Hats off to Meseret Kumulchew, the lady who won her court case against Starbucks because they didn’t give her “reasonable adjustments” at work to compensate for being dyslexic. The admin leading to a court case, the meetings, the consultations with lawyers, and then the court appearance itself is all very stressful for anyone, never mind a person with dyslexia. No wonder she said that she felt like committing suicide. But she won the battle and will now receive some compensation. The dyslexia community celebrated last week with radio programmes and newspaper articles about her. Starbucks had been defeated, pop the champagne!
However, I wonder if the prospect of winning the war has been set back. I fear that employers up and down the country will be making a note to self – don’t employ a dyslexic person as I will need two people to do one job and if I don’t have two people I might be taken to court. When pressed by a BBC interviewer about what would have helped her at work, Meseret said “if I am doing the banking, have another person to rectify my problem”. Oh dear, employers aren’t going to like that.
But just when I thought that the war was truly lost, a man from a garage arrives in the centre of the conflict. This previously unknown warrior is Chris Arnold, from The Garage marketing firm (called because he says that good ideas often start in garages). Before his own light bulb moment in his garage, he worked for Saatchi and Saatchi and now he is running an innovative marketing company. Even more news worthy is that he is looking for a new employee and, joy of joys, he only wants to employ a dyslexic person because dyslexics “think differently”. He even says so in his advertisement so it then had to be passed by the Advertising Standards Authority because it might have been discriminatory against non-dyslexics. Ha, wouldn’t that have been a joke!
Anyone who wants to apply for this unique job with Chris Arnold should email: thegarage@creativeorchestra.com
But first have a look at this: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/11/job-advertisement-uk-thinktank-recruit-dyslexics-only-steve-jobs-garage
By Susie Agnew
A life less ordinary 
What a fantastic man! Yes, I really I do think Neurodiverse people think more er, diversely! I see how a dyslexic employer doing banking could be a struggle for them. Sometimes even when I’ve checked my work three times over a mistake still looks ‘right’ to me, so I need someone to proof read. Calculators and spell checks are wonderful inventions though ❤