagnosis and yet be in a different situation now where the OP does not feel affected by it at work.

Nothing unreasonable about not considering yourself disabled if you don't feel like you are affected adversely

Only important in terms of it being classified as how you define your self. How, and when. It's your classification not an employers. For some it could be seen as a disability, for instance, if they are completely dysgraphic (can't write). But if they are facilitated by a laptop (for example) the learning disability and or difficulty has no bearing if the laptop eradicates the problem. In academia (school/uni). They have to facillitate for the students access to education at an ability appropriate level and make provision for extra time in exams and to complete written assignments etc. There are very specific rules. The same may apply to employment. What I'm saying is, they cannot just make it up as in give you disability when you don't have one. Neither can they fail to take note of a difficulty that hinders performance. I don't know the law in terms of employment but I'm certain they cannot invent disabilities for you. Maybe an Ed psych could help you. Good to know that extra timing can be built in to systems to enhance your performance and has the potential to provide more room and time for you to do things (produce things in written form) but without a full Ed psych report and assessment a future strategy cannot be settled upon in an adhoc way.
Dyslexia is actually a superpower. You're thinking is different to other people's, faster, and more visual. Ideas processing and visual communication and sharing can be greatly enhanced but it depends on your specific profile. A report would give the very nature of any beneficial assistance for you. Asessesment is not your enemy but a tool to find the nature of your optimum working environment. Once in a report your employer then must help create the environment that brings out the best in you. You may already have reports conducted at high school or uni. They will specifically highlight areas where there's more your employer could do to produce better working conditions and timings/equipment to assist you.
So to conclude, I agree with you, your employer cannot give you a disability you don't have. And, as I say I'm not an expert on employment law so can't say even whether they would consider a learning difficulty in a contemporary way, as in, its more of a gift than a hindrance but they should in my opinion, dyslexics bring more gifts to the work place than many other candidates. What they cannot do is use your learning difficulty to discriminate against you. There are very new and powerful legal tools against that. As in, you cannot do this because you are dyslexic etc. Their aspertions would be examined by discrination experts. They must facillitate and assist you to access the means to do your job. Though long, these thoughts are not exhaustive. But I hope they help you with direction and confidence. There will be really specific elements of your profile that enhance your ability to do your job, having dyslexics in the work place can be a gift. Often strong at higher order thinking tasks, synthesis and allowing many different kinds of colleagues to be on board and forward functioning, strong qualities that should be kept in the work place and allowed to flourish through specific facilitation that is specific to each dyslexic person. Doing these things for a dyslexic brings benefit to everyone else in the form of a highly rounded culture of multisensory research and ideas generation that can be consistently produced in response to work challenges. Everyone gets a voice, everyone gets a seat at the table, everything will be orchestrated several moves ahead by those gifted dyslexics who will miss so much less and keep the outcomes ahead of the game. Good luck with it....love to hear how you get on.

Very good question. I have dyslexia and ADHD when asked if I have a disability I always say no. I did it last week before completing a confusing exam for a volunteer role with the Ministry of Justice. I knew it would be a struggle but I still said 'No'. I also wasn't on Meds either that week and struggled to concentrate, digest the instructions. I clicked the random answers a few times and didn't realise they were set in stone. Anxiety and self doubt set in and I got into a bit of a mess. The worst part was I misread many of the questions I got the answers inverted. Obviously I failed miserably 😂

I see Dyslexia and ADHD as superpowers one day and an awful curse the next. It's the battle of those two constructs that's exhausting. I was having a particularly bad day the day of the exam. As I said 'No' I'm being accessed in the same way as people who don't have such hindrances so in the examiners eyes, I'm just lousy. Lesson learned the hard way!

@Mrsttcno1 @Jessie1259 It is not the case that dyslexia "is" a disability in law. It can be. It depends. The employers are erring on the side of caution and ensuring they help those with dyslexia, without they are in fact disabled or not.

@housethatbuiltme You are aware that difficulty and disability mean the same right? No they are not! The difficulty has to be sufficiently long term and substantial. We are have difficulties with some things, but we are not all disabled. That is a disservice to those who really have disabilities.

That’s not true

@Sammyspurs Yes it is. 70 IQ is the cut off for learning disability (ie intellectual impairment). Incidentally you can't be diagnosed with dyslexia if you have a learning disability.

Yes it is, I assess people with learning disabilities for a living and a specialist in the field.

Here is a link to the NICE guidelines
cks.nice.org.uk/topics/learning-disabilities/#:~:text=Learning%20disabilities%3A%20Summary,functioning%2C%20and%20onset%20in%20childhood.

You're comparing educational classifications with social classifications and they are very different. No one is down playing disabilities , many of us have them. But we are not prejudicing the case of a person with learning difficulties either. All have their needs and have their own aetiologies. Just stop attacking people, everyone speaks from their own area of understanding and most of us declare that. It's a Broad Church here. Securing the Fort....

What kind of specialist please?

You've just contradicted your self there I think. And as for assessing how dyslexics experience their disabilities I do not believe you are qualified...

The phrase learning difficulty is a an educational classification and just means dyslexia. Both words/ phrases can be problematic.

No it isn't true, dyslexia/ learning difficulties are no respectors of IQ. It's a condition which affects all individuals on the Intelligence Quotient Scale. Below 70 may be indicative of a disability but you're wording is mixed up and as I said earlier you're mixing two different concepts and saying others are wrong for holding their view. That's not right or fair.

We're talking difficulties not not disability, and educational not social or disability classification.