1. Higher Education and the Experiences of
Students with a Diagnosis of Dyslexia
Sheila Riddell,
Centre for Research in Education Inclusion
and Diversity,
University of Edinburgh
www.creid.ed.ac.uk

2. Central questions
 What progress has been made by students with dyslexia in
accessing higher education?
 What are the experiences of students with dyslexia in higher
education and how do they fare in the labour market?
 What are the future challenges for students with dyslexia in higher
education?

3. Proportion of disabled students in higher
education has almost trebled since 1994– now
c.9% of total UG population in receipt of DSA
Number and % of disabled students in higher education
Year Number of students Number of disabled students Percentage
(in brackets FT)
1994 - 95 323011 (273586) 11162 (9719) 3.5%
2004-05 379150 (320865) 26085 (22890) 7%

4. Policy drivers
 Campaigns by individual disabled people & Skill (now defunct)
 Funding Mechanisms - Disabled Students Allowance & Premium
Funding
 Extension of DDA to education in 2001
 Public sector duty to promote disability equality
 Quality agenda

5. Students with dyslexia make up majority of disabled student
population
Type of 1994-95 2004/05
disability
Dyslexia 15% 50%
Blind/partially sighted 4% 2.4%
Deaf/hard of hearing 6% 4%
Wheelchair/mobility 6% 2.8%
difficulties
Personal care support 0.1% 0.1%
Mental health 2% 4.6%
difficulties
Unseen disability 53% 17%
Multiple disabilities 5% 7.5%
Other disability 10% 10.5%
Autistic spectrum - 0.7%
disorder
– fall in proportion with physical/sensory impairments & increase in dyslexia

6. Over recent years, further growth in dyslexic students as % of
disabled student population (currently 56%)
Number of undergraduate first year students with Specific Learning Difficulty, 2010-2011
Full-time Specific learning Total known to have a Total number of
difficulty disability students
Female 11,410 21,290 233,540
Male 10,655 18,210 189,405
Total FT 22,065 39,505 422,950
Part-time 3,420 13,070 182,585
Female 1,950 7,540 99,850
Male 5,370 20605 282,440
Total 27,435 60,110 705,385
Full-time first year undergraduate students with a specific learning difficulty as a percentage
of those known to have a disability and total student population, by gender, 2010-2011
% of those known to have a disability % of total UG population
Female 53.6 4.9
Male 58.5 5.6
Total FT 55.9 5.2

7. Pupils from poorer backgrounds much less likely to go to university-
80% of students at pre-92 universities from middle class backgrounds;
19% from working class backgrounds – similar pattern for disabled and
non-disabled students
Source: Riddell et al 2005
First year, full-time, UK domiciled undergraduates (Scotland and England) by disability, social class and type of institution, 2001
Post92 Non-university HEIs
Pre92
N No Known All No known Known All No known Known All
known disability 70529 disability disability 42964 disability disability 1689
disability 2816 40691 2273 15850 1046 6
67713
Professional 21 22 21 11 13 11 10 13 11
Managerial, 47 48 47 41 41 41 43 47 43
Technical
Skilled-non manual 12 12 12 15 15 15 15 15 15
Skilled-manual 12 12 12 20 17 19 19 15 19
Partly skilled 6 6 6 11 11 11 10 9 10
Unskilled 1 1 1 3 3 3 2 2 2

8. But pupils from poorer backgrounds much more likely to be
identified as having additional support needs/SEN
Percentage of pupils with ASN by deprivation category
10
8
% with ASN
6
4
2
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
SIMD decile
Figures include pupils recorded as having RoN, CSP and/or IEP in Scotland, 2008.
1= least deprived area, 10 = most deprived area

9. Pupils living in areas of deprivation are proportionately less
likely to have dyslexia identified (c.f. social, emotion and
behavioural difficulties or general learning disability)
Percentage of Scottish school population within each Scottish Index of Multiple
Deprivation (SIMD) decile by type of difficulty (percentages in each group in stacked
bar).
7
6
5
Percentage
4
3
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Learning disability Dyslexia
Hearing impairment Physical or motor impairment
Autistic spectrum disorder Social, emotional and behavioural difficulty
Source: Scottish Government, 2009; SIMD = Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.
Category 1 = least deprived, category 10 = most deprived.

10. Dyslexic students have much greater chance of getting
into higher education as a result of widening access
policies – but social inequalities persist
 Disabled students now make up 8% of all undergraduates (3.7% in
1995) – represents policy success story.
 Majority of disabled students (just under 60%) have diagnosis of
dyslexia.
 Dyslexic students are more likely to be male and from middle class
backgrounds than general student body.
 Dyslexic students in HE less likely to come from minority ethnic
backgrounds

11. Issues facing dyslexic students in HE
Managing identity - Being identified as disabled may be useful in terms of accessing
support, but may also be stigmatising particularly for students with hidden
impairments such as dyslexia:
I don’t like it see when you say that I’m disabled. Disability – I think that sounds so
bad. I mean I’m not missing any limbs or anything like that. But I suppose really,
when I think about it, it’s so hard every day. You come in, you’re like, ‘Please don’t
give me anything to read or write, to read out in front of everybody’. I would just pass
out, you know.
I don’t like to draw attention to it, I don’t think the class knows. …I went to get
assessed for the computing and he said. ‘There’s time here for some one to come and
be a scribe in the class and take notes for you’. But I don’t want that, I don’t want
some one taking notes for me.
(Megan, 19 year old studying for HNC in Health and Fitness in Scottish College of
Further and Higher Education)

12. Uncertainty amongst lecturers about how to
support - and how much support should be
given
You know, if there was an essay from a dyslexic student I tend to try
and ignore the kind of structural difficulties and try and see what they
are saying and so I tend to mark them on the ideas rather than the
actual presentation. But that’s totally improvised, that’s not because
of anything.
I feel that in a sense Liam was disadvantaged by his dyslexia but
also he was getting all the kind of special attention which I was
happy to give. I don’t think it was proportional to the attention I had
given to the other students with dyslexia. So I feel quite uneasy
about that as well. (Lecturer in English, pre-92 university)

13. Issues facing dyslexic students in HE
Particular issue for dyslexic students seeking to enter
professions.
Low participation rates in vocational courses (e.g. medicine,
dentistry, teaching, social work, nursing).
Fitness to practise standards still represent barrier, despite
DRC Formal General Investigation into Fitness to Practise
Standards in teaching, education and social work

14. Access to teaching – disabled people make up
2% of Education courses, but around 1% of
teaching profession
Table 2: Number and percentage of disabled and non-disabled teachers on the
Teacher Induction Scheme in Scotland, 2002-2006
Year Disabled teachers Non-disabled teachers
2002 12 (0.59%) 2,009 (99.4%)
2003 6 (0.3%) 1,808 (99.7%)
2004 16 (1.2%) 2,018 (98.8%)
2005 24 (0.89%) 2,670 (99.1%)
2006 31 (1.1%) 3,509 (98.9%)
Source: General Teaching Council for Scotland

15. Dilemmas of disclosure – experiences of trainee
teacher with dyslexia
I told my teacher at the end of my first week, beginning of my second,
because I had got some major things done and I thought
‘Well, she knows that I am a hard worker …’ and her expression was,
I will never forget, her expression was ‘Really!’. And I just said to her
‘Yes, you know I cope’ and stuff and then the next day I went in and she
was very close to another teacher in the school, and I felt like I had been
discussed, and there was kind of looks being made and things, and then
that teacher, from then onwards treated me like a child, and was very,
very picky.

16. Conclusions
 Widening access for disabled people into higher
education should be seen as success story.
 Reflects interaction between Government policy and
campaigning by disabled people and voluntary
organisations. The demise of Skill is a worrying
development.
 Extension of disability equality legislation to higher
education major influence – but major reducation of
EHRC’sbudget and influence.

17. Conclusions
 But still barriers in terms of accessing higher education –
dyslexia under-identified amongst pupils in socially
deprived areas.
 Doubts about future direction of government policy on
widening access to higher education – marked decline in
applications by mature students.
 Discrimination still major factor in labour market,
including professions.