Social Issues

• Attitudes – There are systemic barriers generally for persons with low literacy skills, including social and employment barriers. The barriers are more complex for persons with disabilities, in part due to the attitudes held by our society about their capabilities and in part because many of the literacy programs do not have adequate resources to cater to their special needs.
• Social Stigmas – Being 'illiterate' has a social stigma associated with it. Many individuals with low literacy skills cover up for their poor reading skills, sometimes resulting in dire consequences.

Support Issues

• Formal Diagnosis – Lack of a formal diagnosis of LD or AD/HD means that the learner's problem is often inadvertently interpreted to be lack of motivation. In fact, a significant percentage of students in adult education programs have undiagnosed LD or AD/HD, potentially as high as 30% to 50%. However, a formal diagnosis is only the first step in addressing literacy issues with this student population.
  
  While these issues sometimes become apparent when adult students enrol in literacy upgrading, it begs the question about which government department should or could best address them – health, education or community services, or a combination of the three.
• Transportation – Transportation is a significant barrier for those requiring use of a wheelchair and particularly where these individuals live in a rural area. Transportation subsidies from government require significant advocacy work to obtain. Access–A–Bus requires booking 14 days in advance.
• Assistive Technology – Only a very small percentage of respondents offer any type of assistive technology in their literacy programs, although most have access to computers and the internet. However, where assistive technology is available, it appears that it may be underutilized, perhaps because potential users are unaware of its existence.

1.5 Funding

Funding programs fall primarily into two categories – those which support literacy programs and those supporting literacy projects. Program funding is generally provided for core services and project funding is generally for short term initiatives resulting in specific outcomes or deliverables.

Primary program funding comes from the Department of Education. The other two sources of program funding are limited to those literacy organizations with a registered charitable status. In 2002/3, NSSAL received $5.9 in funding through the Department of Education. The regional school boards received $0.8 million and the colleges and community–based learning organizations each received approximately $2.5.