I learned to read while I was in Kindergarten. I can still remember sitting in class and scanning the one-sentence pages being so proud of myself that I could understand what the jumble of letters on the page meant. The one-sentence pages turned into two, which turned into paragraphs, which turned into chapters, which enabled me to be able to read most anything I laid my eyes onto.

While I might have learned how to pronounce a set of letters together at a young age, there are still many people who are unable to read. These people, illiterates, are at a huge disadvantage in the world we live in today. Everywhere we look, whether on the road, in stores, in classrooms, words and phrases are posted for people to read.

A place that reading is especially important is on the Web. Illiterates are unable to use the Web to its full advantage as people who are able to read are. They are unable to type something they are interested in into a search engine such as Google and learn. They cannot pull up a recipe they want to cook for dinner in a couple clicks of their mouse because they are unable to understand what all the letters on the screen are trying to tell them. Reading is essential on many Web pages, which therefore makes the Internet a place that illiterates cannot use as easily as those that can read.

Reading is a hugely important thing in the world we live in, however, while some people may take being able to decipher a set of letters for granted, there are still many people out there who cannot.