Despite 1 in 5 people worldwide being affected by dyslexia, 97% of the population still view it negatively. This is because the current definition is outdated, classifying dyslexia as a “learning disability,” an “impairment,” or a “medical disorder.” But in fact, recent research has shown that dyslexics outperform other people at a wide variety of skills such as creativity, empathy, leadership, and outside the box thinking - skills that are especially valuable in the workplace. This is also proven by the number of incredibly successful businesspeople, creators, inventors, and actors who all have dyslexia – people like Sir Richard Branson, Agatha Christie, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, and hundreds of others. The conversation around dyslexia needs to change, and employers need to recognize all the things people with dyslexia CAN do as opposed to focusing on what they can’t do.

On March 31st, 2022, we officially launched the “Dyslexic Thinking” campaign. Sir Richard Branson was the first to announce that he had added the term to his LinkedIn profile, creating a groundswell of support from celebrities and non-celebrities alike. A press release from Dictionary.com followed, letting the world know they could now find “dyslexic thinking” in one of the world’s most-used dictionaries. A film was also released online that introduced the term “dyslexic thinking” by showing numerous successful people throughout history who were/are dyslexic. Finally, we ran hyper-targeted data-driven ads on LinkedIn tailored to HR professionals encouraging them to actively seek candidates who listed “dyslexic thinking” in their profiles.

Campaigns about dyslexia had overwhelmingly focused on encouraging the 1 in 5 people with dyslexia to change the way that they felt about themselves and to empower them to embrace their difference. Our data showed that although this had some impact, the real barriers were systemic and that we needed to push for structural and cultural change. This breakthrough allowed us to shift our focus to changing the minds of cultural institutions, the business sector and business leaders. We recognized that if they could redefine dyslexia and encourage people to accept dyslexia as a skill, this would have a domino effect of making businesses actively promote it as a benefit in the workplace, which in turn would embolden people with dyslexia to come forward.

Background:

In 2020, The Value of Dyslexia, report by Ernst & Young and Made by Dyslexia, proved that dyslexic strengths can help employers navigate the changing world of work. Dyslexic people can show ‘strong’, ‘very strong’ and ‘exceptional’ performance across a range of cognitive abilities, system skills, complex problem-solving skills, content skills, process skills and technical skills. Nowhere is this more evident than the Virgin brand, a multi-disciplinary business, that would not exist were it not for its founder’s (Richard Branson) ‘Dyslexic Thinking’. It’s clear that dyslexia can be a superpower!

The context:

However, 97% of the population view dyslexia negatively which has led to it being classed as a ‘hidden disability’. The consequence is that as a society we are missing out on the benefits that dyslexic thinking can bring to the workplace which is more needed than ever given the impact of AI and automation which threatens up to 46% of jobs worldwide.

The creative challenge:

How can Virgin and Made by Dyslexia leverage their position and success to change the perception of dyslexia, and to drive structural changes throughout the workplace and across the education system?

Solution:

The traditional approach to dyslexia in the workplace is directed at the remediation of dyslexic challenges. For decades dyslexic individuals have been expected to ‘fit in’, measured and benchmarked for the very skills they find challenging. 'Made by Dyslexia’ recognises that dyslexia offers skills that are increasingly ‘in demand’ in the workplace.

This required an holistic approach that engaged multiple stakeholders at scale by 1) making people see the benefits of dyslexia 2) encourage people to change their perception of dyslexia from a hindrance to a skill 3) where appropriate to self-identify and promote their own ‘Dyslexic Thinking’ 4) to provide resources that would help schools and workplaces to adapt to the needs of those with dyslexia.

Execution:

There was no single execution that would be able to solve this challenge, so we broke this up over four evolving stages. First, we got dictionary.com, one of the most trusted dictionaries available globally, to add ‘dyslexic thinking’ defined as a benefit which includes ‘problem solving’ and ‘lateral thinking’. Simultaneously we worked with LinkedIn to have ‘Dyslexic Thinking’ added as a skill which individuals could add and businesses could search for. This was then promoted through a campaign fronted by Richard Branson who demonstrated the advantages that dyslexia had given him, and others like him, in business or their chosen profession. Made by Dyslexia partnered with Microsoft and created special educational modules for teachers to learn how to support children with dyslexia and provide them with the correct support at an early stage of development. Finally, in collaboration with LinkedIn, we created online training courses for employers called Employ Dyslexia, to learn about how to identify and adapt to dyslexia so they can bring out the best in their employees.

References:

EY and Made By Dyslexia Report: https://www.madebydyslexia.org/assets/downloads/EY-the-value-of-dyslexia.pdf

Dictionary: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/dyslexic-thinking

The campaign was immediately taken up by international broadcasters, gaining 255 unique pieces of coverage from major publications including the BBC, Sky and Bloomberg with an opportunity to see of 1,046,067,131 at a media value of approximately £1M. Tracking the public sentiment across social media, we saw positive mentions about dyslexia increase by 1562%, while negative mentions decreased by 4450% from pre-campaign levels. Within 30 days, 13,000 HR and recruitment leaders had also viewed the advert explaining how Dyslexic Thinkers could help take their company to the next level. Over 10,200 people had added “Dyslexic Thinking” as a skill on LinkedIn, a number which continues to grow to this day, and which global companies including Facebook, EY, HSBC, and Microsoft are already seeking out in their recruitment. Dyslexic Thinking is now being taught in schools, with all 100,000 teachers in NYC being trained on the subject.