'Word heavy' test | Dyslexic candidate wins discrimination case citing unfair recruitment process

A dyslexic candidate for a government role has won a discrimination case and £15,000 in compensation after it was decided that the recruitment process was flawed, and he was left at an unfair disadvantage.

Terry Johnston, who applied for a role in the Department of Finance in Belfast’s Stormont, claimed the organisation failed to make reasonable adjustments in their recruitment process and consider his dyslexia.

An ‘awkward test’

Johnston, who was diagnosed with dyslexia in his 40s, applied for a job as an assistant statistician at the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) in 2020.

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Like many recruitment processes, the role required applicants to complete a numerical and statistics test before getting to the interview stage.