Jay Giddens

Jay Giddens is a dyslexic dad, education and accessibility professional, and passionate advocate for ensuring that children and families are heard, understood and properly supported.

Diagnosed with dyslexia later in life, Jay knows first-hand what it feels like to spend years believing you simply aren’t as capable as everyone else. That experience has shaped much of his professional life and his determination to challenge the idea that a child’s potential should ever be defined by the way they learn.

Jay has spent much of his career working across education, assistive technology and neurodiversity, helping schools, universities, organisations and families understand how the right support and technology can remove barriers rather than simply work around them. He is known for asking the uncomfortable question when systems, policies or commercial decisions lose sight of the people they are supposed to serve.

He is also the creator and host of Thick No More, a podcast built around honest conversations about dyslexia, ADHD, neurodiversity and the experiences that too often remain hidden behind labels.

But above everything else, Jay is a parent.

That is what makes the National Parents Alliance so important to him. Parents shouldn’t need to become experts in education law, SEND, assessments, technology and support services simply to get their child what they need. Nor should the quality of a child’s future depend on how loudly their parents can fight, how much they can afford, or whether they happen to know the right person.

Jay joined NPA because he believes parents deserve something much simpler: clear information, trusted guidance, a strong collective voice and somewhere to turn when they don’t know what to do next.

And ultimately, because every child deserves the opportunity to discover what they’re good at before somebody tells them what they’re not.