Name: The right to understand
Uploaded: 2011-11-06T14:59:43Z
Duration: 15 min 31 s
Description: Medical, legal, and financial documents should be easy to read, but too often they aren't. With spot-on (and funny) examples, Sandra Fisher Martins shows how overly complex language separates us from the information we need -- and three steps to change that. In Portuguese with English subtitles.

Medical, legal, and financial documents should be easy to read, but too often they aren't. With spot-on (and funny) examples, Sandra Fisher Martins shows how overly complex language separates us from the information we need -- and three steps to change that. In Portuguese with English subtitles.

Sandra Fisher-Martins: The right to understand

The right to understand

The subprime crisis example underscores the global need for simplifying legal and financial language to avoid dire consequences.

A symbol on a bank statement in 1996 sparked a journey to simplify legal and medical documents for better public understanding.

In Portugal, complex language leads to an 'information apartheid', where only 5% can understand intricate documents, versus 75% in Sweden.