Question above is pretty blunt but was doing a study for a college course and came across that stat. How is that possible? My high school sucked but I was well equipped even with that sub standard level of education for college. Obviously income is a thing but to think 1 out of 5 American adults is categorized as illiterate is…astounding. Now poor media literacy I get, but not this. Edit: this was from a department of education report from 2022. Just incase people are curious where that comes from. It does also specify as literate in English so maybe not as grim as I thought.
There are levels of illiteracy. Most everyone has some literacy but the classifications are not very detailed, so completely illiterate may include being able to read a menu and choosing simple items.
Following an instructions manual for assembling/mounting something is much harder. Because of how frowned upon illiteracy is people who are illiterate get good at hiding their illiteracy.