When we think of disabilities, we often turn to the ones with the most visible signs. Those who require a wheelchair or mobility scooters for example. But this year’s International Day of People with Disabilities focuses on its theme of ‘Not every disability is visible’. Those with chronic pain, mental health issues and others that impact lives around the world but can’t always be seen.
Removing precon
The Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity is an organisation that is passionate about removing barriers to learning and life. They achieve this through promoting less recognised skills, campaigning for new ways of living and thinking. In addition, they inspire people to fall in love with learning despite their hardships. We invited Tory Sparks and Andy Cook to speak about our own preconceptions and myths about dyslexia. This is included with ways we can start incorporating more inclusive behaviour into our organisation.
Tory and Andy took us through what it means to be dyslexic today. They shared stories about coworkers who were silently struggling because of dyslexia. They experienced feelings of inadequacy and doubted their own inteligence. 10% of the population has dyslexia and that number rises to 15% if you include other disabilities such as ADHD which incorporate dyslexia as a symptom. While many of us may have negative preconceptions about dyslexia, many who have it compensate by developing their own techniques for overcoming their disability. This leads to dyslexics like Richard Branson, Tom Cruise and Albert Einstein who excel because they’ve taught themselves different ways to rationalise and interact with the world.
Employing someone with a learning disability
In fact, many organisations like NASA actively look for employees who have learning disabilities such as autism because they covert the unique skills they’ve developed. Dyslexics are often more empathetic with better interpersonal skills than the average person. Our new friends at Helen Arkell took us through all this and more, with exercises and activities to give us a sense of what it’s like to struggle with dyslexia, we came away with a newfound appreciation for the difficulties faced by thousands of people in the country.
We’re thrilled to have had this amazing chance to learn more about what differences we can make. We hope we to work with them and celebrate international day of people with disabilities again soon.
