Problem:
According to the US government, 48% of American adults experience low-literacy. The CBC also reported that 49% of Canadian adults are below the desired literacy rate. The U.S. Department of Transportation defined low-literacy as “the difficulty using certin reading, writing, and computational skills considered necessary for functioning in everyday life.” This means people who experience low literacy can read, but not well enough to fill out a job application or read a children’s book.
The economic impact of low literacy issue is staggering. According to ProLiteracy, $230 billion in excess healthcare costs can be linked to low adult literacy. Moreover, low literacy costs the U.S. at least $225 billion each year in non-productivity in the workforce, crime, and loss of tax revenue due to unemployment.
Solution:
skritswap uses artificial intelligence to change the complexity of documents. Imagine Google Translate but instead of different languages, skritswap adapts information to different reading levels. This enables anyone to understand anything.
Swapping documents to plain language improves clarity thereby increasing efficiency and saving money. It can also be an opportunity for everyone to participate in the knowledge economy and gain mastery of industry-specific jargon.
Change the World:
Every day billions of people turn to the internet to find answers to their questions. Yet, at least half struggle to understand the information they find. skritswap unlocks answers so people can act on knowledge. People will be able to read at their desired comfort level with the click of a button.
But skritswap is not just about meeting people at their most comfortable reading level. It is also about enabling people to build strong literacy skills through experiential learning. Over time skritswap will gradually increase the reading level of topics users consistently read.
Using experiential learning to increase population literacy rates would lead to huge economic growth. According to TD, increasing the literacy rate just 1% in Canada within one year would lead to a ripple effect of $32 billion in economic growth.
From a business perspective when half of people may be struggling to truly understand product communications, this often leads to a break down in trust between customers and businesses. Selling the same products, in the same way, to clients with different individual literacy levels is like having a clothing store with only one size for everyone.
Working with skritswap to personalize product information with varied complexitiy levels results in shorter service-delivery times and increased trust because customers will be able to grasp industry jargon.
