To hide that he couldn't read or write, Terrence Lennon Wingfield had to get creative.
It was for the saddest of reasons he skipped school a lot — the young Aboriginal boy from the Mirning mob was being relentlessly picked on for his disability.
"I grew up with a health condition, where I had a bad hip," he said.
"I was so ashamed to even walk past people because I had a limp.
"I've been teased, bullied a lot, where it left a psychological effect on me."
The quiet 14-year-old, who had been drawing comfort from his mother, was left "broken" when she died.
"I didn't care. I didn't value life as a teenager because my mum was gone," he said.
The teachers at school saw him falling behind, but Terrence found it difficult to accept help.
"Being a young Aboriginal, you've got people that are saying, 'We'll look after you' and you feel uncomfortable because you grew up in a small community that's isolated … all you know is your own people," he said.
"So, when there were people that were non-Aboriginal that wanted to help me, I found it so very uncomfortable."
Starting from 'the most simple A, B, C'
In early adulthood, he was constantly reminded of the gaps in his education as he struggled to comprehend the text messages he received, apply for jobs or fill out paperwork.
He was more likely to call or pay a visit to someone than send a text message.
The few messages he sent would consist of limited words strung together — or mere letters even.
For instance, "OK" would become a letter "K", while "wud" stood for "what are you doing?".
Tired of having his grandmother decipher correspondence for him, Terrence enrolled into a literacy course with the Aboriginal College in Port Adelaide in South Australia.
Within two years, he has gone from "the most simple A, B, C" to reading books.
"I feel like I'm being myself. I can read now and understand what books I'm reading," he said.
"I read a lot on the public transport, when usually I would just sit on a bus and be quiet."
The 28-year-old has completed half of the university preparatory program courses at the University of Adelaide's preparatory program.
'I forgot my reading glasses'
About 43 per cent of Australians have low literacy skills, the most recent data from 2011-12 by the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) states.
About one-in-five working-aged Australians struggle with reading or writing, but modern technology has made it easier to hide from the world.
"They can use different applications on their phone to hear a message that they've been sent, rather than having to read it. And then they can speak into the phone, to then return that via text," said TasTAFE education manager Kirrily Loveday.
More traditional ways of masking the difficulty to read or write include asking for help.
"If they need to fill in a form or something, they might say, 'Oh, look, I'll take it home and bring it back tomorrow' or 'I forgot my reading glasses' is a classic," she said.
PIAAC estimates Indigenous Australians, people over the age of 45, and those not in the workforce are among the most vulnerable when it comes to literacy gaps.
"It's not any one person's fault, and it's certainly not that individual's fault. Things like intergenerational poverty can contribute to it, poor mental health, or issues at home," Ms Loveday said.
"It's usually a combination of missed opportunities or misunderstanding — or not getting the learning that they need in a way that they need it when they need it."
Newcastle University's honorary adjunct Margaret Merga said in some cases, some people started to slip under the radar before they even reached school age.
"At day one, there's already not an even playing field for our students, when they turn up in our schooling system," Dr Merga said.
By year 9, the literacy ability gap can grow as wide as eight years in mainstream classrooms, she said.
"It can be a real challenge for schools to meet the needs of these students with the diverse issues if they're inadequately resourced," she said.
"Our research actually found that teachers in public schools are reporting that they're less well resourced to meet students' diverse literacy needs than students at private schools. Obviously, that's hugely problematic from equity's perspective."
Breaking down stigmas
Adult Learning Australia CEO Jenny Macaffer said the federal government had for years been aware Australia's adult literacy level had been sliding.
"I think we've known about the issue of adult literacy and numeracy, employability issues, since the PIAAC over 10 years ago, and there has been a slow response," she said.
In 2021, the federal parliament held an inquiry into adult literacy and its importance. The government is yet to respond to its recommendations.
The Reading Writing Hotline was one of the services that put in a submission with the inquiry.
It receives about 4,000 calls a year. About 70 per cent of the callers are from an English-speaking background and schooled in Australia — "typically" a male aged between 24 and 44 who left school before year 10.
"We get calls from people who have just left school," Reading Writing Hotline manager Vanessa Iles said.
"We get calls from people who are in the workforce, who may be feeling like they're about to fall out of their job."
She said the literacy requirements were "increasing exponentially" compared with a decade or two ago. The problem is further exasperated by the need for digital literacy.
Ms Iles said there were a number of initiatives to address the issue: for instance, a Tasmanian government-funded 26TEN strategy that deploys a network of local literacy coordinators in "every single community".
"We need to be going out into the communities, not expecting people to put their hand up and say, 'I'm struggling', because they're too embarrassed to do that," she said.
"We need public awareness campaigns, so people feel like they're not being judged in coming forward."
But even with the rise in outreach programs, demand far exceeds supply. Between 2019 and 2020, the calls to the Reading Writing Hotline, where the service could find no support provider for the caller, increased 300 per cent.
"If you're left behind because you can't read or write or you struggle with understanding numbers, it's going to be very challenging to reach your best potential but also to contribute to the wider community," Ms Macaffer said.
The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations said the government was committed to helping adults increase their literacy, numeracy, digital literacy and employability skills — known as foundation skills — and partnered with states, territories and stakeholders to do so.
The government has also created a new Foundation Skills Advisory Group to "guide the reinvigoration of foundation skills programs" and will spend $12 million on a National Study on Adult Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy Skills.
"The government is also trialling a series of remote community pilots until 30 June 2024 to deliver foundation English language, literacy, numeracy, and digital literacy skills in four remote communities," a department spokesperson said.
These communities are: Doomadgee in northern Queensland, the Dampier Peninsula in Western Australia, the Far West Region of South Australia and Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.
