An old article, updated as a result of several hits recently.
A DVSA email alert (at the time, it was still DSA):
Margaret Malpas, British Dyslexia Association [BDA] Chair, has written an article about independent driving and people with dyslexia.
The forthcoming change to all practical driving tests to include a section of independent driving has led to a useful and constructive collaboration between the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) and the British Dyslexia Association to try and find reasonable adjustments for this element of the test for those people who have dyslexia.
Read Margaret’s article on the DSA website
The article is published at length on the DVSA’s website (see that link at the bottom of the alert).
What this does is put to bed – hopefully, once and for all – the idiotic objections being raised by certain people as part of the hidden agenda they have against the DVSA (via Independent Driving). The DVSA and the BDA are in accord over the matter – discord exists only in the minds of the pseudo-radicals.
The annoying thing is that Independent Driving just expects people to get from A to B unsupervised – and although it provides the details for where ‘A’ and ‘B’ are, it doesn’t care if ‘B’ turns into ‘Z’… as long as ‘Z’ is arrived at safely and correctly (let me explain that: if you take a wrong turn during independent driving no fault is recorded as long as you do it properly, i.e. use MSM correctly). This is conveniently overlooked (or quite possibly not understood) by the radicals.
If someone cannot drive unsupervised without causing danger to others, then they shouldn’t be on the roads at all, and they deserve to fail the test until they can drive unsupervised. This applies to all candidates – dyslexic or not.
Edit: it is worth noting that five years down the line, independent driving has made the test easier for the majority of candidates. Those who are still struggling to pass would have struggled no matter what, and they can’t blame it on having to drive independently.
It is also worth noting that those who created the biggest fuss about it have disappeared off the radar, which is an unexpected – but very welcome – benefit of the change.
Do dyslexics have to do independent driving?
Yes.