High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Speaking Book was created by South Africans for South Africans and has developed to reach low literacy and disadvantaged communities across the globe. The Speaking Book addresses a major inequality - illiteracy - which deprives people access to life-saving information. Over 785 million adults are illiterate and Africa has a literacy rate lower than 60% . Illiteracy critically reduces health care literature efficacy - however good written material is, if people cannot read, the messages are ineffective. Illiteracy is a potentially life-threatening issue and health is lowest where literacy is poor. People with low health literacy are 12 to 18 times more likely to not understand, ignore or confuse medical treatment and preventative measures, and therefore are more highly likely to suffer further affliction, illness and victimisation. For developing countries, illiteracy affects 30 to 80% of the population.