Shelle, who appears in the SBS adult literacy show Lost for Words that premieres next Wednesday, suffers from dyslexia which has made day-to-day life difficult.

The first episode of the show sees her standing on a platform struggling to read the moving words on screens and work out which train to catch.

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"I find public transport very hard for that very reason," Shelle said.

"The words are constantly moving so much my brain doesn't have the time to pick up what route I need or what the boards are actually saying."

If she manages to get on the right train there can also be a problem when she gets off. If it stops at a platform she is familiar with, she uses her memory to find her way to the street.

If it's an unfamiliar platform, the dyslexia combined with the stress of the experience makes it hard for her to read the signs pointing to the exits.

Shelle was born in Canberra but moved to Kanahooka when she was 14 because her mother's family was based there. Just last year she moved north to Port Macquarie.

She was diagnosed with dyslexia at a young age after her mother noticed she was having trouble reading.

"She was very keen to get me reading from an early age," Shelle said.

"She noticed that while I loved stories I just wasn't picking up reading or spelling or anything like that.

"So when I was four, just before I started school, my mum took me to a series of tutors and specialists who diagnosed me as being dyslexic."

In school she was placed in reading recovery classes but she wasn't getting the attention she needed so her parents got her some "intensive tutoring".

"I did leave school being able to read in the sense that I can read stories like books fairly well," she said.

"But reading documentation or recipes for shopping lists, my brain just doesn't compute those words.

"With stories I can build it in my head and if I skip words that's fine but with recipes or reading legal documentation you kind of need to have all the words there.

"That's where I kind of fell over and it has impacted my life a lot, so I wouldn't be able to read the forms and know what was being asked of me."

Shelle and many other adults who struggle with literacy tend to find workarounds to get by. For instance, she works full-time in IT support and will get into someone's computer to fix it rather than sending emails back and forth to try and diagnose the problem.

The show Lost for Words - hosted by Jay Laga'aia - sees Shelle and seven other adults put through an intensive nine-week literacy program.

Like the other participants, Shelle admitted there was some trepidation about appearing on the show as it was a public admission of her reading difficulties.

"It did make me feel very, very anxious," she said.

"Being dyslexic had always been a bit of a shameful secret that I always tried very hard to get around.

"I will try to make it as un-obvious as I can because otherwise you'll get put into the stereotype of being lazy or dumb or something like that."

But she wasn't alone - statistics claim more than 43 per cent of Australian adults lack the necessary literacy skills for everyday life.

"When I heard that I was quite shocked," she said.

"Dyslexia is the most common learning disability around, except that I felt like I never met anyone who had dyslexia.

"So when I got to do this program I got to meet other people with dyslexia and other learning disabilities it was like 'oh, it's not just me'.

"I'm glad I did it - I don't feel ashamed of being dyslexic anymore.

"Meeting other people and having such a positive wonderful teachers, it's been really heartwarming."

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