‘Do I have to spell it out?’ Dyslexia, Lexism, and an object of comparison.

In this paper I mount an attack on the problematic conceptions of literacy that lie behind the Interim teacher assessment frameworks at the end of key stage 2 (Standards and Testing Agency, 2015) and the Key Stage 2 English and grammar, punctuation and spelling tests. I employ an object of comparison (a philosophical method), for attitudes towards literacy and dyslexics. I challenge current conceptions of the Othering of, and discrimination against, dyslexics. I argue for the concept of ‘Lexism’ as an alternative explanatory account for the existence of dyslexics.