Jobhop Jobhop's blog : Designing An Accessible Office For Workers With Dyslexia

When it comes to designing an office environment, accessibility might not be the first thing that comes to mind, unless you have someone with additional needs involved in the process. But it’s vital that everyone who enters the office, whether a current employee, future employee or guest feels comfortable and welcome.

When thinking about additional requirements, your first thought might be to support physical disabilities, which is important. But have you also considered non-visible needs? For example, about 10% of the UK population have dyslexia, meaning that they will have difficulty reading, writing and spelling.

What are some of the things that you can do to support workers with dyslexia?

Do

Make information clear for all

Pages and pages of written text can be hard to process, so make sure to use diagrams and images to support your points. This is relevant both in everyday work tasks and posters around the office. For the text that you do include, you should also keep the layout consistent, with a left-hand alignment, so that the reader doesn’t have to look in lots of places in order to get the information that they need.

You can also make sure to use a dyslexia-friendly font, such as Arial or Tahoma. You can also download additional fonts like Sassoon or APhont, which have been specifically formulated to aid people with dyslexia.

Offer alternative formats

If you’re giving out general information about the office, why not offer it in an audio or video format? Avoiding heavy blocks of text can mean that people with dyslexia find it easier to take in the information, and it’s a better experience.

Or, for a simple option when it comes to everyday work, make sure that your computers have a text-to-speech function installed, and provide the team with headphones.

Make the most of software

It can be challenging for people with dyslexia to retain and remember information over time, so make sure that you reduce your reliance on this. Instead, use software that allows users to set up reminders, and make sure to have any important information written down for people to refer back to. For example, it can help to send meeting notes after a call.

People with dyslexia may also struggle with managing deadlines and tracking time, so putting a good reminder software system in place can help everyone stay on track and take away the stress of having to hold the deadline dates in your mind.

Don’t

Information overload

Putting too much information in one place, or having large blocks of text can be challenging to process. Adding in a bold font or underlining only increases the difficulty for people with dyslexia, so make sure to keep things consistent, clear and as simple as possible.

Block creativity

Forcing employees to stick with the same ways of working can block creativity, which is an area that people with dyslexia typically excel at. Their considered approach allows them to explore different possibilities, and potentially develop a new process or idea that will benefit everyone.

Taking steps to make sure that the way you work is accessible to everyone will help your team feel seen and supported, and being open to their feedback will only improve the process in the future.

Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash

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