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 Social Development Partnership Program – Disability component. The opinions and interpretations in this study are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Government of Canada.

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 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.

The PACFOLD Study is unique because it represents the first time any disability organization in Canada has requested access to Statistics Canada data surveys. Ten different datasets were examined — the most comprehensive look ever at the impact of living with a learning disability (LD) in Canada.

In this section you will find the Executive Summary and the Highlights of the research study along with a backgrounder on the various data sets from Statistics Canada that were used in the study.