Engage

Dyslexia... Changing perceptions

Mike set up a petition to the Prime Minister about dyslexia that received over four hundred signatures. The petition closed in January 2008. He is rather disappointed by the response he received from government and will be following up on this in due course.

The petition was as follows:

We the undersigned call on the Prime Minister to acknowledge the rights of dyslexics to be involved in policy decisions relating to their disability. The Disability Duty slogan, “Nothing for us without us” needs to become a reality and pave the way for adequate dyslexia screening and support in schools, colleges, job centres and prisons.

Viewed as a gift or a curse, dyslexia is the country’s biggest disABILTY impacting on 10% of the population. Yet for many it remains un-identified or hidden, for fear of humiliation or a sign of weakness. Alongside the staggering figures that suggest 40% of the prison population are dyslexic, there are an over propionate amount of dyslexics in the unemployment, homeless and mental health statistics.

Our text based education system puts dyslexics at a major disadvantage. The vast majority struggle at school with self esteem affected into adult life. Teaching style should match learning needs. We need multi-sensory teaching. We the undersigned call on the Prime Minister to tackle the issue by introducing better screening and support in schools, colleges, job centres and prisons. The new Disability Duty slogan that reads “nothing for us without us” needs to become reality.

We request the Prime Minister to make certain that more dyslexics are involved in policy making and ensure that appropriate support services are put in place urgently.

The Government's response was as follows;

Thank you for the e-petition concerning the rights of people with dyslexia to be involved in related policy decisions.

The Disability Discrimination Act 2005 placed a statutory duty on public authorities to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people. This is often known as the Disability Equality Duty.

The Disability Equality Duty, which came into force on 4 December 2006, requires public authorities to consider how they can carry out their functions, including policy making in a way that promotes greater equality for disabled people.

The disability equality duty is made up of two components - a general duty set out on the face of the Act, and specific duties in regulations.

The specific duties require listed public authorities to publish Disability Equality Schemes that set out how they will carry out the duties, monitor, and report on progress and how they will assess the impact of their policies, practices and procedures on disability equality. In addition public authorities must demonstrate that they have involved disabled people in developing their schemes.

Government has set out an ambitious vision - that by 2025 disabled people should have full opportunities and choices to improve their quality of life, and will be respected and included as equal members of society. The Disability Equality Duty and the involvement of disabled people is a key driver toward realising this ambition.