You can survey your tribunal’s clients to find out how they prefer to get information. The results would be specific to your tribunal and very effective. However, work has been done by Communication Canada (among others) to find out how people with literacy problems like to receive information. These studies can help with general background.
The spoken word is by far the first choice of those with low literacy skills. A 2002 survey showed that 74 per cent of those with reading problems prefer the telephone when contacting government.36
Another Communication Canada publication gives a very good picture of how less literate Canadians get their information.37 It is a very useful document to read when you prepare for your literacy program.
36. Communication Canada, Listening to Canadians: Communications
Survey (Ottawa: Communication Canada, Spring 2002), as quoted in Successful
Communication Tool Kit, Literacy and You, Canada Information Office, May
2003, section2, p. 2.
37. Communication Canada, Issues and Challenges in Communicating with Less
Literate Canadians, Rev. ed. (Ottawa: Communication Canada, 2002), p. 20.