Featuring on the Diversity and Inclusivity Finance Forum (DIFF) podcast, Toni Smith, chief operating officer of LSL, “we tend to make assumptions” that everyone can do things in the same way.
This was in response to Tracie Burton, senior corporate account manager at HSBC who also spoke on the podcast, and shared moments in her career where she was put in uncomfortable situations.
Both Smith and Burton have dyslexia, a form of neurodivergence, which can affect how people learn, read and write.
On one occasion, Burton was presenting an award at an industry event and was given a speech to read out shortly before going on stage. This made her second guess how she was going to read it or pronounce certain words. She also mentioned the now-common practice of asking people to make comments or ask questions on Zoom using the message function. She said some people may worry about doing that if they had concerns about their spelling, for example.
Burton said: “It’s having the forward thinking” and asking if the person will be okay, feel comfortable or is there any extra pressure being put on them.
Smith said businesses should “make sure we don’t make those assumptions and we have to take all disabilities, all differently abled individuals into account and think about embracing that”.
Smith said it worked both ways, as she also wanted the individuals who were affected to feel comfortable to say if a certain way of operating does not work for them.
However, she acknowledged that this would not be possible without the industry creating an environment where people feel confident to speak up. She also said the support offered may not be suitable without participation from the people who need it.
Smith added: “Unless we enable people to feel comfortable and talk up about these things, we might come up with solutions that don’t work for everyone.”
Gaining confidence
During Burton’s childhood, she realised she interpreted information differently from her peers as she couldn’t figure out why she wasn’t able to keep pace with her friends. At school, she was made to sit on the “remedial table” and was called out of class for extra learning, which she “found really quite embarrassing and daunting”.
Although she did not want this to stop her from having a successful career, when she took her CeMAP exams she was too embarrassed to tell her employer that she had dyslexia, so she paid for her academic qualifications instead of asking for support, which cost her thousands.
Now, Burton said she was more confident to speak about her dyslexia with her employer and positioned it as a positive and skill, rather than something which sets her back.
She said: “I don’t see it as a disability or a disadvantage. It’s just a different way of how the brain takes on information and how it assesses it.”
Burton also disclosed that at a recent industry event, a senior person in the mortgage industry made a comment about people who are neurodivergent. The topic of neurodiversity was being discussed and the person said: “Isn’t that when you’re a little bit thick?”
Burton said that “horrified” her and struck her that “the awareness still isn’t quite where it needs to be on this topic”.
Similarly to Burton, Smith was separated from her classmates at school. She said: “It almost makes you hang your head in shame that as a society we just clubbed people together that either didn’t want to learn or couldn’t learn in a standard way”.
Smith said she was glad to see that schools had moved away from practices which created a stigma but said there was still a “one size fits all” approach to learning.
Within her business, LSL has been working with the British Dyslexia Association which has provided the firm with practical hints and tips. These include the suggestions of installing screen readers or text to speech software and generally developing an understanding of how people’s dyslexia plays out to figure out what is the right support.
LSL also has disability champions, who are there to advocate for the needs of differently abled employees and increase awareness.
Listen to the podcast [27:03] featuring Toni Smith, chief operating officer of LSL and Tracie Burton, senior corporate account manager at HSBC.
