It’s About Time: Constructing Dyslexia in Higher Education

Over the past decade, there has been a notable increase in media coverage and legislation about dyslexia. Much of this coverage has focused on students in K-12 settings though previous research suggests that dyslexia labels have an impact on older students and adults as well. The purpose of the study described in this chapter is to investigate how university students with dyslexia labels use language to describe their own experiences with dyslexia. We used Critical Discursive Psychology to analyze 28 semi-structured interviews with undergraduate students to examine the ways they spoke about dyslexia and their literacy experiences. Our analyses revealed that participants’ descriptions of dyslexia and related experiences emphasized the isolation and individual nature of the label, time as a defining factor in describing said experiences, and participants’ ambivalence about dyslexia labels and identification. These findings could inform accommodation policies in higher ed and future research on the nature and meaning of dyslexia.