The Access to Work Grant is a publicly-funded employment support programme that operates in the UK. It’s designed to provide practical and financial support for anybody with disabilities and physical and mental health conditions that impact how you work and support you in finding work or staying in work once you’ve found it.  

It’s available to everyone in Scotland, England or Wales who has a disability or health condition that affects their ability to work and is 16 or over. 

An Access to Work grant can pay for practical support to help somebody: 

💼 Start working and get a job 

💼 Stay in work if you’ve already found a job  

💼 Start their own business or become self-employed, although it can’t be applied to business start-up costs.  

It can be used to cover expenses related to: 

💼 Travelling to and from work  

💼 Travelling for work (i.e. training, trade shows and events) 

💼 Support workers or other professionals  

💼 Assistive technology and specialist software and equipment 

💼 Accessibility changes to the workplace premises (i.e. ramps and bathroom rails). 

The Access to Work grant is a part of the framework in UK law that ensures that everyone who has a disability has equal access to the workplace, education, training and earning. Many thousands of people claim Access to Work in some form or another, and there’s a very broad scope of conditions and workplace needs that it can be applied to. 

The amount that you receive depends on the individual circumstances, but you don’t have to pay any of it back, and it doesn’t impact on any other kinds of allowances or benefits. As part of the process, the employee will be invited to an assessment of their individual needs and their eligibility for the grant.  

An employer might have to contribute to some parts of your claim too, depending on their size. Small businesses usually don’t have to pay anything, but medium-sized and larger ones may sometimes be asked to contribute a relative portion of the support costs.  

All businesses can also access practical advice and guidance from Access to Work about their responsibilities.  

Understanding Access to Work dyslexia support 

One of the conditions that an individual can get support under the Access to Work grant for is dyslexia.  

Dyslexia impacts everybody differently. Some people find that the reading and writing side of things causes them more problems than it does for others, but especially in terms of office, professional and technical roles, the amount of reading you’re expected to do in the workplace can be intense.   

Most examples of dyslexia reading support in the workplace would come under reasonable adjustments, especially as a lot of the best technologies for the job are inexpensive and intuitive to use, but many people still end up using Access to Work dyslexia support to furnish them with the tools that they need for the job too.  

It might be that a smaller business with a high number of dyslexic employees can’t fund a large-scale device rollout, or that an employer’s reasonable adjustments covered a reading support device but not dyslexia awareness training for colleagues, for example.  

Access to Work dyslexia support: can it pay for assistive tech?  

Yes! Having the right assistive technology to hand is a huge part of ensuring that any individual with dyslexia can go into work feeling confident and productive. 

The most common forms of assistive technology that are applied to workplace reading support situations are based on the principle of text-to-speech. These devices support users by bypassing the decoding barrier for the words on the page or the screen: as they relay the text to the user via audio, the user can experience it multi-modally and listen to the information as well as read it. It’s then far easier to understand and work out what’s the task at hand, as well as open whole new avenues of working confidence and the ability to research, plan and engage with colleagues on a more inclusive level.  

Assistive technology designed for the workplace  

It’s the digital age. Why does paper-based reading support still dominate the workplace reading support marketplace? 

🗂️ So many industries still rely on physical documents: healthcare, education, legal, manufacturing. There’s been a digital shift, but it’s rarely wholesale, and everyone still uses paper for everything from contracts to cleaning checks.   

🗂️ So many responsibilities within an organisation rely on physical documents too. There’s very little point in digitising a temperature chart for a refrigerator check, and it makes it far harder to fill in in an agile way.  

🗂️ There are huge security bonuses too. Many industries find that it’s easier to keep data secure when it’s in paper format, as there’s no potential for cyberattacks or accidental exposure to people outside of the organisation, and there are reading tools available that feature unique security-first designs. 

🗂️ It’s very easy to turn a digital document physical – just hit print. But it’s far harder to turn a physical document digital, which requires scanning in, typing out, and hoping that your screen reader software is up to the job in the format you’re working in.  

🗂️ Navigating software can be difficult already, especially if you’re older and don’t find computers so intuitive or you’re a dyslexic person who struggles with sequencing and memory. Paper reading tech is a lot easier to use: most simply take the form of a pen that you move along the words on the page.  

🗂️ This kind of support often comes in at well under the price of most screen reader software too, making it far easier to roll out throughout a business.  

C-Pen Secure Reader 2: the world’s first GDPR-secure reading pen! 

Need to make sure that your data stays where it’s supposed to be, but still support employees with dyslexia? 

C-Pen Secure Reader 2 keeps your data and information safe, confidential and exactly where it’s supposed to be, with no potential for leaks or sharing. It’s a text-to-speech reading support that’s empowering dyslexic colleagues all over the world. And it’s as simple as scan, listen and understand: just move the pen across the words on the page to hear them read back via a customisable-speed audio.  

It’s designed for total data security and doesn’t need an internet connection to work, so that whatever has been scanned stays locked up tight without compromising on the level of reading support that the employee receives. It’s also designed with zero storage capacity too, meaning that there’s no way to transport information at all – so it’s perfectly secure even when employees are travelling, working at home, or even getting ahead on some paperwork as they commute. 

You can find out more about reading support that’s designed for support and security by checking out C-Pen Secure Reader 2 at Scanning Pens, or heading over to our Workplace Hub. 

So is Access to Work dyslexia support an alternative to my employer making reasonable adjustments?  

No: reasonable adjustments are a legal responsibility that an employer has to implement, and Access to Work dyslexia support is a different part of the process.  

Since the Equality Act (2010) entered into law, employers are legally required to make and fund reasonable adjustments to make sure that workers with disabilities and/or with physical and mental health conditions aren’t substantially disadvantaged whilst they’re in work or applying for jobs. The ‘reasonable’ part of ‘reasonable adjustments’ is subjective and depends on each situation, and employers have to account for whether the change will be proactive in supporting the employee, is practical to make, is affordable, or might harm the health, safety or working comfort of others.  

The reasonable adjustments process is usually (but not always) the first port of call when somebody discloses their dyslexia to their employer, and it could take the form of things like… 

💼 Making adjustments to equipment, workstations and premises 

💼 Procuring specialist equipment like assistive technology 

💼 Allocating duties differently, or changing KPIs  

💼 Altering working hours or break time  

💼 Implementing extra training, support or support.  

If somebody with dyslexia already has reasonable adjustments in place, they can still apply for Access to Work dyslexia support if they require additional support that isn’t covered by the adjustments that their employer has made for them. It can be something like a reading pen that the business has been unable to fund within the boundaries of what’s ‘reasonable’, or it might be support that’s far more intensive and expensive, like a support worker or high-end GPS for a dyslexic person whose role involves driving.   

Understanding the line between Access to Work dyslexia support and reasonable adjustments  

When it comes to Access to Work dyslexia support and reasonable adjustments, the two support streams aren’t interchangeable. It’s important to ensure that as an employer, you’re aware of those legal responsibilities and of the fact that Access to Work funding can’t be used to support reasonable adjustments.  

The responsibility for funding and implementing those lies with the business. But if someone requires support above and beyond that which the business they work for can reasonably provide, the Access to Work grant can provide additional financial ways for them to create a working environment that works for them.  

Applying for Access to Work  

If you’re an employee with dyslexia and confident in reading from a screen and filling in forms and information online, one of the easiest ways to apply for an Access to Work grant is online, at the Access to Work application portal on .GOV. Businesses can support employees throughout this process too, and some choose to fill in the application together.  

An employee can also apply for an Access to Work grant by calling the Access to Work helpline: 

Telephone: 0800 121 7479 

Textphone: 0800 121 7579