Dyslexia: To disclose or not to disclose, that is the question?

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Hello there followers and readers hope you are all well

If we do disclose to people that we are dyslexic many will in society just focus on perceived negatives. We all cant read or spell, we cant organise ourselves etc. There tends to be a focus on a medical model of dyslexia that doesn't represent the dyslexic community. It focuses on what society thinks / believes being dyslexic is. However, the medical model is one that just does not fit dyslexics, or the dyslexic community, because it focuses of discrepancy, deficits and disorder. 

Maybe that is why so many dyslexics do not disclose they are dyslexic and it is their right not to disclose. But this can mean we miss out on the support we are entitled to in employment and education. Support that could be the difference between passing or failing a course, or finding and keeping employment. That is why I always advise dyslexics to disclose. But, as I already said, its down to the individual dyslexic to decide whether they wish to disclose or not.

Dyslexics are not broken, we are not disabled, we are different. Dyslexia is about diversity not disability. It is not we in the dyslexic community why need to be, "here comes my fave ever word, NOT!.....remediated". If anything needs to be remediated it is societies medical model view of dyslexia.

As for myself I disclose every time because I am very positive about being dyslexic. Being dyslexic give as so many positives, big picture thinking, empathy, emotional intelligence and fab unique problem solvers. Yes, being dyslexic can be fab, but it can also be a big pain in the arse.

We have had a medical model of dyslexia created by a dyslexia unfriendly society. It does nothing to enable us it just fails us. I am not saying reading is not a pain in the ass for many in the dyslexic community. I am saying is society fails to enable us to overcome barriers to reading. It just continues to use the same strategies that work for non dyslexics and do not work for dyslexics over and over again. 

Physically reading from a book is just a strategy for accessing information. But its not the only strategy. We have text to speech, we have video, we have podcasts etc. But society tells us we will read from a book no matter whether we can or cannot access what is on the page.

Many thanks for reading

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#PeaceLoveGroovyness to you all

Steve McCue I am a dyslexic dyslexia and inclusion specialist