Many people with learning disabilities in reading and spelling are worried about entering the workforce. So many jobs seem to require paperwork. Even the applications can seem daunting. Remember, though, you’ve made it this far and you can keep going! All the techniques and strategies you used in school will come in handy now, only now you get to choose what you do with your life.

In high school and college, there were probably subjects you liked more than others. Maybe the things you loved to do weren’t in school at all, but were hobbies or extracurricular activities. Either way, now it’s time to play to your strengths.

This is one of those good news/bad news situations. The good news is that your troubles with reading don’t need to get in the way of your interests and passions. Having trouble reading does not mean you’re not smart or creative. You can be whatever you want to be.

The bad news is that a lot of careers, even those that don’t seem to have much to do with reading and writing, require reading and writing skills. This means you need to be realistic about what you can and can’t do, and what you will need to be successful. You don’t have to avoid any job that requires reading or writing, but you should think through how much your job will require of you, how much help is available, and what kind of reading and writing you’ll have to do.

For example, an interior designer may need to write up plans and read other people’s reports, but probably isn’t called on to write things under tremendous time pressure. That means she can take the time to get help with proofreading and polishing. On the other hand, an office professional such as a secretary may need to have good spelling skills and not have much time to perfect her writing.

There is no rule that says you need to tell anyone – not even your boss – that you have dyslexia. This is completely up to you. If your skills are such that no one will notice any difference between you and other people doing your job, there’s no reason to tell unless you want to.

On the other hand, there may be times when having some help or support from a colleague or supervisor would be very helpful (see below). In that case, you might decide to talk about your learning disability.

Many people choose to handle this somewhere in the middle. They don’t specifically say they have a learning disability, but they let people on the job know that they have trouble with certain things. Coworkers and supervisors are often very supportive of your weaknesses if you’re willing to come right out and admit them. You might say, “I’ve always been a terrible speller. I know I need help proofreading,” or “Reading was always hard for me, so I read slowly.” What people hear in these situations is “she reads slowly” or “she needs help proofreading.” They don’t tend to think much about why.

Once you’ve been honest about the things that are relatively weak for you, it’s much easier to get help. Coworkers will probably be happy to check your spelling for you, particularly if you’re willing to help them out with something in return.

It’s a little harder for someone to read for you, of course, but there are some possibilities. If the things you are supposed to read are transcripts or summaries of meetings, court proceedings, television shows or something else that was recorded, ask to listen to the original. Get software on your computer that will read documents and emails to you, and ask for the electronic version of things you need to read.

It is illegal for an employer to deny you a job because of your dyslexia provided that you can meet the requirements of the job with reasonable accommodations. What this means is that, if the only reading or writing you’ll have to do is filling out a time card, they can’t fire you or refuse to hire you because you spell things wrong on it. It also means that, if you can do the job just as well as anyone else if they buy you certain software for your computer, they have to buy it.

Because discrimination based on your disability is illegal, no one may ask you if you have a disability during your job interview, and you not only don’t have to tell them, you probably shouldn’t. The only thing they can ask is if there is any reason you can’t do the job if they make reasonable accommodations.

There are jobs where, depending on how your disability manifests itself, you may not be able to do the basic functions even with reasonable accommodations. For example, if you want to get hired as the voice for audio books but you don’t read fluently out loud, the employer probably can refuse to hire you. There’s no reasonable accommodation that’s going to make that work for you, and reading out loud is a basic requirement of the job.

Chances are that, in high school and college, you learned some things that worked well for you when you had to read and write. You can and should keep doing those things on the job. If highlighting helps your comprehension, keep highlighting at work. It doesn’t matter if you’re the only one in the office doing it – if it’s what you need, go for it (unless, of course, you’re reading something that you’re not supposed to write in. Then you may have to use Post-It flags or some other coding strategy). This goes for any strategy that you know is useful to you.

At this point, you know yourself better than anyone else. You know what you need, and you’ve been successful so far. Keep doing what you’re doing, and you’ll do fine.