Being a dyslexic academic

When I was an undergraduate there was a sign in the disability office at my university which proclaimed ‘Disability= Ability’. I hated it. For me, being dyslexic was not an ability but a frustration and something that set me apart from my peers. To a certain extent I still feel that way, a feeling not helped when people say dyslexia doesn’t exist.

More recently, though, I’ve started to reconsider what it means to be a dyslexic academic. I don’t see being dyslexic as wholly negative anymore. I no longer want to hide it or try to fit into a certain academic box that doesn’t quite fit my needs.

After all, being a dyslexic academic is something of an oxymoron. Academics (especially in the arts) are
supposed to be wordsmiths. I was paralysed for nearly 2 years when one reviewer of an article I wrote questioned the intellectual validity because…