Adults with developmental disabilities have significant impairment to their intellectual and physical learning. There is no formal system of services to meet the literacy needs of this segment of Manitoba’s population. At present there are a few dedicated agencies and advocacy groups who have set up ad hoc arrangements to provide service as best as they can. Comments focused on these learners were:

• There is a need to develop expertise in terms of needs assessment and program delivery for each learner.
• Improvements in programming should be researched-based.
• In many cases individual learning plans and one-to-one supervised tutoring are necessary. In other cases classroom-based instruction can be effective.
• There is a need to support better training for volunteer tutors and paid instructors.
• When questioned, participants indicated that the school system’s cumulative records could not be accessed to provide a basis for assessment and program delivery for each student.
• Funding is an obvious issue in all aspects of delivery.
• A coalition of professionals who are currently seriously involved in adult literacy with the developmentally disabled community provided the consultation with recommendations regarding:
  • A literacy strategy for learners at every level
  • A model for learning
  • The training of tutors
  • A cohesive communication network.

What should be the key goals and components of the adult literacy strategy?

Almost all of the participants in the consultation agreed with the general goals as articulated in the Discussion Paper: to increase the number of learners and improve the literacy skills of Manitobans.

Participants, based on their community-based experience, focused their comments mainly on the teaching/learning components of a literacy strategy. Less attention was given to the components of a provincial-wide literacy strategy, as reflected in the limited responses noted in the remaining sections of the report.