Introduction

I work in an adult literacy program and I always love to read a story written by a learner. To share in the excitement and pride someone feels about a story they have written – whether that story is about themselves, or something that interests them such as their favorite sport, or a dream they’ve had, or something fictional and fantastical. I feel it is an honour to listen as someone reads a piece of their own writing for the first time in their lives.

Adults who attend programs that use the SARAW talking computer program wrote these stories. Some of the programs are adult literacy programs; some programs are at agencies that serve people with disabilities. There are SARAW programs across Canada, and these stories are from people from different locations across Canada. All of the stories in this book, except one, were written by adults with disabilities. One story was written by an English as a Second Language (ESL) learner.

This book is part of the Literacy and Disabilities Study (LaDS) project. LaDS is a national project that researched literacy programming delivered to adults with disabilities, using the SARAW talking computer program.

The intent of this book is to publish authentic writing by learners. Learners wrote the story themselves. Some people typed it themselves onto the SARAW computer; some dictated their story to their teacher or tutor who typed it for them. Some of these stories took one or two classes to write, others more than a year. Once the story was written and the author was happy with the story, no more editing was done. Each story is introduced by the learner’s tutor or teacher or the coordinator of the program. These stories contribute to building and strengthening the diverse voices of adult learners with disabilities.

All of us who were involved in this project are proud of these stories. We hope you enjoy them.