any advice from anyone would be helpful...

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

I am a 21 year old female and have reading comprehension difficulties and I work full time.

At work there is a lady with a physical disability- she is paralysed on her left side and walks with a limp/shuffle. It is extremely annoying as we have a very good working relationship with each other, however because of her clearly visable disability she gets treated… well differently. For example we both went for promotion in November 2005 and we both got promoted in December 2005, however everyone said to me “I knew you could do it, I’m not suprised you got promoted” and to her they were saying things like, “well done, congratulations, you must be so pleased, what an achievement etc, etc”

My point is I work twice as hard because of my reading comprehension, but because it isn’t as visible as other disabilities are, no-one knows about it.

Last week I had my annual report and my manager highlighted a few areas where she was confused as to why, “even though I am clearly able to do my job, I keep making small errors/mistakes, she knows its not down to laziness, so is it that I’m not very confident in my work?” and I just sat there and said in future i’d pay more care and attention. This was my opportunity to speak up about my learning disability, but instead i chose not to, as I have mentioned above with my promotion - [i]people expect me to do well,[/i] so if I mentioned that I have an LD, even though I might get treated differently in terms of my annual report etc, how might it affect what people’s expectations are of me?

[b]my dilemma is: Do I disclose my LD to my manager? [/b](based on all the above info?)
(also bearing in mind my workplace has an equal opportunities policy)

[i]ANY ADVICE WOULD BE GREATLY APPREICIATED,THANKS[/i]

[Modified by: TeddyBear on May 16, 2006 11:30 AM]

Submitted by Sue on Thu, 05/18/2006 - 6:32 PM

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Hmmm… the irony is that your friend with the more visible disability may feel patronized by all those congratulations.

It sounds like she knows you *reasonably* well … but is genuinely confused. Would telling her about the LD help her understand?
SInce she understands that the other woman can do her job with a disability, I would think she would understand you *better* if she knew there was a disability that meant that certain aspects of the job were difficult and you were likely to make mistakes there.
The danger (trying to look at both sides) would be if she thinks a learning disability is somehow worse than a physical disability - that it means you can’t think straight.
Since she already knows you can :-) I think it would help.
The other thing I would watch out for is to make sure you just make it a short, simple explanation - so it doesn’t look like you’re asking for a pity party :-) (I’m really just trying to figure out everything that *could* possibly go wrong… you don’t sound like pity-party stuff to me!)
I’d also think practically. If you can come up with ways that those mistakes can be taken care of more easily (just as the other lady gets help with specific things that are hard for her), that aren’t a lot of trouble, then she’ll realize that you are *really* on the ball because you are trying to help her do her job better, not just trying to help yourself do yours better.
Just some thoughts… sounds like you’re doing a darned good job (and remember, in those evaluations they *have* to find something to work on!)

Submitted by socialworker on Mon, 08/14/2006 - 7:19 AM

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Since your posting was in May, you may have already disclosed your LD, but I will share my thoughts anyways. It sounds like you had the dilemma of whether or not to disclose your LD to your manager, but you use “choose” not to disclose your LD. You made a choice and you don’t have to feel pressured to disclose anything that you don’t want too. Do you feel disclosing your LD will help your current situation at work? Maybe or maybe not. It’s a risk that you take. Keep in mind that your manager may not understand your LD and it’s an opportunity for you to educate him/her. He/she may or may not know how to help you. If you know what will help you, then I would start there.

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