The Daily Jeffersonian Imagine being an unemployed father desperately trying to find a job to support his family while having to rely on public transportation to get to job interviews and not being able to read a bus schedule or tell time. Then picture this father's search for employment being hampered even more due to his inability to read a job application. Now imagine being a mother, with a sick child, worried about giving her child the wrong dosage of medication because of an inability to read the directions. This is what is known as functional illiteracy and it's an often unseen daily reality for many.