Last Updated on February 16, 2023 by Editorial Team
With a condition like Dyslexia, being selective in areas like choosing a career makes a reasonable difference. Filtering out a list of fitting careers can make their preparation easy. These can be found by evaluating their strengths and how it applies to the position. With this knowledge, it is also important to make out what types of jobs don’t go well with them too.
Reading through this post, you will be able to look into what factors will make a job unfit for Dyslexics. Consequently, you can find a list of jobs that are the worst for people with Dyslexia.
What makes a job unfavorable for dyslexics?
Dyslexics may aspire for multiple positions, but there are some noteworthy factors that can determine if it is suitable for them. A job with the following attributes is often unsuitable for the learning disabled:
- Extensive use of words and numbers. As comprehending words and symbols are substandard for Dyslexics, a post that deals with lots of words and symbols are not suitable. The best example can be a Reporter.
- Repetitive responsibilities: Indigling in similar tasks and that too in the same style all the time may not be motivating, especially for creative candidates.
- Includes a lot of deadlines: Executive functioning is one of the eminent areas that dyslexics should address. Accordingly, jobs with deadlines and scheduled tasks may not go hand in hand with these individuals. For this reason, roles like Accountants in Banks are not favorable.
- Being a part of hierarchy: Being a part of an organization’s hierarchy denotes that the employee needs to take care of the subordinate work while being accountable to the superior. This way, the task gets more planning oriented stipulating executive functioning again.
Looking at one of these attributes may not seem alarming. But putting all of them together to evaluate a position can clearly make out reliable inferences.
List of jobs that are not in favor of dyslexics
Here is a list of jobs that can be considered worse for Dyslexics. While all of these are the most common positions one can find around, a few reasons make them unsuitable.
1. Proofreading
A proofreader is a professional in language who masters all regulations of parts of speech, tenses, and punctuation. The key responsibility of a typical proofreader is to read through a piece of text and catch spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors to make them right. Dyslexics don’t suit this job as it needs precision, gripping knowledge of the language, and better comprehension skills.
2. Cashier
Being a cashier, an employee is responsible to handle cash and transaction registers for the organization. They are responsible for making monetary transactions over the counter. These postings can be found not only in banks but also in other areas like malls, retail stores, and even restaurants. A cashier deals with money, calculations, and drafting transactions throughout the cycle and also is accountable for the cash at the end of every working day. Dyslexics often have visual sequential memory deficits along with handling large sets of data. Thereby, they may feel it arduous to organize money in sequence and maintain registers. This way, being a cashier is not preferable to them.
3. Stenographer
A stenographer is a notetaker who makes notes of the speeches, orientation, and managers in organizations. Their role is to use a shorthand writing style to make notes quickly and then draft them in a format that is publishable. The whole set of responsibilities of these professionals revolves around writing notes, inferring them, and again creating final drafts- which means there is heavy use of word comprehension. Dyslexics may struggle to manage these responsibilities not only because they may take additional time, but also to ensure accuracy. These Individuals may need writing practice along with bilingualism to manage responsibilities if needed.
4. Bank tellers
A bank teller is a front-end employee of the bank who deals with customers’ monetary, non-monetary and other instrument transitions on behalf of the bank over the counter. Some key roles of bank tellers include filling out the paperwork in deposit and withdrawal forms, verifying various transactions of the day including that of the ATM, and finally reporting to the superior with balanced transaction numbers at the end of the day. Dyslexics may find this role arduous as it deals with writing tasks, accounting, and accountability on a regular basis.
5. Waiter
The waiter is someone who offers services like taking orders, serving food, and receiving bills at restaurants and cafes. Their responsibilities are simple with a touch of empathy and communication skills. While it may be effortless for some, the same may not be the case with Dyslexics. Because being a waiter one needs to focus on the information they deal with. It may be challenging while taking orders or looking at the menu to suggest items. Also, being confident at reading and inferring is important, which may be arduous for Dyslexics.
6. Accountant
An Accountant is a part of the financial department of a company who is responsible to make records of various business transactions and also making final reports at the end of every financial year. There is a list of responsibilities an accountant deals with- starting from creating accounts to monitoring the financial performance throughout the year. What makes this profession unsuitable for Dyslexics is the accuracy of language and values it stipulates from the employee. While sending occasional reports, notices or to make annual drafts, a gripping knowledge of the language and vocabulary is needed, which makes it unfavorable.
7. Statistician
A Statistician is a professional who applies statistical methods to give solutions to real-world problems. Their crucial set of responsibilities includes collecting, interpreting, and analyzing data to give proper inferences to stakeholders and business owners. In short, they advise corporations to stay in trend. This post requires accuracy in data and information, better ability with numbers, and good language skills to draft and communicate. As the level of accountability is more and also stipulated to deal with words and numbers, Dyslexics can prefer to drop it down from their wishlist.
8. Reporter
A reporter is a crucial employee of a news broadcasting company who is responsible for reporting important news and updates on time. Their responsibilities include collecting, verifying, and drafting news stories and then updating it with regular insights. Being a reporter needs multiple attributes like attention to detail, language expertise, and presentation skills. Stipulating these attributes can be challenging for people with Dyslexia.
9. Tax Consultant
A Tax Consultant is a professional financial expert who is aware of the latest laws and accounting. The crucial responsibilities include getting versed with the latest tax laws, advising clients about the updates, strategizing and drafting an appropriate annual income sheet and other documents, and finally being compliant with legal obligations on behalf of clients. Dyslexics may not fit into this role as it needs strategizing skills, math fluency, and most importantly a gripping knowledge of language and numbers.
Making work easier- Strategies that dyslexics can go through!
Even after averting from some worst jobs, some Dyslexics may face a few challenges to cope at their workplace. Here are a few working strategies that can bring about an admirable difference:
- Ensure to use Assistive Technologies and Tools. To facilitate individuals with reading difficulties, multiple aids like Rehabilitative and compensative ATs are currently available. These not only ensure a multisensory approach to the solution but also warrant coming up with writing assistance too.
- Make sure to have easier reading fonts wherever possible. Fonts make a great difference for Dyslexics. Whenever they have to deal with a set of data, making sure to have this text in the best fonts can increase their speed of performance and also improves accuracy.
- Learn to be social and collaborate with peers. With some differences, many times dyslexic individuals may feel differentiated from society and their surroundings. While these social issues are often subjective, building up relationships with people around can create an assistive base in the workplace. This way, one can avail help from peers in case of occasional issues.
- Plan for ample time beforehand to ensure better performance. It is often observed that Dyslexics may face problems in planning their day and scheduling all tasks properly. They can ensure to plan things beforehand to make enough time to execute them. Also, they can check out some tools and resources for better executive functioning.
Concluding thoughts
While filtering out the best career options for Dyslexics, it is important to determine what attributes can make it fit. With this idea, we made a list of jobs that are merely unfit for the learning disabled like Dyslexics. This list is to give you a better idea about what types of jobs may be challenging. Check out the insights provided above to make sure you make the right career decision. Also, explore the strategies to make working easier at your workplace. Before we wind up, it is important to note that it is not fair to put all the individuals in one box. Some people may excel in some of the above positions as well. Also, Dyslexics can find themselves excel in fields like music and athletics.
An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’,