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Community consultants in KACL’s Adult Learning Centre have mixed feelings in response to the report, ‘Special-needs Voters Get Civics Lesson’ by CBC News and Radio (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ontariovotes2011/story/2011/09/28/ontario-votes-civics.htmlon). 

While it is significant to realize that individuals with intellectual disabilities are under-represented in Canadian elections, the piece insinuated that Frontier College is tapping a new and undiscovered population of voters. 

KACL’s Adult Literacy Centre provides access to information through a variety of formats depending on the unique needs of each learner.  Many learners who attend KACL’s Adult Literacy Centre have requested support from community consultants to understand personally relevant political issues and the voting process itself. This has been an ongoing practice in the Adult Literacy Centre for over eight years.

Community consultants routinely encourage discussions about citizenship, self advocacy and the democratic process.  Exact replicas of the current voting ballot, information about current events, candidates and party platforms are made available with audio video supports and clear language using text supported with symbols and other relevant graphics.

Adult learners are supported, individually in understanding available resources such as the voter registration card, ballot forms, determining polling stations, watching online videos about voting in Ontario and assistive voting technology, to identifying with political candidates, parties and issues important to them. 

Anyone who

·        Is a resident of Ontario

·        Is 18 years old

·        Is a Canadian Citizen

Has the right to vote!  Elections Ontario has services and considerations for people with intellectual and physical disabilities.  Voters can bring a friend, staff or relative to assist in providing identification and obtaining and casting a ballot.  Some poll locations will even provide assistive technology for voters (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/story/2011/08/24/wdr-election-voter-assistance-technology.html). 

Low literacy or physical disability does not need to exclude anyone from their right to vote! 

Some insightful sites:

www.accessibilitynews.ca           www.elections.on.ca

www.studentvote.ca                      www.settlement.org

www.elections.ca                            www.literacy.ca

Jessi McEwen

Kenora Association for Community Living

Community Consultant - Adult Literacy Centre

jessi.mcewen@kacl.ca

807.467.5261

“A Meaningful and Satisfying Life for All.”

Learners will have the choice and the means to communicate for themselves.

Through a practice of continuous research and reflection, literacy consultants will strengthen their potential to support learners and their community along a continuum of expanding communication strategies.

The entire community will have opportunity, knowledge and the means to communicate diversely among its citizens, with or without spoken language.

In the magazine, Opening up the Possibilities, a publication of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, David A. Walden, Secretary-General, Canadian Commission for UNESCO reminds us to celebrate International Adult Learners’ Week in Canada from  March 1 to 7, 2010.  UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 

International Adult Learners’ Week was officially launched September 8^th, 2000 by UNESCO as an opportunity for learners to have a chance to express their views, describe their challenges and document their success stories.  IALW was promoted by the Canadian Commission for UNESCO and has been celebrated in Canada since 2002. 

UNESCO believes in the following;

·        Inclusive education is fundamental to the achievement of human, social and economic development. 

·        Equipping all individuals to develop their potential contributes significantly to encouraging them to live in harmony and with dignity.

·        There can be no exclusion arising from age, gender, ethnicity, migrant status, language, religion, disability, rurality, sexual identity or orientation, poverty, displacement or imprisonment. 

·        Combating the cumulative effects of multiple disadvantages is of particular importance. 

·        Measures should be taken to enhance motivation and access for all.

Jacques Delors gave a thought provoking reminder during his opening remarks to UNESCO’s Sixth International Conference on Adult Learning (CONFINTEA VI) in Belem, Brazil, in December 2009.  “It is essential not only to learn how to know and learn how to do, but also to learn how to be and how to live together.”

The Adult Literacy Centre at the Kenora Association for Community Living provides educational opportunities for adults with intellectual Disabilities that expand the traditional view of literacy beyond acquiring numeracy and reading skills. Community consultants work with each learner individually in a variety of community settings.  Learning is self directed and reflects each learner’s chosen goals and is supported through access to the latest Information and Communication Technologies ( ICT ).

The Roeher Institute considers being literate as having status, respect, and accommodation from others:

·        To have skills in communication (verbal, written, sign, gestural or other language;

·        To have access to the information and technologies that make self-determined participation in the communication processes of one’ communities and broader society

So let’s celebrate adult learners across Canada and the joy of learning throughout life; remember how powerful learning can be.

Sue Hissa, KACL Literacy Consultant

The Canadian Commission of UNESCO marks March 2^nd to March 8^th International Adult Learners Week in 40 countries to raise the profiles of adult learners and lifelong learning in all forms. IALW was officially launched in 2000, and has since become a movement for lifelong learning that continues to expand across the globe. To celebrate this week, UNESCO released a magazine-format publication entitled, “The Power of Learning” to promote education as a fundamental human right.

The Secretary-General of the Canada Commission for UNESCO, David A. Walden, stated in a public thank-you to organizations, governments, and educators, “together, we are building on the successes of past Adult Learners Weeks’ and promoting public recognition of the importance of adult learning to create equitable, just, and sustainable societies.”

The magazine is available on the following website dedicated to the week, along with learner’s success stories from across Canada: 

www.unesco.ca/en/activity/education/AdultLearners.aspx

Elizabeth Boutette, KACL Literacy Consultant