March 2007 – Putting a Canadian Face on Learning Disabilities (PACFOLD)

March 2007 – Putting a Canadian Face on Learning Disabilities (PACFOLD) is a groundbreaking applied research study that started in 2004 by the Learning Disabilities Association of Canada, (LDAC) with a $302,000 contribution from the Federal Government – Social Development Partnership Program – Disability component.

Led by a team of top Canadian researchers headed by co-principal investigators, Dr. Alexander M. Wilson, Director of the Meighen Centre at Mount Allison University, in New Brunswick and Adele Furrie, an Ottawa-based expert in disability statistics and joined by researchers Dr. Elizabeth Walcot-Gayda, Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Sherbrooke in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Dr. Catherine Deri Armstrong, Department of Economics of the University of Ottawa, and Andrew Archer, an information data retrieval expert, the goal of the research was to find out what it means to be a child, youth or adult with learning disabilities in Canada.

This three-phase project, released in March 2007, with its focus on knowledge — obtaining, quantifying and disseminating, provides a better understanding of the impact of learning disabilities on the lives of Canadian children, youth and adults, and what their challenges are.

PACFOLD uncovered compelling evidence of what our national network has witnessed anecdotally for decades—left undiagnosed, untreated and/or not accommodated, Canadians with LD are unable to reach their potential, resulting in high costs to the Canadian economy.

LDAC offers this website to policy makers, professionals, media, parents and others to ensure that there is access to key LD data and to expand awareness about what LD is and whom the condition impacts.