Specific Learning Disabilities in the workplace: A review
Sara Bocchicchio, Enrico Ghidoni, Giacomo Stella
In adulthood, dyslexia and Specific Learning Disabilities may affect different functional areas such as work, family, social and emotional spheres, everyday life and leisure activities. In the workplace context, available literature (mainly from Anglo-American experience) reports a number of difficulties and obstacles that go far beyond reading and writing and may have an impact from choosing the most appropriate professional role up to influencing career growth and promotion. As at school, the interventions implemented aim to minimise and compensate for these difficulties both through adaptation to the working environment and through individualised actions that are well suited to dealing with heterogeneous functional profiles. Implementing these interventions in a systematic and widespread manner, however, does not seem easy, due to the total lack of knowledge of the phenomenon in the world of work and the competitive nature of this particular field, which certainly does not encourage disclosure of these workers (not even in those countries where specific legislation exists). Hence the need to spread knowledge of dyslexia that takes into account not only the difficulties and weaknesses but also the strengths and unique qualities that these people often possess. This contribution aims to provide an overview of currently available knowledge, but also to stimulate a reflection on the need for a change in the way we consider dyslexia and Learning Disabilities at a social level.
Keywords
Dyslexia, Learning Disabilities, adulthood, workplace.