Free tool

The masking cost calculator

Dyslexia workarounds are invisible work. Enter your salary and how you spend that time — the calculator shows what it costs you and your employer every year. Useful for building the case for adjustments.

Your salary

Gross salary before tax. Used only to calculate your hourly rate — nothing is stored or sent anywhere.

37 hrs/week

Your workarounds

These are estimates — be honest rather than exact. Include time spent on anything you do because of dyslexia, not time spent doing the actual work.

30 min/day
20 min/day
15 min/day
20 min/day
10 min/day
20 min/day

Your masking cost

— hours per day on workarounds
— working days lost per year
— annual cost at your salary

Time breakdown

Re-reading emails—
Extra proofreading—
Over-preparing for meetings—
Re-reading documents—
Avoiding tasks—
Fatigue and recovery—
Total per day—

What to do with this number

This figure is the business case for reasonable adjustments. An employer who provides the right tools — text-to-speech, a note-taker, extra review time — typically recovers that cost within weeks.

In the UK, Access to Work can fund assistive technology and support at no cost to your employer. In the US, the ADA requires reasonable accommodations at no cost to you.

Use the reasonable adjustments email builder to turn this number into a professional request to your manager.

Build your adjustments email →