Current best practices

• Author: Lappalainen, Paul
• Pages: 95-97

95

10 CURRENT BEST PRACTICES

1. Civil society cooperation concerning bringing a focus to discrimination by schools and

the National Agency for Education against children with dyslexia - raising awareness

through enforcement

Various NGOs joined together in 2018 to bring several lawsuits against local authorities

and a claim against the national Government concerning discrimination against children

with dyslexia.

Certain national tests are given annually in schools around the country. Children with

dyslexia throughout the school year are allowed to use certain assistance devices to help

them read. However, when taking the national tests, they are not allowed to use the

devices. The schools, run by local authorities, assert that they do this due to the

instructions issued by the National Agency for Education.

The NGO known as the Dyslexia Association has pointed out the problem for many years.

A local anti-discrimination bureau had some complaints about the issue but was uncertain

about how to go forward. This led to contacts with a disability anti-discrimination NGO

known as Law as a tool for social change (MLSV) and Talerättsfonden (a relatively new

fund set up to help individuals bring strategic cases).

These organisations cooperated in various ways to prepare and file several lawsuits around

the country on the same day in August 2018, as well as filing a claim against the national

Government with the Chancellor of Justice due to the actions of the National Agency for

Education. The basic idea is that local government bodies are liable for the potentially

discriminatory actions of schools, while the liability of the national Government for

discriminatory rules requiring discrimination by schools is somewhat unclear. The Agency

for Education asserts that its actions do not fall within the framework of the Discrimination

Act, as the agency is not an education provider within the meaning of the act.

The press conference held the same day led to broad media coverage, both on TV and in

the newspapers. This means that there has been substantial impact in the form of publicity

and awareness raising, even though no trials have yet been held.295

These cases are in part related to the empowerment work carried out within the

frameworks of the ‘Law as a tool for social change’ project and the ‘From talk to action’

project concerning disability, equality and non-discrimination that were funded by the

National Inheritance Fund.296 They focused on various types of awareness raising,

particularly encouraging the targets of discrimination to realise that, if they want the

Discrimination Act to be applied in practice, they have to be part of the process. This means

a willingness to actually take cases to court – a willingness to test the law. The dyslexia

cases are a practical example of how civil society can move in this direction, potentially

even providing a healthy ‘competition’ or complement to the Equality Ombudsman and the

unions. This is the type of action that, in the long run, the author expects will help to

transform law in theory to law in action.

295 Dagens Nyheter (2018) ‘Barn med dyslexi nekas hjälpmedel – nu sẗms Skolverket och tre kommuner’

(Children with dyslexia denied assistance devices – now the Schools Agency and three local governments

are sued) 1/9/2018, available at: https://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/barn-med-dyslexi-nekas-hjalpmedel-

nu-stams-skolverket-och-tre-kommuner/. TV4 (2018), ‘Nekades dyslexistöd vid prov - kommuner sẗms’

(Denied dyslexia assistance devices during exams – local governments sued), 31/8/2018,

https://www.tv4.se/nyheterna/klipp/nekades-dyslexistöd-vid-prov-kommuner-stäms-11350574. Swedish

TV (2018), ‘Dyslexiförbundet: Skolverket diskriminerar elever med dyslexi’, (Dyslexia NGO: the Schools

Agency discriminates against pupils with dyslexia) 31/8/2018 at

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/dyslexiforbundet-vill-stamma-kommuner-for-diskriminering-av-barn-

med-dyslexi.

296 Lagen som verktyg (‘Law as a tool for social change’) at: https://lagensomverktyg.se; Från snack till

verkstad (‘From talk to action’) at: https://funktionsrattskonventionen.se/om-projektet/.