Dyslexia Awareness Week 2023: Uniquely You

The BDA celebrate each person with dyslexia and the experiences unique to them, including their own set of strengths and challenges, treading their own path through life. The 2023 theme, ‘Uniquely You,’ celebrated the diversity of the dyslexic community and the rich variety of lived experiences of dyslexia.

Sir Richard Branson, who believes that dyslexia is his ‘superpower’, prides himself on taking up new challenges and is always pushing himself to the limit. He is severely dyslexic, diagnosed in his 20s but believes that his ‘differently wired brain’ has given him the edge in business and life, saying:  “If something really interests me, I can excel at it.”

Founder of the global charity Made By Dyslexia, Kate Griggs suggests, “The thing people get wrong about this is thinking dyslexia is a negative. It is not.” Strengths associated include reasoning skills, thinking outside the box, good visual spatial skills, great communicators, ability to identify and understand patterns and access the information logically. 

Scientist Dr. Maggie, Aderin-Pocock Ph.D., Space Scientist and Science Communicator, known for her work with the largest space telescope ever made, uses her dyslexic thinking skill of curiosity to not just think outside the box, but to think outside the planet. She says, “My dyslexia drives me on.” Honoured in 2009 as a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire ( MBE) she was most recently recognised as a ‘Barbie Role Model ‘ for making space and science accessible to girls.