To ask dyslexic team member to put a note on her email signature???

[FusionChefGeoff]

For the record I am NOT going to do this but I’m interested in other people’s views on this and decided to brave the AIBU format.

Ive been working with a fab new trainee for about a year now. It’s my own micro business and I’m training her from scratch, so to speak. She’s quite severely dyslexic, is very open about it with me and others we work with and we regularly have discussions around what I can do to make everything easier for her. Including redirecting some work that would normally sit with her job role because it’s unfair to expect her to ever get to the standard we would need. (To do with data management where we need precision and speed - and she just can’t see mistakes / typos)

Generally, attention to detail is important in our overall work and she and I have developed lots of strategies to support her which generally involves quite a lot of other people’s time checking with her.

However, there are still lots of mistakes in her emails to clients and I can’t justify having to sign off every email she sends it’s just not feasible. It’s also not nice for her feeling like she’s working in a straight jacket the whole time. Things that spell checks obviously aren’t picking up like apostrophes where they’re not needed or using the wrong homophones.

Ive worked with other people in the past who have an unobtrusive line ‘Forgive any spelling errors which my dyslexia may have caused” or something similar which I think ‘let’s them off the hook’ as it stops people judging them purely based on spelling.

If you’re dyslexic do you / would you use this approach? Or do you keep your dyslexia to yourself as it’s no one else’s business?

Genuinely looking for thoughts.

As I said I am NOT going to suggest this to her.

I would love any tips or ideas how to help her improve the accuracy and quality of emails - although generally she’s very good at using tools and software to help so maybe I just need to explore what she’s doing for emails and if she has anything else she can use more regularly.

She’s a trainee but she’s self employed? Sounds dodgy to me

Disclosing your disability on an email footer is a sure fire way to get discriminated against, either intentionally or unintentionally.

You can't ask her to disclose her private medical information to everybody she encounters, and whether she thinks up this idea herself and chooses to do so is entirely up to her.

No. It's a disability. Forcing her to declare it because it inconveniences you, isnt legal.

Find a better solution.

straitjacket, lets. You probably need a company proofreader.

It’s late to explain the nuance but yes she’s self employed and that’s not what the thread is about

Grammarly, copilot, chat gpt can all help with this. There is also specialist software (eg. used by education establishments) that can assist. She could also use voice to text software. Really as her employer you should be doing a workplace assessment and providing what she needs as a reasonable adjustment. Asking her to publicly declare her disability is not the answer.

Side note - How can she be a freelance trainee? Are you just trying to wiggle out of providing proper employment benefits.

Get access to work in to support her. It’s free and they can establish (and fund to a point) technology and training that could help.

There will be a million pieced of software that can support with dyslexia at work. Contact someone like Neuro Box. I'm sure there's a dyslexia charity as well that could give you advise. She can also refer herself to Access to Work, the employer only makes a small contribution or nothing depending how big the company is I think.

You can still do Access to Work as a self employed person.

Would I put 'Please forgive my delay in sending this, I have ADHD'. Not a fucking chance 🤣. I might think about it.

Was just about to suggest this. Grammarly works really well.

Came here to say this 😂

For everyone suggesting AI or software, wouldn’t it just be nicer for her to have a tagline in her signature and for people to be aware and understanding. Hiding the dyslexia behind software a) slows her down as it’s an extra step in communicating, and b) doesn’t make dyslexia visible and raise awareness.

A tagline in her signature sounds like a great solution but she may not want to. Why not have the conversation with her and put forward options that can help- tagline or AI- and let her choose what she’s comfortable with.

Depends on the job, but writing errors make me uneasy and in some situations (recently when choosing an orthodontist, for example) I have chosen not to use a business where there were numerous mistakes in written English. It smacks of a larger carelessness — not necessarily on behalf of the individual employee, but in the business as a whole. I would have been reassured to have a signature that explained why one particular individual might have made particular mistakes. I also type carelessly in some situations (here, WhatsApp messages) but would always write slowly and check if it was important. I assume that other non-dyslexic people behave similarly.

You can get AI to write your emails but they won’t (unless you’re very skilful) sound like human emails. No software is perfect. I would prefer an explanatory signature.

Because it's illegal for an employer to ask or otherwise put pressure on an employee to disclose a disability.

It doesn't matter what the disability is.

If you had a stoma bag and had to have frequent breaks away from your desk to attend to your stoma bag, meaning you might inconvenience people trying to contact you, would you really be happy being asked to put an email signature saying "forgive my periodic absence I am removing a bag of faeces from my body"? No. You wouldn't, because understandably people would probably look at you differently, or may choose not to interact with you at all, or you may be treated unfavourably or denied opportunities.

That said, usually most people can read an email from someone dyslexic and ascertain that there's a high likelihood the sender is dyslexic without the dyslexic person having to make everybody know they have dyslexia. It doesn't really need pointing out or making into a big deal.

I don’t see anything in the OP that points towards putting pressure on her. OP knows people who have used the signature tagline to good effect in the past. As her manager, the OP can check in with her employee and raise some possible solutions to this problem.

I actually think a note at the bottom of an email like you mentioned is a really good idea.

There’s nothing wrong with her, she can’t help it and the world needs to accommodate things like this- a note will certainly help.

Also your example isn’t at all like someone with dyslexia. The crass wording doesn’t add any effect to your argument. And yes, many people will read poor grammar and spelling and not immediately assume dyslexia- they will assume the person is stupid and not good at their job. My family are Deaf BSL users. I know what it means to be judged as thick for not writing English fluently.

Regardless, the OP is only seeking to help her employee and I’m sure she can navigate the conversation and find better ways to help her without putting pressure on. She might like the idea, she might not. Some people wear sunflower lanyards, some wouldn’t dream of it.

"Can you tell people you're dyslexic in your email signature because we're worried how clients perceive your emails and its making a lot of work for me?"- not verbatim, Is applying pressure to someone to disclose something private about themselves by emphasising a burden and using shame tactics.

Yes, the OP should explore options, such as the assistive technology available, access to work and even occupational health referrals if necessary.

If others within the business have been asked to do so, they shouldn't have been. If they've done so willingly of their own volition because they personally see a benefit, fine. But the OP can't say well Gerald and Christine have declared that they're dyslexic on their emails so I think you should too. That would be laying a red carpet into the courtroom should disability related discrimination happen following these events.

You’re making up the OP’s conversation before she’s even had it and arguing with yourself 😅

”not verbatim” indeed.

My business partner is dyslexic. Honestly important emails you just have to check them. His dyslexia is so wild I don’t know how he gets past the checkers - but he does with amazing efficiency. Its actually quite a talent.

For everyday emails then inbuild / add on email AI is great now. Grammarly, Googles Workspace AI, Word AI, what platform are you using?

Chat GPT also great but you have to unamericanise, remove the em dashes, and my partner cant help but tweak it. It’s always in the bloody edit he adds that there is a clanger.

We wouldnt add a disclaimer - it’s just saying we don’t think details are important if we have excuses.

Firstly, you can’t ask employees to disclose their private health info in an email signature.

Anyone who does it, does that cause they want to - not because it’s easier for the business or the business has asked them to

Secondly she’s freelance/self employed but you’re treating her like an employee? If she can’t deliver then just end the contract, you don’t have to make do with someone doing a poor job because of any reason in that set up.

Yes, I was going to suggest this.

She just needs to drop her email into ChatGPT and ask it to correct any spelling errors and ensure it makes sense. Then quickly read it, then copy / paste it back into her email to send.

I'm sure it won't shock you to realise that announcing your disability doesn't immediately make people think you aren't stupid or bad at your job. It just makes them think you're stupid, bad at your job AND disabled. It adds a whole other layer of othering.

And again, with the sunflower lanyard example you've given, you can't be asked to wear a sunflower lanyard to out yourself as disabled, it is a personal choice. Except sunflower lanyards don't tell the observers exactly what the disability is so you're often treated like you lack capacity and understanding anyway. They can do more harm than good in a lot of environments. That's exactly why it should be up to whoever decides they want to wear one.

Was the erroneous apostrophe in “let’s them off the hook” deliberate? 😅

“aren’t picking up like apostrophes where they’re not needed”, oh the irony.