Creating Psychologically Safe Spaces To Disclose Disabilities
- Sep 14, 2022
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 15, 2022
Written by: Shae Marie, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Why is it important to create psychological safe workplace for people to openly disclose their disability? Employment is crucial in allowing us to participate meaningfully in society. Our quality of life at work can be affected by organisational systems and processes, team dynamics, relationships with supervisors, workplace culture and inclusion. For employees with dyslexia, the working environment can be a difficult one to navigate. Dyslexia is a type of learning disability that affects a person’s reading, writing and or maths skills (Lyon et al., 2003; Snowling et al., 2020).
Around 1 in 10 people globally (Tunmer & Greaney, 2010; Yang et al., 2022) have dyslexia and right now, in your organisation you will be working with and or managing someone who has it. Did you know that? Most likely, if you are working in an Australian organisation, you didn’t know that, and that’s ok. We are here to help. Our work is to support you, the colleague, manager, leader and or employer by raising your consciousness and skills to identify and help employees with dyslexia.
Dyslexia is known as a hidden disability (Valeras, 2010), you can’t see you, you can’t tell by looking at a person but you may notice it in the way they communicate through emails that have lots of grammar and spelling mistakes, the extra time it makes take to complete tasks compared to peers or to read text, their days may appear disorganised, they may struggle with background noise and learning differently through listening, observing, doing rather than reading (Wissell et al., 2022).
To you as the colleague or manager, you may think this person is being lazy, rushing work, taking too much time to complete work, having poor attention to detail and not performing to the standard you would expect. But what you don’t know is that behind the scenes, this person has to use their own personal, ingenious strategies of problem-solving and creativity to support themselves rather than seek help and access reasonable adjustments that, by law, they are entitled to the under the Discrimination Act (1992) and Fair Work Act (2010) (Australia, 1992, 2009). They are working so much harder than their colleagues to keep up with their workload, to manage day-to-day tasks that appear very easy to others, by working back late, skipping lunch, and working nights and weekends just to keep up and it is causing them significant mental fatigue, they may feel like they are in a constant state of exhaustion and job burn out (Wissell et al., 2022).
Why are they not asking for help you may be asking? Well for most employees with dyslexia they are too afraid to disclose their disability/difficulties to their manager. Australian research we have conducted with La Trobe University highlights the challenges of disclosing a disability like dyslexia in the workplace. Many employees with dyslexia, they have experienced a psychologically unsafe working environment where they didn’t feel comfortable in seeking help. Their reluctance to disclose their difficulties are largely motivated by fear of being judged as different and consequently being stigmatised, concerned they would become vulnerable in the workplace, be pitied, not being taken seriously and being perceived as a weakness (Wissell et al., 2022).
“…I would avoid that [disclosure] because I don't feel it would have a beneficial outcome. [I would be] exposing myself as [having a] weakness...”
So, what creates a psychologically unsafe work environment for employees with dyslexia where they feel they can’t disclose?
Poor recruitment practices
No awareness of dyslexia as a disability
Lack of trust between colleagues, managers, and leaders
Absence of inclusion and diversity policies and procedures
Poor access to reasonable adjustments
Intolerance for mistakes which are public pointed out
Working from a deficit rather than a strengths-based model
What can you do to ensure your workplace is psychologically safe?
Awareness training of dyslexia
Upskilling managers, leaders and HR to better identify and support dyslexic employees
Understand and improve reasonable adjustments
Building trust and empathy amongst teams, managers and leaders
Creating space to feel comfortable in sharing difficulties in the workplace
A Psychologically Safe workplace is everyone’s business it is not just for your dyslexic employee but for those with difficulties, hidden disabilities and other differences. No one should be fearful going to work and everyone has the right to feel valued and respected and to be able to share their true authentic selves. Employers are in a powerful, influential position to lead by example in creating inclusive and diverse environments that are psychologically safe for all employees. Environments where employees feel empower to share their strength and their difficulties because we all bring a unique set of skills to the workplace and by empowering rather than disempowering, we improve workplace culture, employee mental health and wellbeing and in turn increased productivity in working environments.
Read out the latest Australian first research with La Trobe University: “You Don’t Look Dyslexic”: Using the Job Demands—Resource Model of Burnout to Explore Employment Experiences of Australian Adults with Dyslexia: read here
Or to build your knowledge and skills by accessing our Australian first workplace eLearning modules Dyslexia in the workplace and ‘Neurodiversity in the workplace: Supporting individuals with dyslexia and their teams.’
Alternatively, why not catch up with us for a coffee to see how we can work with you and your organisation to create inclusion for all?
Shae Marie, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Shae Wissell is the CEO, Founder and Executive Director of the Dear Dyslexic Foundation. Shae is a published graduate researcher, Amazon number 1 bestselling author and the host of the Dear Dyslexic Podcast Series, listened to globally.
Shae trained as a Speech Pathologist and then completed a Masters Degree in Public Health and Health Administration. Shae has worked extensively over the last 18 years in the Health Sector as a clinician and manager. During this time Shae found her passion in life and establish the Dear Dyslexic Foundation, which works to empower young people and adults with dyslexia.
As a person with dyslexia and dysgraphia (learning disabilities) herself, Shae has seen and experienced first-hand the discrimination and humiliation those with dyslexia can face. Dyslexia can impact significantly on a person’s education, employment, social and emotional well-being and quality of life. Shae is currently a Doctoral Candidate researching Adults with dyslexia: the demands on adulthood in Australia across employment education and mental health.
Shae recently debuted her first book – The Hobo CEO, A Year in the Life of a Dyslexic Social Entrepreneur and published a component of her research Adults with dyslexia: A snapshot of the demands on adulthood in Australian, Australian Journal of Learning Difficulties with co-author Leila Karimi and Tanya Serry, La Trobe University.
Reference:
Australia: Act No. 135 of 1992, Disability Discrimination Act 1992, 135 (1992). https://www.refworld.org/docid/4b4716162.html
Australia, C. o. (2009). Fair Work Act (28, Issue.
Lyon, G., Shaywitz, S., & Shaywitz, B. (2003). A definition of dyslexia. An Interdisciplinary Journal of The International Dyslexia Association, 53(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-003-0001-9
Snowling, M. J., Hulme, C., & Nation, K. (2020). Defining and understanding dyslexia: past, present, and future. Oxf Rev Educ, 46(4), 501-513. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2020.1765756
Tunmer, W., & Greaney, K. (2010). Defining Dyslexia. J Learn Disabil, 43(3), 229-243. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219409345009
Valeras, A. (2010). “We don’t have a box”: Understanding <em>Hidden Disability</em> Identity Utilizing Narrative Research Methodology. Disability Studies Quarterly, 30(3/4). https://doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v30i3/4.1267
Wissell, S., Karimi, L., Serry, T., Furlong, L., & Hudson, J. (2022). "You Don't Look Dyslexic": Using the Job Demands-Resource Model of Burnout to Explore Employment Experiences of Australian Adults with Dyslexia. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(17), 10719. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/17/10719
Yang, L., Li, C., Li, X., Zhai, M., An, Q., Zhang, Y., Zhao, J., & Weng, X. (2022). Prevalence of Developmental Dyslexia in Primary School Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Brain Sciences, 12(2), 240. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12020240
