Dyslexia Awareness Week at Work: How to Make It Count

Reading and processing written material takes longer — not less well, just longer. Spelling and proofreading under time pressure are genuinely harder. Working memory for verbal instructions is limited, so a corridor briefing is often lost by the desk. Written communication may be slower to produce than the quality of the thinking suggests.

And alongside that: strong pattern recognition, strong verbal reasoning, strong problem framing, and a lot of accumulated skill at working out how systems actually function. The gap between what someone can contribute and what a document-heavy, deadline-compressed process lets them show is where organisations lose people.

A lunchtime session with lived-experience speaking, aimed at everyone — high reach, low friction, and the format most likely to prompt disclosure conversations afterwards.

A manager-focused session on adjustments and practical conversations, which is where behaviour actually changes.

A technology demonstration — text-to-speech, dictation, screen tinting, grammar support — because a large number of employees have no idea what the organisation already licenses.

A network or ERG panel, which is powerful where you have colleagues willing to speak, and should never be requested of anyone who is not.

Assistive technology available on request without a business case. Documents circulated in advance of meetings as standard. Presentation templates with accessible fonts, spacing and contrast. Written follow-ups after verbal briefings. Extra time in written assessments during recruitment. Proofreading support for externally facing documents.

Announcing a small number of these as permanent standard practice does more than any campaign asset.

Dyslexia Awareness Week runs in early October each year. Confirm speakers and format eight to twelve weeks ahead, agree with the executive sponsor which practice change will be announced, brief managers the week before so they can answer questions, run the sessions, then follow up within a month with what changed. That final step is the one that separates a programme from a poster.

Running an emotionally strong session, generating real goodwill, and changing nothing. That pattern is worse than doing nothing, because it teaches people that speaking up produces sympathy rather than action — and they will not do it twice.