A plan is being forged to help provide more opportunities for people living in the north-east.
Aberdeenshire Council is developing a strategy to help support people cope with functional, health, finance and digital related literacy problems.
Councillors recently considered the progress of the literacies strategy and approved its ongoing development
Philip Boath, interim service manager for communities and partnerships, said the term “literacies” refers to a variety of challenges people struggle to overcome.
He said: “You can have literacy challenges or low literacies in a whole range of things.
“Health literacy, for example, could be when a doctor is relaying information in an appointment and assumes the patient can comprehend that information.
“I have an elderly mother and can’t believe the amount of things they expect her to do online – and that itself is an example of the need for digital literacy.
“People are much less reluctant to admit to struggling with certain challenges and we are trying to reduce the stigma and open up more opportunities for people.”
He added that emotional literacies is a key struggle often not recognised in affluent areas of the region.
He said: “There are geographical challenges in shire on reaching all areas – it is a complicated map and a big task.
“Support is required to meet needs across Aberdeenshire in a huge range of places, affluent or not.”
