For most of human history, reading and writing were not universal. Knowledge was shared through oral storytelling, memory, music, and visual symbols.
People who today might be described as dyslexic often thrived in these environments, as storytellers, artisans, navigators, or traders. without their differences being problematised.
Literacy only became a widespread expectation with the spread of printing and, later, compulsory education in Europe. Only then did difficulty with reading and writing become visible as a “problem.”
The Rise of Literacy and Deficit Thinking (16th–19th Century)
The invention of the printing press (15th century) and the spread of mass literacy in the 18th–19th centuries created new pressures: reading fluently became synonymous with intelligence and social worth.
Those who struggled were often dismissed as “lazy,” “slow,” or “uneducable.”
In medicine, interest in brain function grew. Doctors documented cases of acquired “word-blindness” in adults who had lost reading ability after brain injury, foreshadowing the medicalisation of reading differences.
The Birth of Dyslexia as a Medical Concept (Late 19th–Early 20th Century)
1877: German physician Adolph Kussmaul described word-blindness, recognising that otherwise intelligent children could have specific difficulty learning to read.
1896: British physician W. Pringle Morgan published a case study of Percy, a 14-year-old boy who was bright but unable to read, one of the earliest modern recognitions of developmental dyslexia.
Early 20th-century doctors referred to “congenital word-blindness,” presenting dyslexia as a rare neurological defect.
This marked the shift from a natural variation to a medicalised disorder.
Pathology Meets Education (Mid 20th Century)
As compulsory schooling spread, children with reading difficulties were increasingly visible.
Educational psychology categorised dyslexia as a “learning disorder.” Many children were stigmatised, segregated, or deemed unintelligent.
Some were placed in special schools; others faced relentless drilling and remediation without support for their strengths.
The deficit model dominated: dyslexia was framed as a flaw to be corrected.
From Disorder to Spectrum (1960s–2000s)
- Research showed dyslexia was more common than first believed, affecting around 5–10% of the population.
- Dyslexia began to be recognised as a spectrum, with a wide range of presentations.
- Activists and educators started to highlight the talents of dyslexic individuals: creativity, big-picture thinking, innovation, visual-spatial ability.
Yet deficit-based frameworks in medical and educational systems continued to dominate public policy and diagnostic manuals
The Neurodiversity Paradigm (2000s–Today)
The emergence of the neurodiversity movement reframed dyslexia as a natural cognitive variation rather than a disorder.
High-profile dyslexic individuals in business, science, and the arts (e.g., Richard Branson, Steven Spielberg, Maggie Aderin-Pocock) helped shift public perception toward recognising dyslexic strengths.
At the same time, education systems and diagnostic manuals (DSM, ICD) often continue to use pathology-based language like “disorder,” reflecting an unresolved tension between medical and social models.
Today, dyslexia sits at the intersection of these perspectives: both a condition recognised in education/health systems and a valued part of human neurodiversity.
From Stigma to Strengths
The history of dyslexia mirrors broader patterns in how society treats human difference.
- Once invisible, it became pathologised as a defect.
- Then it was framed as a disorder in education and medicine.
- Now, through the lens of neurodiversity, it is increasingly seen as part of the natural spectrum of human minds, one that brings unique talents as well as challenges.
Dyslexia’s journey shows how social expectations, medical frameworks, and cultural values shape whether human differences are seen as deficits to fix or variations to include.
Like other minority neurotypes, dyslexia was always part of humanity. It only became “a problem” when universal literacy became a social requirement. Medicine pathologised it as a brain disorder, education often treated it as failure, and only in recent decades has the narrative shifted back toward recognising dyslexia as a natural cognitive variation with both challenges and strengths.
