Kompetenzzentrum Leichte Sprache — Switzerland's Federal Plain-Language Unit for Citizens with Cognitive and Reading Disabilities

In October 2023 the Swiss Federal Council approved, as part of its 2023–2026 disability policy, the creation of a dedicated federal unit to make government information cognitively accessible. The resulting Kompetenzzentrum Leichte Sprache (KLS) began work on 5 August 2024, housed in the language service of the General Secretariat of the Federal Department of the Interior (GS-EDI).
KLS translates federal administration texts into Leichte Sprache — short sentences, one idea per line, active voice, explained vocabulary — following the rule-based standard first codified by Germany's Netzwerk Leichte Sprache in 2006, and publishes the results on admin.ch's 'Informationen in Leichter Sprache' portal. It also advises other federal offices and coordinates with parallel efforts to make Swiss parliamentary content available in Easy Language on parlament.ch.
As a body that only reached its first anniversary in August 2025, KLS has not yet published usage statistics, reach figures, or an independent evaluation of impact; its remit and legal mandate are well documented, but evidence of measured benefit to its target audience of readers with cognitive disabilities is still to come.

Read the full analysis: https://www.edi.admin.ch/de/kompetenzzentrum-leichte-sprache-kls