Manifesto campaign impacts

Between January and March 2026 we ran a social media and grassroots campaign to urge politicians to support three keys asks for our community

Representatives of Dyslexia Scotland with manifestos. Text reads, sign our open letter

Campaign impacts

Reach

Our social media posts about the Manifesto reached around 75,000 people. This activated 1124 people to sign our open letter, including many high profile figures including Sir Jackie Stewart, Audrey Baxter and Dougray Scott who back our cause. We sent this letter to political party leaders in Scotland.

The open letter | Dyslexia Scotland – Dyslexia Scotland

We also asked you to write directly to your MSP, and many of you did – thank you.

Close up of a letter addressed to John Swinney MSP

News coverage

The campaign received helpful press coverage, including discussion on BBC Radio Scotland and these articles:

Third Force News – Charity Seeks Three Key Policy Changes

Third Force News – Dyslexia: It All Comes Down to One Letter

Third Force News – Charity Publishes OPen Letter to Back Up it Holyrood Manifesto Asks

Southern Reporter – Councillor in Support of a ‘Dyslexia-Friendly Scotland’

Activating politicians

On the back of the open letter, we hosted a drop-in session at the Scottish Parliament and invited MSPs to pledge their support for our Manifesto asks. MSPs Siobhian Brown, Miles Briggs, Jeremy Balfour, Brian Whittle, Stuart McMillan and Stephen Kerr spoke with us about the issues our community faces.

Some of these issues were also discussed at General Questions in the parliament, showing that we’ve successfully engaged politicians in our asks.

Next steps

Since this campaign, we’ve received additional funding to expand our teacher training programme, Dyslexia and Inclusive Practice. We’ll continue to progress our work on this and our other Manifesto asks with the next government.