Picture This

By Mary Bunch

An exciting new study by the Canadian Abilities Foundation, funded by the National Literacy Secretariat, promises to put the issues of literacy and disability in Canada on the map.

Combining the expertise of principle investigators Marcia Rioux, a leading disability policy analyst, and Ezra Zubrow, an international expert on Geographic Information Systems, the aim of this project is to create, among other products, an atlas of maps that show, at a glance, the relationship between literacy and disability and related supports and services.

This spatial look at the issues will be an innovative tool for policy and service development. It has the promise of revealing relationships between the many factors and characteristics at play in promoting or hindering not only literacy but opportunities for communication and consequent participation in society. It makes visible the geographic scope of the issues, showing not only what the issues of literacy and disability are, but how and where they play out in the Canadian landscape.

Policy Context
Recent developments in the fields of literacy and of disability show that literacy among people with disabilities is disproportionately low. Certain studies outline factors that lead to illiteracy, and explore the possible consequences of not being literate 3/4 such as poverty and poor health. Others demonstrate the barriers to full participation for persons with disabilities. An emerging body of work examines the relationship between the two.

Yet while major statistical surveys on literacy include questions of disability, these variables are limited in scope, and the same is true for literacy-related variables in major disability surveys. Detailed data on literacy and disability come from different surveys, and are not statistically compatible for comparison. As a result, while it is clear that there are links between the social factors related to disability and barriers to literacy, it is difficult to locate them precisely.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a potentially powerful tool to address this problem. GIS is a way of showing, comparing and analyzing different types of information using maps. With GIS, researchers can analyze and visualize the geographic aspects of any body of data, and combine different bodies of data, finding meaningful results.

Using GIS, the project team can create maps that show information about literacy from one survey, and information about disability from another survey, on the same page. The resulting maps will provide a snapshot of the state of literacy and disability in different areas of Canada, and the potential differences between them region by region. The project will capture the ways that conditions vary across the country, and explain various relationships between the differing economic and social conditions in different regions, in the context of policy and program responses to these issue from national to local levels.

Framing Disability and Literacy: The Theory
This investigation is based on a social and human rights model of disability. This recognizes disability as a result of economic, social and physical barriers that prevent or impede people with disabilities from participating in social and economic institutions. Likewise, literacy is seen as tied to social, economic and physical barriers to communication in various forms. The study’s approach draws on a variety of meanings of literacy found in the literature. These include:
- basic literacy: the acquisition of rudimentary reading, writing and numeracy skills;
- functional literacy: the ability to use reading, writing and numeracy skills to participate in the social and economic life of the community (most often used in literacy surveys); and
- critical literacy: acquisition of the means to communicate experience and interests in public discourse by socially marginalized individuals and groups.

Creating Maps
The study will focus on producing, and then combining, three types of maps:

1) The geography and scope of literacy programs and disability organizations:
These maps will show where literacy programs and disability organizations are located in Canada, what type of programs or services they offer, and who can use them. They will reveal any regional, provincial and local differences in the availability of programs and services. The study will indicate where programs are accessible through regional proximity, affordability and entitlement criteria, in terms of barrier-free physical access, and with respect to availability of alternative formats, modified contents and personal support services. In short, this part of the study will show in which areas of the country the programs are effectively accessible and for whom, and where they are not.

2) The demography of literacy and disability:
These maps will draw on statistics that show types and significance of disability (Figure 1) and levels of literacy (Figure 2) along with demographic data such as gender, age and income level. The purpose is to provide a clear visual perspective on where the population with disabilities and the population with different levels of literacy live. This will also show how factors like income level, education, gender and language play out in relation to literacy and disability.

3) Literacy as communication:
The maps for literacy as communication will show the variation by area in how people perceive their ability to actually interact with their community. These will compare the environments in which people report being able, or unable, to communicate, and the differences between such geographic categories as rural and urban.

While each of these sets of maps on its own is expected to reveal important policy considerations and relevant information about disability and literacy, in combination they will be able to show new and innovative types of associations. For example, by combining maps on literacy programs with demographic information on disability, the project will be able to identify "hot spots" where there are large numbers people who are illiterate and people with disabilities with no access to literacy programs. Likewise, "cold spots" may emerge where there are relatively large number of programs and few potential service users.

An Empowering Tool
Through its use of GIS, this study is expected to offer an empowering tool for literacy and disability groups and policy developers alike. It will provide information for government, activists and advocates that more clearly establishes the relationship between literacy and disability, and highlights key areas of need for policy and program response. In addition, it will provide a tool for members of disability organizations to track whether their needs and rights are being taken into account in policy development and in the planning and procedures being developed in the area of literacy.

This project will be completed early in 2003. The final report on the geographic relationships of literacy and disability, and the "Atlas of Literacy and Disability in Canada," will be available through the Canadian Abilities Foundation and through the Geomatics portal being developed by the Geomatics Division of Environment Canada. Project results will also be published in ABILITIES magazine, and will be accessible on EnableLink.