The emotional, practical and financial toll of low literacy can be severe, particularly in a world which assumes almost everyone can read and write.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show more than 7 million adults in Australia lack the literacy skills required for everyday life.
But now technology is allowing some people to complete everyday tasks a little more easily.
Sydney resident Jack Coenen has worked for more than 40 years in a range of jobs.
But one thing has always held him back -- he cannot read or write.
"Filling out paperwork, going to an office to fill out an application form ... um, anything to do with Centrelink, government office, post office, just making out a simple address can't be done. I have to either copy it down or have someone else do it for me."
Mr Coenen says he fell behind his peers back in school and was never able to catch up.
He is not alone.
One in eight Australian adults scores at the lowest levels in literacy, while one in five has very low numeracy skills.
Strong literacy skills have been shown to have a huge impact on a person's life.
An increase from Year 11 to Year 12 literacy and numeracy levels is associated with a 10 per cent increase in wages.
Conversely, low literacy makes one-third of Australians vulnerable to unemployment and social exclusion.
A former high-school teacher, Dave Tout, is on the Australian Council for Educational Research and says it should not be such an issue in such a country.
"We feel that Australia is a highly educated country, therefore literacy shouldn't be a major problem. But the research shows that it is."
For some, the growing use of computers and smartphones has made everyday life more complex.
But Jack Coenen says, for him, iPhones have provided a newfound independence.
He copies and pastes emails, messages, instructions and information into the voice-recognition software Siri on his iPhone, which then reads it out to him.
"Siri's come along and opened up a whole new world. I mean, you know, I can get something that I want and get it to read to me. I can get it to say things for me."
And he says getting around town has become less of a chore.
"If I had Siri when I was driving trucks, life would have been a lot easier for me. Back in the old day, I had to pull up and find somewhere like Gardeners Road and count on the book how many lights there was before I had to make a turn."
