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We propose amending our education category Illiterate or unable to communicate in English to Illiterate, and we propose to clarify our guidelines regarding how we will evaluate work experience for persons characterized as Illiterate when we determine whether that person is disabled.

We use the education category in our medical-vocational guidelines in appendix 2 to subpart P of part 404 of our regulations (Appendix 2). The medical-vocational guidelines direct or provide a framework for disability determinations and decisions at the final step in our sequential evaluation process. We propose clarifying that we consider a person Illiterate when he or she is unable to read or write in any language. 

Under this revised definition of Illiterate, we propose clarifying our guidelines on how we evaluate previous work experience for persons who are Illiterate when we decide whether a person is disabled. These proposed clarifications ensure our guidelines clearly reflect our longstanding policy in 404.1565(a) and 416.965(a). If a person has skilled or semiskilled work experience, but cannot use those skills in other work (i.e., the skills are not transferable to other work), the person’s ability to adjust to other work is no greater than if he or she had only unskilled work experience. The proposed revisions will clarify how we evaluate a person’s ability to adjust to other work if his or her education category is Illiterate by identifying which medical-vocational guidelines apply given these case facts.