Learning to read and write effectively is a challenging task for many adults, particularly for those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. In spite of concerted efforts by educators to facilitate the development of literacy skills in deaf individuals, most deaf high school graduates read English at roughly a third or fourth grade level as determined by standardized reading assessments. Having limited English skills acts as a barrier for deaf people in the workplace. They often have had limited opportunities at school for vocational training. They may also have difficulties communicating with hearing co-workers and may have poor performance on work-related reading and writing tasks. This digest offers possible explanations for these difficulties and describes new approaches in deaf education that show promise for improving the literacy skills of deaf students. Specific sections address the reassessment of sources of literacy difficulties (i.e., linguistic differences, cultural differences, and educational deficiencies), and current approaches to literacy development. (VWL)