Illiteracy is, sadly, something that can greatly affect people’s lives. According to The Literacy Trust, less than one per cent of adults in England can be described as completely illiterate and approximately 16 per cent as “functionally illiterate”.
There are various articles on the Web that indicate how people live with their illiteracy:
- They depend on people (relatives or the kindness of strangers) to read and explain things for them.
- They recognise places and the location of things based on colours or shapes.
- They often have to trust people aren’t scamming them.
- They generally work within more limited boundaries, keeping to a consistent routine.
- They often memorise how they completed a task last time.
If we produce a product but do not supply user instructions with it, the user has nothing to read, whether they are literate or not. The user has to fall back on coping mechanisms similar to those used by people with illiteracy. They can function, but they would do much better if they had something to read.
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