I am a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, having joined Human Resources in 1992.

During my time within HR my last role was at as senior manager. I have come across people who didn't respond well to the traditional training offered; coped poorly with formal assessment for managerial positions; and been subjected to performance management procedures. Most were not Dyslexic, although some were.

Only in the past few years has Dyslexia become covered by the Disability Discrimination Act, therefore requiring employers to "make reasonable adjustments" when it is identified as being at the route cause of a staff performance issue.

Despite talking with numerous HR professionals at network meetings over the past couple of years, I have not found one who has more than the smallest understanding of what can be done to help staff by making those "reasonable adjustments". My decision to retrain in this new area was prompted by the combination of my own personal experience and the discovery of little corporate awareness.

Having experienced dyslexia, I know first hand how debilitating it can be. Life at school was challenging enough, but to be openly described, even accused, of being thick or stupid was, simply, crushing. Not all the accusations were direct and these, at times, were the most hurtful. I hated being compared with others. Such comparisons were always derogatory and focused repeatedly on the things I did not do as well as someone else did - not even the same "someone else".

I wasn't encouraged by my parents to play the cello, even though I was invited to join a junior orchestra when I had only been playing for a couple of years. This wasn't academic and seemed not to be valued, neither was my ability in Life Saving, even though I qualified as a Junior Teacher at only 15 years old.

To me the language of education was like a foreign one, which I never really got the hang of until my mid to late twenties. I entered the world of management in my early thirties and studied for a post graduate management qualification (CIPD). Right to its successful completion I had a constant battle with the academic and business languages - especially in their written form - but at work I was a high achieving practitioner.

Clearly I wasn't thick or stupid. It took me until well into my forties and working my way through a Coaching Diploma to finally cast off the bulk of the constraining negative feelings and self-talk instilled in my childhood.