Literacy experts at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in partnership with Benetech, have developed tools and content for a new Internet-based educational service that provides reading and writing instruction to beginning, adolescent and adult readers with significant learning disabilities.

The Facts About Low Literacy and Illiteracy

Literacy is critical to independent survival in modern society. It’s no secret that for individuals struggling with either low literacy or illiteracy, almost insurmountable barriers are created by not being able to read or write. Such individuals are unable to find and keep long-term employment, support their children’s education or participate actively in civic life.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, there are more than 800,000 students from elementary school through college age who have moderate to severe disabilities. The number increases to more than five million when all learning disabilities are included. This includes children and young adults with Down Syndrome, as well as those with autism and related disorders such as Asperger Syndrome.

The problem of low literacy extends far beyond school-aged children. More than 20% of American adults read at or below a fifth grade level. These rates are much higher for non-native English speakers, a growing proportion of the population. The result: In the U.S. the number of adults with low literacy is estimated in the tens of millions. According to the National Adult Literacy Survey, 44 million people, or 21-23% of the U.S. adult population, lacks a sufficient foundation of basic literacy skills required to function successfully in our society.

A New Approach: Route 66 Literacy Emphasizes High-Interest Content

There is an obvious and significant need for a comprehensive, beginning reading instructional tool for adolescent and adult learners, particularly those with significant developmental disabilities. Literacy experts at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill — in partnership with Benetech — have developed a new approach. Called Route 66 Literacy, this distinctive strategy relies on a scientifically-proven instructional technique developed by these literacy experts.

Unlike existing products, Route 66 Literacy includes all of the essential elements of literacy instruction — reading comprehension, word study, fluency and writing — while emphasizing high-interest content that is targeted at older students and adults. The central premise is this: Adolescent and adult beginning literacy instruction is much more effective when timely content is tailored to the appropriate group or interest demographic. The content for the service, for example, is composed of stories about celebrities, athletes and other popular figures. Even better: Because the Route 66 Literacy service is delivered online, these materials can be updated as frequently as necessary.

Another essential and unique component of the Route 66 Literacy system is its integrated “Teacher Tutor” feature. The Teacher Tutor helps ensure that the instructors — often parents and volunteers — working with developmentally disabled individuals have all the support they need to be as effective as possible.

Route 66 Literacy Is Truly Different

Several for-profit players exist with well-established brands and long histories of providing reading tools for disabled students, but none compare strategically with Route 66 Literacy. Here are the facts:

• Although each competitor offers products with individually useful features, none offer the comprehensive set of instructional tools provided through Route 66 Literacy.
• Few, if any, offer Internet delivery and none provide the type of high-interest content that is available through Route 66 Literacy.
• The few available on-line learning tools either require the user to already know how to read and write or use a variety of multimedia tools to bypass the individual’s limited skills.
• In many cases, competing products — through the use of symbols, voice recognition and other mechanisms — simply supply tools that enable disabled students to perform basic tasks, such as letter-writing.

While helping students participate more actively in society, these tools unfortunately do not improve literacy. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, existing solutions fail to provide adequate support to instructors of developmentally disabled students. Route 66 Literacy’s Teacher Tutor is a revolutionary and much needed concept in this area, providing proven instruction to the learner while simultaneously supporting teachers, tutors, parents and other volunteers.

An Emphasis on Accessibility and Usability

A critical benefit of the core technology applied by Route 66 Literacy is its web-based delivery, offering truly universally accessibility. Route 66 Literacy goes beyond current delivery standards, interfacing with existing screen reading tools, Braille translators and alternative input devices. With built-in access features for persons with the most significant physical impairments, no external hardware or software is required. These individuals will use their own micro-switches to select any hotspot on the screen, move up or down, and navigate throughout the site.

Use Route 66 Literacy now. The program and demo were introduced by Dr. Karen Erickson & Benetech at this year’s Closing the Gap conference and is now available.

Route 66 Literacy is currently operated as a partnership between The Center for Literacy and Disability Studies (CLDS) of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Benetech. Leading researchers at CLDS provide the service’s content and instructional information, while Benetech supplies the technical, managerial and marketing expertise, as well as the on-going maintenance of the site.

As with all of Benetech’s initiatives, the goal of the Route 66 Literacy project is to both generate a significant social impact and to create a financially self-sustaining entity. Revenue for Route 66 will be generated through service subscriptions paid for by individual users and instructors, as well as institutional users such as schools and other organizations that serve the disabled community.

Over the long term, marketing partnerships with other providers of educational materials will play a significant role in the promotion and distribution of Route 66 Literacy.

Help us continue developing technology solutions that profoundly transform and improve lives. By investing in Benetech, you’ll enable us to expand our work and take on new challenges.

Find out more about donating to Benetech.