The European Consumer Centre Finland has launched an easy-language section on its website. The section contains information on the rights of online shoppers and air passengers in easy Finnish. We also share information in easy Finnish on the consumer services provided by the European Consumer Centre Finland. With the easy-language online content, we hope to reach a wider range of consumers – people who benefit from plain language and struggle with standard Finnish.
Easy language, or easy Finnish, is simplified Finnish aimed at special groups. It is a form of Finnish that uses familiar words and easy sentence structures. Texts written in easy language are also easy to understand as a whole. These principles of writing in easy Finnish have also been applied by the European Consumer Centre Finland in the preparation of its new easy-language online content.
The easy Finnish content of the European Consumer Centre Finland has a designated section the website at Ecc.fi/selkokieli. You can access the section by clicking the Selkokieli button in the language menu. For now, the easy-language online content is only available in Finnish.
The Finnish Centre for Easy Language has granted the SELKO symbol for the section. This means that the language and layout of the section follow the principles of easy Finnish.
Covering the most common themes of consumer contacts
The easy-language online content covers three topics: online shopping, air travel and using the services of the European Consumer Centre.
The themes were selected on the grounds that the European Consumer Centre has been contacted by consumers especially often about online shopping and air passengers’ rights. With the rise in online shopping and air travel, it is increasingly important that comprehensive and compact information on these topics is also available in plain language.
The easy language section on online shopping explains related consumer rights. It describes traders’ obligation to provide information, consumers’ right of withdrawal, safe payment, and traders’ liability when goods or services ordered by consumers are defective. The second section explains the rules of air travel and passengers’ rights in the most common error situations. Error situations include flight cancellations and delays. In the last section, we explain the activities of the European Consumer Centre and the situations where we can help consumers.
Easy-language online content motivated by ensuring equal access
We are all entitled to consumers’ rights, and those rights empower individuals to be full citizens of our society. Still, standing up for your rights requires that you know what those rights are and what they entail. Easy language is one way to make different sources of information more comprehensible, helping people access that information.
In fact, informing consumers about their rights is one of the core tasks of the European Consumer Centre, and the new easy-language online content ensures that this information is accessible to as many people as possible. That makes it a matter of upholding equality.
There is an increasing need for easy language. The Finnish Centre for Easy Language estimates that between 650,000 and 750,000 people in Finland need easy language. Easy language may be beneficial to groups such as persons with cognitive disabilities, older people and immigrants studying Finnish. The need for easy language has increased in recent years as the number of immigrants has grown, young people’s literacy has declined and the population has aged.
Visit our easy language content to learn more!
Ecc.fi/selkokieli