Former health secretary Matt Hancock during a media briefing in Downing Street, London, on coronavirus (Dan Kitwood/PA)
(Picture: PA Archive)Matt Hancock has revealed he was so worried his dyslexia would hinder him reading the autocue during Covid press briefings that he asked for help on tricky words.
Professor Sir Jonathan Van Tam, England’s deputy chief medical officer during the pandemic and known as JVT, spent half an hour helping the then-health secretary learn to read the word “dexamethasone” before a TV press conference.
Now the politician is raising awareness of how dyslexia affects people every day as the first reading of his Private Members’ Bill, which calls for universal dyslexia screening for children, takes place in parliament on Wednesday.
Mr Hancock’s dyslexia was identified when he was at university and he was taught a technique of reading words by seeing them as pictures but he explained unfamiliar words can still stump him.
He said he asked for help with the word “dexamethasone”, a steroid used to treat Covid, from JVT.
“Previously I would have done everything I could to avoid the word,” he said.
“I got probably the best person in the world to teach me, but I am not sure it was the best use of time. JVT spent half an hour one afternoon teaching me how to say the word dexamethasone and getting it into my head. And now it’s a picture that translates into my head.”
Mr Hancock said he was not ashamed to ask for help as he would have been before making his dyslexia public.
He added: “It was a moment of light relief in what was quite a difficult period. I have always had a cheerful view of the whole thing especially once it was identified.”
Now he has called for all children to be tested for dyslexia and more training for teachers.
He said: “The reason I want the universal approach is because good schools already do this. The number of people in private schools who get an assessment is much, much higher than the number of people in state schools and that’s another injustice.
“I still get examples given to me right now in 2022 of teachers telling dyslexic children they are just not suited to education.”
Speaking about his own childhood, he told the Standard he felt like he was just “rubbish at words” and found reading daunting.
Dyslexia still affects his working life, he said, and he finds it easier to talk off the cuff rather than reading speech.
But Mr Hancock said he now uses a dictation app which translates his speech into written words.
“Technology has made things radically easier for dyslexics,” he said.
Also, he is campaigning for prison governors to be held accountable for the improving the literacy of prisoners and for businesses to reduce the barriers dyslexic people have to overcome to be hired – saying it is out of date to throw a CV in the bin because of a typo.
