Imagine that you are trying to hold down a job and raise a family and that you can't read this sentence. How would you understand the directions on a medicine bottle or the warning on a road sign or the information asked for on a job application? Shockingly, this imaginary situation is all too real: more than 44 million adult Americans cannot read or write at the first-grade level. This lack of basic skills drastically limits what they can accomplish in life and contribute to society. Illiteracy is everyone's problem, and everyone needs to take a stand to wipe it out.