Why it makes business sense to be dyslexia and disability friendly

Hi blog readers hope you are all well

Well every business person in the county is well aware that budgets are tight for all businesses. But every business benefits from a healthy and motivated staff.

Healthy and happy staff are more productive, less likely to take time off due to illness and stress and be far more motivated. 

A business can also serve its dyslexic / disabled customers more effectively by being dyslexia and disability friendly and it makes sound business sense as well.

Remember one happy and satisfied disabled or dyslexic customer, indeed any customer will tell their friends and give positve feedback on social media and in turn will come and buy from your business and / use your services. Every business in the country benefits from returning customers. 

Whilst I do not see dyslexia as a disability it is recognised as a disability under the disability discrimination act. Employers are required under this legislation to support disable and dyslexic staff by making reasonable adjustments.

There is support available for employers to support dyslexic / disabled staff through the government Access to Work scheme. They can provide funds to buy assistive tech software if it required for dyslexic and disabled staff. Last time I worked with Access to Work they were able to provide 90% of the costs towards equipment for dyslexic / disabled staff.

Businesses, training organisations and charities have to remember that 20% of the uk population is disabled, around 10% are dyslexic. Meeting their needs effecitvely can increase business turnover and enhance corporate image and create a more productive workforce. So it makes sound business sense to be dyslexia / disablity friendly.

Disability and dyslexia friendly solutions can benefit non dyslexic staff. Speech to text software is a far more effective and efficient way to input text into a computer.

There are also many ways to enable dyslexic and disabled staff to use the computer more effecivley.  For example many dyslexics can benefit from using different colour background colours on computers.  This could also help non dyslxic staff avoid eyestrain. This is a simple and free solution and there are many others.

Dyslexia Pathways CIC run regular dyslexia awareness training sessions which can be run for whole organisations or in groups with people from other organisations. This is probably the first step in raising awarness of dyslexia.

Then its about providing a safe environemnt where staff can discuss any dyslexia / disability disclose they are dyslexic / disabled. Maybe have a named person in HR where people feel able and comfortable to disclose.

I know it is not easy for small organisation to do this but the benefits from supporting disabled and dyslexic staff far outweigh any possible percieved negatives.

http://www.uniquedyslexic.com/

http://www.dyslexiapathways.com/

Many thanks for taking the time to read my blog

Steve McCue