dyslexia as an excuse

It seems that now dyslexia is the new ‘bad back’ of excuses. Far too many people are becoming lazy or are looking for ways of getting out of a bit of hard work, so they blame or fake dyslexia. For the genuinely dyslexic this is infuriating. It makes a mockery out of how hard we have to work just to keep up with our peers and tars us all with the same brush. It’s a common understanding that dyslexic people struggle with reading and writing, but it is a lot deeper than that. Above all else it is a feeling of strong disorientation. Imagine yourself trying to commute in a foreign country. All the signs are in a different language and most of your time is spent in a haze of confusion merely looking around you. That is how we feel everyday and for those who blame dyslexia when really a lack of common sense or basic intelligence would have sufficed.

Not too long ago a man tried to sue a bank for letting him go overdrawn and become debt ridden just because he could not understand the bank charges. Guess what was blamed? Not just dyslexia, but the bank not understanding enough about dyslexia. Dyslexic people aren’t stupid, we know when to swallow our pride and ask for help. Usually we will prefer to work out solutions ourselves, and as someone who spent 18 years of her life going through education without dyslexia being recognised, I should know. Many dyslexics have their own coping strategies, be it learning the words they struggle with or re-reading texts multiple times, sometimes we just have to admit defeat and that we can’t do it all alone all the time.

This man who attempted to sue the bank states that he got a bad credit rating after becoming ‘inadvertently overdrawn’. It is this statement that puts a good spin doctor to shame that bothers me. I find it quite astounding that anyone can become ‘inadvertently overdrawn’. Number dyslexia aside, you know when you’ve spent a bit too much money even without checking your balance or statements, its called common sense.

The British Dyslexia Association (BDA) says that banks should do more to help the six million people in the UK who have dyslexia. Why should it be up to the banks to ensure their dyslexic customers do not go overdrawn? This smacks of Britain becoming even more of a nanny state than it already is. Dyslexic people are perfectly capable and just because one man blames his inability to manage his money on a learning disability, it doesn’t mean that all dyslexics are the same. The simplest solution would have been for him to ask someone ‘hey am I skint yet’ and this whole sorry mess would have been avoided.

A date for the hearing has yet to be fixed, my guess is it’s going to stay that way.