Experience illiteracy: read a page with someone else’s eyes suggests New Zealand Post

As we’ve ended up in bookselling, it is unlikely any of us had a problem learning to read. Many others are not so fortunate.

To give people the experience of reading a page as it looks to someone who has never learned to read, or faces major reading challenges, New Zealand Post has set up links to major websites so they replicate the visual experience of illiteracy.

Have a go now.

IMAGE: A screen shot taken using New Zealand Post's new website that highlights illiteracy.

Sobering, isn’t it?

New Zealand Post set up the link as a way of getting the general public to understand what it is like to be illiterate. “If we can do that, people are likely to be more supportive to those with literacy issues,” says Nicola Airey, Group Sponsorship Manager at New Zealand Post.

“In a digital world, the written word is becoming – if anything – more important,” says Nicola. “A lack of literacy skills costs New Zealand untold dollars in loss of time and efficiency, and the human potential of people who can’t read is not realised.”

We’ve all got cousins like Jimmy who joked that he only went to school to eat his lunch (though he could rebuild any engine), or Nick, well informed about the world from television and radio, painfully teaching himself to read in his thirties “Because I was sick of people telling me I couldn’t do it.”

New Zealand Post has taken steps to raise literacy levels with their continued funding and support of Literacy Aotearoa, the New Zealand Post Book Awards and Duffy Books in Homes.

As booksellers we can support this in different ways. Most already know the titles that can switch on reluctant young male readers. It is not a big jump to looking for books that may suit their older counterparts – do some research around educational publishers.

Small print is a no-no for many with reading disabilities, another factor that limits available material.

Nick suggests a book that helped him get underway which was Caught in the Act, short stories with a distinctly Kiwi flavour that will amuse and are particularly geared towards the subjects and issues that have meaning for blokes.

You can source it from Adult Learning, part of Literacy Aotearoa services.

Nick also reckons you should have small cards from Literacy Aotearoa available. They have a note on the back to use saying “Please can you help me. I have difficulty reading and writing” along with the 0800 67 89 10 contact.

Never one to shirk research, The Read rang the number and spoke to one of the most warm, humorous and supportive women you could ever meet who was totally ready with details of what was available and where, and the many ways help could be delivered – one on one tuition, small groups, support groups etc. Impressive.

Literacy Aotearoa has promotional support from New Zealand Post and this year are supporting their Travelling Books project due to launch in September.

Also recommended by Nick: his local library, one of the many that are part of Auckland city. He finds the librarians happy to help and ready to order in books from other libraries if needed.

NZ Herald community paper The Aucklander ran a feature on illiteracy by their reporter Rowena Orejana earlier this year. Here’s her description of one person’s challenge:
  

Terrene Gibson has always struggled with reading and writing. Ordinary chores became huge tasks that she tried to avoid: reading school notices; finding people in phone books; worst, filling out forms. She avoided forms at all costs.  

"When I first arrived in Auckland, they asked me for my address. I didn't know how to spell Titirangi, I didn't know how to spell Auckland. I didn't know how to spell my address. It was devastating,'' she remembers.

  Almost half a million adult Aucklanders have low literacy and numeracy.

Many, like Ms Gibson, construct their lives so they do not have anything to do with reading or writing.

Her life was difficult. "I had a rough upbringing. When I went to school, school was a safe place for me. And that doesn't happen for most people with literacy problems,'' she explains.

"But I had so much going on in my personal life that schooling was too overwhelming. I couldn't learn. I was too busy surviving,'' she relates.

Two years ago, Ms Gibson, a mother of two, finally found the courage to enrol in the Waitakere Adult Literacy programme.

IMAGE: Terrene Gibson, student at Waitakere Adult Literacy. Photo / Kellie Blizard

What she discovered is that she is clever in a lot of things.

"Just because I didn't read and write doesn't mean I'm dumb,'' she says, "I was encouraged to understand what I was good at. They've given me the opportunity to share my knowledge.''

"As an adult, you can still learn. I think it is scarier to stay where you are. The initial fear of finding help is really small compared to the self-esteem you'll gain.''

Story by Jillian Ewart, writer for The Read