Look on most websites about dyslexia and you will see a long list of famous people who supposedly had dyslexia. Some of these are easily checked because the person is still alive (e.g. Richard Branson) but mostly its people like Leonardo De Vinci. People who were dead long before we discovered dyslexia but someone has ‘diagnosed’ them based on their reported behaviour.

Despite the fact that its hard enough to diagnose dyslexia when you have person in front of you, people hang to these lists as encouragement that it is possible to achieve great things when you are dyslexic. This does no harm however some people then extend the argument and claim these people were great because they were dyslexic. They claim dyslexia is a gift not a curse. Myomancy has something to say on this subject:

Disclaimer: I’ve never felt dyslexia was a gift. School was hell and when I left school I struggled in the world of work. I couldn’t draw or play musical instruments or study science no matter how hard I tried. My dyslexia held me back and since I’ve got rid of my dyslexia I can now draw, play instruments and spell complicated words. I’m not very good at any of them yet but I am getting better.

So my opinion may be biased however this shouldn’t matter because there should be good scientific evidence to settle the argument right? Wrong, I’ve only found two studies that are immediately relevant. The prevalence of dyslexia among art students found that “according to self-reports combined with objective testing, the incidence of dyslexia was far higher among art students“. So it looks good for the dyslexics-are-creative argument. However [a second] study paints a different picture: Findings from the International Adult Literacy Survey on the incidence and correlates of learning disabilities in New Zealand “compared to non-[Self Reported Learning Difficulties] (SRLD) adults, those with SRLD were found to leave school earlier, engage more often in manual occupations, are more frequently unemployed, and rely on more state assistance“. Dyslexics are more likely to be without a job or in a poor job. Dyslexia isn’t looking like a gift now. If we examine those at the bottom of society, two studies on dyslexia and prison found that 50% of prisoners are dyslexic.

So how do we reconcile the higher percentage of art students plus the anecdotal evidence against the increased unemployment and the prison studies?

More in Is Dyslexia a Gift? Sink or Swim and more from Myomancy on dyslexia.