Disclosure

Disclosure in the workplace is a very sensitive subject because many individuals who have learning disabilities are afraid to admit it to others because they are afraid of being stigmatized.

How to Disclose

If you decide to disclose your learning disability, be prepared to discuss the following:

• Your specific learning disability
• How your LD affects your performance
• The accommodations or modifications you need to be successful on the job
• Examples of successes you have had in the past when you have used these accommodations.

Be straightforward in your statements. Discuss your disability briefly and positively. A sample statement might be the following: "I have a learning disability that affects my ability to understand multi-step instructions that are given verbally. That means that I need your support, as my supervisor, to help me be a high-performance employee for (name of) Company. When you have instructions for me that involve several steps, please either write the instructions down, or permit me to either write them down or tape record them. In my last job, my supervisor always sent me email messages with her instructions, and it worked out fine. In fact, I received an outstanding evaluation in my last performance review."

At this point, you should be prepared to answer questions about learning disabilities. There is a common misunderstanding that learning disabilities are somehow related to intellectual disability (some may even still refer to it as "mental retardation"). Your responses about learning disabilities can help dispel that myth. You may wish to give the employer a simple fact sheet on learning disabilities.

After you have come to an agreement with your employer on your specific job accommodations, ask your employer to give you a memo or letter stating the specific accommodations that you are permitted to use. This is for your protection, should you ever need documentation that you requested and were granted permission to use specific accommodations.