What do researchers do with this power and what forms does its abuse take? Who selects the few that speak for many? Whose reality will be reflected in the research?

Legal liability and concerns related to power and responsibility are just two areas that researchers need to consider to help ensure their research follows ethical practice.

Suggested links:
Federal Privacy Act: http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/P-21/ 93543.html

Yukon Territory's Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act: www.atipp.gov.yk.ca/

Alberta's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act: www3.gov.ab.ca/foip/ legislation/foip_act/index.cfm 

Is Literacy Viewed As an Accessibility Issue Among Community Services
That Do not Have a Literacy Program?
with Audrey Gardner

In this workshop, Audrey described her research as part of a community development project. The Connecting Literacy to Community (CLC) project encourages community services to think about how accessible they are to people who do not read and write. For CLC, Audrey asked service providers to think about whether print or other literacy issues get in the way of providing good service. A report of the project will be available in the Fall of 2003.

The research findings identified two major literacy barriers within community services.

• Perception barriers include:
  • Public perceptions that literacy is only something that happens at school, and it is all about the ABC's.
  • Individual perceptions. Most people, even those who have difficulty reading and writing, don't see literacy as one of their issues.
• Invisibility. This is by far the biggest barrier. Literacy is assumed, which makes it difficult for community workers to think about how it affects their work.

Audrey encouraged community services to find ways to reduce these barriers. She encouraged service providers to think in new ways about literacy. By using the Literacy Audit Kit and other activities (such as workshops on literacy sensitivity, verbal communication and plain language), she helped community services engage in organizational change to improve services for people who struggle with reading and writing.

In this project, Audrey encouraged organizations to find out how to better serve clients. Rather than simply referring people to literacy programs, community services need to first explore what barriers exist in their organization, and find ways to eliminate those barriers. She encouraged supported referral, where service providers learn more about the program that the person is being referred to, helping with filling out forms, getting to the location, etc.