750 million adults cannot read in any language.

Most literacy apps require literacy to use.

Narina, a 68-year-old woman from Visakhapatnam, India

Narina, 68. Visakhapatnam, India.
Family friend. Never attended extensive formal education. Cannot read or write in any language.

"How old were you when you first started reading?"

When I was young, I had some tutoring in Telugu script, English, and mathematics. When I grew older, I had other responsibilities: caring for family, the house, all sorts of tasks. We had to share our reading material, so I sacrificed my learning for my siblings.

"Have you ever wanted to learn to read?"

Yes! I have wanted to learn for a long time, though it is more difficult for me now.

"What happens when you need to read something?"

Often somebody else is with me. But more and more of what I see is in English rather than Telugu, and so it is getting more difficult to understand. I am forced to wait or ask someone else.

"Do you use a phone?"

Yes. I use it with other people's help.

49% of the world's illiterate population lives in South Asia UNESCO Institute for Statistics
700+ languages in Indonesia. Fewer than 3% have usable digital resources. Ethnologue
150M+ speakers of Bhojpuri, Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa. All classified as "low-resource" for translation. Ethnologue

notextneeded teaches English from zero. No prior literacy required. Just sound, icons, and phonetic scaffolding.

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