How Microsoft Copilot Helps People With Learning Differences Like Dyscalculia and Dyslexia

In this short episode, I talk about the new features in Excel Copilot — and why they matter so much to me. I have dyscalculia, a learning difference that makes numbers incredibly difficult. For most of my career, Excel has been the tool that left me behind. I can’t hold more than four digits of a phone number in my head, I still count on my fingers, and sevens and nines in the times tables? They’ve never stuck. Spreadsheets have always taken me longer.

But now, with Microsoft Copilot in Excel, I finally have a way to work in language, not formulas. And that’s a breakthrough not just for me, but for anyone who has ever stared at an Excel formula bar in frustration.

This eBook is designed to show you exactly how Copilot can transform SharePoint metadata cleanup — turning messy exports into clear insights, without the headache of formulas or pivot tables.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hi everyone, welcome back to Simply SharePoint. Today's episode is a little bit different. It's personal, it's vulnerable, and it's also about something that I think is going to change the way a lot of us work. I have dyscalculia. which is a learning difference that makes numbers really hard for me to process. And yet, I work with SharePoint and Microsoft 365 every day. For most of my career, Excel has been the tool that I've really struggled with, the one that made me feel excluded. But now, with Microsoft's new co-pilot in Excel, that barrier is finally gone. And I wanna share why this is so powerful, Not just for me, but for anyone who's ever struggled with numbers, formulas or even words. Let's start at the beginning. I first realised I had dyscalculia more than 20 years ago when I was working as a project coordinator. So picture this, a giant spreadsheet with a pivot table was projected onto the screen in a meeting. Everyone in the room was nodding along as if it made perfect sense. And I just couldn't follow it. I'll never forget it because I sat there staring at that thing throughout the whole meeting, not getting it, not understanding what everyone was talking about. That was the moment I realised that numbers would never come naturally to me. But truthfully, I'd been struggling long before that. I can't hold more than about four digits of a number in my head. So if someone gives me their phone number, I can't dial it without writing it down. I'll forget halfway through typing. I still count on my fingers. Yes, as an adult. I was always terrible with loose change. Standing at a shop counter trying to add coins in my head. Honestly, it gave me anxiety. And times tables. Even today, as an adult, I still don't know them all. Sevens and nines have never stuck in my brain. And the calculator story. I once had someone show me over and over again how to work out a percentage on a calculator. I'd get it in the moment. And then I'd come back and they'd ask me again to show that formula on the calculator. And I just couldn't do it. It was completely gone, even though we went over and over it again. Sometimes it was humiliating because people just didn't understand why I just couldn't grasp something so basic. And this is why I never volunteered at the school canteen. Cash handling with children and mental maths, a total nightmare for me. But here's the thing. I built a career anyway. I leant into what my brain is good at. Structure, process, organization, information architecture. That's why I love SharePoint. It's about structure and meaning, not quick maths. But Excel? Excel has always been where I felt excluded. So what is dyscalculia? So let me pause here and explain it. Dyscalculia is a learning difference, like dyslexia, but with numbers. It affects about 5 to 7% of the population, though most people have never even heard of it. It's not about being bad at maths. It's about the way your brain processes numbers, or doesn't. Some people can look at numbers and just know exactly what to do. My brain doesn't work that way. And for a long time, tools like Excel reinforced that exclusion because everything was formulas, syntax, calculations. And then along comes Copilot. So what does Copilot do in Excel? I'll explain it simply. There are two ways that Copilot works in Excel right now. First, there's the chat pane. This is the one a lot of people already have. You select a range or a table, you type an instruction in plain English, and Excel does it for you. I can say, highlight all items older than five years, or find duplicate file names, or group document types into policy, procedure, form, template. And Copilot does it. No formulas, no mental maths. The second way, and this is brand new, is the formula version. It's called equals copilot. Instead of writing syntax, you type in plain English inside a cell and the results spill out in your sheet, just like equals sum or equals vlookup would. For example, I can type equals copilot with the instructions right in the cell. So this is huge because it means I can paste in a messy export from SharePoint and Copilot will instantly clean up my document types, flag duplicates, bucket files by age, and suggest lifestyle actions. And every time that data changes, the results update automatically. That's the difference. Chat pane is great for one-off instructions. And when you enter those formulas in the cell, With Ecopilot function, the formula mode makes it repeatable. So now let me bring this back to SharePoint. If you've ever exported data from a library, you'll know what you get. It's messy. You'll see things like inconsistent document types, such as HR policy, HR underscore policy, human resources policy, lots of blank owners, duplicate file names, files that hadn't been touched since 2013. Traditionally, you'd spend hours filtering, sorting, and writing formulas to make sense of it all. With Copilot, you just ask in the chat pane, highlight missing owners. And in the formula, you'd say equals Copilot, and then in brackets, map department values to HR, IT, finance, et cetera. It's that simple. And for me, someone who has always struggled with numbers, it's like being given the keys to a room I was never allowed in before. So why this is a game changer. And here's the part that matters the most. For someone like me who has always struggled with numbers, Copilot removes the barrier. It lets me think in language, not formulas. I don't have to get lost in calculations. I can stay focused on meaning and structure, the things that make SharePoint successful. This isn't just a productivity boost. It's accessibility. It's empowerment. And it's not just for people with dyscalculia. Anyone who has ever stared at the Excel formula bar in frustration will now feel the relief. Let's not forget dyslexia. For someone who struggles with words, reading or spelling, Copilot in Word and Outlook is just as transformative. It can summarise long documents into clear, simple points. It can draft professional emails in Outlook, removing the stress of spelling and grammar. It can pull action items from Teams or OneNote. Where dyscalculia blocks numbers, dyslexia blocks words. Copilot bridges both gaps by translating raw information into something usable. But this is about more than productivity. Learning differences are often invisible, but they affect millions of people in the workplace. For too long, talented people have been shut out of tasks because they couldn't memorize formulas, crunch numbers, or write long reports. AI tools like Microsoft Copilot are changing that. By letting us work in plain language, by giving us summaries, suggestions, and clarity, Copilot reduces the cognitive load. It lets people focus on their strengths, not their weaknesses. That's what accessibility really means. Right now, I'm using Copilot in the chat pane. And for me, that alone has been transformative. But I know the inline equals Copilot formula is coming. And when it lands, it will take things to another level. For the first time, Excel is finally accessible to people like me who have struggled with numbers our whole lives. And for anyone managing SharePoint, It's about to make messy library cleanup simpler, faster, and more effective than ever before. Because at the end of the day, technology should work for all of us. And with Copilot, Excel finally does.