“What’s wrong with you, are you stupid?” Listening to the biographical narratives of adults with dyslexia in an age of ‘inclusive’ and ‘anti-discriminatory’ practice

Abstract

Little research has been conducted, understanding the impact of educational-inclusion and workplace anti-discriminatory policies on lived-experiences of people with dyslexia. This paper consequently analyses qualitative-biographical accounts of 15 adults with dyslexia; applying the social relational model of disability to conceptualise these. Findings illustrate, the embodied-experiences of dyslexia defined within a disabling-educational system and discriminatory-workplace; culminating in psycho-emotional impact on participant’s self-esteem leading them to pathologise experiences of failure through an individualistic deficit-explanation of self. The article concludes suggesting these lived-experiences must be acknowledged in education to develop inclusive practices adequately preparing individuals for adulthood, not just for the workplace.

Points of Interest

• This article draws on the social relational model of disability (i.e. recognising both the social and the biological) and applies it to the experiences of people with dyslexia.

• Participants discussed the psychological and emotional impact of experiences of exclusion throughout their life histories.

• Participants discussed painful school experiences during childhood which had a lasting emotional impact.

• Even though legislation requires ‘reasonable adjustments’ must be made in workplaces, people with dyslexia still experience discrimination

• The research views dyslexia as an alternative reading and writing style which needs to be considered by schools and employers, looking to create an inclusive environment.

Keywords:

• Dyslexia
• psycho-emotional
• assistive technologies
• disability
• impairment
• reasonable adjustment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.