DYS disorders in the workplace: activities, resources, and concrete adjustments to implement
“We want to do well, but we don’t know where to start.” This is the phrase that comes up most often when a manager learns that a member of their team is affected by a DYS disorder. The good news is that support does not rely on clinical expertise: it relies on concrete activities and tools, applicable from tomorrow, that remove the obstacle without stigmatizing the person. This article gathers these practical gestures to address DYS disorders in the workplace through materials, routines, and adjustments, rather than theory.
Dyslexia, dysorthographia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, dysphasia: these neurodevelopmental disorders persist into adulthood and are found in all functions, from administrative positions to workshops. They have nothing to do with intelligence or motivation. What an affected employee needs is not special treatment, but an environment that compensates for the cognitive overload imposed by reading, writing, or organizing. Here, method by method, is what is actually implemented.
The essentials in 30 seconds
Supporting a DYS disorder at work requires neither a heavy budget nor medical expertise: it requires simple, regular adaptations shared by the entire team.
- Start from the need, not the diagnosis — adapt a specific task (reading, writing, organizing, calculating), not a “DYS person” in general.
- 14 ready-to-use activities — each with objectives, materials, duration, procedures, easier and harder variants, and the sign that it works.
- A weekly routine — a few short rituals are better than a large plan never followed.
- The environment matters — noise, light, organization, and visual cues produce immediate and free effects.
- Digital tools help — text-to-speech, dictation, and training apps, provided they are used briefly and regularly.
The principle: start from the need, not the label
The first mistake is to treat an employee as a medical case to manage. A DYS disorder is not an illness to be treated in the workplace: it is a way of functioning that makes certain tasks more energy-consuming. The company does not have to make a diagnosis; this is the exclusive domain of health professionals — doctor, neuropsychologist, speech therapist. The role of the team is elsewhere: to identify the task that is blocking, and then make it manageable.
Specifically, we do not ask "how to help a dyslexic person?" but "what is the precise moment when this task becomes heavy, and what could lighten it?". Reading a dense instruction, writing a report without mistakes, finding a file in a hierarchy, checking a sequence of numbers: each of these micro-obstacles has a simple solution. It is this logic of fine adjustment, task by task, that structures the rest of this article.
Not "can I make life easier for them?" but "which exact part of this task costs them the most, and how can we circumvent it without doing it for them?". The goal remains always autonomy: we equip, we do not replace.
One last point before getting into the specifics: nothing that follows should be done behind the person's back. We co-construct with them, we ask them what already helps, and we keep in mind that occupational medicine may recommend workplace adjustments, particularly in the context of recognizing the status of disabled worker (RQTH). Support systems exist with Agefiph; their terms and amounts should be verified directly with the organization, as they evolve.
It should also be reminded that a DYS disorder almost always comes with marked strengths. Global vision, creativity, ability to find workaround solutions, visual memory, sense of relationships: these assets often develop in compensation for difficulties. Adapting a task is therefore not just about removing an obstacle, but also about freeing up time and energy for these strengths to express themselves. The collaborator who no longer has to struggle with spelling can focus on what they do best. It is this shift—from managed difficulty to valued competence—that gives all its meaning to the approach.
14 concrete activities and tools for DYS disorders in the workplace
Each sheet follows the same structure: objective, material, duration, procedure with the exact words to say, an easier variant, a more difficult variant, the sign that it works, and what to avoid. None assume any particular skill. All benefit from being shared with the team so that the adaptation does not rely on a single goodwill.
The written instruction template
- Objective — make an instruction readable for a dyslexic or dysphasic collaborator, by reducing the decoding load.
- Material — a template for an email or task sheet: one action per line, action verb at the top, deadline in bold.
- Duration — two minutes to reformat a request.
- Procedure — replace the block of text with a list. Say: "I’ve put the steps in order, take them one by one." Number, avoid double instructions in the same sentence.
- Easier variant — add a screenshot or an example of the expected output.
- More difficult variant — ask the person to rephrase the instruction in writing in their own way.
- Sign that it works — fewer rephrasing questions, fewer back-and-forths on the same request.
- ❌ To avoid — the dense message with three requests buried in a single paragraph.
The voice synthesis for reading
- Objective — to allow listening to a document rather than deciphering it, when reading is exhausting.
- Material — the built-in text-to-speech function in word processing, browsers, or phones (no software to purchase in most cases).
- Duration — one-time activation, free use afterwards.
- Procedure — show once how to start reading, adjust the speed, follow the highlighting. Say: “Listen to it in full first, then we’ll go over the important points.”
- Easier variant — slow down the voice and break the document into short sections.
- Harder variant — listen while reading simultaneously to strengthen the sound-graph link.
- Sign that it works — long documents stop being postponed at the last moment.
- ❌ To avoid — imposing reading aloud in front of colleagues, never.
The voice dictation for writing
- Objective — to free thought from the burden of spelling for a dysorthographic collaborator, by producing a first draft orally.
- Material — the voice dictation of the phone, messaging, or word processing.
- Duration — the usual writing time, often shortened.
- Procedure — dictate the message, then reread to correct punctuation and homophones. Say: “Say it as you think, we’ll clean up afterwards.”
- Easier variant — dictate sentence by sentence and check as you go.
- Harder variant — dictate a complete email in one go and then structure it into paragraphs.
- Sign that it works — writings are better structured and the blockage in front of the blank page decreases.
- ❌ To avoid — correcting the content at the same time as the form: we separate the two passes.
The color code for files
- Objective — to quickly find a document without rereading each title, useful in case of dyspraxia or organizational difficulties.
- Material — colored folders and labels, digital folders renamed with a simple prefix (01_, 02_).
- Duration — half a day to set up the system, then minimal maintenance.
- Procedure — associate a color with a type of task (blue: clients, yellow: internal). Say: “You’re looking for blue, everything related to clients is in there.”
- Easier variant — limit to a maximum of three colors.
- Harder variant — add a level of sub-classification once the first is acquired.
- Sign that it works — the time spent searching for a file drops significantly.
- ❌ To avoid — imposing a complex hierarchy designed by someone else.
The mind map for preparing a written document
- Objective — to organize ideas before writing a report, without immediately facing sentence structure.
- Material — an A3 sheet or a free mind mapping application.
- Duration — five to ten minutes of preparation.
- Procedure — place the central idea in the middle, then the branches. Say: “First throw out all the ideas, we’ll put them in order later.” Then number the branches in the order of the text.
- Easier variant — provide a template of the map to complete.
- Harder variant — move from the map to the written plan without an intermediary.
- Sign that it works — writings gain in logic and writing time decreases.
- ❌ To avoid — demanding a perfect linear plan from the start.
The targeted two-pass proofreading
- Objective — secure a document without getting lost in an ineffective overall proofreading.
- Material — a proofreading grid listing the points to check one by one.
- Duration — five minutes per pass.
- Procedure — first pass for meaning, second only for spelling and agreements. Say: “This time you only look at the ends of words.”
- Easier variant — check each item on the grid as you go.
- Harder variant — read aloud to spot sentence breaks.
- Sign that it works — the number of residual errors decreases from one version to the next.
- ❌ To avoid — asking to “pay attention” without specifying to what.
The visual reverse planning
- Objective — make time concrete and break a project into milestones, to compensate for difficulty in sequencing.
- Material — a wall chart, post-its, or a simple digital project board.
- Duration — ten minutes to set up, five minutes of updates per day.
- Procedure — start from the deadline and work backwards step by step. Say: “We start from the end: what needs to be ready the day before?”
- Easier variant — limit to three main steps.
- Harder variant — add dependencies between tasks.
- Sign that it works — fewer last-minute emergencies and overruns.
- ❌ To avoid — a plan that exists only in the manager's head.
Reformulating the instruction
- Objective — verify the understanding of an instruction without making it feel like a test.
- Material — none.
- Duration — thirty seconds.
- Procedure — after the request, say: “To be sure I was clear, can you tell me in your words what you are going to do?” The burden of clarity is placed on the sender, not the receiver.
- Easier variant — reformulate yourself and then get a one-word confirmation.
- Harder variant — ask for the reformulation and the order of steps.
- Sign that it works — misunderstandings about deliverables decrease.
- ❌ To avoid — “Did you understand?”, to which one reflexively answers yes.
The checklist for recurring tasks
- Objective — relieve working memory on repetitive procedures.
- Material — a laminated sheet or a pinned digital note, one line per step.
- Duration — the first time, we write it together while performing the task.
- Procedure — note each step as you do it. Say: “We build it once, then you don’t have to remember everything.”
- Easier variant — illustrate each step with a pictogram.
- Harder variant — have the person keep the checklist updated themselves.
- Sign that it works — fewer forgotten steps, increased autonomy on the procedure.
- ❌ To avoid — an unreadable two-page procedure that no one opens.
Light note-taking in meetings
- Objective — allow following a meeting without getting distracted between listening and writing.
- Material — an authorized audio recording, or a shared report filled out by another participant.
- Duration — the duration of the meeting.
- Procedure — designate a rotating note-taker and distribute a record of decisions to everyone. Say: “Focus on the exchange, the record comes after for everyone.”
- Easier variant — provide an agenda with checkboxes.
- Harder variant — occasionally assign the summary to the person, orally.
- Sign that it works — better participation, fewer lost pieces of information.
- ❌ To avoid — blaming incomplete notes taken in real time.
Assisted encrypted verification
- Objective — secure number handling in case of dyscalculia.
- Material — a calculator, a spreadsheet with locked formulas, an input template.
- Duration — integrated into the workflow.
- Procedure — automate repetitive calculations in a pre-filled spreadsheet, and plan for a double check on sensitive amounts. Say: “The formula calculates, you just check that the input is correct.”
- Easier variant — highlight the box to fill in color.
- Harder variant — gradually widen the scope left for manual input.
- Sign it works — fewer reporting and transposition errors.
- ❌ To avoid — leaving a complex mental calculation on a critical amount.
Adapted document layout
- Objective — reduce reading effort through an airy presentation, beneficial for all.
- Material — a document template: sans-serif font, sufficient size, airy line spacing, left-aligned text.
- Duration — set up once in internal templates.
- Procedure — apply a readable presentation by default, avoid justified blocks and tight paragraphs. Say: “We have a house template, it's more readable for everyone.”
- Easier variant — increase the size and spacing of lines.
- Harder variant — offer identical content in a short version and a detailed version.
- Sign it works — documents are read to the end, less skimmed.
- ❌ To avoid — overloaded, multicolored, and flashing documents.
Peer proofreading pair
- Objective — secure an important written document without always going through the manager, and without stigmatizing.
- Material — none, except for a trust agreement between two colleagues.
- Duration — a few minutes per document.
- Procedure — establish mutual cross-proofreading within the team, in both directions. Say: “We proofread each other before sending, it's the rule for everyone.”
- Easier variant — target proofreading only on external submissions.
- Harder variant — expand to a substantive review, not just a formal one.
- Sign it works — the person dares more to send their writings.
- ❌ To avoid — a one-way system that implicitly designates the concerned person.
Planned cognitive break
- Objective — respect the fatigue related to overload, more significant than average when each task costs more energy.
- Material — a simple timer, a negotiated work rhythm.
- Duration — a few minutes of break after a demanding sequence.
- Procedure — alternate heavy tasks and light tasks, place reading and writing efforts during peak times. Say: “Save the big file for the morning, in the afternoon we do the sorting.”
- Easier variant — break a long task into twenty-five minute blocks.
- Harder variant — let the person plan their own effort peaks.
- Sign it works — quality holds over time, less decline at the end of the day.
- ❌ To avoid — chaining dense tasks without breaks and attributing fatigue to a lack of involvement.
A typical routine over a week
Taken in isolation, these activities are forgotten. What keeps them going is a light routine, spread over the week, that does not add meetings but establishes a few short rituals. Here is an example to adapt, designed for a collaborator and their nearby manager. The idea is not to apply everything, but to choose two or three rituals and stick to them.
| Day | Supporting ritual | Tool used | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Framing the week: priorities and deadlines | Visual retroplanning, color coding | 10 min |
| Tuesday | Written point: prepare a report or an important email | Mind map, voice dictation | 15 min |
| Wednesday | Processing long documents | Voice synthesis, adapted layout | depending on workload |
| Thursday | Securing deliverables: cross-review | Review grid, peer buddy | 10 min |
| Friday | Short assessment: what worked well, what we adjust | Reformulation, updated checklist | 10 min |
| Every day | Respect effort peaks and breaks | Planned cognitive break | ongoing |
A ten-minute ritual held every week produces more than a large initiative announced and then abandoned. Better to have two truly anchored adaptations than fourteen boxes checked on paper and forgotten the following month.
Adapting the work environment, position by position
Even before the activities, the physical environment weighs on cognitive fatigue. Noise, light, clutter, and the absence of visual cues increase the burden to bear. Most of these adjustments are free and benefit the entire team, not just those affected by a DYS disorder.
| Element | What poses a problem | What we implement |
|---|---|---|
| Ambient noise | Noisy open space, constant distractions that break attention | Noise-canceling headphones allowed, "no interruption" periods, workstation away from traffic areas |
| Light and screen | Glare, too strong contrast, visual fatigue | Regular lighting, reading mode, adjustment of contrast and text size on screen |
| Workstation organization | Unfindable objects and files, time wasted searching | A fixed location for each item, color coding, decluttered digital desk |
| Visual cues | Instructions and procedures that rely on memory | Display of key steps, checklists within reach, reminder notes near the workstation |
| Meeting room | Quick exchanges, information that slips away | Agenda distributed in advance, written and shared record of decisions |
| Shared documents | Complex hierarchy, obscure titles | Clear and dated file names, prefixed folders, readable in-house templates |
None of these adjustments are special treatment. A tidy workstation, a meeting room that distributes its agenda, and properly named files improve the performance of everyone. This is precisely what makes these adaptations acceptable: they do not single anyone out, they raise the overall standard.
Moving from makeshift solutions to a shared method
The training "DYS Disorders in the Workplace: Identify, Adapt, and Value" details how to recognize signs without making a diagnosis, implement these adjustments, and value everyone's skills. 100% online, 19 lessons, at your own pace, unlimited access. Certified Qualiopi organization (No. 11757351875), certificate of completion.
Discover the training — €150The free DYNSEO resources to download
Several free tools directly complement the activities above. They were originally designed for remediation, but their logic easily translates to the adult workplace: they are aids for reading, writing, and proofreading. Here are the ones to remember and, above all, how to connect them to the previous activities.
Spelling proofreading grid
To be used directly for the two-pass proofreading activity: each line becomes a point to check and tick. Keep it next to the keyboard. Download the grid
Visual writing plan
The ideal complement to the mind map: it structures a report or a long email into visual cues before writing. Download the plan
Self-correction sheet
It instills the reflex to check one's own writing, to be used with the proofreading partner to gain autonomy. Download the sheet
b/d/p/q memory aid and flash cards
Cues for frequent letter confusions and a quick reading support, useful when decoding remains costly. See the memory aid · Flash reading cards
The rule of use is simple: a resource only serves if it is linked to a specific activity and stored in a fixed place. A downloaded document then forgotten in a folder changes nothing. We print, laminate, display, and use it in the planned ritual. The complete catalog of free tools is freely accessible, just like the cognitive tests to better understand the functions involved.
Digital: which app, which exercise, how much time
Digital is not a magic wand and does not replace human support or, when it exists, follow-up by a healthcare professional. It provides two things that are difficult to obtain otherwise: an automatic adjustment of the difficulty level, and a short and regular practice that maintains the cognitive functions engaged at work — attention, working memory, logic. The right use is that of brief and daily sessions rather than long spaced-out sessions.
| Application | Audience | Recommended use |
|---|---|---|
| COCO | Children aged 5 to 10 (family or school context) | Fun sessions of 10 to 15 min per day: attention, logic, reading, math, in a non-anxiety-inducing environment |
| CLINT | Adults | Daily cognitive training of 15 min: working memory, attention, language, at a chosen pace |
| MY DICTIONARY | Difficult communication, aphasia, non-verbal | Visual exchange support for daily use |
| SCARLETT | Seniors | Simplified interface for gentle and regular training |
For an adult at work, CLINT is the reference application: fifteen minutes a day is enough, the key being consistency. When a DYS disorder of a colleague also impacts the family sphere — a child affected, for example —, COCO offers a daily support suitable for 5-10 year-olds, to be practiced in a supportive environment and never presented as a constraint. In all cases, digital use remains a complement: it does not replace diagnosis or care by competent professionals.
A profile per person so that the level remains appropriate; a fixed time slot rather than use at whim; and a clear objective linked to a real difficulty. Without these three points, the application is opened twice and then abandoned.
The 5 mistakes to avoid
Some clumsiness, often well-intentioned, cancels out the effect of adaptations, or even worsens the situation. Identifying them allows for quick correction.
- Doing it for the person. Writing their emails or correcting everything for them disempowers and maintains dependency. We equip, we do not replace: the goal remains autonomy.
- Arranging in secret or in a visible and stigmatizing way. Both extremes are harmful. We co-construct with the person and prioritize adaptations that are useful for everyone, which do not single them out.
- Confusing DYS disorder with lack of motivation. Attributing slowness or mistakes to negligence is a misreading: these disorders have no connection to intelligence or the effort made.
- Wanting to implement everything at once. Fourteen activities applied in the same week do not hold. We choose two or three, anchor them, then expand.
- Ignoring external resources. Depriving oneself of occupational medicine, a possible disability recognition, or support from Agefiph means carrying alone what can be supported. We inquire with these contacts.
Ask the person what already helps them, choose few adaptations but maintain them over time, and share the approach with the team so that it does not rely on a single person.
Deciding for them, piling up tools without anchoring them, and turning a discreet arrangement into a signal that puts them in the spotlight in front of colleagues.
In summary, addressing DYS disorders in the workplace through activities and tools does not require a significant budget or medical expertise: it requires identifying the task that costs, choosing a few simple adaptations, anchoring them in a routine, and sharing them with the team. The fourteen activities, the weekly routine, environmental adjustments, free resources, and the reasoned use of digital tools described here form a toolbox applicable from tomorrow. The guiding principle remains the same from start to finish: equip without doing for them, aim for autonomy, and transform a difficulty into a recognized skill.
To go further
Concrete situations10 difficult everyday situations and how to respond to them
Professional posturePosture, teamwork, and skill development around DYS disorders
The trainingProgram, content, and audience of the training "DYS disorders in the workplace"
Frequently asked questions
How often should these activities be practiced?
Regularity is much more important than duration. A short ritual several times a week is better than a long monthly session that is quickly abandoned. For digital training, fifteen minutes a day is sufficient; for job adjustments, they are set up once and then become automatic. The ideal is to choose two or three activities, anchor them in the week, and then add others once the first habit is established. A modest but sustainable approach produces much more than a large plan applied for one week and then forgotten the following month.
How much time per day for the application?
For an adult, count on about fifteen minutes a day with an application like CLINT. The key is not the length of the session but its regularity: a short daily practice better maintains the cognitive functions engaged at work than a one-hour session once a week. For a child supported at home with COCO, ten to fifteen minutes in a playful setting is sufficient, without ever making it a constraint. Digital tools remain a complement: they do not replace human support or, if available, follow-up by a healthcare professional.
How to maintain motivation over time?
Motivation relies on three levers: meaning, success, and recognition. Each activity is linked to a concrete and visible benefit for the person, the difficulty is calibrated so they succeed in the majority of attempts, and progress is highlighted without overplaying it. Involving the person in choosing the tools changes everything: what they helped decide, they will stick to. Conversely, an imposed system, perceived as a judgment or surveillance, is quickly abandoned. Finally, avoid centering everything on difficulties: also valuing strengths nourishes engagement.
What materials are needed to get started?
Almost nothing costly. Most activities rely on tools already present: text-to-speech and dictation integrated into devices, a spreadsheet, colored folders, post-its, noise-canceling headphones. The free DYNSEO resources — proofreading grid, visual writing plan, self-correction sheet — can be downloaded freely and are directly linked to the activities. For the digital training aspect, applications can be tested before committing. The real investment is not financial: it is the time for initial setup and the team's consistency to ensure that the adaptations hold.
Are these adaptations valuable at any age?
Yes, but the support is adjusted. DYS disorders persist into adulthood: job adjustments, text-to-speech, checklists, and peer review fully concern employees in the workplace. For a child, a playful, supportive, and never anxiety-inducing environment is prioritized, with an age-appropriate tool like COCO for 5-10 year-olds. In all cases, the company or family does not have to make a diagnosis: any sign of lasting difficulty or suffering justifies referring to a doctor, a neuropsychologist, or a speech therapist, who are the only ones qualified to assess and support.
These proposals are practical general guidelines. They do not replace a diagnosis or individualized care, which are the responsibility of health professionals (doctor, neuropsychologist, speech therapist). In companies, occupational medicine is the contact for workplace adjustments. For any emergency situation, contact the emergency services in your country.
Identify, adapt, and enhance DYS disorders in the workplace
You have the activities and tools: the training provides you with the method to deploy them smoothly, identify signs without playing doctor, and transform a difficulty into a recognized skill. 19 lessons, 100% online, unlimited access, at your own pace. Qualiopi certified (N° 11757351875), certificate of completion.
Discover the training — 150 €In this article
The associated training
The cited resources
Spelling Review GridDiscover →
Visual Writing PlanDiscover →
Self-Correction Dictation SheetDiscover →
Memory Aid for b/d p/q ConfusionsDiscover →
3 Column TableDiscover →The notebooks to print — Collection SCARLETT
Did this content help you? Support DYNSEO 💙
We are a small team of 14 people based in Paris. For 13 years, we have been creating free content to help families, speech therapists, care homes and healthcare professionals.
Your feedback is the only way we know if our work is useful. A Google review helps us reach other families, caregivers and therapists who need it.
One action, 30 seconds: leave us a Google review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. It costs nothing, and it changes everything for us.
