If a person cannot read or write cursive, are they "functionally illiterate?"

[hlthe2b]

15. Errors can be deadly... (or at least lead to massive liability--even for an accounting firm but more so elsewhere)

I have commented on why my and other hospitals are now requiring candidates/employees (from janitors to specialist physicians) to show that they can read/legibly write and comprehend cursive writing and a threatened EEOC lawsuit was summarily dismissed by those misguided and willfully ignorant potential employees.

Why? Well among several documented life-and-death instances was an emergency resuscitation code where a nurse student intern who could not read cursive ignored a handwritten sign on an oxygen tank that clearly indicated "DO NOT USE! Malfunctioning" and was thus positioned away from others. So, the patient was receiving no supplemental oxygen throughout the effort because this employee could not read the sign and hooked it up without even inquiring what the sign said.

While one might have understanding and compassion for a student or point fingers at those supposedly supervising her, it was the attitude of this and other non-cursive-competent employees that enraged nearly all from the trained healthcare workers in the ER to the HR managers to the corporate drones. Because she decided to defiantly sue the HOSPITAL for "failing to educate her" in this reading/writing requirement she had missed from K-12 and then college-- and then for their subsequent policy to screen, not hire, and to fire those who did not meet that requirement. And that was only ONE such incident (I have heard of others at other hospitals, clinics, HCW training programs, and pharmacies), all of which yes rely heavily on computers, but real life requires the ability to read physician notes scanned in computerized records, pharmacy notes, and yes the handwritten notes of family members about a patient unable to speak for themselves. Veterinarian friends of mine--especially veterinary emergency clinic staff have had similar problems.

Yes, it is functional illiteracy. And a form that can have significant impacts. To all those who don't care about the ability to read historical documents or the letters of their parents and grandparents, fine, but you are going to face some challenges beyond that. And not all employers are willing or even ABLE to allow you to "skate" because someone decided that was not important because 140-misspelled character typed texts were somehow deemed the equivalent of literacy in this age. IT DAMNED WELL IS IMPORTANT. And shame on those educational officials and others who decided it was not. That lack of understanding and forethought is leaving many to flounder.

In answer to the OP's question, YES, I think it is undeniably FUNCTIONAL ILLITERACY.