45 WPM… According to Whom?

Why Traditional Typing Tests Can Undersell Dyslexic Workers

I keep seeing job postings that require something like:

“Must type 45 WPM.”

Fair enough.

Except there is a problem with the way typing speed is often tested.

Most online typing tests are not really testing how fast you can type. They are testing how quickly you can read someone else's text, process it, remember where you are in the sentence, transfer it to the keyboard, spell it exactly as presented, notice punctuation, track your place visually, and avoid skipping or reversing words.

Oh, and type quickly.

For someone with dyslexia, that can turn a simple typing test into a miniature obstacle course.

Typing and Transcription Are Not the Same Thing

If you give me a blank document and ask me to write an email, explain an issue, draft a report, answer a customer, take notes, or write something I already understand, I can type pretty quickly.

My brain already knows what it wants to say.

My fingers just have to keep up.

But put a paragraph on the screen and tell me to reproduce it word-for-word?

Now I am doing several jobs at once.

I have to read the sentence.

Keep my place.

Decode the words.

Make sure I did not accidentally jump to the line above or below.

Remember the phrase long enough to type it.

Check whether I reversed letters.

Notice whether the original used “their,” “there,” or “they're.”

Figure out where the comma went.

Then find my place again.

That is not merely a test of keyboarding speed.

That is a test of reading, visual tracking, short-term processing, transcription accuracy, and typing speed all rolled into one number.

For a person with dyslexia, that distinction matters.

A Low Typing-Test Score Does Not Necessarily Mean Slow Workplace Typing

Someone might score 35 or 40 WPM copying an unfamiliar paragraph but type significantly faster when composing their own work.

That is not cheating.

That is not an excuse.

It simply means the two tasks involve different cognitive demands.

Consider how most office employees actually use a keyboard.

They write emails.

They enter information they already understand.

They respond to customers.

They write notes from conversations.

They complete forms.

They draft reports.

They update spreadsheets or databases.

They message coworkers.

They document issues they are actively working on.

Very few jobs involve spending eight hours a day staring at random paragraphs and reproducing them word-for-word as quickly as possible.

Unless you are specifically hiring for transcription, why are we sometimes measuring transcription ability and calling it “typing ability”?

Dyslexia Adds an Extra Layer

Dyslexia does not mean someone cannot read or write.

It can, however, affect things such as reading fluency, spelling, visual sequencing, word recognition, and the speed at which written information is processed.

That can make copying text substantially more demanding than generating original text.

I know what I want to say.

The challenge comes when I have to repeatedly move my eyes between an unfamiliar source paragraph and what I am typing while making sure I have not skipped, duplicated, reversed, or replaced something.

Give me a subject I know and a blank page, and suddenly the bottleneck changes.

My brain is producing the words instead of decoding someone else's.

That can make a very noticeable difference in speed.

So What Does “45 WPM” Actually Mean?

If a job genuinely requires rapid transcription, then a transcription-style typing test makes perfect sense.

Medical transcription.

Court reporting support.

Data-entry work involving handwritten or scanned documents.

Roles where employees must reproduce source material accurately and rapidly.

Test the actual skill the job requires.

But if the position involves correspondence, customer service, administrative work, advocacy, research, case management, technical support, or general office communication, a traditional copy-the-paragraph typing test may not provide the complete picture.

A better assessment might include several measures:

A traditional typing test.

A short email-composition exercise.

A realistic workplace writing task.

Data-entry accuracy.

A timed response to a sample customer request.

Or even a five-minute freestyle typing exercise.

Then employers would see not just how quickly someone can copy words, but how effectively that person actually uses a keyboard in the type of work they are being hired to perform.

Test the Job, Not the Test

This is bigger than dyslexia.

Hiring assessments should measure the skill that actually matters.

If you want to know whether someone can write professional emails efficiently, ask them to write one.

If you want to know whether someone can document customer interactions, give them a realistic customer scenario.

If you want to know whether someone can enter information accurately, test data entry.

And if you genuinely need someone to transcribe 45 words per minute, then by all means, use a transcription test.

But those things should not automatically be treated as interchangeable.

Because a candidate who types 38 WPM while struggling to visually track an unfamiliar paragraph might comfortably type 55 WPM while composing an email, documenting a case, or answering a customer.

The first number may be accurate.

It just may not be measuring the skill you think it is.

I Can Type. Reading Over My Own Shoulder Is the Problem.

Technology has also changed how many of us work.

Spellcheck exists.

Grammar tools exist.

Text-to-speech exists.

Speech-to-text exists.

Screen readers exist.

AI-assisted proofreading exists.

And people with dyslexia have spent years developing their own systems for getting accurate work out the door.

The finished product matters.

Accuracy matters.

Productivity matters.

Communication matters.

Whether my brain took exactly the same route to get there as somebody else's should matter considerably less.

So the next time a job posting says:

“Must type 45 WPM.”

I have one question.

Typing what?

Because if you want to know how fast I can use a keyboard to do the actual job, give me something resembling the actual job.

You might get a very different number.