Three kinds of literacy were tested in IALS:

• Prose literacy – the knowledge and skills needed to understand and use information from texts such as editorials, fiction, and product labels.
• Document literacy – the knowledge and skills required to find and use information from documents such as maps, application forms, transit schedules, and graphs.
• Quantitative literacy – the knowledge and skills required to complete arithmetic operations such as balancing a cheque book, completing an order form, and calculating a tip.

Literacy abilities were categorized into five levels, the highest two of which were combined into one because they were not statistically distinctive enough. Below is the reading scale:

• Level 1 – denotes individuals who have great difficulty with reading. They have very few basic skills or strategies available to them to decode and work with text. Generally, they are aware that they have problems.
• Level 2 – denotes individuals whose skills are limited; they read but they do not read well. People at this level can deal only with material that is simple and clearly laid out, material in which the tasks involved are not too complex. Often they do not recognize their limitations.
• Level 3 – denotes individuals who read well but may have some problems with more complex tasks. Considered by many countries to be a minimum desired skill level; many occupations, however, may require higher skills.
• Level 4/5 – denotes individuals who have high levels of literacy, with a wide range of reading skills and many strategies for dealing with complex materials. These people can meet most reading demands and can handle new reading challenges.

Findings of the International Adult Literacy Survey:

• In prose literacy, 43% of Canadians score at the first two levels of IALS and another 33% are at level 3.
• In document comprehension, 46% of Canadians are at the first two levels and another 30% are at level 3.
• In quantitative literacy, 46% of Canadians are at the first two levels and another 32% are at level 3.

These are not marginalized groups of the population outside the workforce or people who work but do not have to read on the job (Satistics Canada, Reading the Future: A Portrait of Literacy in Canada, 1996). In fact, even those adults who score at the lowest levels of literacy, report having to do a variety of kinds of reading (letters, reports, articles, manuals, diagrams, schematics, and spreadsheets) on a weekly basis. (Statistics Canada, Reading the Future: A Portrait of Literacy in Canada, 1996)