The terms of reference he set us state clear objectives in improving the lot of the many adults whose quality of life can be enriched by enhancing their basic skills. All of us on the Working Group welcomed the Secretary of State's initiative and the opportunity it has given us to point the way towards A Fresh Start. At their most severe, the handicaps for the individual can be devastating. In these years I had read everything I could lay my hands on to do with illiteracy. I knew about the helplessness in everyday activities, finding one's way or finding an address or choosing a meal in a restaurant, about how illiterates anxiously stick to prescribed patterns and familiar routines, about how much energy it takes to conceal one's inability to read and write, energy lost to actual living.
Illiteracy is dependence.
By finding the courage to learn to read and write, Hanna had advanced from dependence to independence, a step towards liberation. But even when the problem is less extreme, it limits a person's chance to get a job or, if in a job, to achieve promotion and change. And it can close many doors to a full life. Indeed there can hardly be a surer way to social exclusion. Moreover hard economic issues are involved.