“I have dysgraphia, it is a miracle I can even write.” ~LV
This weekend I visited my local Home Depot store in search of a LED flashlight for a client as a gift and some pricing on getting new shades for two of the rooms in my house. This very nice young person gave us the whole talk through on blinds and options. It wasn’t his normal department, but it was late in the day, and they had a small staff and people were doing a variety of things, he explained.
He did some research in the system to come up with my pricing. I asked if he could write down my pricing options. He did and as he was doing that a couple of the letters were the wrong way. He felt nervous about that and so he said, “I have dysgraphia, it is a miracle I can even write.” I explained to him that I knew what that was and that it was a miracle that he could write. I asked how many years of extra training it took for him to get that good at it. He said most of his time at school he went to tutors and trained himself to be able to be good enough at it for it to be legible. I thanked him for being transparent about it and encouraged him to drop in a nugget of education when he said that line. Maybe add, “dysgraphia makes it really hard to learn to write, it’s a neurodiversity.” He loved that idea.
I felt like the story got even better as he told me about the other employees that he works with that are neurodivergent and how he works to support them. This young person is one of my new heroes. Not only does he understand himself, but he is also able to support others in his group. Now that I know that my local Home Depot is a supporter of the neuro difference, I am going to be a bigger supporter of them.
I might have gone to the home improvement store to get blinds and instead I was reminded that there are companies that not only support diversity but also employ diversity.
Try to be observant of businesses in your community that are not only talking the talk, but also walking the walk when it comes to supporting your neurodivergent community members.
Have a great day.
Thanks,
JoyGenea Schumer
Business Owner, International Neurodiversity Coach, and Speaker