Every October, Dyslexia Awareness Week invites us to reflect on what dyslexia means, how it has been understood, and how it continues to shape lives. For too long, dyslexia was seen only as a deficit. But history shows a richer story: of discovery resilience, advocacy, and creativity.
Here, we trace that story through 12 objects, people and places that capture key moments in the journey; from the first medical descriptions to today’s celebration of dyslexic strengths.
1. A Medical Journal (1896)
In November 1896, British physician W. Pringle Morgan published a short case in the British Medical Journal. He described Percy, a 14-year-old boy who was bright and articulate but could not learn to read. Morgan called this “congenital word-blindness.”¹
This was the first widely recognised account of what we now call dyslexia. At the time, the medical model dominated; reading difficulty was framed as a ‘disorder’ to be ‘treated’ or explained as a fault. A few years later, James Hinshelwood (1917) built on this idea, arguing that the root problem was a failure of visual memory for words and letters.²
(1a. British Medical Journal January-June 1896, n.d.)
2. The School Room
The emergence of “dyslexia” as a concept coincided with big social changes: the spread of compulsory schooling, industrialisation, and an economy that increasingly required literacy skills. Sociologist MacDonald calls this the rise of the “text-based information society,” where written language became the dominant form of knowledge.³
This cultural shift privileged certain skills, fast decoding, linear sequencing, memorisation, and tied them to intelligence and employability. The result? People who processed information differently were excluded or disadvantaged. For dyslexic learners, it created disabling barriers, overlooking other forms of literacy such as visual, oral, and kinaesthetic.⁴
3. Samuel T. Orton and Anna Gillingham (Person: 1920s America)
In the 1920s, American neurologist Samuel T. Orton challenged the assumption that dyslexia was purely visual. He suggested it related to how the brain processed language across hemispheres.
Working with educator Anna Gillingham, Orton promoted structured, multisensory teaching methods, the foundation of the “Orton-Gillingham” approach still used today.⁵ 
(1b. Samuel Orton and Anna Gillingham, n.d.)
4. The Psychology Lab (1960s–1990s)
By the 1960s, research into developmental dyslexia expanded within psychology and education. Studies explored spelling, memory, and decoding, moving beyond medical case reports.
Although dyslexia was still often treated as a “problem to be solved,” this period laid the scientific foundations for how we understand learning differences today.⁶
5. Dyslexia Organisations (1970s)
The 1970s saw the birth of specialist organisations such as the British Dyslexia Association, the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Centre, and the Bangor Dyslexia Unit. These centres created a bridge between research, teaching, and lived experience.
They offered practical support to families, training for teachers, and advocacy for recognition. Many of these organisations remain active today.⁷
6. Susan Hampshire
Actress Susan Hampshire became one of the first well-known public figures in the UK to speak openly about dyslexia. In her autobiography, Susan’s Story (1981), she described her struggles with words and the strategies she developed to succeed as an actor.
Awarded an OBE in 1995 for her advocacy, Hampshire gave a human face to dyslexia and helped challenge prejudice. She paved the way for later generations of public figures who now share their experiences.⁸
7. The fMRI Scanner (1990s–2000s)
The 1990s brought a revolution in neuroscience. Functional MRI scans showed that dyslexic people process written language differently, often relying more on right-hemisphere activity than left.
For the first time, dyslexia could be seen in the brain. These scans provided scientific legitimacy and helped reduce stigma, shifting dyslexia from opinion or excuse into accepted neurocognitive fact.⁹
8. The Atlantic Newspaper
In 1998, Australian sociologist Judy Singer introduced the term neurodiversity in her academic thesis. Around the same time, journalist Harvey Blume popularised it in The New York Times and The Atlantic.
The concept reframes differences such as autism and dyslexia as natural variations in human cognition. “Neurodiversity” gave dyslexic people new language: not of deficit, but of diversity, identity, and pride.¹⁰
9. Hunter-Gatherer Tools (Evolutionary Perspective, 2000s)
By the 2000s, evolutionary psychologists began asking why dyslexia remains so common, affecting around 10% of people. One answer: it may have conferred survival advantages in pre-literate societies.
Dyslexic thinkers may have been better at scanning the horizon, problem-solving, navigating, or designing tools and shelters, skills that supported group survival. Ehardt argues that while the printing press diminished the advantage of visual-kinaesthetic thinking, traces of this adaptive profile persist today.¹¹
10. The Law Book (2005 & 2010)
Legal recognition transformed dyslexia from a personal challenge into a matter of rights. In the UK, the Disability Discrimination Act (2005) and the Equality Act (2010) placed clear duties on schools and employers to make reasonable adjustments.¹²
The law book symbolises protection: the right to education, work, and participation without discrimination.
11. The Workplace Desk (2000s Onwards)
Attention turned to adulthood and work. Studies revealed that dyslexic employees often bring unique strengths, creativity, big-picture thinking, resilience, but face barriers in systems built around linear processing, reading and writing.¹³
The workplace desk symbolises this shift: from classroom struggles to adult adaptation, from hidden challenges to inclusive adjustments.
12. The Inclusion & Diversity Strategy (2021 and Beyond)
Today, dyslexia (and the broader concept of neurodiversity) has begun to gain recognition in Inclusion & Diversity strategies across workplaces. Companies increasingly see dyslexia not just as something to accommodate, but something to value.
In 2022, LinkedIn added “Dyslexic Thinking” as a recognised skill. Creativity, design, storytelling, and problem-solving are now seen as core strengths. The inclusion strategy document symbolises this new era: from deficit to difference, from stigma to celebration.
What’s Next?
The history of dyslexia is more than a story of reading difficulties. It is a story of shifting perspectives: from “word-blindness” to “neurodiversity,” from exclusion to inclusion, from deficit to difference.
Each object, person and place in this journey, a medical journal, a public figure, a law book, reminds us that dyslexia is not just about what we ‘can’t do.’ It is also about resilience, creativity, and human diversity.
And as we look to the future, we might ask: what will be the next significant person, place, or object to shape the dyslexia story in 10, 20, or 50 years? Will it be an AI tool that unlocks new ways of learning? A government that designs education systems with neurodiversity at their core? Or perhaps a generation of dyslexic voices whose leadership redefines what success looks like?
The history of dyslexia is still being written, and each of us has a part to play in shaping what comes next.
Footnotes:
- Morgan, W. P. (1896). A Case of Congenital Word Blindness. British Medical Journal, 2(1871), 1378.
- Hinshelwood, J. (1917). Congenital Word-Blindness. London: H.K. Lewis & Co.
- Macdonald, S. J., (2009). Windows of Reflection: Conceptualizing Dyslexia Using the Social Model of Disability. Dyslexia, 15(4).
- Reid, G. (2009). Dyslexia: A Practitioner’s Handbook. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
- Orton, S. T. (1925). Word-blindness in school children. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, 14(5), 581–615.
- Snowling, M. J., Hulme, C., & Nation, K. (2020). Defining and understanding dyslexia: past, present, and future. Oxford Review of Education, 46(4), 469–485.
- Kirby, P. (2020). Dyslexia debated, then and now. Oxford Review of Education, 46(4), 472–486.
- Hampshire, S. (1981). Susan’s Story: An Autobiographical Account of My Struggle with Words. London: St Martin’s Press.
- Shaywitz, S. E., Mody M. and Shaywitz, B. (2006). Neural Mechanisms in Dyslexia. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15, 278-281.
- Singer, J. (1998). Odd People In: The Birth of Community Amongst People on the “Autistic Spectrum”. Sydney: University of Technology thesis.
- Ehardt, K. (2009). Dyslexia, Not Disorder. Dyslexia, 15, 363–366.
- Equality Act 2010, c.15. UK Parliament.
- Brunswick, N. (2012) “Dyslexia in UK Higher Education and Employment: An Introduction and Overview.”
1a. British Medical Journal January-June 1896: (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/
1b. Samuel Orton and Anna Gillingham. (n.d.). Edublox Online Tutor. https://www.edubloxtutor.com/orton-gillingham/
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About the author
Deborah works strategically with corporate clients to enable neuroinclusion in the workplace through our consultancy and audit services. Deborah also works with academic research partners on impact-driven research projects, developing NB’s research and innovation agenda.
She has a Ph.D. in dyslexia, performance training, and inclusion from the University of Kent. Her practice-based research has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, books, and toolkits (including Routledge, and the British Dyslexia Association).
Deborah is also an Honorary Research Fellow in the Centre for Healthcare and Communities at Coventry University.
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