The author has concluded that for those public relations practitioners who are part of organisations that have the responsibility of communicating equally to all members of a population, such as governments, there needs to be the realisation that illiteracy is usually a characteristic of a percentage of their target publics. Given the statistics presented earlier in this dissertation, it would be difficult to imagine a public of an organisation such as a government that would not include a significant portion that is illiterate, using this dissertation's definition.

Meeting the challenge of communicating to illiterate populations first requires this realisation. For those practitioners who must reach all members of their target audience, it should be a golden rule that the illiteracy level of a target public must be determined as best it can in advance of planning any campaign.

Once practitioners are committed to ascertaining the literacy level of a target public, they need the tools to reach the illiterate portion of that public effectively.

Rogers' (1983) strategies for communications campaigns for an adoption of an innovation directed at groups with differing levels of resources and privileges point directly to the tools to meet the challenge.

When directing a campaign towards a public that includes people with differing levels of literacy, it seems that it is those methods that will reach the illiterate segment of that public that must be adopted. The information should be made appropriate to the illiterate group. For example, this could include plain writing of written information to reach more of the group through simple language, even though the literate consumers of such information may find it too simple. Those that find it too simple will certainly understand it.

Communication channels should be chosen with the illiterate group in mind and it follows that outreach should be a focus of any campaign directed at a target public that includes a significant percentage of people who are illiterate. This outreach should be particular to the group to which the organisation wants to communicate. In this dissertation's case, for example, family physicians were an excellent channel of interpersonal communication, one that if focused on at the outset could have been a main recruitment tool. Additionally, using the case as an example, sending health professionals to where members of the target group gather in the community, such as women's clubs, spas and health clubs, church meetings, community centres, women's shelters, and other outreach opportunities should have been a focus of the campaign from the beginning.