According to Statistics CanadaFootnote 1, 48 per cent of Canadians have serious difficulty finding, understanding and using available information so as to function in everyday life. These difficulties are related to their weak reading and writing skills.
Research conducted by Communication CanadaFootnote 2 has shown that this reality has a major impact on how to effectively communicate with people with low literacy skills. Many of these individuals deem information from the Government to be irrelevant to their situation and difficult to understand. Many simply do not know how to use government information to meet their needs. In addition, although they tend to prefer direct personal contact, they are less likely to initiate communication with the Government and are thus less informed about the programs or services available.
Communication is considered to be successful when the desired objective is attained. All communication has a purpose, whether it is to inform, to convince or to serve some other purpose.
The concerns expressed by people with low literacy skills remind us of the challenges of successful communication:
Any improvement in communication will benefit all individuals, regardless of their literacy levels.
| COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES | ||
|---|---|---|
| Be RELEVANT | |
Adopt the recipient’s point of view and take into account his or her ability to understand |
| Be UNDERSTOOD | |
Formulate and organize the information in a clear and simple manner |
| Be PERSUASIVE | |
Direct the communication at action and concrete results |
| = | SUCCESSFUL COMMUNICATION | |
Return to note 1 Statistics Canada, Human Resources Development Canada and National Literacy Secretariat, Reading the Future:A Portrait of Literacy in Canada, September 1996.
Return to note 2 Communication Canada, Towards Action: Issues and Challenges of Communicating with Canadians with Low Literacy Skills, April 2003.