I suggest you and Globalti need to read up on the Disbility Discrimination Act and recruitment. You are both treading in illegal and unethical territory if you are doing what you say and you and your employer could find yourselves subject to an Employment Tribunal Case bought by a rejected dyslexic applicant. Its also worth bearing in mind that while only about 5% of corporate managers are dyslexic, about 35% of successful entrepreneurs are (compared to 8% in the general population), making dyslexia a positive discriminating factor if you are looking for innovative or entrepreneurial employees.
CV's
- Thread starter cookiemonster
- Start date
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I suggest you and Globalti need to read up on the Disbility Discrimination Act and recruitment. You are both treading in illegal and unethical territory if you are doing what you say and you and your employer could find yourselves subject to an Employment Tribunal Case bought by a rejected dyslexic applicant. Its also worth bearing in mind that while only about 5% of corporate managers are dyslexic, about 35% of successful entrepreneurs are (compared to 8% in the general population), making dyslexia a positive discriminating factor if you are looking for innovative or entrepreneurial employees.
I have a spelling checker
I disc covered four my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot see. Eye ran this poem threw it.
Your sure real glad two no.
Its very polished in its weigh,
My checker tolled me sew.
A checker is a blessing.
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
And aides me when aye rime.
Each frays comes posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The checker pours o'er every word
To cheque sum spelling rule.
Bee fore wee rote with checkers
Hour spelling was inn deck line,
Butt now when wee dew have a laps,
Wee are not maid too wine. And now bee cause my spelling
Is checked with such grate flare,
There are know faults in awl this peace,
Of nun eye am a wear.
To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should be proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaws are knot aloud.
That's why eye brake in two averse
Cuz Eye dew want too please.
Sow glad eye yam that aye did bye
This soft wear four pea seas.
Jerry Zar, Dean of the Graduate School,
Northwestern Illinois University (courtesy of Sheldon Brown)
If somebody knows they have issues with spelling or grammar, proof read it and get somebody else to proof read it also. If they do not see that as important I wouldn't dismiss them because of poor spelling, I'd dismiss them because of poor judgement.
I seriously hope you guys are not in a position of deciding on recruitment - I suspect not or your HR Departments would be down on you like a ton of bricks. The law says its the employer that has to make the allowances, not the disabled person (and dyslexia is a recognised disability). Discriminating against dyslexics in recruitment because of poor grammar or spelling is no more acceptable in law these days than discriminating against women because they might get pregnant.
I know of several employers who have paid out thousands of pounds to rejected dyslexic applicants because of the way their applications were handled. I have also had to deal with similar complaints but I was able to demonstrate that the applications were properly considered and the rejection was on factors related to qualifications and experience against the job and person spec, not spelling or grammar or dyslexia.
The reason to reject poorly presented CVs is that they are poorly presented.
Did you know that you can get spell checkers built into browsers?
So would you consider someone to be a go ahead clever type person if they knew they had dyslexia, and when writing out a CV didn't give it someone who could polish up any of their mistakes for them?
Ethical, moral, legal, or anything else, I would have thought it just makes common sense to give yourself the best chance in a competitive market?
Would you rather get the job, or spend time in court arguing a discrimination case?
I'm not condoning this type of discrimination, just looking at the situation relistically.
Ethical, moral, legal, or anything else, I would have thought it just makes common sense to give yourself the best chance in a competitive market?
Would you rather get the job, or spend time in court arguing a discrimination case?
I'm not condoning this type of discrimination, just looking at the situation relistically.
Exactly. Would I discriminate against someone who had dyslexia? No. Would I dismiss someone's application because they didn't have the intelligence to get it checked before they submitted it? Yes.
A lot of the positions I recruit for require good judgement. If you know you have an issue with spelling, although to be honest even if you don't have an issue with spelling, not getting someone to check it first shows a lack of judgement.
I cannot think of a good reason for anyone not to get their CV and job applications checked and that's nothing to do with dyslexia, it's that forgotten thing called common sense.
A lot of the positions I recruit for require good judgement. If you know you have an issue with spelling, although to be honest even if you don't have an issue with spelling, not getting someone to check it first shows a lack of judgement.
I cannot think of a good reason for anyone not to get their CV and job applications checked and that's nothing to do with dyslexia, it's that forgotten thing called common sense.
But you are discriminating if they are dyslexic. Unless accurate spelling is a requirement of the job - e.g. its for a proof-reader - you are not allowed to discriminate on it if the person is dyslexic. That's very different from sloppy spelling in an application by a non-dyslexic.
How can I be accused of discrimination against someone with dyslexia if they don't say in their CV that they suffer from it?! Am I being discriminatory by not being psychic?!!
If they stated that they were dyslexic on their CV (or covering letter) then I would make allowances for that. It doesn't however excuse the fact that they've taken time to point out their disability yet not bothered to have someone check what they've sent. Is stupidity a disability too?!
Archie_tect
De Skieven Architek... aka Penfold + Horace
- Location
- Northumberland
I like to get a hand-written letter. I know it's old fashioned but you can tell a lot about someone from how and what they write and whether it is a naturally flowing script or if they've meticulously copied it out.
MacB
Lover of things that come in 3's
- Location
- Farnborough, Hampshire
I suppose it depends on the role but I've known quite a few people that will dump handwrittens on the reject pile automatically. They want plain type, nothing fancy, and no effort to read......
By assessing and rejecting them on the basis of their spelling rather than on whether they meet the job and person specification.
I got a handwritten application in red crayon once.
PaulSB
Squire
- Location
- Chorley, Lancashire
I think this is a bit daft and please let me say as the parent of a young man with SLD I have plenty of experience of discrimination.
Earlier I made the comment spell checker is a "disaster waiting to happen" and went on to remark we speak English rather than American in the UK. Color or colour. It's my view that as first impression is important in a job application relying on a spell checker is foolish.
Many people have a relatively poor command of language and asking a friend or family member to proof read a document is common sense.
I once received an unsolicited application from a young woman wanting office work. We were not advertising at the time. Full marks for initiative in writing to us, zero marks for 13 spelling or grammatical errors in the letter.
Nothing more or less.
Your loss. Richard Branson is dyslexic as are/were Anita Roddick, Theo Paphitis, Lord Sugar, Jamie Oliver, Steve Jobs, Stephen Spielberg and many many other very successful people - in fact disproportionately so.
As Branson said "Being dyslexic can actually help in the outside world. I see some things clearer than other people do because I have to simplify things to help me and that has helped others." Dyslexics are known to be particularly strong in seeing the big picture, getting to the heart of issues, delegation and teamwork and creativity. And you are filtering them out because they made some spelling mistakes.