Access to work -dyslexia

beckysbobbles12

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.

Becky

Emmia

beckysbobbles12 said:

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.

Becky

The tools you need depend on how the dyslexia affects you and your work. For example you might prefer speech to text rather than typing, or you might want tools like Grammarly to assist you with spelling and grammar checking.

MyRealNameToo

beckysbobbles12 said:

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.

Becky

Dont have a formal diagnosis as at my school you couldn't leave exams until your allotted time was up and whilst two teachers stated they thought I was dyslexic if you had such a diagnosis you got extra time in exams and I finished all but English Lit and History way before the time was up so would mean more time just sitting there doing nothing so didnt get tested. 

Your employers are legally obliged to make "reasonable adjustments" for you, the Access to Work Grant will pay for things that go beyond reasonable adjustments. 

What that might be depends very much on your personal condition and how it impacts your job. You would do a 2 hour assessment and the assessor would make suggestions of what can be done to improve things for you, if anything. The grant would pay for/contribute to anything the assessor recommended thats beyond reasonable adjustments. 

beckysbobbles12

Thanks for the replies. I have already paid £700 for the private assessment and have a formal report with recommendations. This does include recommendations for software etc. Do I apply for the grant and money is paid to my employer?

MyRealNameToo

Speak to your employer first, they may be willing to provide the software anyway or they may tell you that due to security concerns they won't install unknown third party software onto their systems 

Emmia

MyRealNameToo said:

Speak to your employer first, they may be willing to provide the software anyway or they may tell you that due to security concerns they won't install unknown third party software onto their systems 

Agree with this - you should speak to your employer about the recommendations and any software etc you need to do your job more effectively. 

The reality is, whatever the recommendations, implementing new software etc. is a bit of "suck it and see" you may find it difficult to use, or not very effective in practice.

Voice dictation can also be very irritating for colleagues in an open plan office... (And personally I find it irritating to have to correct it's mistakes - typing is faster and more accurate for me). Just imagine someone permanently being on video call all day, every day.

Undervalued

Whilst I agree with the above comments I would also caution about expecting too much in the way of "reasonable adjustments".

Many employers, to their credit, go far beyond what the law would require of them in this respect. However, not all by any means. "Reasonable adjustments" are just that, adjustments that are reasonable for the employer to implement.

Ultimately if the parties can't agree only a court can decide what is reasonable. Generally more is expected of a large company than a small firm with just a handful of employees. No company is expected to implement adjustments that are excessively costly or disruptive.

Also, there is the question of how effectively the employee can work even when "reasonable adjustments" are implemented. If, for example, despite their best efforts the quality of their work is impeded or much slower than would normally be expected then that may go beyond what is reasonable.

Never an easy situation.