Dyspraxia in adults: how software can offer support in the workplace
Discover how our inclusive technology can make an impact for employees with Dyspraxia.
Like Chelsie, those of us with Dyspraxia may also experience challenges with physical coordination and working memory.
Chelsie Spencer is a Senior Content Marketing Specialist with Dyspraxia. Chelsie has collaborated with us on the content of this page.
As Chelsie explains, these challenges can lead to:
- Difficulty with typing, which can impact spelling
- Disruption in the flow of thoughts, as well as information processing
- Forgetfulness
- Lack of confidence
There are many ways the working environment can be made inclusive of different forms of neurodiversity, including dyspraxia. This includes:
- Recording video meetings
- Providing meeting notes after in-person meetings
- Providing briefing documents for all projects and tasks
- Making it easier for individuals to process information. We can do this by providing bullet points which highlight key information in documents. As well as giving people the opportunity to take time to process information before requiring a response from them
Inclusive technology is also an incredibly powerful tool.
Below, we highlight how our technology can benefit individuals with Dyspraxia.
How can employees with dyspraxia benefit from inclusive technology?
Inclusive technology allows more flexibility in a digital workplace. It can also help to reduce a lot of the challenges that people with dyspraxia might experience at work.
Read&Write for Work is an inclusion tool that supports neurodivergent employees, including those with dyspraxia. Used and trusted by companies like EY, Lumen, and Network Rail, it offers a discreet toolbar for ease-of-use and instant support.
For example with Read&Write, we can:
- Choose to dictate information rather than type. For those of us with dyspraxia, this can support challenges with physical coordination. It also helps us to put our thoughts down much quicker, so we can retain our focus and flow.
- Use predictive text, allowing us to input words with fewer keystrokes
- Use spell checkers and text-to-speech tools to find and remove any typing errors
- Organize information and categorize content for future reference. This can help us to remember key pieces of information from meetings, briefing documents, and beyond
Used by organizations including
Read&Write’s features support
Working memory & dexterity challenges
As Chelsie shares, physical coordination difficulties can have an impact on her sharing her thoughts in the written format. Combined with working memory challenges, this can lead to great ideas being lost.
Read&Write’s Dictation feature offers an alternative to typing. It converts the spoken word into text, allowing users to input information by speaking. By removing the need to type, it helps those of us with dyspraxia to keep our thoughts flowing.
Watch the video for a quick demo of Dictation.
Other useful features include: Prediction & Voice Note
Accuracy with written work
As Chelsie shared, people with Dyspraxia can often misspell words due to typing errors caused by dexterity challenges.
Read&Write’s Text-to-Speech tool reads written text out loud. Hearing content read out loud can amplify literacy errors. It also helps to reinforce understanding and improves retention of information.
Watch the video for a quick demo of Text-to-Speech.
Other useful features include: Check It & Audio Maker
Decoding content
Individuals with dyspraxia may have difficulty organizing their thoughts and the sequence of their language. Similarly, it can take longer to process information and decode content.
Read&Write’s Highlights feature allows us to categorize information using four different colored highlighters. We can highlight text in documents, websites, emails and more. It also allows us to collect our highlights into a separate document. This makes it easier to organize information, and pull out key pieces for later reference.
Watch the video for a quick demo of Highlights.
Focusing on on-screen content
Like Chelsie experiences, having dyspraxia can also make it difficult to focus on certain areas of text, or remembering where you were in a place of text.
Read&Write’s Screen Masking tool tints the whole screen in any chosen color, and provides a reading spotlight. This spotlight allows us to focus on small parts of our screen. It can be tailored by color, size and opacity to suit our needs.
Watch the video for a quick demo of Screen Masking.
The real value of inclusive technology
As we’ve highlighted, inclusive technology helps to reduce the challenges that some people may experience in a digital environment. But the real value is the positive impact it can have on an employee's experience at work.
In this video, Chelsie describes how our software has increased her confidence, empowers her strengths, and provides peace of mind.
Visit our free guide to learn more about supporting neurodivergent staff
For more information on what we can do to understand and help our neurodiverse employees, check out our free guide, Neurodiversity in the Workplace: A Guide for HR and DEI Managers. In here, you'll get practical advice on supporting employees with Dyspraxia.
Discover how Read&Write can support employees with dyspraxia
Read&Write supports over 40 million people worldwide at companies such as EY, Lumen & Netword Rail, and we’re ready to support millions more. Chat to us about how Read&Write can support your people. Complete this form to ask us questions, receive a demo, or to discuss licensing options.
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