Health and safety
Having clear documents improves our health and safety. Pamphlets on eating well help us choose what we buy at the store. People who take several medications will be more aware of the dangers of possible drug interactions when they have readable information with their pills. Janitors work with strong chemical cleaners and need to understand how to use them safely.

The Canadian Public Health Association is aware of these needs. It gives strong support for plain language and has held meetings across Canada on health and literacy.

An example of where plain language would have helped is that of a mother with a child who had an ear infection. She could not read the instructions on the bottle of medicine she had been given, so she poured the antibiotic into the child’s ear, instead of giving it by mouth.^{Footnote 1} It is important to remember that not everyone is knowledgeable about medicine.

Increased profits for companies
Ikea stays very competitive by shipping furniture in flat boxes and then giving clear instructions on how to put it together. Other stores are starting to copy this model. Without the clear instructions it gives, this business would have failed.

Think of how much money the banking industry has made for itself by installing ATMs and laying off staff. Users may not all be happy about it, but the banks certainly are. To use an ATM, people have to be given written instructions which are plain.

Royal Insurance of Canada increased its sales by 38% (from $59 million to $79 million) in 1977, when it adopted plain language in homeowners’ insurance policies.^{Footnote 2} Customers are choosing companies that write clear policies, and because they make fewer mistakes when they fill out forms, fewer staff are needed to handle the paper work.

Money saved
Plain language saves money. Big time.

Health information in easier-to-read formats not only increases safety but also saves money. For example, hospitals are able to discharge patients earlier with written instructions about their treatment.

Accessible information cuts down on preventable accidents which cost our health services.

The Alberta government now has clear evidence that plain language forms save money. At Alberta Agriculture, “with 1,034,530 forms processed a year, and savings in staff time of at least 10 minutes per form ... the annual saving to the government is an astounding $3,472,014.”^{Footnote 3}