Human survival means more than purely physical survival. Human beings, because of language, also have a cultural nature that must survive. In today's world, all speak, but more than one-fourth of the world's people--and more than half in developing nations--do not have the uniquely human capacity of reading and writing. The diffusion of literacy worldwide has been politically, socially, and economically thwarted. Nonliterate persons do not demand literacy because people do not always recognize their self-interests. Illiterate people are excluded from defining their own world and from contributing to collective knowledge, history, and culture. Literacy is intimately connected to knowledge--one must read something. Literacy brings the reader into touch with modern, scientific, nontraditional knowledge, which is available primarily in print. Literacy is necessary for health, economic development, and social, political, and cultural survival. In this International Literacy Year, individuals, governments, and voluntary organizations must make literacy work for human survival and a more humane existence. (KC)