This Dyslexia Awareness Week, Recite Me is proud to announce that we have taken the British Dyslexia Association’s Dyslexia Friendly Workplace Pledge.
The pledge is a 12-month commitment designed to help organisations build more dyslexia-friendly workplaces through practical guidance, resources and support for employees and managers.
For Recite Me, it’s a commitment that has a particularly strong connection to our story.
Dyslexia and the Recite Me story
Our Founder and CEO, Ross Linnett, wasn’t diagnosed with dyslexia until after he had graduated from university.
Throughout school and university, Ross knew he processed information differently. Reading and writing could be difficult, and despite knowing the answers in exams, he often struggled to complete them within the allotted time.
Receiving a diagnosis helped explain those experiences. Later, when Ross entered the workplace, assistive technology helped him access information in a way that worked better for him. But that support was restricted to his own computer.
That experience ultimately contributed to the idea behind Recite Me: making digital content work for everyone.
Today, Ross speaks openly about both the challenges dyslexia can present and the strengths he associates with thinking differently, from problem solving to finding alternative ways of approaching a challenge.
Supporting different ways of working
Ross isn’t the only person with dyslexia at Recite Me. We have a number of dyslexic colleagues across the business, and their experiences are not all the same. What helps one person may make little difference to another.
The British Dyslexia Association highlights awareness, openness, accessibility and individual support as principles of a dyslexia-friendly workplace. It also recommends talking directly to employees about what works for them rather than assuming everyone requires the same adjustments.
That might mean changing how information is presented, using assistive technology, allowing additional processing time or simply creating an environment where people feel comfortable talking about what they need.
Our 12-month commitment
By taking the Dyslexia Friendly Workplace Pledge, we’re committing to spend the next 12 months reviewing and developing how we support dyslexic colleagues.
Accessibility is at the heart of what Recite Me does for organisations and their users every day. Becoming a Dyslexia-Friendly Employer gives us another structured way to make sure those principles are reflected within our own workplace too.
We look forward to sharing what more we can learn over the next 12 months.
