Explanation, engagement, exclusion: students’ negotiations with dyslexia classification in UK universities

While universities make commitments about equity and inclusion, pursuing these values can be challenging. In this paper, we explore such challenges in the controversies surrounding dyslexia's classification, disclosure and support at UK universities. We examine how multiple forms of ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’ are achieved and continually renegotiated for dyslexic students, using Mol's [Mol, A. (2003). The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice. Duke University Press] concept of multiplicities from Science and Technology Studies (STS), to relate lived experience to classificatory politics [Bowker, G. C., & Star, S. L. (2000). Sorting things out: Classification and its consequences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press]. Students’ experiences of torque illustrate how diagnostic tests, physical spaces and staff attitudes all enact dyslexia differently, incorporating medical explanations of genetic and neurological difference between individuals; critical analyses of ableism; legal definitions of disability; links between funding requirements and standardised tests; and teachers’ denial of dyslexia. These create consequences for students, affecting their self-concept, their engagement or withdrawal from support services, and their ability to progress with their courses.