Affordable Use of Smart Paper to Communicate to the Disadvantaged Illiterate

Since 1820, the world’s literacy rate has gone up by only 12% according to the World Economic Forum (2022) whereas the literacy rate currently stands at more than 87% leaving 771 million people in the world illiterate according to UNESCO (2023) and that really is a huge number of people in an information age.

If you’re an NGO or the government itself, literacy charities may be important to you and Head In The Cloud NWR is proposing the use of Smart Paper to reach out to those in extreme poverty.

According to our research Smart Paper is expensive but when we look at greeting cards that play music which start selling from $5.99, the idea of flyers, business cards, brochures, and invitations made of audio-embedded paper with a message or instructions in the languages of those in extreme poverty sounds pretty feasible.

Promotional materials such as flyers, business cards, invitations, and brochures in the form of smart paper can be used to reach out to those in penury to give them access to services and locations that can help them simply by instructing and directing them in their own language as the paper will be audio-embedded with touch buttons to play and stop the sound.

There will be no need for those in extreme poverty to change the batteries because the instructions they will be receiving will be simple and just about finding locations or performing simple tasks. New materials must be collectable should the batteries die out.

References:

1. World Economic Forum (2022) This is how much the world’s literacy rate grew over 200 years. [online] Available at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/09/reading-writing-global-literacy-rate-changed/#:~:text=Today%2C%20the%20global%20literacy%20rate,as%20in%20Argentina%20and%20Uruguay. [Accessed 30 August 2024]
2. UNESCO (2023) The Global Literacy Crisis: A Look at Rates and Impact Across Nations [online] Available at: The Global Illiteracy Crisis: A Look at Rates and Impact Across Nations (illiteracyinitiative.info) [Accessed 30 August 2024]

To read our full report on why this is a unique, feasible and marketable idea, and to purchase copyright permission to this idea, please contact Tutu at tutun@headinthecloudnwr.com.