Access to work -dyslexia

[Dinoswearunderpants]

Hi all

I've recently had a formal diagnosis of dyslexia. The assessors have informed me I can access a grant via access to work.

I currently work in an office and am having a meeting with HR to discuss any adjustments required but it's all a minefield to me.

Has anyone used the access to work before? What can it do? Also what tools do you use to help if you have dyslexia please?

Thanks.

Access to work is a self referral service. Depending on where you are they have a waiting list of 4-6 months for assessment, so my advice is to do it asap! Just put access to work into your search engine and the gov page will come up.

They can help with software, work coaching and accessing coloured overlays etc if identified on the assessment. Have a look at the British Dyslexia website and that has some handy tips on too for how you and your employer can support you at work.

Depending on the information governance where you work, use of free tools like grammarly can be useful. I would also suggest you play around with immersive reader if you use Microsoft OS as from Windows 11 they have put on many accessibility options that support people with dyslexia and other conditions

If you work for a large company they have so fund some of the costs anyway. Your company may have others using specific software to assist them already so ask them.

Agree, many accessibility options are now built into tech - dictation software, coloured screen background, choice of font style, size and colour on screen, text to speech for example - but it depends on your role what else may be helpful. A2W may be able to help with setting up a laptop and software. Things like coloured overlays are readily available now, even saw some in Sainsburys the other day, or you could try coloured plastic wallets to see if that helps.