Dyslexic students in english language classes

UK Disability Discrimination Act

Many countries have legislation which is intended to limit discrimination in the work place, and at educational establishments. The following are taken from the UK Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), and similar sections can be found in disability legislation across Europe.

“A person has a disability if he has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.”

The DDA defines discrimination in two ways. Discrimination occurs when someone is refused or deliberately not provided with service; provided with a lower standard of service; or service in a poorer manner; or provided with service on poorer terms; than other people are treated, and this treatment cannot be justified. It also occurs when a service provider fails, without justification, to make a reasonable adjustment.

In most cases it is clear when somebody is disabled, though usually the legislation requires guidelines on implementation, and court cases, to define for example, what constitutes just how long “long-term adverse effect” has to last in order for it to be a disability.

Contextual disabilities

There are times when a dyslexic individual may not be considered disabled. This would be when the dyslexia is judged not to impact on their day-to-day activities. For example, consider two individual who are equally dyslexic, one is an office manager and the other is a lumberjack. It may be argued that the office manager has to do lots of reading, and therefore should be considered disabled. However, in cutting down trees you do not need literacy skills, so although dyslexic, the lumberjack is not considered disabled.

So the irony is that the lumberjack may have that job because the system in which he was disabled, the education system, failed to recognise and support him. Now as a lumberjack they may acknowledge the dyslexia, but do not classify him as disabled since he does not need literacy skills, a job he ended up with due to his disability during school years. However, if he wanted to increase his promotion prospects, he may attempt to improve his skills by taking literacy classes, which may lead to an assessment and classification of being disabled.

However, this argument still concentrates on the literacy components in a learning environment, and ignores the disabling aspect of not being able to read contents on packing in shops, not being able to interpret timetables, and not understanding information sent through the post, such as tax demands or suspension of services for failing to respond to a previous letter. For many dyslexics, these issues are as significant in their day-to-day lives as a staricase can be for a wheelchair user.