British Dyslexia Association: Quantitative Online Survey (Plus Qualitative Focus Groups & In Depth Interviews)
Background and Context
The British Dyslexia Association (BDA) is the voice of dyslexic people. They campaign and advocate to influence government, organisations and institutions to become dyslexia-friendly and accessible, to enable dyslexic people to reach their full potential.
The BDA commissioned M·E·L Research to conduct research to understand and quantify the lived experience of dyslexic young people aged 13-18, to deeply understand how dyslexia impacts their lives, to investigate their experiences at school and more widely, and to explore any changes that young people and their parents would like to see to improve their life experience.
The report was launched at the Palace of Westminster with speeches from a number of young people, the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Dyslexia, other members of the APPG, the Schools Minister and Theo Paphitis, the BDA’s Empowerment Patron.
Approach
An online survey was conducted among n=500 young people aged 13-18. The survey was programmed with dyslexia-accessible features including a plain coloured background, easy-to-read fonts, the option to have questions read out and the option to record open text responses. Those aged 13-17 were recruited via their parents and carers in the first instance, to ensure full consent was obtained from their responsible guardian. Questions were asked of parents and carers in the survey up front. Those aged 18 were recruited directly. Interest in and appropriate consents to take part in follow-up qualitative research were obtained in the survey. Respondents were selected based on their answers, ensuring a mix of gender, age, ethnicity, household income and sentiment about dyslexia. In-depth interviews were conducted online with 10 young people aged 13-18 and two online focus groups took place with 11 parents and carers.
Outputs
M·E·L Research created detailed cross-tabulations of the quantitative survey data including significance testing at 95% level of confidence. Qualitative data was analysed thematically. All data was then analysed together and a dyslexia-accessible PowerPoint report was created, using BDA’s guidelines on background, font and text styles.
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