About Access for All

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Skills for Life, the national strategy for improving adult literacy and numeracy skills, is one of the Government's highest priorities. As part of the drive to raise standards, we are improving the quality of literacy, language and numeracy provision so that all adult learners can be guaranteed good teaching and support, no matter what their starting points are or where their learning takes place.

From Exclusion to Inclusion, the report of the Disability Rights Task Force (December 1999), estimates that at least 8.5 million people currently meet the Disability Discrimination Act definition. It also says that disabled people are twice as likely as non-disabled people to be unemployed and to have no formal qualifications. People who have disabilities and learning difficulties play an important role in all aspects of life. If Britain is to fulfil its aim of being a fully inclusive society, everyone should be able to fulfil his or her potential and gain the skills to participate and contribute.

One of the most important recommendations of Freedom to Learn, the report commissioned by the Government to investigate the basic skills needs of people with learning difficulties and disabilities, was that the Adult Basic Skills Strategy Unit should commission guidance for teachers. Access for All will help teachers make the adult literacy and numeracy core curricula fully accessible to all learners. The manual is closely mapped to the curriculum documents and is designed to be used alongside them to enable people with a wide range of disabilities to develop their communication, literacy and numeracy skills. Its publication, in the wake of the Government's Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (2001), is timely.

I am sure that Access for All will prove an essential tool, not just for the teachers to whom it is primarily addressed, but also for programme managers, publishers and a wide range of other organisations involved in disability issues and basic skills learning.

John Healey, Minister for Adult Skills