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

[appmanga]

108. What you "think" doesn't make it true...

...and while I can agree with you about the need of some workers to have such a skill as reading cursive, the fact is while the charts we once learned from show "standard" cursive, most people have developed a personalized version of writing in that form. My cursive looks nothing like anyone else in my family, and it's the same for them. There have been many times where I've deciphered the cursive of others simply by substituting what makes sense based on the shape of the scratching in front of me.

...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, despite your obvious agitation at this, she's has a right to sue and has grounds for what I think is a pretty good case. And the complaint about her not learning something outside the curricula of all her schooling is beyond grumpy; it's weird. Why would someone attach a lot import to something they're not being taught, and doesn't impair their ability to do well at what they are being taught? I don't know if anyone has ever said to a kid cursive is going to be important to their future, and I don't know how we should expect them to conclude that.

And it's not like those who use cursive are compelled to do so, but for some people, that's standing the the world on its head because the old superiors shouldn't have to (yet again) concede another piece of civilization to the inept and ungrateful young.

That takes some hell of an ego, as does calling the inability to correctly interpret any scrawl thrown in front of one's face being "functionally illiterate".