Financial literacy at a slower pace isn’t teaching people to handle money — What we learn
When we spoke to people about financial literacy programs some spoke fondly about the moment they realised that they had learned some great skills which meant they could be independent in their financial management. However, a lot of what we heard was that financial literacy had not evolved to meet the needs of the people seeking it. Instead they were being provided the same content as everyone else but at a slower speed in the hope that the extra time would allow them to learn.
It’s now common that there will always be a cohort of people that have brains that operate different to the wider population. Financial literacy seems to continue to be taught the same way and so people with neurodiverse brains are being excluded at times from this important skill set.
We set out to find some key skills that these people had which would be assets in their journey to gain financial literacy. Who would have thought the key was in smartphones and tablets. We found quicker success in learning a process which could be repeated on a phone or tablet than teaching someone financial numeracy at a point in their life when they had other interests that drew them away from learning it.
By modelling the Spendable purchase check on a process we have been able to teach people who would never be able to handle money to work out the steps from picking an item, adding in its price, checking it against a budget and then actually making the purchase (and store the receipt for safety). With this process people are able to buy a $4.50 cup of coffee or a $25 t-shirt and not have to handle the different arithmetic for the two purchases.
Disclaimer: This is not an exhaustive list of all payment types that disabled people/a person with disability would face. It might be a similar situation to the one you face or it might be completely irrelevant. Either way it comes from a real person that has challenged us to solve it for them.
If you want to share your thoughts or highlight something to our team please email us info@spendable.com.au
