The archive · PR & Stunts · Marketing decision · 2022–2023
Made By Dyslexia gets LinkedIn to make 'Dyslexic Thinking' an official skill
A charity reframes dyslexia as a workplace strength and persuades LinkedIn to create a 'Dyslexic Thinking' skill people can add to their profiles.
Made By Dyslexia
What it had to solve
One in five people is affected by dyslexia, yet 97% of the population still views it negatively — a view Made By Dyslexia traces to an outdated definition that classifies dyslexia as a learning disability, an impairment or a medical disorder. Recent research, however, shows that people with dyslexia outperform others in creativity, empathy, leadership and out-of-the-box thinking.
How it works
Dyslexia affects one in five people, yet 97% of the population still views it negatively — and Made By Dyslexia argues the culprit is the definition. Framed as a 'learning disability', an 'impairment' or a 'medical disorder', the condition is filed under deficit before the person even speaks.
The charity's counter-move was linguistic and institutional at once. It pivoted to the more positive term 'dyslexic thinking', backed by recent research showing that people with dyslexia outperform others in skills such as creativity, empathy, leadership and out-of-the-box thinking — and then it had LinkedIn create a specific, new skill that people could add to their profiles.
That last step made the reframe concrete: on a professional network, dyslexic thinking became something to declare and be valued for, not a diagnosis to hide. The campaign changed the category the label sat in — from disorder to skill.
Why it lands
- Research showing superior creativity, empathy and leadership gives the reframe evidence rather than sentiment.
- Putting the term on LinkedIn moves the fight to the place where professional identity is built and labelled.
- A skill people can add to their profiles turns every user into an advocate — each add is a public act of reframing.
- Replacing clinical words with 'dyslexic thinking' changes the category the condition sits in: from disability to capability.
What it did
The reframe stopped being a slogan and became part of the professional machinery: on LinkedIn, 'dyslexic thinking' was now a skill users could declare on their profiles rather than a disorder to keep quiet. D&AD's awards archive keeps the campaign.
What you can take
To change how a condition is seen, change the system that classifies it: once LinkedIn lists 'dyslexic thinking' as a skill, every profile that adds it makes the reframe official.
Since then
Dyslexic Thinking entered D&AD's awards archive as part of Made By Dyslexia's longer campaign to change how the world sees dyslexia. The LinkedIn skill gave the reframe a self-replicating surface: every new profile that added 'dyslexic thinking' kept the positive definition in circulation on the platform where professional reputations are formed.
Sources
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