In any conference, the liveliest talks tend to come after the formal presentations. During the Beyond Words conference, some of the brightest discussions were sparked by a young man who used to have terrible trouble simply speaking at all.

You can call Darren Crawford a success story in the adult literacy movement, but that carries a sense of completion. For Crawford, however, the struggle continues - not so much for himself, he says, as for the many he wants to help.

"We can make a difference for the world if people just let us help other people," he says.

Crawford, 26, has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. For years he could neither read nor write. The change began when he became a student at Prospects Literacy Association, an Edmonton organization that teaches literacy and numeracy skills for adults, including adults with intellectual disabilities. A close working relationship with literacy instructor Susan Devins was the boost he needed.

At Prospects, he studies reading, writing and mathematics. "Susan is helping me one-on-one," he says. "Basically, she teaches me words that I can learn and can grasp, then that teaches me how to read and write better, and how to put words into sentences."

Those skills also help him in his job with Edmonton Recycling Society, an organization that is praised for both its ecological concerns and its support of workers that may be more difficult to employ. "We recycle bottles, cans, newspaper, and cardboard," he explains. "It's hard work, but we try to work as a team."

If not for Devins, he adds, he would probably never appear at such a conference. "She's proud of me, but she had to push me to motivate myself."

His main reason for appearing at Beyond Words was to talk about his own experiences with literacy and employment. Last year, Crawford and Angele Hubert, a fellow student at Prospects and a fellow worker at ERS, worked with Prospects on a book, The Challenges of Literacy and Employment.