![Dyslexia at Work: Dyslexia-Friendly Hiring? [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Dyslexia-at-Work-Dyslexia-Friendly-Hiring-Premium-1-400x250.jpg)
Research suggests that work teams that have at least one neurodiverse member are likely to be 30% more productive, but many companies have hiring practices that may exclude neurodiverse candidates before they are able to demonstrate their strengths.
Many dyslexic kids and adults are great at games - all sorts of games. Not surprisingly, some decide to make games themselves and then some choose careers in some aspect of the game industry. There may be an ability to see game play from multiple perspectives...
![Understanding Dyslexia as an Adult [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/dyslexic-advantage-cambridge-400x250.png)
When I listened to music, I used to get really frustrated because I could never understand the words of a song that I had just heard for the first time… then I reread my report: “Isla struggles with auditory processing.” Now, I understand…that makes a lot of sense, something that I hadn’t thought about, which is why I think it’s so important.” – Isla McDade-Brown When Dr. Brock Eide was in England, he met up with young filmmaker Isla McDade-Brown from the University of York who was filming a documentary for her final Film and Television dissertation. Isla was identified with dyslexia at the age of eight, but now as a final year college student, she was reading her assessment as an adult and reflecting […]
![Question: Advice for Jobs Good for Dyslexic Creatives? [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Dyslexia-and-the-Foreign-Language-Dilemma-Dyslexic-Advantage-1-400x250.png)
Someone recently asked this question because his previous job came to an end and he wanted find a job that better matched his dyslexic strengths. It’s hard to answer that question specifically for any one person because a great deal of variation from person-to person can exist within the strengths associated with dyslexia. INTERESTS AND STRENGTHS That being said, it is a good idea to take stock of your interests and strengths and to ask people who know you well for their opinions. Sometimes it’s hard to identify your strengths yourself. Are there things you love doing, whether inside your career or out, that give you ‘ “flow” and great satisfaction? If there is more than one activity, can you think of any factors in […]
![Dyslexia, Art, and Science [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Dyslexia-Art-and-Science-400x250.png)
“Artists and scientists are curious creatures always looking for patterns…. And that’s because patterns communicate larger insights about the world around us.” — Rebecca Kamen Many dyslexic people work in fields that involve science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and art, and those career choices may be due to personal characteristics like curiosity as well as cognitive strengths involving analytical ability, creative problem solving, visualization, and hands-on problem solving. In our survey of careers of dyslexic adults in our network (please fill out here if you haven’t already), out of 106 people who answered, 42 had careers in science, technology, medicine, engineering, or the visual arts. That’s almost 40% in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math) professions! If that is so, is our education preparing students for […]
![Dyslexic Advantages in Electrical Engineering [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Dyslexic-Advantages-in-Electrical-Engineering-Premium.jpg)
A TALE OF TWO STORIES “At the beginning I can remember looking at blackboards or pages of text having no idea what other kids around me were seeing. For me the pages may have well as been blank for all I could glean from them. However I was lucky as when I started my secondary school my teacher spotted that I was having problems. I was tested for dyslexia and found to have a mild form… By the time I left I had poor grades and was told I would not amount to much…” Same person: “I became interested in geeky stuff when I was less than ten years old. I remember being given a toy wind up clock that you could open the back […]
If you have moderate to severe dyslexia, chances are that you've encountered many obstacles on path to higher education and career. The farther one gets in education, the more one can recognize that much of education deals with writing about things rather than doing...
"...Can I just start off by making a blanket statement that I think dyslexia can be such a gift?" — Brett Kopf Brett Kopf is co-founder of Remind and Omella, two companies that grew out of his interest in solving problems that mission-driven organizations and...
![From High School Drop-Out to VP of Engineering [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/From-High-School-Dropout-April-2022-Premium-3-400x250.png)
There are some people who are so insightful into their cognitive processes that talking to them is pure gold. Gary MacGregor is one of those people – he’s a VP of an electronic device company and recent PhD recipient from the University of Texas at Austin. He has a remarkable story and has been very generous in sharing what he has learned. Gary: “I’m a high school dropout. My parents were high school dropouts. I’m the first male in the family to go to college.” When Gary dropped out of school, he took a job working an oil refinery – a lucrative career for a person without a high school diploma. While he was working 12 hour shifts 84 hours a week, he would exercise […]
![Connecting the Dots with John Chambers of CISCO [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Connecting-the-dots-400x250.jpg)
“A lot of leaders would say they’re curious. I can tell you from personal experience that most leaders are not. They don’t ask a lot of questions, rarely challenge conventional wisdom, stick with what they know, and often turn to sources that reinforce their existing point of view… my curiosity about things I don’t understand has been a critical factor in my success as a leader.” – John Chambers I recently came across a book review of Chambers’ book by Emma Wallace, a fellow dyslexic who works in a very different industry, fashion. Despite these differences, Chambers’ description of strengths resonated. “Not only has dyslexia meant that for John (and myself) it forced him to learn important skills early on: persistence, finding your […]
![Johnpaul Jones: Native American Architect [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Johnpaul-Jones-Native-American-Architect-400x250.png)
“Where Native people come from, everything’s not in straight lines.” – Johnpaul Jones Johnpaul Jones is one of the world’s leading architectural architects and landscape designers, and he is also dyslexic. He was the lead design consultant for the National Museum of the American Indian, the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial, The Southern Ute Cultural Center and Museum, Vancouver Land Bridge, Mountains to Sound Greenway Plan, Oregon Zoo Educational Center, Longhouse Educational and Cultural Center, and Gorilla Conservation Research Center, among many, many others. He has said that his aesthetic was inspired by his Choctaw – Cherokee mother’s four world perspective: natural animal, spiritual, and human. Johnpaul describes his early life as being a “bad boy” and “dyslexic.” He struggled in school, and […]
![Dyslexic Talents: Team Building and Software Design [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Team-Building-and-Software-Design-2-400x250.png)
“I was dyslexic – I couldn’t read. My father was an engineer, so I grew up thinking I was like him, but I was actually intellectually more like my mother. They were both smart people.” — Jim Keller, past VP Engineering at Apple and Tesla, Senior VP at Intel, and CTO and President of Tensetorrent When it comes to talking about dyslexic talent, strengths in problem solving and team building often get mentioned. If such things get mentioned in school age children or even college students, it doesn’t truly capture what these strengths might involve when at their full powers in people at the top of their professions. Jim Keller is not a household name like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk, but in […]
