It has been estimated that 21-23% of adults, or 40 to 44 million Americans, are functionally illiterate. They are unable to use reading, speaking, writing and computation skills in everyday life situations. With reading abilities at about the 4^th grade level, they are unable to fill out an employment application, follow written instructions or read a newspaper. An additional 25% -28% of adults, another 50 million, have only marginal literacy skills, meaning they cannot understand, interpret and apply written material to accomplish daily tasks. They read at about the 8^th grade level but cannot, for example, comprehend a newspaper or digest magazine. The greatest number of low-literate adults are native-born whites, but the elderly, nonwhites, immigrants and the poor are disproportionately low-skilled. (National Adult Literary Survey, U.S. Department of Education, 1993)