06/20/2026
Considered the most common language-based learning disability, dyslexia affects an estimated 20% of the population in some form. Frequently, dyslexia is mischaracterized as a condition that results in people seeing words and letters backwards. Broken down in a TED-Ed talk presented by dyslexia expert and advocate Kelli Sandman-Hurley, dyslexia is rooted in a phonological processing issue — meaning that people affected by it have trouble not with “seeing” language but with “manipulating” it. While people with dyslexia may see words in a neurotypical way, they may need to “decode” unfamiliar words by breaking them into familiar segments — which can be a time-consuming process.
Although dyslexia is lifelong and exists on a broad spectrum, evidence-based interventions and accommodations can be highly effective. As the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity points out, “Accommodations can be low tech or high tech — or no tech at all. Indeed, the most critical accommodation for a dyslexic reader is simply allowing extra time to take a test or complete an assignment.” On the more technical side of accommodations are devices such as speech-to-text software and smartpens that capture spoken and written words and convert them into digital documents.
Among the local resources listed by Employ 210 business partner San Antonio Community Resource Directory (SACRD), the nonprofit Celebrate Dyslexia upholds a mission to “foster a community that celebrates, educates and empowers the one in five with dyslexia.” Last year alone, Celebrate Dyslexia helped provide strength-based programming to more than 20,000 students in San Antonio and offered Dyslexia 101 training to nearly 400 Bexar County Educators. Visit celebratedyslexia.org to learn more about their programs, which include a learning center and a school that aims to “celebrate, educate, and empower every learner.”
Funded by U.S. Department of Education, Grant Number H421F240046.
