The Literacy Alarm

It's everyone's problem

By William H. DuBay

National Literacy Day (September 8, the day after Labor Day) has come and gone, leaving us trying to grasp the significance of the statistics about literacy in our country. Here are just a few of the figures:

Between 21 and 23 percent of Americans (40 million) are functioning at Level 1 literacy rating, defined simply as "not having adequate reading skills for daily life." The rate for California is 24 %, for Orange County, 20%. These are people who cannot read, must struggle to read, or cannot cope with unfamiliar or complex information. That means in Orange County there are over 377,000 persons over 15 years of age who cannot:

• Understand the instructions on a medicine container
• Read stories to their children
• Read a newspaper article or a map
• Read correspondence from their bank or any government agency
• Fill out an application for work
• Read the safety instructions for operating machinery
• Compete effectively for today's jobs

The recently released report, "State of Literacy in America," estimates that in some communities, the percentage of adults who struggle at the lowest literacy levels reaches 40 or even 50 percent. Forty-three percent of adults with low literacy skills live in poverty, 17% receive food stamps, and 70% have no job or part-time job. Over 60 % of front-line workers in the goods-producing sector have difficulty applying information from a text to a required task.

More than 20% of adults read at or below the fifth-grade level, far below the level needed to earn a living wage. Adults at Level 1 earned a median income of $240 per week, compared to $681 for those at Level 5. Seventy percent of prisoners are in the two lowest levels. The number of companies reporting shortages of skilled workers doubled between 1995 to 1998. Ninety percent of Fortune 1000 executives reported that low literacy is hurting productivity and profitability.

The studies show that low literacy is not primarily the problem of immigrants, the elderly, high-school dropouts, or people whose first language is not English. Low literacy is a problem that knows no age, education, economic boundaries, or national origins. Most people with low literacy skills were born in this country or have English as their first language.

It does no good to complain that "the schools are not doing their job." Over 80% of the year 2000 workforce are already out of school. It is a problem that industry, schools, health providers, churches, libraries, and public agencies must address aggressively.

All agencies, companies, and organizations have an enormous stake in this problem. It us does no good to write in plain, clear languageif people still cannot understand it. We also possess unique skills that can be of great benefit to people with low literacy. We can make our employers aware of the special needs of clients and customers with low literacy. We can actively support the development and outreach of literacy programs in our businesses and communities.

Cheryl Stephens, who is active in the Plain Language Section of the B.C. branch of the Canadian Bar Association, writes: "A law office can be intimidating for people who seldom visit one…They are unfamiliar with the language, processes, and concepts we take for granted. Add the problem of literacy and a client can be overwhelmed. The latest statistics show that nearly half the population have difficulty reading or can read only day-to-day material that is simple and clearly laid out. These statistics apply to people whose first language is English; the rates are higher for others."

See Cheryl Stephen's excellent article, "Is the Form Still Blank? Maybe Your Client Has a Reading Problem."

For more ideas and resources, check out the following:

• National Literacy Institute: http://www.nifl.gov
• State Literacy Resource Center: http://www.literacynet.org/slrc/slrchome.html
• Canadian National Literary Secretariat: http://www.nald.ca/nls.htm
• National Association for Family Literacy: http://www.famlit.org/