- Disability Organization involvement with Literacy Services:
"Involve
the disability organizations in the process of trying to improve literacy
services for persons with disabilities. Look at the special needs of all types of disabilities
and how these disabilities are unique and therefore, may need specialized
programs.
When looking at improving literacy program access for persons with disabilities,
do so for all persons in the province in both rural and urban settings"
- Employment Relationship with Adult Literacy:
"DO
NOT attach any of the improvements in access to literacy programs to obtaining
employment as a required end result."
- Literacy Program Organization:
"Different levels of literacy
are not clearly connected meaning clients have to relocate and establish new support networks."
- Systemic Barriers:
"Working to remove systemic barriers
such as funding limitations, rules that are black and white and don’t
accommodate specific needs e.g. client being required to fit into system or policy requirement
and because of diverse needs is unable to meet the requirement and therefore
loses the opportunity."
9. Conclusions and Recommendations
Within the context of the following conclusions and recommendations, consideration
must be given to involving adult students with disabilities in all or some
of these initiatives. A creative way must be found to tap into the enthusiastic
and committed student group about whom this study has been written. There
were a number of individuals who participated in the focus group for learners
who could be candidates for involvement in ongoing work.
- Instructor and Tutor Training for Working with Persons with Disabilities
While many instructors and tutors are qualified teachers and knowledgeable
about teaching literacy skills to their students, there is not a requirement
for them to be knowledgeable or trained to work effectively with persons
with special needs and disabilities. This presents a significant barrier
for these students and is a source of frustration for instructors and tutors.
In part, the turnover in staff is due to their inability to working effectively
with their disabled students due to lack of training and knowledge. A number
of recommendations to assist in rectifying this issue are presented below:
- Nearly ten years ago, through funding from the Department of Education
in Nova Scotia, the National Literacy Secretariat and HRDC, a number of literacy
initiatives targeted to persons with disabilities were initiated. This included
development of a guide for literacy tutors and instructors about working
with persons with disabilities. The guide, entitled Accessing Learning for
Adults with Disabilities, is still available but does not appear to be widely
distributed nor do the learning networks appear to know of its existence.
This tool could be an immediate start to an education program for tutors
and instructors to assist them in their daily work.
|