While numbers of students identified as having learning disabilities (LD) have risen dramatically in the last twenty years, LD has become a grey area traversed by very disparate discourses – medical, social-constructionist, legal, technical, experiential, and pedagogical. These discourses arise out of different disciplinary and administrative cultures; focus on different aspects of the syndrome; and reveal different understandings about the nature and meaning of literacy. While each is helpful in some respect, they do not enable us adequately to address the obstacles that confront students with LD attempting to hold their own in a community that equates literacy with learning. This paper examines some of the problems with applying insights from competing discourses, and argues for closer communication among those responsible for current theory and practice in this area. It draws upon accounts by students with learning disabilities, and highlights the role of support staff in drawing these out, recording them, and placing them in the public domain. Such accounts are an important, and under-utilised, source of insight for teaching staff.