In the UK dyslexia is thought to affect 10% of students. While it is a spectrum disorder (it varies) it is generally seen as an impediment to a child’s education and to their success in the world of work.

New research by Professor Julie Logan of London’s Cass Business School challenges the notion that dyslexia is a work place disadvantage in her recent research that indicated that up to 35% of US entrepreneurs were self-identified dyslexics. Not only were they more likely to be self employed, they were better oral communicators and delegators. By contrast just 1% of corporate managers in the US self identified as being dyslexic.

Logan’s US research links to earlier work she did in the UK in 2001 that indicated 20% of local entrepreneurs were dyslexic. Probably the most interesting outcome of Logan’s research was that she attributed the difference between the US and the UK to the better intervention and support in US schools for dyslexic students. So rather than seeing dyslexia as a career limiting problem, perhaps if we had better intervention in the UK, it might just support more successful small business entrepreneurs, who are as everyone knows, the engine room of UK plc.