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Hints and tips

By Dr Andi Sanderson (May 2008 Issue)
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5 tips on making training accessible

As many as one-in-ten people in the UK workforce have dyslexia, a neurological disorder affecting a person’s reading and writing, as well as their organisational and time management skills. Dyslexia is a learning disability recognised under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and is completely unlinked to intelligence. Under the DDA, employers are required to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to enable dyslexic employees to undertake their work effectively. This applies as much to training and induction programmes as it does to employees’ daily work environments.

These are five ways to make training more accessible to dyslexic employees:

1. Finding out whether your audience includes employees with dyslexia is an important first step. If you are an external provider, the HR department within the company should be able to help with this and also inform you of particular strengths and weaknesses the individual may have. It is essential to find out if dyslexic employees are open about their disability or if they prefer other colleagues not to know. If possible, it is helpful to approach the individual(s) before the training session to discuss and assess their comfort levels with different tasks. You can therefore prepare accordingly, for example, it might be helpful to distribute slides beforehand, giving the employee plenty of time to assimilate the information.

2. Ensure that information is prepared in a variety of formats, such as audio, videotape, drawings, diagrams and flowcharts. All handouts should be printed on coloured paper and written in a plain, sans-serif font, such as Arial, at a minimum size of 13pt. Coloured backgrounds often work well. Many dyslexic people find it difficult to process blocks of written information so ensure that slides are kept brief and that salient points are highlighted. If some of the training is to be delivered on a PC, ensure that an anti-glare screen filter is provided, that fonts, text size and background colour can all be changed and that frequent breaks are offered.

3. Ensure that instructions are given verbally, as well as in written form. Some employees may prefer to use a digital recorder so that they can play back important instructions. Encouraging employees to take notes or to confirm the instruction will help ensure you don’t make assumptions about comprehension.

4. Ensure that any involvement in group exercises is at a level that the dyslexic employee is comfortable with. For example, many dyslexic people would feel ill-at-ease being asked to stand up in front of everyone to record information on a flip chart.

5. Finally, allowing sufficient time for tasks to be completed is fundamental, as is recognising which tasks work well and which do not. Having dyslexic people in your audience may mean group discussions and interactive exercises work better than writing or reading tasks. All information regarding tasks and activities should be made accessible to the participants so that they can consolidate their learning after the training session.

Dr Andi Sanderson is dyslexia specialist and lead consultant at iansyst, which provides advice, software and computer technologies to enable dyslexic people to achieve their potential. She can be contacted on +44 (0)1223 426644.

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