I read your article “Decoding Discrimination” (November 2018) and agree with the concerns of AI screening, which also might filter out overachievers who learn differently. I hope the topic of dyslexic learners will be part of future articles.
Employers should start educating themselves on the dyslexia workforce. These high achievers would probably slip through the AI-screening process, and that would be a major loss for a company. Most people don’t understand dyslexia, which is typically “mislabeled” as a learning disability but really is a learning “superpower” because [people who have dyslexia] operate, analyze, process and work much differently than the average person. Our son has some degree of dyslexia and is extremely bright. If you don’t know much about dyslexia, Google it and you will see a who’s-who of super-high achievers who have this gift: Richard Branson, Barbara Corcoran, Charles Schwab, Steven Spielberg and Magic Johnson.
Even though they are high achievers, [people with dyslexia] are sometimes misunderstood as “non-team players” because they are independent thinkers. You won’t find a dyslexic person following the crowd!
Just thought I’d share some thoughts and hope the HR world starts to discuss and embrace [this different type of worker].
David Hein
Strategic Account Executive
FirstPoint Information Resources
Atlanta
