Improving Social Services through a Generative Translation Tool for Plain/Simple Language
Project duration:
2025-2028
Project Consortium:
University of Zurich (CH)
ZHAW (CH)
Website:
DIZH Project Website
Project Description:
The project “Simplify! Improving social services through a generative translation tool for plain/simple language: Validation of its use for social welfare clients, implementation principles and assessment of its impact on benefit uptake” is funded by the Digitalization Initiative of the Zurich Higher Education Institutions (DIZH).
It addresses non take-up of social welfare benefits due to language and administrative barriers. The project will develop an AI tool to translate complex welfare documents into plain language. And we will then validate the tool’s effectiveness, design real-world implementations and evaluate its impact on benefit uptake through field experiments.
The project is carried out as a collaboration between the team of Rainer Gabriel at ZHAW’s School of Social Work and the team of Karsten Donnay at UZH’s Department of Political Science. And we are very happy to be working with the Social Welfare Department of the Canton of Zurich, Amt für Zusatzleistungen (AZL) of the city of Zurich and Pro Senectute Canton Zurich as our practice and implementation partners.