8 E A S Y  –   P L A I N  –   ACC E S S I B L E Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe Camilla Lindholm and Ulla Vanhatalo (eds.) Lindholm and Vanhatalo (eds.) Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe Camilla Lindholm and Ulla Vanhatalo (eds.) Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe Silvia Hansen-Schirra / Christiane Maaß (eds.) Easy – Plain – Accessible Vol. 8 Camilla Lindholm and Ulla Vanhatalo (eds.) Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Cover illustration: International Easy Language Day logo by Heidi Ahlström CC-BY-NC-ND This book was funded by Kone Foundation. ISBN 978-3-7329-0771-7 ISBN E-Book 978-3-7329-9195-2 ISSN 2699-1683 DOI 10.26530/20.500.12657/52628 © Frank & Timme GmbH Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Berlin 2021. Alle Rechte vorbehalten. Das Werk einschließlich aller Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung außerhalb der engen Grenzen des Urheberrechts- gesetzes ist ohne Zustimmung des Verlags unzulässig und strafbar. 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Gedruckt auf säurefreiem, alterungsbeständigem Papier. www.frank-timme.de Table of Contents Preface .............................................................................................. 9 Camilla Lindholm, Ulla Vanhatalo Introduction .................................................................................. 11 Walburga Fröhlich, Klaus Candussi Easy Language in Austria ............................................................... 27 Vincent Vandeghinste, Adeline Müller, Thomas François, Orphée De Clercq Easy Language in Belgium ............................................................. 53 Mirjana Lenček, Jelena Kuvač Kraljević Easy Language in Croatia ............................................................... 91 Silvie Cinková, Camille Latimier Easy Language in Czechia ............................................................ 119 Leealaura Leskelä Easy Language in Finland ............................................................ 149 Christiane Maaß, Isabel Rink, Silvia Hansen-Schirra Easy Language in Germany .......................................................... 191 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 5 Péter László Horváth, Lili Ladányi Easy Language in Hungary .......................................................... 219 Sigríður Ólafsdóttir, Karítas Hrundar Pálsdóttir Easy Language in Iceland ............................................................. 253 Elisa Perego Easy Language in Italy .................................................................. 275 Gunta Anča, Irīna Meļņika Easy Language in Latvia ............................................................... 305 Eglė Šumskienė, Miglė Baltrūnaitė Easy Language in Lithuania ......................................................... 327 Xavier Moonen Easy Language in the Netherlands ............................................... 345 Hanna Bovim Bugge, Gerd Berget, Eivor Vindenes Easy Language in Norway ............................................................ 371 Agnieszka Przybyła-Wilkin Easy Language in Poland.............................................................. 401 Sandra Marques Easy Language in Portugal ............................................................. 413 6 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Arto Mustajoki, Zhanna Mihienko, Natalia Nechaeva, Emma Kairova, Anna Dmitrieva Easy Language in Russia .............................................................. 439 Tatjana Knapp, Dragica Haramija Easy Language in Slovenia ........................................................... 467 Óscar García Muñoz, Anna Matamala Easy Language in Spain ................................................................ 493 Ulla Bohman Easy Language in Sweden ............................................................. 527 Maria O’Donnell, Maria Ramdén Addition to Easy Language in Sweden ......................................... 569 Anne Parpan-Blaser, Simone Girard-Groeber, Gabriela Antener, Christina Arn, Rita Baumann, Alexandra Caplazi, Luisa Carrer, Cindy Diacquenod, Annette Lichtenauer, Andrea Sterchi Easy Language in Switzerland ...................................................... 573 Deborah Chinn, Susan Buell Easy Language in the UK ............................................................. 623 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 7 Preface This is a book about both the past and the present of Easy Language in Europe. It takes its reader on a tour of Europe, opening windows and peeking into dif- ferent societies, and reveals how Easy Language and accessible communication are realized in a wide variety of ways. This book is targeted at university students, experts or anyone with a de- sire to gain in-depth knowledge about Easy Language practice and research in European countries. It constitutes the first national overview of Easy Lan- guage in many countries, and raises awareness of Easy Language and accessible communication in policymaking at the local level. Written in an academic yet interesting and understandable style, this handbook aims to find a wide audience all over Europe 1. The chapters of this book were written during the dark times of COVID-19 in Europe. The pandemic has had a devastating impact on the European econ- omy and its institutions, cultural activities, and inhabitants. It has created the feeling of an uncontrollable threat among the inhabitants of Europe, including the contributors to this volume. However, we have come to think that this might be a beneficial experience for those of us who work with groups of vul- nerable people. Walking in fog, feeling insecure, needing more information – hasn’t this been the everyday reality of many people needing Easy Language for a long time even before coronavirus? This book wanted to be written. The project idea was received with great enthusiasm when presented at the EASIT conference in Hildesheim in Febru- ary 2020. The participants wanted to read this book. They wanted to write this book. Despite the corona pandemic closing the borders between countries in Europe, fortunately we have been able to stay in touch using digital devices. Involving more than fifty authors from 21 countries, this handbook has been 1 An Easy Language version of this handbook is under consideration, to make this information also accessible to the end users of Easy Language. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 9 a laborious yet enjoyable project. We wish to thank all the authors for their commitment, patience and co-operativeness. Special thanks also go to our excellent research assistant Iina Kärkkäinen, our careful language editor Alice Lehtinen, and our generous financier the Kone Foundation. Helsinki, June 2021, Camilla Lindholm and Ulla Vanhatalo 10 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Camilla Lindholm, Ulla Vanhatalo Introduction The purpose of the present Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe is to shed light on Easy Language both as a language form with specific features and as a phenomenon used to fulfil certain functions in society. Until recently, the field of Easy Language has consisted of national initiatives but has lacked literature providing a more general overview of the concept. Until very recent years, the field has had no established research tradition. This volume is the first attempt to provide an overview of Easy Language in Europe. The various contributors provide detailed descriptions of Easy Language in their own European coun- tries. The book starts with an introduction to Easy Language, briefly discuss- ing some of its general conditions, then highlighting some important aspects specifically related to research and terminology. 1 The Easy Language concept The expression Easy Language is more of an umbrella term for different lan- guage varieties than the name for one uniform concept. It refers to modified forms of standard languages, which aim to facilitate reading and language comprehension, resulting in, for example, Easy Slovenian, Easy Spanish, Easy French, or Easy Latvian. Easy Languages have been adapted in terms of content, vocabulary and structure to make them more readable and comprehensible. They are aimed at people who find it difficult to understand standard language. Although the term Easy Language usually refers to various kinds of texts, spo- ken interactions can also be based on its principles. The term easy to read and understand 1 is used by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with 1 This handbook favours the term Easy Language, see more in the section on terminology. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 11 Camilla Lindholm, Ulla Vanhatalo Disabilities (CRPD) in conjunction with inclusion and accessibility, and has equivalents in many European countries and languages (e.g., Leichte Sprache Germ., selkokieli Finn., lättläst Swe., Leitura Fácil Pt.). Guidelines for inter- national Easy Language (or easy-to-read) practices are provided by Inclusion Europe (IE 2009) and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA 1997, 2010). Easy Language is a form of accommo- dated speech or text: people being able (and willing) to adapt their speech to the reception capacity of the recipient. At the time of writing, that is, 2021, a commonly agreed, official definition of Easy Language has yet to be established. 2 Easy Language in European society Modern societies are completely based on linguistic constructions. Everything is built by language: legislation, values, norms, business, religion, education, science, politics, etc. Unlike in the early twilight of European history, the cur- rent view is that all people, despite their limitations, have an equal right to information, inclusion, and social participation. According to the latest PIAAC results, between 4.9% and 27.7% of adults across the countries involved in the study have only the lowest levels of literacy proficiency (OECD Skills Outlook 2013: 23). Based on these results, we can reason that a great number of people need Easy Language in their everyday lives, for example, when interacting with authorities. Easy Language removes obstacles in the same way as a wheelchair ramp built next to stairs. In many countries, Easy Language has been a very practi- cal, down-to-earth project: when certain people have not been able to under- stand certain information, others have modified and simplified it. This kind of humane activity in the interaction between people arises from the basis of general ethical standards and values. The goal of Easy Language is to enable participation and to prevent exclusion (Maaß & Rink 2019). Easy Language is closely tied to accessible communication (UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPD, 2006; The EU Accessibility Directive 2016/2102; Perego 2020). The ratification of the CRPD has been of great importance for the development of Easy Language in many countries. 12 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Introduction When communication is accessible, it is easy to find and perceive, and it is related to the previous knowledge of the recipients, which may have various special communication needs linked to, for example, sensory impairment, low education, illness or migration (Maaß 2019). Easy Language is one tool among others, such as braille, sign language or audiodescription: it lowers the barriers to and makes communication accessible. The first signs of actual explicit usage of Easy Language vary. In Sweden, for example, the first documented signs of lättläst date back to the 1960s. Many Easy Language activities were launched exceptionally early. Finland and Nor- way followed slightly later, and the Nordic countries soon co-operated in the development of easy-to-read newspapers. The Nordic countries shared relative- ly flexible perceptions of the principles and purpose of Easy Language, and the concept itself was practised by organizations and activists. The CRPD (2006) has had a great influence on Easy Language-related measures in many countries. The concept of Leichte Sprache, which began in Germany in the early 2010s, was more systematic and structured than Easy Language in the Nordic countries. The concept of Leitura Fácil was presented to Portuguese stakeholders in 2009, and in 2010, the easy-to-read version of the CRPD had an impact on the political and decision-making level, acting as a trigger to the need for accessible information. The Easy Italian version of the CRPD traces back to 2011. One of the most important milestones for Easy Language was the first Easy Read standard, addressing the creation, adapta- tion and validation of Easy Read documents, launched in Spain in April 2018 (UNE 2018). The Act on the Provision of Digital Services (2019) has forced all the Mem- ber States of the EU to examine the accessibility of online services run by public providers. Although the text of the Act does not explicitly mention accessibility of language, let alone Easy Language, linguistic accessibility is included in the spirit of the law: digital accessibility is important, but it does not really help if difficult language remains a barrier. Although various forms of international co-operation related to Easy Lan- guage have been in place for decades (e.g., the Easy-to-Read network, founded in Barcelona 2006 and the Inclusion Europe Pathways projects), European-wide co-operation has only really intensified in recent years. This co-operation has © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 13 Camilla Lindholm, Ulla Vanhatalo been accelerated by the growth of Easy Language research in particular. Open research events in recent years (e.g., EASIT 2 events, conferences organized by Hildesheim and Mainz researchers, Klaara conferences) have rapidly brought together not only researchers from different countries but also other actors. A recent example of international co-operation is the International Easy Lan- guage Day, which was celebrated for the first time on May 28th 2020. This handbook is also one result of vigorous European co-operation. 3 Who needs Easy Language? The practices in European countries may differ in terms of whom Easy Lan- guage is aimed towards, i.e., who is considered the target audience of Easy Lan- guage. As a rule, people with clear cognitive impairments (e.g., developmental disabilities, memory disorders) are believed to benefit from Easy Language. In many countries, people with various learning disabilities, neurocognitive disorders (e.g., ADHD, autism spectrum disorders) or functional illiteracy are also included. Opinions as to whether second language speakers benefit from Easy Language vary slightly. In some countries, immigrants are considered a major target group of Easy Language, while in other countries, immigrants are expected, by default, to learn the common standard language with no ‘Easy Language step’. Children with normal language learning abilities are excluded from Easy Language target groups as a rule, but Easy Language material may be recommended on some occasions, such as in custody proceeding documents, medical records and treatment instructions. In some countries such as Austria, situational variation (fatigue, illness, accidents) is considered to create a need for Easy Language among adults with normal language skills. In some cases, Easy Language has also supplanted the standard language as a language format for the general public. When the Satakunta Hospital District in Finland introduced Easy Language patient instructions, no one wanted to use the standard language patient instructions anymore. One answer to the 2 Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training (EASIT) is an EU-funded research project, led by Anna Matamala. 14 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Introduction question of who the Easy Language target groups are is: everyone. Each in- dividual should have the right to choose whether they want information in Easy Language or in standard language. It is important to ensure that Easy Language is a publicly available, neutral and non-stigmatized option for all public communication in society. In the spirit of the CRPD, the target groups of Easy Language have, and should have, an important role in developing Easy Language. 4 Easy Language research needs international collaboration Easy Language is an example of a real-life phenomenon that has not yet been tamed by research methods. As in many places, it has been born on the grass- roots level, the idea of making complex language simpler has resulted in count- less variations. Applied to both written texts and oral speech, for people with various backgrounds and often by practitioners other than linguists, outcomes labelled Easy Language or something similar may consist of a great variety of linguistic elements. In most countries, systematic research on Easy Language is only in its early stages, trying to determine what is already being done, and how it could possibly be done better. Even though many countries provide guidelines for easy writing and Plain Language, until the mid-2010s, only a few studies provided support for these guidelines (Wengelin 2015). The few studies in the field compare reading com- prehension of texts in standard language and texts in Easy Language, particu- larly on websites (Karreman et al. 2007; Fajardo et al. 2014; Schmutz et al. 2019). Wengelin (2015) notes that many of the research results that form the basis for writing guidelines are outdated. Thus, there is an apparent lack of research on Easy Language and Plain Language that takes a linguistic point of departure. A similar situation can be seen in related fields: in their overview of accessible information for individuals with intellectual disabilities, Chinn & Homeyard (2016) noted that the articles they reviewed demonstrated a limited awareness of each other. Even studies that dealt with related issues contained no references to each other, which made it difficult for the researchers to com- prehend how later work was based on earlier work. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 15 Camilla Lindholm, Ulla Vanhatalo Very recent years have witnessed an increasing body of research, particu- larly in the German-speaking area of Central Europe (cf. Bredel & Maaß 2016; Bock; Fix & Lange 2017; Maaß & Rink 2019; Bock 2019; Parpan-Blaser et al. 2018; Parpan-Blaser et al. 2019). The most prominent cases in the field of Easy Language research in the late 2010s include the research and educational programmes at the Forschungsstelle Leichte Sprache (led by Christiane Maaß, University of Hildesheim, Germany), the Simply complex – Easy Language project (led by Silvia Hansen-Schirra, Arne Nagels and Walter Bisang, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany), the Leichte Sprache im Arbeitsleben – LeiSA project (led by Bettina Bock, University of Leipzig, Germany), and Einfach leicht verständlich (led by Anne Parpan-Blaser and Gabriela Antener, University of Applied Sciences and Arts North-western Switzerland). Of spe- cial importance is the EU-funded EASIT project (Easy Access for Social Inclu- sion Training), which involves five countries (Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden) and is led by Anna Matamala (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Catalonia). The first international Klaara conference on research on Easy Lan- guage was held in Helsinki in the autumn of 2019, and the second conference was scheduled for August 2020, in Olten, Switzerland, but has been postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Encouraging news constantly comes from different countries regarding new courses, PhD grants, special issues in journals, research projects, and events related to Easy Language at universities and universities of applied sciences. International collaboration is needed, especially in research. As pointed out by, for example, Nietzio et al. (2014: 347–348), Easy Language guidelines include both language-independent rules, such as ‘avoid all abbreviations’ and ‘always start a new sentence on a new line’, and language-specific rules, which must be specifically modified for each language. For example, in Finnish or Hungarian, morphological features need to be stressed to a greater extent than in many other European languages, because they are agglutinative languages, using inflectional suffixes to indicate grammatical functions. However, even though specific languages may differ as research objects, we need common methods and theoretical views: as the research tradition is only just taking shape, discussion is desperately needed in this area, and researchers must en- gage in close collaboration to move research in this field forward. In order 16 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Introduction to establish a new research tradition, we also need tools such as publication channels, conference series, joint EU research projects and PhD training. We hope that recent activities such as the Easy-Plain-Accessible book series (ed- ited by Christiane Maaß and Silvia Hansen-Schirra, Frank & Timme) and the Klaara conference series (changing hosting organizations) will continue and help the field emerge. Research related to Easy Language is needed not only in linguistics but in many other disciplines. Easy Language is clearly a multidisciplinary research subject, and is interesting for researchers of, for example, health sciences, so- ciology, language technology, economics, and service design. Easy Language relates to many acute research themes such as language and well-being, health information and health literacy. How are Easy Language texts used by authori- ties? What kinds of aspects are related to the actual use of Easy Language texts in everyday literacy? Could so-called reading representatives, who help people read easy-to-read materials provide opportunities for everyone to be able enjoy literature and live as independent a life as possible? How much do problems caused by difficult language cost society each year? What kinds of attitudes are associated with Easy Language? Does Easy Language stigmatize target groups? Could machine translation help simplify texts? 5 Terminological issues The grassroots activities and practical usage have naturally led to a great vari- ety of terminology in both local languages and translations into English and other languages, as discussed by, for example, Christiane Maaß (2020: 50–56) and Elisa Perego (2020: 3–32). Given that Easy Language is also a multidis- ciplinary subject, it is inevitable that terminological variation occurs in re- search in national and international contexts. Even the phenomenon itself has had several terminological candidates: Easy Language, easy-to-read language, easy-to-understand language, easy read, easy-read, clear language, simplified language or simple language. Although each potential term may have great reasoning behind it, the most important issue is that actors in different coun- tries and various fields can find each other and are aware of what has been © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 17 Camilla Lindholm, Ulla Vanhatalo done. The faster the terminology is harmonized or at least explicated, the faster the research-based knowledge can spread across disciplinary and linguistic boundaries and improve Easy Language practices. Positive signs are in the air, as Easy Language-related terminology is to be included in The Dictionary of Accessible Communication (Hansen-Schirra et al. forthcoming). Because the notion of Easy Language is related to and often mistaken for another frequently used concept – Plain Language – we must provide a brief overview of how these phenomena differ. The notion of Plain Language re- fers to communication that is designed to ensure the audience understands the message as quickly and as easily as possible (Cutts 1995). The modern Plain Language movement started in the 1970s and presented guidelines for making public documents easier to understand (Mazur 2000: 205). The Plain Language movement is closely attached to public writing, particularly to fa- cilitating the understanding of legal writing. Today, Plain Language is a global activity, involving organizations, officials, conferences and practitioners in tens of countries (PLAIN 2021). Whereas Plain Language is related to institution- al documents, and aims to simplify legal language for non-professionals, the notion of Easy Language refers to making various texts or speech accessible to people who have difficulties reading and understanding standard language. As a language form, Easy Language is usually more simplified than Plain Language. To date, very few research-based comparisons have been made of the Plain Language and Easy Language forms (see Gutermuth 2020), but in general, the easy version includes additional writing guidelines, such as the rule that a new sentence should always start on a new line (Nietzio et al. 2014: 347). 18 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Introduction Standard language Plain Language Easy Language Purpose Provides a unified Aims for wording, Aims for maximal means for com- structure, and comprehension of munication and an design so clear that texts and equality institutionalized the intended audi- of interaction norm which can be ence can easily find used in e.g., official what they need, documents or mass understand what media; a prestige they find, and use variety of language that information Target audi- Everyone, some- Everyone People with ence times ‘from experts various linguistic to experts’ limitations (e.g., neuro-biological reasons, immigrant background, low literacy) Level of Naturally complex, Seeks simple words, Deliberately and complexity sometimes very structures, and con- often heavily sim- complex structions, avoids plified at all levels: jargon content, grammar, lexicon Usage area Public commu- Legal or adminis- All purposes: nication, jargons, trative texts, official informative texts, written text and documents fiction and non-fic- oral speech tion literature, news texts, also oral communication Legal status Primary position as In many countries, No legal status in an official language, laws mandate that most countries, often prescribed public agencies use Germany an excep- by law Plain Language to tion increase access to services © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 19 Camilla Lindholm, Ulla Vanhatalo Standard language Plain Language Easy Language Linguistic It is questionable Not spoken/written Not spoken/written status whether standard as a native tongue as a native tongue language can be spoken/written as a native tongue Producers Whole population Mainly authorities, The more skilled companies, organi- party in any asym- zations metric communica- tion situation Table 1: Comparison of approximate characteristics of codified standard language (Crystal 2011), Plain Language (PLAIN 2021) and Easy Language. Plain Language targets as large an au- dience as possible through clarity and avoiding overly technical language. Easy Language shares these aspects but takes its point of departure from the individual and aims to meet the various special needs of individual users. As Easy Language practices and the definitions of the concepts may vary from one country to another, this comparison should be taken as indicative only. Terminology is often tied to methodological or theoretical approaches, or even philosophical or ideological background factors, and terms may vary from one field of research to another. This is a common issue in many fields, and has to be taken seriously, especially with multidisciplinary topics such as Easy Language. In addition to the key term Easy Language itself, a few other important terms also need to be agreed upon. In some cases, the definition is more or less com- monly agreed on, but the term itself is unstable: What should we call the pro- cess of making standard language Easy Language – modifying, (intralanguage) translating, or adapting? Do we set recommendations, instructions, guidelines, rules or standards for Easy Language? Who is Easy Language for – target groups, target audiences, user groups, end users, recipients, or beneficiaries? Naming the specific groups of people is even more challenging: is Easy Language for people with cognitive disabilities, special linguistic needs, cognitive impairments, or language disorders? Is it targeted towards people with immigrant backgrounds or second language learners? Sometimes it is the translation between two or more languages that highlights the terminological issue: some languages may have traditional terminology that does not translate well into other languages. Some terminological questions grow far beyond the scope of Easy Language 20 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Introduction yet play an essential role in how we handle and present it (e.g., autism spectrum disorders vs autism spectrum condition). In this phase, we are creating the base for large-scale research on Easy Language. This is also the time for identifying terminological questions and directing the terminological discussion, even though experience has shown that reaching a consensus might be challenging. Actors in the field have ex- tensive experience of certain terms, and researchers usually want to decide for themselves what terms to use. Accepting diversity is, on the other hand, a reasonable strategy, because it is not always possible to know in advance what term would be the best to use 3. 6 The vision and organization of this volume This handbook describes the principles and practices of Easy Language in Eu- rope in 2020 and before. Each chapter follows essentially the same structure. The chapters take their point of departure from the history of Easy Language in the particular country. The historical background is followed by an overview of the current situation of Easy Language, dealing with topics such as termi- nological definitions, legal status, and stakeholders. Target groups, guidelines, and practical outcomes are discussed under their own headings. Education and research are presented together, and each chapter contains a final section in which the authors reflect on the future perspectives related to Easy Language in their country. The Appendices of each chapter present sample texts illus- trating the Easy Language guidelines of the different countries. Some topics, such as terminology or target groups, are discussed on a general level here in the introduction and country-wise in the chapters. 3 In Finland, researchers from various fields develop terminology in collaboration with the Helsinki Term Bank for the Arts and Sciences (HTB 2021). HTB is a multidisciplinary project that aims to gather a permanent terminological database for various fields of research, using an open collaborative website. The project is affiliated with the Finnish Language Resource Consortium FIN-CLARIN, and through this affiliation, has a connection with the European infrastructure ESFRI. Although HTB is mainly intended for the Finnish research community, it welcomes researchers from all countries and language areas, providing a platform for per- manent terminology work. Finnish linguists have already started working with Easy Language terminology in HTB, and the field is open to terms and terminological ponderings from other languages. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 21 Camilla Lindholm, Ulla Vanhatalo The chapters of the book vary in length and, to some extent, in content emphasis. The authors of the book chapters have highlighted different themes. For example, although the connections between Easy Language and Plain Lan- guage emerge strongly in some countries, the limited presentation of Plain Lan- guage in some other chapters does not necessarily mean that the phenomenon itself does not have a strong position in that country. Although the structure of the chapters is roughly the same, the different voices of the authors can be heard in the texts, characterizing and enriching the regional originalities and histories of each country. The chapters of this book present some opposing views and practices, hopefully leading to new research settings. The reader may also notice some imbalance in how research on Easy Language is presented and discussed – this is not necessarily a matter of imbalanced articles, but of the different stages of research in the different countries. As editors, we have strived to offer the most consistent reading experience possible, while respecting and valuing the expertise and views of the authors. This handbook also enables comparison among different countries. As the editors of this book, we hope that this comparison will encourage rather than discourage. Although Easy Languages have taken many great steps in countries all over Europe, no country can declare that the process is complete. In some countries, Easy Language really is in its initial stages. However, all countries presented in this volume have experiences to share with others. This Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe is the first attempt to study the position of easy and accessible language in Europe, and despite the best efforts to reach actors and researchers in all the European countries, unfortunately, this first volume does not present them all. Hopefully, when it is time for the second volume, Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe 2030, this will be possible. 7 Future perspectives: Easy Language all over the world Texts change the world. This handbook paints a picture of today’s Europe from a particular perspective. Seeing leads to thoughts and actions. This handbook is intended to be a text that will cause changes not only in Europe but every- where. Easy Language can bring the luxury of understanding to everyone but is 22 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Introduction essential for those for whom standard language is not an option. The majority of the work being done on Easy Languages in Europe will be applicable to and beneficial for a great number of countries with even larger populations and special linguistic needs. Hopefully, awareness of the actions of different coun- tries will lead to multifaceted co-operation. It is quite certain that we in Europe can learn a great deal from what has been done for accessible communication in the world’s multilingual communities. In this book, we try to give a neutral description of what has happened so far, but our perspective may change in the future. Most importantly, things are moving. We can’t always go fast; we can’t always go directly forward. Societies and situations are different, and a variety of forces and coincidences affect the course of Easy Language. We need patience and perseverance, but also crea- tivity and courage. ‘I don’t have goals, I have a direction’, said Professor Anna Matamala, head of the EASIT project, in autumn 2019. This is a good motto for us all. Our concrete Easy Language goals may change as situations, funding and opportunities change. But our direction remains clear: little by little, we are building a world in which language is easy and communication is accessible. Bionotes Camilla Lindholm is a professor in Nordic languages at Tampere University. Her main research areas are interaction in institutional settings and asymmet- ric interaction involving participants with communication impairments. She takes a special interest in applying her research findings in dialogue with so- ciety. Among her recent research projects are ‘Easy (Finland) Swedish’ (2021– 2023), funded by The Society of Swedish Literature in Finland. Contact: camilla. lindholm@tuni.fi Ulla Vanhatalo is a docent in general linguistics at the University of Helsinki. Her research interests are lexical semantic methodology and Easy Languag- es. Vanhatalo has worked with Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) and popularized lexical semantics. Her mission is to reduce language-related mis- understandings and help people communicate more effectively in everyday © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 23 Camilla Lindholm, Ulla Vanhatalo life. She is leader of the ‘At the Core of Easy Language’ (2020–2022) research project, funded by the Kone Foundation. Contact: ulla.vanhatalo@helsinki.fi Acknowledgements We wish to thank the book authors for their valuable ideas and suggestions for this introduction. Special thanks go to Silvia Hansen-Schirra, Iina Kärkkäinen, Leealaura Leskelä, Christiane Maaß, Arto Mustajoki, Anne Parpan-Blaser, and Elisa Perego for their especially insightful and important comments. References Bock, Bettina M. “Leichte Sprache”. Kein Regelwerk. Sprachwissenschaftliche Ergeb- nisse und Praxisempfehlungen aus dem LeiSA-Projekt [Easy-to-read German. No rulebook. Linguistic results and practical recommendations from the LeiSA pro- ject]. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2019. Print. Bock, Bettina M.; Fix, Ulla, and Daisy Lange. “Leichte Sprache” im Spiegel the- oretischer und angewandter Forschung [“Easy Language” in the light of theoretical and applied research]. Berlin: Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur, 2017. Print. Bredel, Ursula, and Christiane Maaß. Leichte Sprache. Theoretische Grundla- gen, Orientierung für die Praxis [Easy Language. Theoretical foundations. Guidan- ce for practitioners]. Berlin: Dudenverlag, 2016. Print. Chinn, Deborah, and Claire Homeyard. “Easy read and accessible informati- on for people with intellectual disabilities: Is it worth it? A meta-narrative lite- rature review.” Health Expectations 20.6 (2016). Web. 17 March 2021. . Crystal, David. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. 6th edition. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2011. Print. The EU Accessibility Directive 2016/2102. Web. 17 March 2021. . Fröhlich, Walburga, and Klaus Candussi. Leicht Lesen. Der Schlüssel zur Welt [Easy Reading. The key to the world]. Wien: Böhlau, 2015. Print. Gutermuth, Silke. Leichte Sprache für alle? Eine zielgruppenorientierte Rezepti- onsstudie zu Leichter und Einfacher Sprache [One for all? A target group-oriented reception study on Easy Language and Plain Language]. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2020. Print. 24 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Introduction Hansen-Schirra, Silvia; Abels, Katja; Signer, Sarah, and Christiane Maaß. The Dictionary of Accessible Communication. Berlin: Frank & Timme, forthcoming. HTB (The Helsinki Term Bank for the Arts and Sciences). Web. 25 February 2021. . IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions). Guidelines for Easy-to-Read Materials. Ed. Bror Tronbacke. The Hague: IFLA Headquarters, 1997. Print. IFLA Professional Reports 54. IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions). Guidelines for easy-to-read materials. Revision by Misako Nomura, Gyda Skat Nielsen, and Bror Tronbacke. The Hague: IFLA Headquarters, 2010. Print. IFLA Professional Reports 120. Also available at . IE (Inclusion Europe). Information for all. European guidelines for making information easy to read and understand for all. 2009. Web. 25 February 2021. . Maaß, Christiane. “Easy Language and beyond: How to maximize the accessibility of communication.” Invited Plenary Speech at the Klaara 2019 Conference on Ea- sy-to-Read Language Research. Helsinki, Finland, 19–20 September 2019. Web. 17 March 2021. . Maaß, Christiane. Easy Language – Plain Language – Easy Language Plus. Balan- cing Comprehensibility and Acceptability. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2020. Print. Also available at . Maaß, Christiane, and Isabel Rink. Handbuch Barrierefreie Kommunikation. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2019. Print. Nietzio, Annika; Naber, Daniel, and Christian Buhler. “Towards Techniques for Easy-to-Read Web Content.” Procedia Computer Science 27 (2014): 343–349. Web. 17 March 2021. . OECD. Skills Outlook: First Results from the Survey of Adult Skills. Paris: OECD Pub- lishing, 2013. Web. 25 February 2021. . Parpan-Blaser, Anne; Girard-Groeber, Simone; von Fellenberg, Monika; Lichtenauer, Annette, and Gabriela Antener. “Behördenkommunikati- on leicht verständlich und inhaltlich korrekt.” [Communication with the authori- ties easy to understand and correct in content]. Soziale Sicherheit 3 (2019): 25–30. Print. Parpan-Blaser, Anne; von Fellenberg, Monika; Girard, Simone; Licht- enauer, Annette, and Gabriela Antener. “Potenziale Leichter Sprache zur Partizipation Betroffener im Verfahren auf Anordnung einer erwachsenenschutz- rechtlichen Massnahme.” [Potentials of Easy Language for the participation of af- fected persons in the procedure for issuing an adult protection measure]. Schwei- zerische Zeitschrift für Kindes- und Erwachsenenschutz 4 (2018): 272–292. Print. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 25 Camilla Lindholm, Ulla Vanhatalo Perego, Elisa. Accessible communication: A cross-country journey. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2020. Print. PLAIN 2021. Plain Language Association International. Web. 25 February 2021. . UNE. Norma española experimental UNE 153101 EX. Lectura fácil. Pautas y recomen- daciones para la elaboración de documentos [Spanish experimental standard UNE 153101 EX. Easy Read. Guidelines and recommendation for the elaboration of documents]. Madrid: UNE, Asociación Española de Normalización, 2018. Print. 26 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Walburga Fröhlich, Klaus Candussi Easy Language in Austria 1 1 Introduction With a population of nearly nine million inhabitants, Austria is one of the smaller German-speaking countries. The status of Austrian German has long been debated. Currently, the consensus seems to be that Austrian German, as it is spoken and written in Austria, is a national standard variety of the German language. Austrian German differs from German and Swiss German not only in its vocabulary and pronunciation, but also in its grammatical features. The Duden, the main German dictionary, identifies 0.4% of all German words as Austrian German. In addition to German, three other languages are permitted as official lan- guages in some Austrian regions: Hungarian, Slovenian and Croatian. Others that have the status of ‘recognized minority languages’ are: Romani, Slovak, Czech and Austrian Sign Language. Of the people living in Austria, 16.7% are considered foreigners, i.e., they do not have Austrian citizenship, and 23.7% have an immigrant background (Statista 2021). As the term Behinderung (disability) lacks a generally applicable definition, the figures can be obtained for the proportion of people with disabilities are approximations. Depending on the definition, these mostly range between 10% and 15%. Part of this group are people who earlier terminology described as geistig behindert (mentally retarded). The representatives of this group perceive this term as discriminatory and choose to be addressed as Menschen mit Lern- schwierigkeiten (people with learning difficulties) (e.g., Erlinger 2004). These 1 In accordance with the title of this book, this article also uses the term Easy Language. Howev- er, it is important to note that the term Easy Language is not used in Austria. Even the German translation of Leichte Sprache only partially fits this term. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 27 Walburga Fröhlich, Klaus Candussi people and their service organizations were among the driving forces behind the establishment of Easy Language. Since Easy Language is no longer seen as a disability issue only, but as a mainstream topic. Focus on the illiteracy figures of the entire population is growing in German-speaking countries. The PIAAC Study (Statistik Austria 2013) in the framework of OECD research showed that the situation is nearly the same in Austria and Germany and that both countries are near the OECD average. From a practical point of view, one main outcome of the study can be summarized like this: Information from public authorities is usually pro- vided at a language level that almost half of the population does not have the appropriate skills to access. In 2018, the LevelOne study of the University of Hamburg (Grotlüschen et al. 2019) showed a similar, even more worrying finding. On a societal level, these scientific results reveal a massive problem. Every other person living in Austria and Germany is unable to understand common information from au- thorities, companies and quality media without help from others. This affects not only the recipients but also the senders of the information, and indirectly affects social cohesion. 2 Historical perspectives Looking back at the roots of comprehensible information in our country we can find an early approach to the issue during the Austro-Hungarian monar- chy (18th century) under the regency of Maria Theresia. She is said to have had a buta ember (Hungarian for ‘simple man’) in the juridical system as a proof-reader of legal regulations. Laws, so the legend (of which there is no suf- ficient scientific proof) tells, needed the simple man’s approval of understand- ing in order to become valid. Even if this is not completely true, it is a good description of the functional intention of Easy Language in the 21st century. The history of Easy Language in the German-speaking world is one of the most impressive examples of empowerment movements bringing about social change. For it was mentally retarded people – at that time the old term was still often used – who initiated this development, the effects of which are already 28 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Austria immense. In the case of Austria, this can be dated exactly: in a joint EU project, the self-advocates of People First London challenged the project co-ordinator by saying that they would only sign the partner contract if it was translated into a form that they could understand. In 2000, this project gave rise to an organization called atempo, based in Graz/Austria. In the same year, atempo started producing information specifically for the target group of people with learning disabilities under the brand name capito 2. This work was based on guidelines for easy-to-read information compiled by Inclusion Europe in 1998 in a 20-page brochure (Inclusion Europe 2021a). Following the Swedish model lättläst (easy to read), capito calls its products Leicht Lesen (easy to read) texts. In 2008, again under the leadership of Inclusion Europe, representatives from nine countries came together for the Pathways 1 project (Inclusion Eu- rope 2021b) which aimed to turn the 1998 guidelines into a common Euro- pean set of rules. The Büro für Leichte Sprache (Office for Easy Language) (Straßmann 2014), founded by Lebenshilfe Bremen in 2004, represented the North German region, and atempo/capito the South German and Austrian region. Both were founders of the Netzwerk Leichte Sprache (Network Easy Language) in 2006, which has become one of the most important lobbying organizations in Germany in addition to the Mensch zuerst (People First) or- ganization in Kassel and the nationwide Lebenshilfe association. The context of Easy Language in Austria was specific in that the lobbying for the topic and the provision of the service, i.e., the business of language simplification itself, were relatively clearly separate activities. Whereas inter- est groups such as various self-representation and Lebenshilfe groups mainly concentrated on fighting for the cause and representing their interests and demands, independent of the business, the capito network began to develop barrier-free information design as a professional service with quality standards (capito 2021a) for customers in the market. 2 capito is Italian, meaning ‘I’ve understood!’. In Austrian German this word is used as an excla- mation of understanding. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 29 Walburga Fröhlich, Klaus Candussi 3 Current situation In 2020, the Deutsches Institut für Normung (German Institute for Standard- ization, DIN) introduced a work group to clarify the terms and criteria for German Easy Language. Representatives of Austria (from the capito partner network) are also involved in this ongoing process. 3.1 Definitions ‘We are separated by a common language’. It is not certain who actually said this. Some attribute it to George Bernhard Shaw, others to Oscar Wilde, and in German-speaking countries it is believed to have been said by Karl Kraus. Whomever the quote comes from, one insight is certain: the use of the same terms can sometimes feign a match where actually there is none. As a Germanicism, Leichte Sprache (Easy Language) is also used in Austria, but it stands alongside other terms such as Leicht Lesen (easy to read language), leicht verständliche Sprache (easy to understand language) or occasionally also Klarsprache (Clear Language). As an Anglicism, Easy Language has so far only been used as the product label of the easily understandable news of the nation- al press agency and is therefore only relevant with regard to marketing. The common term Leichte Sprache (Easy Language) is in everyday use, mainly in the target group of people with learning difficulties and disabilities. Somehow it is a paradox, because being a metaphor, strictly speaking it does not follow the common rules for Easy Language itself. In summary, there is great confusion regarding these terms in the Ger- man-speaking world and little clarity as to how they should be clearly distin- guished. Therefore, since 2014, capito has used the same categorization as that of the A1, A2 and B1 language levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). This approach was chosen so as not to label textual design as a special or specific language for people with disabilities and thus cause new segregation of this target group in the field of language. In addition, all attempts to label language levels within Leichter Sprache (Easy Language) – such as einfache Sprache (Simple Language), Klarsprache (Clear Language), bürgerfreundliche Sprache (Citicenfriendly Language) – have faced 30 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Austria two problems: they fail to provide a precise classification for everyday use, and they do not satisfy scientific differentiation. Easy Language, according to Bettina Bock (2015: 68), is ‘zweifelsohne durch eine dominate Funktion charakterisiert’ (undoubtedly characterized by a dom- inant function), which is to convey the information content of complex tests. It is thus defined by its special quality and task of conveying content. To be successful, this communication of information must be addressee oriented. Information barriers arise on four different levels: perception, recognition, previous experience, and previous knowledge (Fröhlich 2017). Based on these findings, atempo began to develop the capito Stufenmodell (capito step-by-step model) in 2012. This is a graduated system, based on the mainstream system of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. This model should also help tackle the problem of the confusing proliferation of terms in, at least the German-speaking, world of Easy Language. In daily practice, hardly anyone can clearly define what actually distinguishes einfache Sprache (Simple Language) from leichte Sprache (Easy Language), or both of these from Klarsprache (Clear Language). However, all these terms are united by the fact that they somehow indicate the exclusion of people from the world of common language. For how the step-by-step approach impacts on the criteria, delivery and quality assurance of Easy Language, see Section 5. 3.2 Societal and legal context Austria ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) quite early, in 2008, and thus formally implemented it in the Austrian legislation. The practical effect of the CRPD does not arise primarily because it is a legal document; it arises through the national action plans related to it and through the associated monitoring process. These create a certain pressure on the authorities and institutions close to the authorities. An obligation to provide easily understandable information can be deduct- ed from the E-Government Gesetz (E-GovG) of 2004 (revised 2016) and the Bundes-Behinderten-Gleichstellungs-Gesetz (BGStG, Federal Equality Law) of 2006, neither of which formulate any distinct regulations, but provide the ‘best © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 31 Walburga Fröhlich, Klaus Candussi possible comprehensibility of websites’ or a kind of service that enables ‘equal participation’ for everybody. In legal practice, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Justice and some Regional Governments established a procedure to publish an Easy Language version of laws that directly affect the lives of people with disabilities and people related to them (Justiz 2021). 3.3 Stakeholders As described in Section 2, Easy Language was initially mainly pushed forward by self-advocacy associations and service organizations in the field of disa- bility. It might be a speciality of German-speaking countries (mainly Austria and Germany) that at quite an early stage, in addition to benefiting lobbying activities, the provision of Easy Language texts was also seen as an opportunity for (social) businesses. This is probably why the current situation in Austria (and Germany), despite many similarities, differs from that in other countries in several respects. In contrast to some actors in the field of disability, who have worked on Easy Language as a side-line activity and mostly depended on selective funding from public authorities for individual projects, the aim of social business actors was to build up a market for their services and products in order to consistently and sustainably refine their methodology, increase their reach and, on a small scale, also conduct or commission research. In Austria, this role fell to capito and its network partners alone for many years, until more recent competitors also established themselves on the market (see also previous section). Other social organizations in Austria (and later in Germany and Switzer- land) learned the capito method and joined atempo to form a social franchise network. Through this long-term and co-ordinated network, the necessary personnel and financial stability were established to advance methodological development and to develop a cross-organizational quality standard and bring it to external certification. The TÜV (short for Technischer Überwachungs-Vere- in, Technical Inspection Association) carries out an annual external review and certification of the capito Quality Standard. In the first years of its existence, only Austrian organizations were members of atempo’s social franchise network. 32 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Austria capito Berlin was the first German organization to join in 2011. More than 80 organizations from Austria, Germany and Switzerland are now connected through the capito network as social franchises or quality partners, and about 25 of these act as external service providers for barrier-free information. The other 55 use capito’s expertise for their own organizations and their own target groups. Other providers of Easy Language services work outside the capito network, partly according to the capito method, partly according to the rules of the Net- zwerk Leichte Sprache (Netzwerk 2021) or the Duden (Bredel and Maaß 2016). Examples are Domus Verlag, Loycos, LeichtLesen.at, as well as communication agencies that include barrier-free information in their service portfolios, such as the Gugler agency or Wortwelt.at. In addition to their usual business, they focus on citizen-friendly communication – a sort of ‘light’ version of Easy Language – for public administrations. Other actors, service providers in the disability field, such as Lebenshilfe Graz and Jugend am Werk Wien, are also involved in Easy Language projects, especially in the area of easily understand- able daily news. 3.4 General attitude and funding Looking back on the development of Easy Language over the last 20 years, two driving factors can be identified. One of them is the slow but steady effect of legislation, which is reflected in the steadily increasing number of official documents in Easy Language. The other push effect can be identified as the acknowledgement that the usage of a comprehensible style of communication makes economic sense, which is shown, for example, by the number and type of orders that the capito network receives. Companies could thus look at the costs created by their employees not being properly informed or instructed from an internal perspective and the loss of potential customers in their marketing and sales departments: in the long run it is not justifiable to reach less than half of the audience because communication is too complicated. For authorities, costs are relevant driving factors, but the dramatic consequences of badly informed citizens also affect societal cohesion. Except for the initial project funding in the early 2000s, no systematic public funding has been given to either the development or the production of Easy © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 33 Walburga Fröhlich, Klaus Candussi Language information, nor to the publication of literature on easy to read and understandable language levels. The initial funding for the development of Easy Language in Austria was tied to the need to find additional paying custom- ers. The Austrian providers of barrier-free information were therefore greatly challenged from the very beginning, having to deal with customer wishes and criticism and to produce in a market-oriented way. It took about ten years to develop a market for Easy Language services. The first interested customers came from organizations for people with disabilities. On the one hand they were not particularly solvent, but on the other hand they tended to have interests other than purchasing Easy Language products. They turned out to be quite interested in learning how to create quality Easy Language products themselves. Authorities at the national and regional level were the first to feel the pressure of legislation. Not surprisingly, the representatives of the Ministry of Social Affairs were the early movers, followed by the Ministry of Justice and the legal departments of the regional state governments. Today, several authorities order information products in Easy Language, a good example is information on COVID pandemic measures. But in the big picture, Austria is still far from nationwide, legally compliant provision of these products. Some authorities are also content to liberate their communication from the style of pure official language and call it ‘bürgerfreundliche Sprache’ (citizen-friendly language). However, they do so without truly general information practices that also include people with poor language skills. Like the public authorities, public-related organizations and institutions have started to feel pressure to make their information more understandable. These include social insurance companies, employee representatives and health services, but also political parties in terms of their election information. Over the last ten years, the biggest contribution to the market growth was in the for-profit industries. They have learned that misunderstandings between customers and their staff lead to costs – costs which could be avoided. Another promising trend in recent years – with the potential to become a real game changer – has been in the news sector (see Section 6). 34 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Austria 4 Target groups Although Easy Language started its development in the disability field, the con- cept has become mainstream (see Section 3). This is why capito, for example, prefers to use the term target group-oriented or addressee-oriented language and tries to realize it in a multi-dimensional concept (see Section 5). While Easy Language is often – and not surprisingly, due to its origins – seen mainly as a necessity for people with learning difficulties, its demand in real life is far greater and not limited to target groups such as people with disabilities or immigrant backgrounds. According to Bock and Lange (2015: 69), ‘Vermittelnde Texte sind vielmehr ein alltäglich notwendiges Phänomen in modernen Gesellschaften: Beispielsweise benötigt jeder Nichtjurist Vermittlung und Vereinfachung, wenn er gesetzliche Regelungen, die ihn ganz alltäglich betr- effen, genau verstehen will.’ (Mediating texts are rather an everyday phenom- enon in modern societies: For example, every non-lawyer needs mediation and simplification if they want to understand the legal regulations that affect them in everyday life.) In their book (2015: 39–61), Johann Schädler and Martin Reichstein point out that restricting Easy Language to the target group of people with learning difficulties and disabilities raises specific problems and dangers. For many au- thors of Easy Language texts, distinguishing it from children’s language is still one of the main challenges. In addition, Easy Language itself can potentially discriminate if the deficient language level is fixed as the norm for the target group. This danger should not be underestimated if the tendency is to pres- ent Easy Language as the natural language system of people with intellectual disabilities (Schädler and Reichstein 2015: 54). The authors suggest that more attention should be paid to the universal design and accessibility approach. Some professional providers of Easy Language encountered the danger of this restriction at a very early stage and learned to adjust their services to multiple target groups and their specific needs and desires (see next section). It is a well-known fact that problems initially considered a niche topic of- ten turn out to be a mainstream topic over time. Work for and with the target group of people with learning difficulties has sharpened this perception and helped develop more general principles of Easy Language. Practical experience © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 35 Walburga Fröhlich, Klaus Candussi has shown that the problem is not limited to a small audience. The need for information at less complex language levels and with reduced vocabulary is clearly not restricted to the target group of disabled people. Due to its strong heterogeneity, it is difficult to make a distinction according to the criterion of ‘cognitive abilities’ even within this target group (Bock and Lange 2015: 68). In the field of comprehensible text provision, individual abilities and restriction levels must therefore be taken into account. 5 Guidelines As described above in Section 2 about the history of Easy Language, in the beginning, most actors in the German-speaking countries based their work on the initial guidelines of Inclusion Europe (1998) and the European standard for making information easy to read and understand resulting from the Pathways 1 project (Inclusion Europe 2021b) (2009). Picture 1: Outcome of Pathways 1 project. 36 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Austria 5.1 The capito model The special customer requirements of the expanded target groups, especially those outside the disability sector, meant that more design freedom was re- quired in matters of layout and design. In addition, there was a desire to ensure that informative material still conveyed the impression of the original material, even though it was in an easily understandable format. Easy Language election brochures should be recognisable as election brochures, Easy Language info folders as info folders and Easy Language literature as literature. When devel- oping its method from a niche to a mainstream solution, capito extended the original set of rules in the capito criteria catalogue and formed it into its own quality standard, which is described below. As perception is a pre-condition for comprehension, the capito criteria start with accessibility items. Barriers on the perception level affect our senses and whether we can see, hear, touch, or smell information. Eight percent of men cannot distinguish red from green, 3.9% of the population is visually impaired, and 2.5% has poor hearing. Barriers on this level include bold font; graphic and layout elements such as font, font size and font style; contrasts; audio in- formation such as poor room acoustics or lighting conditions; but also media that are difficult to handle. Barriers at the perception level arise, for example, when one can perceive information but does not have sufficient command of the language in which the information is written. Cognitive impairments and learning difficulties can also lead to the inability to grasp information. Even factors such as strong emotions, high speed or other stress can affect the ability to take in information. The ability to grasp information therefore depends not only on how a text is written, but also on the environment, time and speed at which the information must be grasped. The same person may be able to grasp information of varying complexity and detail in different situations and at different times. The two levels of ‘previous experience’ and ‘previous knowledge’ are of particular importance for understanding information; connected to these are vocabulary on the linguistic level, but also the experienced and learned knowledge of the addressees, which can only be assumed. Many people with learning disabilities in Austria have intensive previous experience of life in in- stitutions or special services, and many of them have little experience of normal © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 37 Walburga Fröhlich, Klaus Candussi everyday life in our society. As a result, almost all information on processes, rights, duties and offers in our society must start from scratch, so to speak, if people with learning disabilities in institutions are to be informed. However, if the target group consists of young people with learning difficulties who are enthusiastic about football, for example, basic information would bore them more than inform them. It is therefore not only a question of whether the language is easy or dif- ficult to understand, but whether it meets information needs, i.e., whether it is based on the target group’s previous knowledge and experience. If it does not, it may be wonderfully easy to understand, but totally inappropriate for the target group. In addition, in 2011, on the basis of research findings, the capito network in Austria and Germany began to differentiate the set of rules and regulations used up to that point into a criteria catalogue. This criteria catalogue enables identifying and thus avoiding the different information barriers of different target groups, and addressing the target groups’ diversity, situations and in- formation needs more effectively. The criteria of the capito catalogue is the further development of the initial set of rules for Easy Language, and the capito network is constantly working to incorporate into it new findings from science, research and practice. The crite- ria catalogue is updated annually and currently contains around 100 criteria on the methodological approach itself, the media used, its layout, comprehensi- bility (language), images/graphics, and the writing of texts at various language levels. It refers to specific information barriers among people with visual and hearing impairments, blind and deaf people, people with learning difficulties, people with physical disabilities, people with a non-German first language, and people with little school education. An example of criteria from the catalogue is published in the capito quality standard (capito 2021b). 5.2 The capito step-by-step solution As mentioned above (Schädler and Reichstein 2015), creating new language categories should be avoided, as this could ultimately lead to consolidating the labelling of disabled people and the establishment of special routes instead of 38 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Austria inclusive information solutions. Easy Language should not be separated as a special language from general communication and information activities. On the basis of its research findings and experience from many hours of test group sessions, the capito network developed a model of smooth transition from absolutely simple core information to the level of everyday colloquial language: the capito Stufenmodell (the capito step-by-step solution) for com- prehensible information. This model, as already mentioned, is based on the assumption that under- standing depends not only on a person’s language skills, but essentially on pre- vious experience, prior knowledge and contextual conditions. It also assumes that during a successful reading process, a person expands their knowledge of the subject matter, because this is the main point of the reading process. This knowledge acquired during reading can in turn provide the knowledge necessary for the next section of information. Based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, which was originally developed to describe levels of competence in foreign language acquisition and is therefore familiar to many people, the individual levels are LL A1 (Leicht Lesen – Easy to read, Level A1), LL A2 (Leicht Lesen – Easy to read, Level A2) and LL B1 (Leicht Lesen – Easy to read, Level B1). Picture 2: capito step-by-step model, based on the scale (A1 to C2) of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages Information prepared according to the capito step-by-step model is first briefly written in an absolutely simple way in LL A1 (on the lowest complexity level of Easy Language, with only short sentences, using a very basic vocabulary, etc.) and contains only the core message. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 39 Walburga Fröhlich, Klaus Candussi An example of such a core message from an information campaign on heart health for young women taking the pill would be: ‘Are you taking the contraceptive pill? Then you should not smoke. You could die from it.’ 3 The whole example can be seen in Appendix 1. The original information – on level C2 – reads as follows: ‘The combination of oral contraceptives (the pill) and smoking can dramatically increase the risk of leg vein thrombosis, stroke and heart attack in young women’. For many people, this core information in LL A1 is enough to understand what is at stake and what action is expected of them. If they also want to know why women should not smoke when they take the pill, they can read on to the next level, LL A2, which may be something like this: ‘When women take birth control pills, they should not smoke. It can give them a heart attack or a stroke. Or the veins in their legs could become blocked. This can even happen when women are young’. If people want to go into more detail, to know what a stroke is for example, the information could look like this at level LL B1: ‘If too little blood reaches the brain, a stroke will occur. The most common signs are sudden changes in vision, speech problems, one-sided weakness, a drooping corner of the mouth and balance problems’. The step-by-step approach to the topic from very simple to increasingly complex information creates a sense of achievement, even for inexperienced readers. Thus the capito step-by-step solution for people with a low literacy level or poor knowledge of the subject works in the same way as a ramp works for wheelchair users. One can start at the baseline, read a few lines, understand an issues, deepen one’s knowledge, ideally expand one’s own vocabulary, and continue to a higher level. In practice, the same information product can contain information at dif- ferent levels. In the case of textual information, this might be limited to a mix of two levels, for example, summaries on level A1 within a more complex document. Digital delivery of information allows the provision of the informa- tion at all three levels (LL A1, A2, B1), and the original text on a higher level, 3 These are literal translations of German examples by the authors, and have not been checked against special conditions of English Easy Language. 40 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Austria in one document. This offers the option of switching between different levels and individually choosing the appropriate level. Such information products are equally suitable for people with and without learning disabilities, as they do not bore some while overwhelming others. Thus, new ways of processing information often also create new forms of transmission and channels of media (see Section 8). 5.3 Quality assurance When the first capito partnerships were established in Austria and Germany, the need arose for a structured, comprehensible quality control system that could be used across organizations and that was mandatory for all partners. In 2008, the capito partners developed the capito quality standard, which has been TÜV-certified since 2012. Quality control within the capito network is not only carried out internally by each provider, but also through regular random sampling by a quality assurance committee appointed by the capito network. This committee selects between 10 and 15 products from the capito partners each year and subjects them to a detailed quality control process based on the quality standard. This often results in valuable insights into the general devel- opment and training needs of the capito partners, which are then discussed and processed within the network. Only tested products with a product certificate may be marked with a capito quality seal. This is to give customers the necessary assurance that the product received and paid for meets the promised quality standard and that it has been checked. 5.4 Role of people with learning difficulties In the German-speaking world, two tendencies have developed with regard to the necessity of having texts in Easy Language checked for comprehensibil- ity. The majority of providers in Austria, Germany and Switzerland carry out mandatory text checks for quality control. In most cases, these text checks are conducted by people with learning difficulties. In terms of the capito concept, this makes sense, if the people with learning disabilities (at least partly) repre- © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 41 Walburga Fröhlich, Klaus Candussi sent the target group of the information product. Only then are the dimensions of ‘previous experience’ and ‘previous knowledge’ included for the comprehen- sibility of information. If a text is addressed to other target groups, then the members of the test group must also precisely represent these target groups. As the concept of the Netzwerk Leichte Sprache (Easy Language Network) in Germany mainly focuses on the target group of people with learning diffi- culties, the rules of the network demand test reading by people from this target group. Some members of the network even promote the work of test people in test groups as a real occupation for people with learning difficulties. capito follows a different approach in this respect. Although test reading of informa- tion by members of the target group is also part of the capito quality standard, the problem is that professional full-time readers may become experienced readers over time and would thus no longer be representative of untrained and inexperienced readers. Instead, a changing test group line-up is preferred. Test reading for capito is paid contract work. 5.5 Other guidelines Providers of Easy Language in Austria working outside the capito network mostly rely on the regulations formulated by the Netzwerk Leichte Sprache (Easy Language Network) or integrated parts of it in their work as communi- cation agencies. Their guidelines are neither official Austrian guidelines (the capito criteria are developed and used by the network partners in all Ger- man-speaking countries – Austria, Germany and Switzerland – and are there- fore not specifically ‘Austrian’) nor an overarching Austrian quality standard. 6 Practical outcomes Due to the prevailing lack of representative survey research on the European situation, no evidence-based data exist on the penetration of Easy Language into the information landscape in different countries. It is possible that the out- comes in Austria (and Germany) differ from those in other countries due to the comparatively higher number of Easy Language providers being entrepreneurs. 42 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Austria 6.1 Media The public provision of comprehensible daily news was greatly limited for a long period of time due to a lack of proper media channels, and digitalization now offers new options. As the market for a news service dedicated to the limit- ed target group of people with learning difficulties and disabilities was far from viable, the only possible solution was public funding, which the governments in German-speaking countries were not willing to provide. Poorly capitalized attempts to find solutions had the disadvantage of not being able to be profes- sional or have a regular media style on a daily basis. Outdated news turned out to an unsatisfactory solution, even if it was in Easy Language. A joint pilot project of the APA, the Austrian Press Agency, initiated by and started together with capito in 2017/2018 and co-founded by the Minis- try of Social Affairs of that time has delivered promising results. APA, as the professional news provider, selects and designs the TopEasyNews, and capito contributes its know-how and adjusts the news to language levels A2 and B1 (APA 2021) and provides quality control. The news is disseminated via var- ious digital channels: the internet and abo-solutions by direct mail and the dedicated capito Easy-to-read app (see Section 8). Together with its partner Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), this news service currently has a reach of more than half a million people per month – and a strong upward trend. The success of this project has convinced other newspapers and organiza- tions (Lebenshilfe, Jugend am Werk) to join the production of comprehensible news, and a roll-out of the APA project in Germany is currently under prepa- ration. 6.2 Literature Although a demand definitely exists for literature on an easy-to-understand language level, up to now, in Austria there has neither been a market for it, nor noteworthy public funding. Selective initiatives, such as the publication of ‘Die Erbschaft’ (The inheritance) a crime novel written by Uwe Lubrich at language level A2 (2020) have therefore failed to establish a local tradition. What is special about this initiative, however, is that the author developed the plot of the crime story together with people with learning difficulties, members of the © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 43 Walburga Fröhlich, Klaus Candussi intended target group of readers. The intention was to resolve the well-known problem that the only accessible literature for people with learning difficulties has been books for children, solely because of their simple language and text structure. The plots of children’s books, however, are not at all in line with these readers’ interests. 6.3 Informative texts An online search has indicated that the number of informative texts in Easy Language produced in Austria by authorities, enterprises or health and social organizations might be rather high in comparison to that in other countries. 4 This may be because here, the topic left the niche of the disability field quite early on the one hand, and because of the social business approach of the producers on the other hand. Thus, the production of information in Easy Language is clearly not limited to customers from the public sector or the social field, in which Easy Language has achieved a status of almost the norm, when it comes to publications whose content is specifically aimed at people with learning difficulties and disabilities. For some years, the for-profit industry has been the most relevant customer of Easy Language services. In contrast to governments, the driving factor of their interest in comprehensible information is not so much based on the aim to fulfil legal requirements, but to save costs. For a long time, Easy Language was seen almost exclusively in the context of printed information, except occasionally in speeches to a distinct audience. Even if it was published on the internet, it was handled in the same way as normal texts, without making use of new digital opportunities. This is probably because Easy Language was considered a disability issue only, combined with the long-outdated view that people with learning difficulties and disabilities are not able to use the internet. Fortunately, this attitude is changing today, although the often-observed general reluctance of staff in the disability sector to use information technology and technology is not very conducive. 4 Basis of this non-scientific finding: The number of documents in Easy Language found under various synonyms in Austria were significantly higher than those in other countries in relation to the sizes of their population. 44 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Austria Silke Borgstedt and Heide Möller-Slawinski, for example, in the Aktion Mensch organization’s latest trend study of the digital participation of people with disabilities, state that the experts who were surveyed agreed that the use of digital tools offers enormous opportunities and could replace the common previous approach, which always emphasized the dangers. ‘Across all impair- ment categories, devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktop PCs are used’ (Borgstedt and Möller-Slawinski 2020: 48). Of the four central opportunities offered by digital trends for people with disabilities, ‘unlimited access to education and information’ is particularly emphasized (ibid 71). Dig- ital media channels therefore offer promising alternatives for the delivery of Easy Language information to all target groups, especially because they allow an individualized approach. Because target groups are very much diverse in respect to, for example, their language skills or addressees having different time budgets for reading information, there is no one and only ideal shape of information. The very best solution is the one that gives the recipient an individual choice of how they want to consume information in a particular situation. Although printed text does not allow such a solution for practical and cost reasons, digital tools can achieve this. capito recently developed one such prac- tical solution in Austria with its mobile application 5. After downloading the app for free to their smartphones, users can select the language level at which they want the information; A1 (summary of the core information), A2 or B1 or in the original version. The read aloud function and the option to include sign language videos make this tool a totally barrier-free media channel. In- formation can be sent to a smartphone via push messages or a QR-code on the original (print) document. The app itself does not produce any information nor translate it; it merely acts as a transmission channel for prefabricated informa- tion. For further development through digitalization see Section 8. 5 For more information: https://www.capito.eu/capito-app/ © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 45 Walburga Fröhlich, Klaus Candussi 7 Education and research As in the production of Easy Language services, the capito network also has a leading position in the field of training. The chain of changes in the commu- nications landscape towards greater comprehensibility begins with workshops, which introduce the topic. These workshops are of different durations and are mainly attended by the staff of public authorities, enterprises and organizations from the social field. Since 2020, the growth in the number of participants has increased massively due to new online formats. The workshops primarily aim to increase awareness of the topic, and are particularly useful for companies and public administrations, often leading to the participation of employees in professional training courses. Over the last five years, more than 500 participants have completed these professional training courses in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The cours- es have consisted of 110 online learning units and an accompanying practical phase. In recent months, an online learning course has been launched, which has led to a significant increase in the number of participants. Organizations, enterprises or authorities with staff who complete this course are allowed to join the network as ‘quality partners’. Currently about 55 members participate on this basis. Austria has no academic Easy Language education. In contrast to Germany, the topic has had and continues to have less res- onance in university research in Austria. One of the few exceptions is the re- search of Rudolf Muhr from the University of Graz, which has primarily dealt with questions of plain language in administration and jurisprudence (2012). Impulses for research come more from the practical side and from the capito network. For example, in 2018, capito initiated a study to clarify the best types of script for untrained readers. The result of this broad study proves false one of the most widely held doctrines in Easy Language regulation, namely the claim that Arial is the most suitable type of font for Easy Language. In her article, Sabina Sieghart (Sieghart 2020b), Design Researcher from the University of Applied Sciences in Salzburg, reports how Albert-Jan Pool, chairman of the Schriften committee at the DIN German Institute for Standardization, explains the origin of this long-lasting misconception. 46 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Austria In the early stages of Easy Language, Arial was one of only three fonts in Microsoft’s operating system package that could be displayed by the low screen resolution at that time. Thus, it found its way into the guidelines of the Netzwerk Leichte Sprache (Easy Language Network) and was passed on by everyone else and never scientifically questioned. The core findings of the Sieghart Study (2020a) – in a nutshell – showed firstly that the size of the font itself is not as important for readability as in- dicated by former regulations. Even two thirds of the test people who found a font too small actually read it better and more fluently than a larger one. These results indicate that the truth is complex: medium length of characters, letter spacing, typeface, and white space play a major role in readability. A second finding also established that Arial is no longer the best font; 80% of the test people read other fonts more quickly and more easily. Of the group of standard fonts, for example Calibri, Cambria or Georgia performed well. Of the group of fonts subject to purchase, Thesis (Thesis The Sans, The Mix and The Serif) showed good results. Finally, the research showed that the ban on serif fonts is no longer tenable. Serifs support line formation during reading and are therefore quite legible. The former problem of the inadequate screen display of serifs no longer exists. Robert Hitthaler, expert in accessible media design, summarizes the re- sults of the study as follows: ‘Es gibt nun keine absoluten Regeln mehr, son- dern vielmehr Tendenzen.’ (There are no longer absolute rules, but tendencies) (Hitthaler 2019: 5). The positive aspect of rejecting these old, simple rules could – according to Hitthaler – be a step towards a higher quality of design of publications aimed at people with learning difficulties and poor reading skills. 8 Future perspectives As described above, digitalization offers new media channels and service op- tions for Easy Language. However, the greatest change will be determined by the possible use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the process of language simplification itself. The significant reduction in production costs that can be achieved in this way will enable many more customers to commission the pro- © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 47 Walburga Fröhlich, Klaus Candussi cessing of much larger volumes of text in a way that suits their target audience and thus to maximize societal impact. As in the field of language translation, high quality language simplification will need testing group work by address- ees, as well as post editing by qualified staff. On the other hand, the usage of AI will greatly support the process of transformation from higher complex to lower complex language levels. AI will deliver the first draft of a text in Easy Language, which will then be revised and finalized by professional staff and quality checked by testing groups. In contrast to automated translation from one language to another, one of the main problems in the development of AI for automated language simplification is the lack of sufficiently large text stocks to train the software. Networks such as capito are in the privileged position of having the relatively largest and, due to the common quality standard, qualita- tively most homogeneous text corpora at their disposal. Together with the com- puter linguists of two Universities, capito has developed a comprehensive set of algorithms to check textual information against the Easy Language criteria. In 2021, the first version of an Analysis Tool that automatically checks written information will be available online. The already developed algorithms will enable testing against much larger numbers of criteria than the existing tools. In 2019, a research project co-founded by the Austrian Research Promo- tion Agency began training AI for language simplification itself. Even though this is still an ongoing project, the first results clearly indicate that the idea of developing AI for language simplification is promising. Once developed for the German language, the transfer to other languages should be possible in a short time. Because there are currently – at least in German-speaking countries – no indications that the costs for the development of AI would be financed entirely by government funding, capito as a social business has developed a research and development (R&D) partnership model with companies and social organ- izations for this purpose. It is expected that AI language simplification will reduce the cost of pro- ducing comprehensible texts to a fraction of the current amount. This will boost the demand for information in Easy Language and thus, although it will initially lead to a loss of jobs for the providers, it will eventually increase the demand for manpower, especially in testing group work. Compared with the 48 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Austria development of automated language translation, the development of AI lan- guage simplification will inevitably encounter many obstacles and problems will need to be solved. But the possibility of a quantum leap in the production of Easy Language justifies all efforts to realize the capito vision of ‘a world in which everyone can understand everything’. Authors Walburga Fröhlich is a co-developer of the capito method. Education: master’s degree in social work and social management, Graz; graduate of the Fritz Perls Institute Düsseldorf for supervision and organizational consulting. Publica- tions on target group-oriented language in Böhlau Verlag, Springer Verlag and various other professional journals. She is also co-founder and co-director of atempo Ltd., the ‘mother’ of the capito brand. Klaus Candussi is an Austrian social entrepreneur, university lecturer and former journalist. He is co-founder and co-director of atempo Ltd. He holds a master’s degrees in Musicology and Social Management. References Apa. Top-Easy-News. Web. 26 January 2021. . Bock, Bettina. “Barrierefreie Kommunikation als Voraussetzung und Mittel für die Partizipation benachteiligter Gruppen. Ein (polito-)linguistischer Blick auf Prob- leme und Potenziale von ‘Leichter’ und ‘einfacher Sprache’.” [Accessible communi- cation as a prerequisite and means for the participation of disadvantaged groups. A (polito-)linguistic look at the problems and potentials of ‘easy’ and ‘simple lan- guage’]. Sprache und Demokratie 73.4 (2015). Web. 26 January 2021. . Bock, Bettina, and Daisy Lange. “Was ist eigentlich ‘Leichte Sprache’? Der Blick der Sprachwissenschaft.” [What actually is ‘Easy Language’? The view of lingui- stics]. Eds. Walburga Fröhlich, and Klaus Candussi. Leicht Lesen. Der Schlüssel zur Welt. Wien: Böhlau, 2015. 63–79. Print. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 49 Walburga Fröhlich, Klaus Candussi Borgstedt, Silke, and Heide Möller-Slawinski. Digitale Teilhabe von Men- schen mit Behinderung. Trendstudie [Digital participation of people with disabili- ties. Trend study]. N.P.: Aktion Mensch e.V., 2020. Print. Bredel, Ursula, and Christiane Maaß. Ratgeber Leichte Sprache [Easy Language guide]. Berlin: Duden, 2016. Print. capito. Quality Standard. Web. 26 January 2021a. . capito. Quality Standard. Web. 26 January 2021b. . Erlinger, Gudrun. Selbstbestimmung und Selbstvertretung von Menschen mit Lern- schwierigkeiten. Diploma thesis. Innsbruck: Leopold-Franzens-Universität, 2004. Web. 26 January 2021. . Fröhlich, Walburga. “Österreich: Von der ‘Leichten Sprache’ zur zielgruppenge- rechten Information.” [Austria: From ‘Easy Language’ to target group-oriented in- formation]. Eds. Bettina M. Bock, Ulla Fix, and Daisy Lange. “Leichte Sprache“ im Spiegel theoretischer und angewandter Forschung. Berlin: Verlag für wissenschaftli- che Literatur, 2017. 415–430. Print. Fröhlich, Walburga, and Klaus Candussi. Leicht Lesen. Der Schlüssel zur Welt [Easy Reading. The key to the world]. Wien: Böhlau, 2015. Print. Grotlüschen, Anke; Buddenberg, Klaus; Dutz, Gregor; Heilmann, Lisanne, and Christopher Stammer. LEO 2018 – Leben mit geringer Literalität [LEO 2018 – Living with low literacy]. Web. 26 January 2021. . Hitthaler, Robert. “Viel freier als früher.” [Much more free than before]. capito News May 2019: 4–6. Print. Inclusion Europe. History. Web. 26 January 2021a. . Inclusion Europe. Information for all. Web. 26 January 2021b. . Justiz. Informationsbroschüren. Web. 26 January 2021. . Lubrich, Uwe. Die Erbschaft, ein Krimi von capito [The inheritance, a crime novel by capito]. Graz: capito, 2014. Print. Also available at . Muhr, Rudolf. “Zur Bürgerfreundlichkeit und Verständlichkeit alltagsnaher ös- terreichischer Rechtstexte.” [On the citizen-friendliness and comprehensibility of Austrian legal texts close to everyday life]. Ed. Sandro Moraldo. Sprachenpolitik und Rechtssprache. Frankfurt: Peter Lang Verlag, 2012. 118–140. Print. Netzwerk. Regeln [Rules]. Web. 26 January 2021. . 50 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Austria Schädler, Johann, and Martin F. Reichstein. “‘Leichte Sprache’ und Inklusi- on.” [Easy Language and inclusion]. Eds. Walburga Fröhlich, and Klaus Candussi. Leicht Lesen. Der Schlüssel zur Welt. Wien: Böhlau, 2015. 39–61. Print. Sieghart, Sabina. “Angemessene Kommunikation mit Leichter Sprache.” [Appro- priate communication with Easy Language]. Eds. Lars C. Grabbe, Patrick Ru- bert-Kruse, and Norbert M. Schmitz. Bildgestalten – Topographien medialer Visua- lität. Marburg: Büchner-Verlag, 2020a. 132–159. Print. Sieghart, Sabina. “The Influence of Macrotypography on the Comprehensibility of Texts in Easy-to-Read Language.” Visible Language 54.3 (2020b): 48–95. Print. Statista. Anteil der Ausländer an der Bevölkerung in Österreich von 2010 bis 2020 [Share of foreigners in the population in Austria from 2010 to 2020]. Web. 26 January 2021. . Statistik Austria. Schlüsselkompetenzen von Erwachsenen – Erste Ergebnisse der PI- AAC-Erhebung 2011/12 [Key competences of adults – First results of the PIAAC survey 2011/12]. Wien: Statistik Austria, 2013. Print. Strassmann, Burkhard. “Deutsch light.” [German light]. Die Zeit 30 January 2014. Print. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 51 Walburga Fröhlich, Klaus Candussi 52 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Vincent Vandeghinste, Adeline Müller, Thomas François, Orphée De Clercq Easy Language in Belgium 1 Introduction Belgium is a country with 11.5 million inhabitants. Some organizational pe- culiarities are relevant to the country’s linguistic landscape. It is organized into three linguistic communities: the Flemish community, for whom Dutch is the official language, consists of roughly 60% of the Belgian population; the Francophone (French-speaking) community, also known as the Féderation Wallonie-Bruxelles (FWB), has 40%, and the small German-speaking commu- nity, has less than 1% of the population. These communities are responsible for all policies related to culture, which also cover linguistic policies. In addition to these communities, the country is also divided into three territorial regions: Flanders, Brussels, and Wallonia. Flanders is considered monolingually Dutch speaking, Brussels is officially bilingual French and Dutch speaking, and Wallonia is mainly monolingually French speaking, but also includes the small German-speaking community. According to Ginsburgh and Weber (2007), reporting on data from 2000, about 59% of people from Flanders also know French, and about 19% of people from Wallonia also know Dutch. In Brussels, 96% know French and 59% know Dutch. English is also well known in Flanders (52%) and Brussels (42%), but less so in Wallonia (17%). To make things even more complicated, the three regions and communities are regrouped under a federal state umbrella, which also has certain powers. In our contribution, we mainly focus on the Plain and Easy Language ini- tiatives in the Flemish and Francophone communities, as these communities each have their own initiatives, policies and organizations that deal with Plain and/or Easy Language. The main difference between these two concepts lies © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 53 Vincent Vandeghinste, Adeline Müller, Thomas François, Orphée De Clercq in their target audience. Plain Language is the standard for communication between the government or public institutions and the general public, whereas Easy Language targets people with low literacy or impairments. We also look at the Plain Language efforts of some Belgian Federal entities, such as the Justice department. Over the different sections of this chapter, we treat Plain Language and Easy Language as parallel concepts. Although we have tried to give an extensive, detailed overview of the comprehensibility initiatives in Belgium, covering the many different aspects of language, we do not claim that it is exhaustive. Until the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS 1996), in which Flan- ders participated, it was generally assumed that low literacy was a marginal problem in Belgium, and that only 1% of adults had to deal with it. Low literacy was equated with illiteracy. The 14% with low literacy found by the IALS study marked a revolution in the thinking about literacy. It became clear that even literate people may not be sufficiently functionally literate to perform their daily and professional activities without problems, especially in a society in which work activities werer increasingly dependent on efficient language use (Boutet 2005). The results of the IALS study made it clear that low literacy was a bigger social problem than previously assumed, and could have consequences in various policy areas, such as social affairs, culture, employment, poverty, and equal opportunities (Schiepers et al. 2017a). Consequently, both linguistic communities have addressed this issue. In the Flemish community, in 2012, about 15% of the people had low litera- cy (Onderwijs Vlaanderen 2012). 1 In terms of gender, this was 14% of men and 16% of women. At 26%, low literacy is a much larger problem among people aged over 55, but 9% of people aged between 16 and 24 also have low literacy. Among people with an immigrant background, the low literacy figures are 41% among first generation immigrants, and 18% among second generation immi- grants, compared to 12% among people without an immigrant background. Among people for whom Dutch is not their native language, 35% suffer from low literacy in Dutch. If we look at literacy in terms of work, we see that low 1 This infographic shows the most important figures concerning low literacy from the PIAAC 2012 research programme: Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competen- cies. The OECD have the full results of the study (2016). 54 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Belgium literacy affects 12% of people who work, 16% of people who are looking for work, and 23% of people who do not work and are not actively looking for work (Onderwijs Vlaanderen 2012). For the French-speaking, we only have indicators, as neither Wallonia nor Brussels took part in, for example, the surveys of the Organisation for Eco- nomic Co-operation and Development (OECD 2016) and the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (IALS 1996). The statistics are expected to be rather similar to those in Flanders, or in France. According to Moosen (2015), 10%–15% of the population is functionally illiterate. In other words, around 300 000 people in Wallonia could have low literacy. The Lire et Écrire (Read and Write) association is a prominent actor in adult literacy education. It informs public authorities of the persistence of illiteracy in Belgium. The statistics on the attendance of its courses every year that it complies each year shed some light on the situation in Wallonia. In 2019, over 4000 participants started literacy classes (Lire et Écrire 2019). Among these, 61% were women and 33% were Belgian. 2 The number one foreign country represented was Mo- rocco (18% of participants), where French is an official language. We should also mention that 20% of the participants had attended school in Belgium, but more than half of those with low literacy (55%) had not succeeded in obtaining a diploma. Thirty percent of them had never attended school at all. Regarding employment, most of those with low literacy did not have a job (20% were unemployed, 34% received state benefits). Faced with this challenge, various Belgian actors, either institutions or non-profit organizations, launched different initiatives, support programmes and even research programmes to combat reading comprehension or language production difficulties. 2 All percentages are averages of Wallonia and Brussels. However, the number of foreigners in the two regions differs: 73% in Brussels, 60% in Wallonia. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 55 Vincent Vandeghinste, Adeline Müller, Thomas François, Orphée De Clercq 2 Historical perspectives Concerns about the accessibility of documents are not new. The concept of readability, i.e. the degree of ease with which a written text can be read and understood by a given reader, emerged at the beginning of the 20th century in the US. Research on the subject did not reach Western Europe until the second half of the same century, with the book Lisibilité (Readability) (Conquet 1956) and emerged in Belgium through the work of Gilbert de Landsheere (1963) and his PhD student, Georges Henry (1975). For more details on the history of the techniques for measuring text readability, see Section 7. 2.1 Plain Language Belgian administrations have been increasingly aware of the impact of reading comprehension difficulties among citizens who have to carry out adminis- trative or legal tasks. Therefore, several initiatives have been launched since the late 1980s to support Plain Language and facilitate the general public’s access to information. People with special needs (illiterate people or people with disabilities) were, however, frequently overlooked by these policies and their needs were addressed by other organizations, through the paradigm of Easy Language. The concern of administrations to communicate with their citizens in a more accessible language was addressed by the development of Plain English. The Plain English movement emerged in the US in the 1970s under Richard Nixon, who decreed that from then on, the average man in the street should be able to read the United States Federal Register. In Belgium, the first efforts with respect to Plain Language can be traced to 1987, when a study on the readability of administrative texts was subsidized by the French Language Service. Unfortunately, this led to no subsequent action (Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles 1994). 1992 saw the creation of the Readability Advisory Board of the Federal Ministry of the Civil Service (Adviesbureau leesbaarheid van het Federaal Min- isterie van Ambtenarenzaken / Bureau de conseil en lisibilité du ministère de la Fonction publique), whose missions were to provide clear writing advice, not 56 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Belgium only to administrations, but also to legal actors. Unfortunately, this board was rather quickly abolished as part of the Copernicus Reform to modernize the federal civil service. In Flanders in 1992, the president of the Flemish Parliament put Plain Language, called Klare Taal (Clear Language), in legislation and government communication on the agenda of the Flemish Parliament. The Parliament and the Government both created language services that give linguistic advice to all public services, and compulsorily revise all new legislation projects (bills and government decrees). The Plain Language movement has strong roots in issues related to the clarity and accessibility of legal language. When it emerged in Belgium, the complicated nature of legal language had already been pointed out by research- ers (Hendrickx and Deschamps 2016, Hendrickx et al. 2015) and members of Belgian administrations, such as the Council of State (Hendrickx 2003). The Belgian approach to Plain Legal Language differs from, for example, the French approach, in its multidisciplinary style, combining the linguistic tradi- tion and the legal perspective (Cornu 2000). According to Fernbach (2003: 37), in France, this multidisciplinary aspect was missing until recently. The Belgian (federal) Senate had a reading committee that consisted of lawyers as well as linguists, which reviewed proposals and drafts. However, due to the reform of the Senate, this committee was abolished. According to the Justitiebarometer (Justice barometer) (High Council of Justice 2014), 61% of citizens do not find legal language clear enough to un- derstand. In another study (High Council of Justice 2018), this number was even higher: 86% of citizens found it unclear. Those who had already come into contact with the court ‘as a plaintiff, defendant or witness’ agreed significantly less with the statement that legal language is sufficiently clear. A striking find- ing was that 69% of lawyers also found legal language insufficiently clear. In fact, as much as 67% of magistrates considered it so. There were no significant differences between the French and Dutch speakers. In 2014, the annual Clarity International conference was held in Antwerp and in the European Union in Brussels, providing a unique opportunity for delegates to learn about clear communication and Plain Language in a multilin- gual environment. Clarity International is a worldwide network of professionals © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 57 Vincent Vandeghinste, Adeline Müller, Thomas François, Orphée De Clercq who are committed to promoting plain legal language. In 2016, the University of Leuven held a conference on plain legal language, with speakers from many different legal branches, and a closing session by the Minister of Justice. In 2018, Project flavour was launched by the High Council of Justice to promote plain legal language in the judicial world (High Council of Justice 2018). This report contains an overview of the Plain Legal Language initiatives. In 2019, a definition of Plain Language was presented in a report by the European Network of High Councils for Justice. That same year, the European Commission Structural Reform Support Service approved a project on Plain Legal Language, submitted by the High Council of Justice, which included a workshop and conference. Though many plain legal language initiatives have been launched, much remains to be done in view of the numerous complexities often found in legal language (e.g., archaic terminology and overly complex syntactic structures). 2.2 Easy Language Easy Language in Belgium was born in Flanders in 1985, which corresponds to the first publication of the Wablieft (Excuse me, what did you say?) newspaper 3 (Wablieft 2014), initially a single black and white paper leaflet that appeared every three weeks. In 1989 Wablieft became a real newspaper, printed in tabloid format. Wablieft clearly addressed a need, as it already had 2300 subscribers in 1990, and 5000 by 1995. Thus, it was made a weekly publication. In 1997, the organization widened its scope and became well known for awarding the Wablieft-Prijs to a project, person or organization that uses Easy Language to make information accessible to everyone. This prize is announced on national (Flemish) radio and in tv journals. In 2006, Wablieft launched a service providing advice on texts and offering to rewrite texts in Easy Language versions. 2009 saw the first publication of easy-to-read books, and in 2011, Wablieft became digital with an online version, which currently has around 7000 subscribers. 3 Wablieft, http://www.wablieft.be/nl. 58 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Belgium In 2009, Belgium adopted the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the CRPD) (with a section on understanding documents), in which all levels of authority commit themselves to promoting integration-enhancing regulations and measures in all areas concerning people with disabilities. People with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which cause various bar- riers that may hinder their full, effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. People with disabilities are no longer expected to adapt to their environment, now it is up to policymakers to address the barriers to their participation in economic, social and cultural life (United Nations 1996). This implies that Easy Language has had some sort of (indirect) legal status since 2009. 3 Current situation The distinction between Plain Language and Easy Language seems somewhat artificial in the case of Belgium, as they seem to largely pursue the same goal. The guidelines we found for both look very similar at first sight, but Easy Lan- guage could be perceived as an oversimplification for a general audience. The main difference between Plain and Easy Language lies in their target audience. 3.1 Definitions Plain Language is supposedly the standard for communication between the Government (both federal and regional) or public institutions and the general public. It is defined according to the definition of the International Plain Lan- guage Federation (2021): ‘A communication is in plain language if its wording, structure, and design are so clear that the intended readers can easily find what they need, under- stand what they find, and use that information.’ Easy Language targets two rather distinct groups: people with low literacy and people with impairments. The Wablieft website offers a description rather than a definition of Easy Language: © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 59 Vincent Vandeghinste, Adeline Müller, Thomas François, Orphée De Clercq ‘No difficult words, jargon or figurative speech, but articles that everyone can understand.’ (Wablieft 2021) 4 In Belgium, no formal definitions of Easy Language seem to differ from definitions of Plain Language. 3.2 Societal and legal context As we said, Plain Language has an official status in the Belgian law, whereas Easy Language currently does not. Easy Language only has an ‘indirect’ legal status, as it is mentioned in the UN’s CRPD (United Nations 2006), which Belgium adopted in 2009. In Belgium, Plain Language appears in the federal Charter of the User of Public Services (Handvest van de gebruiker van de openbare diensten): ‘Letters, circulars and forms should be understandable and precise. Public services will endeavour to adapt their communications to their interlocutors and will avoid any technical jargon that is not essential for precision.’ (Handvest van de gebruiker van de openbare diensten 1993: chapter II § 2) 5 This charter is implemented in both languages. An example of the use of Plain Language is the legislative drafting manual of the Council of State (Raad van State 2017). Another example is in the Code on Economic Law, which has been copied from a European consumer guideline. ‘If all or some of the terms of a contract between a business and a consumer are in writing, they must be drafted in a clear and understandable manner.’ (Federale Overheidsdienst Economie, KMO, Middenstand en Energie 2013: Art. VI.37.1 § 1) 6 In Flanders, Plain Language (Heldere Taal) is mentioned in the Decree on Open Government: ‘Each [...] mentioned instance has the duty to inform the population or the involved target groups in a systematic, correct, balanced, timely, and compre- 4 Translated from Dutch by the authors. 5 Translated from Dutch by the authors. 6 Translated from Dutch by the authors. 60 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Belgium hensible manner of its policy, government, services, and rights.’ (Ministerie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap 2004: 76) 7 It is also mentioned in Chapter 2, Article 3 of the Decree on Flemish gov- ernment communication: ‘The Flemish government communicates clearly in understandable lan- guage. The Flemish government communicates in the Dutch standard lan- guage. The communication of the Flemish government must be comprehen- sible to the recipient.’ (Ministerie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap 2016) 8 The federal manual on how to apply the UN’s CRPD appeared in 2013 (Federale Overheidsdienst Sociale Zekerheid 2013), and led to the launching of the Federal Handistreaming plan in 2016. This plan urges everyone to mobilize the resources necessary for the inclusion of people with disabilities, by remov- ing the obstacles faced by this target group that prevent them from living on an equal footing with their fellow citizens in social, cultural and professional terms. This includes ‘[I]mproving the accessibility of the means of communication with the gen- eral public, which should be available in a form that is accessible to all through technologies adapted to different types of disability. This principle should also be applied to electronically disseminated information or the use of electronic forms. For example, websites can be screened for their accessibility (Anysurf- er). Documents must also be made available in simple language. Recordings in sign language on websites can also provide information for people with hearing impairments.’ (Federale Overheidsdienst Sociale Zekerheid 2013: 8) 9 3.3 Stakeholders In order to help people understand legal texts, the Droits Quotidiens (Daily Rights) organization was founded in 1995 for French, and was later followed, although only in 2016, by its Flemish sister organization Helder Recht (Clear Law). The Juristenkrant, a current affairs magazine in Dutch that deals with 7 Translated from Dutch by the authors. 8 Translated by the authors. 9 Translated by the authors. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 61 Vincent Vandeghinste, Adeline Müller, Thomas François, Orphée De Clercq the broad outlines of the development of law, has had a column that focuses on plain legal language since 2002. These were compiled into a book in 2008 (Hendrickx 2008). Many other initiatives have improved the comprehension of the law, such as changes in the style of verdicts, explanatory leaflets added to verdicts, paying attention to language usage in legal documents. The Franco- phone community, also known as the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, through its digital administration service (eWBS – Wallonia Brussels Simplification), offers awareness-raising activities. Writers can also ask to have a text, a group of documents or an entire process analysed and revised. This is done by the already mentioned organization Droits Quotidiens. The Inclusion Europe organization, located in Brussels, plays an important role in defending the rights of people with intellectual disabilities. In 1998 it drew up a set of easy-to-read guidelines. In 2002, it created the Easy-to-Read Logo (Inclusion Europe 2002) which can be used by website developers to make accessible websites easily recognizable. In 2010, it developed an easy- to-read version of the new European Union Disability Strategy 2010–2020, a key document for the European Union’s work in the field of disability. Later, in 2014 and 2015, it received the Zero Project award for ‘promoting Europe-wide quality standards for accessible information for persons with intellectual dis- abilities’ and for its guidelines for accessible elections. The Zero Project is an Austrian-based initiative that focuses on the rights of people with disabilities globally. It provides a platform for sharing the most innovative and effective solutions to problems faced by people with disabilities. An important party in Flanders is Wablieft. Apart from their newspaper, they offer a whole range of services related to Easy Language, such as screening texts, rewriting texts and assistance in setting up an Easy Language plan of action for organizations. 10 Another Flemish player is WAI-NOT, 11 founded in 2001: a safe website and environment for people with cognitive disabilities and their teachers and parents. This initiative grew out of a practical need from a medical pedagogical centre. WAI-NOT actively works on social inclusion, spe- cifically for people with intellectual disabilities, and targets children and young 10 Wablieft tekstadvies, https://www.duidelijketaal.be/. 11 WAI-NOT, http://www.wai-not.be. 62 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Belgium people as well as adults, their supervisors, parents and teachers. By teaching their target group skills related to computers, the internet and other media, WAI-NOT contributes to digital inclusion. WAI-NOT also includes news in very Easy Language. It is supported by the Flemish government. On the Francophone side, the Inter-Actions organization worked on Easy Language in the digital sphere via the Visa pour le net (Visa for the web) project. They promoted a simple structure for websites, with information that was easy to find and understand. Unfortunately, in 2019, just as they had begun to build a good network after 12 years of efforts, they lost the funding for this project. Since 2015, the Asbl Inclusion 12 organization has helped people with in- tellectual disabilities and their families. They are involved in, for example, the spread of FALC in Wallonia. FALC is an acronym that stands for Facile à lire et à comprendre (Easy to read and understand), which is the French equivalent of Easy Language. They have written a brochure in FALC (Inclusion asbl, n.d. a). On demand, they also do translations into FALC. These translations are proofread by people with intellectual disabilities trained in Easy Language. They have also announced a new service, www.falc.be, that will promote Easy Language. Their Flemish counterpart Inclusie Vlaanderen (Inclusion Flanders) was renamed in 2018 as Stan – Trefpunt Verstandelijke Handicap (Stan – Meet- ing point Mental Disability). 4 Target groups The target group for Plain Language documents is the general public. Easy Lan- guage targets two rather distinct groups: people with low literacy and people with a mental disability. People with low literacy are targeted by the strategic plan Laaggeletterdheid (Low literacy) (Vlaamse overheid 2017) of the Flemish government. Research has shown that the number of low literate people does not decrease even when the average level of literacy increases. This increase is accompanied by a sig- 12 This year marks the merging of several associations that work with people with mental disa- bilities in Wallonia (Association Francophone d’Aide aux Handicapés Mentaux (AFrAHM) / APEM-T21 (parents of children with trisomy 21)). © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 63 Vincent Vandeghinste, Adeline Müller, Thomas François, Orphée De Clercq nificant decrease in the performance of the lowest achievers in secondary ed- ucation groups or higher. There is a constant influx of new low-literate people, who are the focus of Easy Language, literacy training and other education measures. The share of adults with low socio-economic status and the share of first-generation immigrants in the group of the lowest performers has in- creased. The plan states: ‘[W]e strive for an inclusive society, in which everyone has access to the information necessary for participation. This is why it is important to keep emphasizing the importance of clear communication. By this, we mean both written information that must be readable to everyone, and digital information that must be accessible, understandable and manageable for everyone. In order to achieve this, we, as a society, must fulfil our responsibility towards people with literacy needs.’ (Vlaamse overheid 2017: 22) 13 The second group likely to benefit from Easy Language are people with dis- abilities, who are the focus of the federal Handistreaming plan (Federale Over- heidsdienst Sociale Zekerheid 2013). This plan includes a section on communi- cations between the federal government and citizens with disabilities, in order to strengthen the accessibility of communications aimed at the general public. Websites are advised to adhere to the guidelines of the Anysurfer quality label, 14 which shows that the website is accessible to anyone, i.e. that it follows the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (World Wide Web Consortium 2018). In Flanders, the government has measures in place to enhance their com- munications with target groups that have cognitive, hearing or reading im- pairments. The Francophone community follows the European Directive of 2016 (Eu- ropean Parliament and the Council of the European Union 2016), which pro- vides a legal context for digital accessibility for Member States of the European Union. The objectives of many of the Walloon municipalities are to boost the municipal advisory councils and invest in the inclusion of people with dis- abilities and the elderly. Work on the accessibility of public utility websites 13 Translated by the authors. 14 Anysurfer, https://www.anysurfer.be/en. 64 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Belgium meets this political and civic objective and creates a link between the people concerned. 5 Guidelines Over the years, various stakeholders have published many guidelines to facil- itate both Plain and Easy Language. We discuss these in closer detail below. In 2000, the head of the Readability Advisory Board of the Federal Ministry of the Civil Service, Michel Leys, published the Plain Language writing guide in both Dutch and French: Goed geschreven, goed begrepen (Well written, well understood) (Leys and Theys 2000) and Écrire pour être lu (Write to be read) (Leys 2000). This guide has enjoyed great success, the distribution of its first edition being 10 000 copies. In addition, thanks to being freely available on the internet, it has gained popularity throughout the French-speaking world, and was chosen by the European authorities from ‘Fight the Fog’ at the Directo- rate-General for Translation (Brussels) as the counterpart to the English plain language guide (Fernbach 2003: 37). On the Flemish side, the Plain Language guides (Penninckx 1991, Pennickx et al. 1991) of the language services created by the Flemish Parliament and the government enjoyed great success and were distributed widely for several years. For a detailed overview, see Hendrickx (2003). The Flemish government has published a brochure with 20 guidelines for Plain Language (Caluwé 2017). These guidelines are organized into four sections and can be summarized as: ‘Take your target group into account from the start’, ‘Pay close attention to the structure of your message’, ‘Formulate your message as clearly as possible’ and ‘Test your message carefully before you distribute or publish it’. Another, more elaborated set of guidelines for Dutch are those of Taaltelefoon (Language Tele- phone) (Caluwé et al. 2012), which is a language advice service established by the Flemish Government in 1998. Taaltelefoon and the related Taaladvies.net 15 (Language Advice.net) are help desks that provide advice to users (writers of texts) on normative (spelling and syntax) as well as stylistic aspects of Dutch. 15 Taaladvies, http://taaladvies.net, is a service offered by the Dutch Language Union. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 65 Vincent Vandeghinste, Adeline Müller, Thomas François, Orphée De Clercq The Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (FWB) wrote its first Plain Language guidelines in 2000, the already mentioned Écrire pour être lu (Write to be read) (Leys 2000). This work inspired the French version of the European Union’s Plain Language guidelines (Fernbach 2003) and the other guides in FWB men- tioned in Section 2. Even though it is the oldest guide in FWB, Écrire pour être lu remains the most widely used so far. The advice given in the guidelines is classified into five categories: ‘Hook your reader’ (the text should focus on the reader and their needs), ‘Choose your words carefully’ (pay attention to the se- lection of words, keep it simple), ‘Make simple sentences’ (e.g. short sentences, as few clauses as possible), ‘Highlight the text structure’ (e.g. add sections, give examples), and ‘Make reading easier by layout’ (e.g. use graphs or groupings, bold font). This was followed, in 2006, by the publication of Plain Language guidelines from the Walloon Region: 10 règles d’or pour des textes plus lisibles (10 golden rules for more readable texts) (Easi-Wal 2006). In 2016, an initia- tive called Ensemble simplifions (Simplify together) was launched, which was linked to the user experience and simplification of online procedures, followed in 2017 by the publication of the Plain Language guidelines of eWBS (e-Wal- lonie-Bruxelles Simplification), mainly for digital communications: Guide des bonnes pratiques pour des documents administratifs clairs (Good practice guide for clear administrative documents) (eWBS 2017), and in 2018 by a thematic year in Wallonia: Si simple, si digital (So simple, so digital) focusing on the user experience and readability of administrative documents. A Plain Legal Language guide, which combines linguistic and legal expertise is a two-volume book Dire le droit et être compris: Comment rendre le langage judiciaire plus accessible? (Speaking the law and being understood: How to make judicial language more accessible?) by the Association Syndicale des Magistrats. This guide, first published in 2003 and revised in 2010 (Vandermeersch et al. 2010) and 2017, has brought together linguists, criminologists, and magistrates. It suggests how to write legal documents that can be understood by their main addressee, the litigant. Wherever possible, the main lines are: favour everyday life language; help the reader orient him/herself in the judicial act; and main- tain legal rigour. Recent research by Nord (2018) has revealed that, although several Plain Language guides are available to assist writers of administrative texts in their 66 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Belgium work, the writers do not always follow the guidelines provided in these guides, mainly because they are too vague and too numerous. With the aim of reliev- ing writers from the need to keep all these guidelines in mind, a web platform called AMesure 16 has been developed for French (François et al. 2020) to au- tomatically identify clear writing issues in administrative texts and provide simple writing advice that is contextually relevant. This tool mostly relies on the advice found in the FWB guidelines. Wablieft provides a two-page leaflet with 20 tips for writing Easy Language: such as use clear layout, address the reader, put important information first, remove details, one topic per paragraph, subtitles in each paragraph, use short sentences (avg. 15 words), use everyday language, use the active voice and present tense and use short words (Wablieft n.d.). In line with the Handistreaming plan, Brussels offers a small Easy Language guide in French, called Handistreaming, comment adapter votre communication à tous? (Handistreaming, how to adapt your communication to everyone?) (Equal.Brussels and CAWaB 2019) and in Dutch, Handistreaming, communi- catie die iedereen aanspreekt! (Handistreaming, communication that appeals to everyone!). They offer advice on different disabilities (hearing, visual, physical, mental) and on easy language for different media. Beside these guidelines, Wal- lonia follows the recommendations for Easy Language by the European Union and UNAPEI, the first French federation of organizations that represents and defends the interests of people with mental disabilities and their families. An example of the advice given is: use simple words, adapt the content to the target audience, prioritize essential ideas, simplify syntax, clarify layout, and use pictograms. For an illustration of the Dutch and French guidelines, see Appendix 1. 6 Practical outcomes As mentioned in the previous section, different governmental levels have in- troduced various guidelines to facilitate and promote Plain and Easy Language. 16 AMesure, https://cental.uclouvain.be/amesure/. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 67 Vincent Vandeghinste, Adeline Müller, Thomas François, Orphée De Clercq Besides this, other initiatives – especially Easy Language initiatives – have also emerged, which we discuss next. 6.1 Media and literature For Dutch news in Easy Language, the Wablieft weekly newspaper is free- ly available on their website. An even easier newspaper is the Wablieft Start, which is targeted towards beginner readers of Dutch. A possibly even simpler version of this news is also presented on the already mentioned WAI-NOT website (see Section 3). For French, various sources of Easy Language books are available, but these are generally published by French publishers (Lire en français facile (To Read in easy French) by Hachette and Lecture en français facile (Reading in Easy French) by Clé International). In Wallonia, at the instigation of the already mentioned organization Lire et Écrire, an original collection of books in simpli- fied French, La Traversée, 17 are now published by Éditions Weirich. The concept of this collection is that well-known Belgian writers write novels for everyone, with a special focus on adult beginner readers. To ensure the accessibility of these novels, they are submitted to and assessed by a reading committee com- posed of former illiterate people. Since 2012, 26 books have been published by 26 different authors. The books range from love stories to detective novels or realistic fiction, sometimes with a tragic background (such as war or disease). As adult beginner readers are often limited to reading children’s books, the goal of this collection is to offer a variety of books with topics that might be more appealing to them. 6.2 Informative texts During the recent COVID-19 crisis, the government has tried (not always successfully) to give information that is as clear as possible to everyone. The official website 18 contains various posters and fact sheets in Easy Language in 17 La Traversée, http://www.collectionlatraversee.be/. 18 Coronavirus COVID-19, https://www.info-coronavirus.be/en/translation/. 68 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Belgium Dutch and French, but it is not easy to use. A link to Wablieft is also on the website to offer more information on the virus. For French, there is no such link, but Asbl Inclusion provides a great deal of valuable information in Easy Language (Inclusion asbl, n.d. b) and reaches more than 5000 families of people with mental disabilities. 6.3 Other projects The Week van de Geletterdheid (Week of Literacy) is an annual campaign that draws the attention of the general media to low literacy issues, and tries to convince people with literacy issues to take part in adult education initiatives. The klaretaalrendeert.be 19 website (Plain language pays off) provides guidelines for easy language in adult education. Its successor, www.diversiteitspraktijk. be (Diversity Practice), has an entire section on accessible communication, including guidelines for COVID-19 communications for low literate people, and how to communicate with language learners. The www.nedbox.be website provides exercises at different levels of difficulty (starting from, e.g., Wablieft articles) and in different domains for language learners of Dutch (Schiepers 2016). These exercises are based on scientific research on second language learning and online teaching (Schiepers et al. 2017b). The international literacy day, on September 8th, is also a perfect occasion for highlighting literacy problems among adults. The Lire et Écrire association, together with the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, carries out an awareness cam- paign every year on a different topic (digital illiteracy for 2020, the percentage of the Belgian population who is illiterate in 2019, etc.). 7 Education and research Regarding education, in Section 5, we presented various guidelines that all comprise pedagogical material. In this section, we highlight some specific training initiatives for both Plain Language and Easy Language. The largest 19 Unfortunately, this website is no longer updated. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 69 Vincent Vandeghinste, Adeline Müller, Thomas François, Orphée De Clercq part of this section, however, is devoted to research related to several aspects of Plain and Easy Language, such as research on literacy and readability, Easy Lan- guage corpora, augmented communication, and automated text simplification. 7.1 Education Since 1997, all newly appointed magistrates have received compulsory Plain Legal Language training for ‘editing verdicts’ with a focus on accessible lan- guage. The already mentioned Project Flavour (High Council of Justice 2018) gives an overview of plain legal language initiatives, including two and a half days of training in Editing of judgments: formal and substantive requirements, of which one day is dedicated to Plain Language. This training is compulsory for candidate magistrates. The report also lists the initiatives of the different Belgian universities concerning legal proficiency, which often include sessions on comprehensibility. The Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles offers its own writers Plain Administra- tive Language training through its digital administration service eWBS – Wal- lonie Bruxelles Simplification. This training is in line with the eWBS guidelines for Plain Language, with a focus on digital communication. Wablieft provides Easy Language coaching for writers and training sessions for organizations. Asbl Inclusion provides FALC (Facile à lire et à comprendre, Easy to read and to understand) classes for the parents of disabled children and for professionals (psychologists, administrations, etc.). Some of the courses are specially designed for people with intellectual disabilities, to teach them to say when a text is difficult. 7.2 Literacy research Schiepers et al. (2017a) provides a review of the Flemish policy on literacy and a synthesis of the research on literacy in Flanders. Initially, the concept of literacy focused on being able to read and write, leading to a dichotomy between alpha- betes and analphabetes. In the 1990s, the definition of literacy shifted towards a much broader and more positive, gradual concept of functional literacy. 70 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Belgium Research on digital inclusion (Galvan 2019, Brotcorne and Mariën 2020) shows that internet use is heavily influenced by low literacy: email and social media, which both require writing, are much less used than applications such as WhatsApp or Skype, which allow sending oral messages and do not require writing. When they receive a textual message (sms, email), some users use text-to-speech software in order to avoid having to read, and turn it into an oral message. 7.3 Readability research As we discussed earlier, the field of readability was first developed in the US, be- fore being adopted by some researchers for both Dutch and French. 20 Belgium was actually a pioneer in this field, as Gilbert de Landsheere (1963), Professor at ULiège, was the first to efficiently promote readability in the French-speak- ing world. He adapted the famous Flesch (1948) formula to French simply by adapting the way in which syllables are counted and sentences are defined. He was also one of the main advocates of the cloze test for assessing reading com- prehension. Taylor (1953) created the cloze test as an easier tool for assessing reading comprehension. It consists of suppressing words in a text – for instance, one word in every five words – that the reader has to guess from the context. However, the first dedicated readability formula for French was designed by de Landsheere’s student: Georges Henry (1975). He administered cloze tests to 180 schoolchildren from the 5th to the 12th grade and developed a set of readability formulae which can measure more complex phenomena such as the proportion of dialogue pronouns and the proportion of concrete words, etc. He was one of the few readability researchers to consider that one formu- la does not fit all readers’ levels nor all contexts, and thus proposed as many as nine formulae. Both researchers, however, mainly studied readability for educational purposes and not for illiterate people or people with disabilities. For the Dutch language, the early work on readability was mainly done in the Netherlands. A number of Dutch formulae that were developed in the 20 For a synthesis encompassing all the work in this field, see Klare (1984), Chall and Dale (1995), François (2011), Benjamin (2012) or Collins-Thompson (2014). © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 71 Vincent Vandeghinste, Adeline Müller, Thomas François, Orphée De Clercq second half of the 20th century are still in use today: the Flesch-Douma (Dou- ma 1960), Flesch-Brouwer (Brouwer 1963) and the CLIB and CILT formulae (Staphorsius 1994). A typical feature of all these formulae is that they assign a particular score to a text based on shallow text characteristics, such as the average word and sentence length, which are multiplied by a certain weight. The CLIB and CILT formulae (Staphorsius 1994) were developed in the context of primary school education and have been used in both the Nether- lands and Flanders to indicate reading levels of texts. These levels are applied to texts and to reading ability and are used to match beginner readers to appro- priate-level texts. The CLIB formula was the first Dutch formula with a solid empirical basis. It is the result of extensive research that collected the cloze scores of 4320 children aged 7 to 12 into a corpus of 240 texts. The tests were distributed equally to children of different reading proficiency levels and each child took two different cloze tests. This resulted in 8640 cloze tests, the for- mula of which were calibrated and validated. The CLIB formula contains four predictors: average word length in letters, the percentage of highly frequent Dutch words, a type-token ratio, and the percentage of sentences per word. Around the turn of the century, this simplistic approach to readability gen- erated great criticism, mostly aimed at the lack of causal relevance of predictors such as word or sentence length for readability (Bruce et al. 1981, Kraf and Pander Maat 2009, Kleijn 2018), the disregard of the reader’s prior knowledge or language skills (Redish and Selzer 1985), or the failure of readability for- mulae to take more complex linguistic phenomena into account (Zakaluk and Samuels 1988). Thanks to advances in the field of natural language processing (NLP) and computer science, recent readability research approaches have ad- dressed the need to incorporate more complex text characteristics and machine learning techniques to more reliably predict readability. For Dutch, this new paradigm has been investigated by several researchers (Pander Maat et al. 2014, De Clercq and Hoste 2016). In Flanders, the first machine learning-based readability prediction system for Dutch was developed at Ghent University (De Clercq and Hoste 2016). It scores an individual text (regression) or compares two or more texts (classification) and targets a wide variety of Dutch text material meant for adult readers. Various text character- 72 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Belgium istics have been implemented in the system, ranging from easy-to-compute superficial text characteristics to features requiring deep linguistic processing. For French, readability studies had lost a great deal of popularity in the French-speaking world and were hardly investigated when François (2011) dedicated his PhD thesis to the development of the first readability formula for French as a foreign language in line with this new computational paradigm. François and Miltsakaki (2012) compared classic formulae with NLP-enabled formulae and concluded that both types of models captured slightly different information and that when combined, their performance improved. More re- cently, Tack et al. (2016) focused on predicting the readability of words for learners of a foreign language using a personalized model and demonstrated that this model could better predict the words unknown by a given reader than a model based on a frequency list, as is common in second language education. An entirely different, non-computational approach to the study of the read- ability and understandability of legal texts can be found in a number of master’s theses, and in Hendrickx (2003), Nivelle (2008) and Deschamps (2009). 7.4 Easy to read corpora and linguistic properties To study the properties of easy-to-read Dutch, Vandeghinste et al. (2019) col- lected and automatically annotated the archive of the Wablieft online newspa- per and made the corpus available to researchers through the Dutch Language Institute. 21 They are also working on making the WAI-NOT news corpus, i.e. the collection of all news items that have appeared on the WAI-NOT website, available for research. This corpus contains even shorter and easier to read sentences than the Wablieft corpus. Vandeghinste and Bulté (2019) compared the linguistic properties of Wablieft Dutch with regular newspaper Dutch. Research on distinguishing easy language from language directed towards children is still ongoing, and to this end the linguistic properties of Wablieft Dutch and WAI-NOT Dutch are being compared with the properties of the language used in the Flemish youth 21 Instituut voor de Nederlandse taal, http://hdl.handle.net/10032/tm-a2-q6. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 73 Vincent Vandeghinste, Adeline Müller, Thomas François, Orphée De Clercq journal Karrewiet (targeting children under 12) and in the Dutch (from the Netherlands) Basilex corpus (Tellings et al. 2014). 7.5 Augmented communication Another way to alleviate low literacy is to use pictograms. Since 2012, the WAI- NOT email and chat services have contained a Text2Picto translation mod- ule, 22 which is based on research on computational linguistics (Vandeghinste et al. 2015) and enables augmenting (or translating) the senders’ Dutch textual messages with pictograms. This means that the receiver of the message is not actually required to read. Users can also input messages through pictograms instead of text, which are then translated into words (Sevens et al. 2015a). The organization of the pictogram entry method is based on research by Sevens et al. (2017) and has improved through user feedback from people with in- tellectual disabilities (Sevens et al. 2018a). In the European Able to Include project, 23 the system was extended so that it can also translate English and Spanish messages (Sevens et al. 2015b). Norré et al. (2020) have also investigated whether pictograms can be used as an efficient means of communication between doctors and patients through a survey with 67 respondents. The results of this experiment showed that pic- togram-based messages were correctly understood in 75%–86% of cases. Another approach is the work of Van Praet et al. (2020), which groups various communication support tools, such as translation into five foreign languages, pictograms, icons, video remote interpreting, and an audio version of text content in communication between caretakers of a preventive health organization situated in Flanders, Belgium and mothers with limited Dutch proficiency. In a more standard NLP vein, Norré and De Wilde (2018) have modified a word prediction system and had it evaluated by people with severe communicative disabilities. They found that such a system indeed makes the writing process quicker for this specific audience, but also creates a high cogni- tive load that should be taken into account in future developments. Pictogram 22 A demonstration of this system can be found online at http://picto.ccl.kuleuven.be/ (Dutch/ Spanish/English). 23 Able to Include, http://www.able-to-include.com. 74 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Belgium prediction was also a part of the pictographic user interface of Sevens et al. (2017). 7.6 Automated text simplification (ATS) After automatically assessing the readability of a text, the next step is to be able to automatically rewrite the text in a form that is easier to decode and compre- hend. A few studies have investigated the effect of text simplification on read- ing. Margarido et al. (2008) conducted several experiments on text simplifica- tion for poor readers, more specifically, functionally illiterate readers in Brazil. They showed that each simplification approach had different effects, depending on the level of literacy. However, they that all improved text understanding at some level. Rello et al. (2013) found that lexical simplification (i.e., replacing complex words with simpler synonyms) improved both reading speed and comprehension among dyslexic readers. More recently, Javourey-Drevet et al. (2021) conducted a large-scale experiment on 164 children in the 2nd grade and revealed that both reading fluency and comprehension of simplified texts were significantly better than that of normal texts. Justified by these encour- aging results, automatic text simplification has undergone numerous develop- ments since the early 2000s. 24 As regards work on automatic text simplification conducted in Belgium, the French side has been mostly studies at the Université Catholique de Louvain, in collaboration with French universities. In addition to the AMesure project described in Section 5, this team has also proposed one of the first syntactic simplification systems for French (Brouwers et al. 2012). This approach is based on the application of linguistic patterns to a syntactically parsed version of the text, followed by a step in which replacement rules are applied in order to create simpler syntactic structures. Several studies have also investigated the issue of lexical simplification, which mostly aims to rank words on the basis of their reading difficulty (Gala et al. 2014, François et al. 2016). This line of research has led to the development of a graded disambiguated resource of synonyms, 24 More details about the field of ATS can be found in the syntheses by Siddharthan (2014), Paetzold (2016), Saggión (2017), or, for French, by Gala et al. (2018). © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 75 Vincent Vandeghinste, Adeline Müller, Thomas François, Orphée De Clercq ReSyF (Billami et al. 2018), which can be used to carry out lexical substitution within automatic text simplification (Hmida et al. 2018). Similar to the French situation, automatic text simplification in Dutch is still in its infancy, focusing on knowledge-based methods for lexical simpli- fication (Bulté et al. 2018) and rule-based syntactic simplification (Sevens et al. 2018b). Older approaches (Vandeghinste and Pan 2004, Tjong Kim Sang et al. 2004) have focused on simplification for subtitling, also known as sentence compression. Based on parallel datasets consisting of original transcripts and their compressed/simplified equivalents (Vandeghinste and Tjong Kim Sang 2004), the systems were able to learn how to simplify, in a similar way to that in which machine translation systems learn from translated data. 8 Future perspectives With respect to the future of plain and easy language in Belgium, there seems to be a difference between the perspectives of Plain Language, aimed at the general public, and Easy Language, aimed at low literate people and people with disabilities. Plain Language seems to be structurally funded through incorporating civil servants in the administrations of the different governments. These civil serv- ants work on raising awareness, and organize training sessions with the overall objective of having government-issued documents in plain language that are understandable for the majority of the population. While some politicians are starting to acknowledge the importance of Easy Language, for example for social workers, 25 the biggest challenges remaining are policy awareness and funding. Due to this lack of structural funding, it is hard to outline a long-term vision for Easy Language. Funding is often project based, and therefore by definition limited to a time window of a few years. Even when funding has been secured, budgets can still be cut, or projects can 25 Information collected through a personal communication in 2020 with Laëtitia Jacoby of Inter’Actions. 76 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Belgium lose funding, which is what happened to the ‘Visa pour le net’, an interesting initiative that fostered the simplification of websites. With respect to the raised awareness of accessibility, only a limited budget is available to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. Clearly visible accessibility measures, such as the accessibility of buildings for wheelchairs, often have priority over less visible measures, such as providing government documents in an Easy Language variant. Though politicians favour Plain Language, they often fail to understand that it is insufficient for certain audiences. It is hard to put yourself in the shoes of someone you do not know, or realise what their needs are. Easy Language should, however, be more widely disseminated at all levels of administration, and not only in services dedicated directly to people with disabilities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, government communication has had to be converted into Easy Language by organizations such as Wablieft, which put a great strain on their normal activities. With the digital shift of administrations, computer-mediated commu- nication needs to be as easy as possible, as face-to-face conversations often disappear or are reduced to a minimum. This is where scientific research in Natural Language Processing and the resulting software applications can step in. Through the development of authoring interfaces that indicate when the author is using words and grammatical constructions that are not suitable for the targeted audience, authors may become aware of certain aspects of their writing style and adapt them accordingly. However, in order to do so properly, scientific research is needed to validate existing Plain Language and Easy Lan- guage guidelines, in particular by more clearly identifying the effect of each of the guidelines on specific user groups. Another interesting line of research is that of comparing the properties of Easy Language to those of language aimed at the general public or aimed at an intellectual audience. As producing several versions of the same document to meet the specific needs of different audiences is very time-consuming, automated text simplifica- tion can also help in the conversion of documents aimed towards certain target groups. However, most techniques from state-of-the-art artificial intelligence require large data sets for training. For example, training for a text simplifica- tion system such as a machine translation engine would require large amounts © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 77 Vincent Vandeghinste, Adeline Müller, Thomas François, Orphée De Clercq of human-simplified text. While such resources might be available for English, they are not available for Dutch or French. Therefore, new techniques must be investigated that enable unsupervised text simplification (e.g., Surya et al. 2019). Currently, this research area is too premature for practical applications. To end on a positive note: just as the recent COVID-19 pandemic has re- sulted in an improved awareness of communication in sign language, it has also resulted in an improved awareness of the importance of communication that is understood by all sections of the population. We hope that this raised awareness will result in structural programmes, not only in Plain Language governmental communication, but also in the adaptation of communication aimed towards specific groups of the population. Authors Dr Vincent Vandeghinste is a researcher at the Dutch Language Institute (In- stituut voor de Nederlandse Taal) in Leiden, the Netherlands, and at the Centre for Computational Linguistics and Leuven.AI (the Leuven Institute for Artifi- cial Intelligence) at KU Leuven in Leuven, Belgium. Adeline Müller is a PhD student at the Center for Natural Language Processing (CENTAL) at the Institute for Language and Communication of the UCLou- vain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, to which Professor Dr Thomas François is also affiliated as a professor of applied linguistics. Professor Dr Orphée De Clercq is an assistant professor of language technol- ogy in the Language and Translation Technology Team (LT3) at the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. 78 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Belgium Acknowledgements The information in this chapter was provided by many different people who work in the fields of Plain and Easy Language. Special thanks go to Katrien Janssens of Wablieft; Christian Denoyelle of the High Council of Justice; Profes- sor Dr Karl Hendrickx, Associate Professor of Dutch legal language proficiency at the universities of Antwerp and Leuven (UAntwerpen en KULeuven), also affiliated with the Court of Audit.; Nancy Van Belleghem of WAI-NOT; Mariet Schiepers of the Research Unit Language and Education of KU Leuven; Laëti- tia Jacoby of Inter-Actions Asbl; and Magali Norré of the Center for Natural Language Processing (CENTAL) of UCLouvain. References Able to Include. 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Web. 22 January 2021. . Sevens, Leen; Vandeghinste, Vincent; Schuurman, Ineke, and Frank Van Eynde. “Involving People with an Intellectual Disability in the Development of Pictograph Translation Technologies for Social Media Use.” Cahiers du CENTAL 8 (2018a): 57–68. Print. Sevens, Leen; Vandeghinste, Vincent; Schuurman, Ineke, and Frank Van Eynde. “Less is More: A Rule-Based Syntactic Simplification Module for Impro- ved Text-to-Pictograph Translation.” Data and Knowledge Engineering 117 (2018b): 264–289. Elsevier. Print. Also available at . Siddharthan, Advaith. “A survey of research on text simplification.” ITL-Internati- onal Journal of Applied Linguistics 165.2 (2014): 259–298. Print. Staphorsius, Gerrit. Leesbaarheid en leesvaardigheid, De ontwikkeling van een do- meingericht meetinstrument [Readability and reading skills. The development of a domain oriented metric]. Arnhem: Cito, 1994. Print. 86 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Belgium Surya, Sai; Mishra, Abhijit; Laha, Anirban; Jain, Parag, and Karthik San- karanarayanan. “Unsupervised Neural Text Simplification.” Proceedings of the 57th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (2019): 2058– 2068. Web. 22 January 2021. . Taaladvies. Web. 17 March 2021. . Tack, Anaïs; François, Thomas; Ligozat Anne-Laure, and Cédrick Fairon. “Modèles adaptatifs pour prédire automatiquement la compétence lexicale d’un apprenant de français langue étrangère.” [Adaptive models to automatically predict the lexical competence of a French-as-a-foreign-language learner]. Proceedings of JEP-TALN-RECITAL (2016): 221–234. Web. 22 January 2021. . Taylor, Wilson. “Cloze procedure: A new tool for measuring readability.” Journa- lism quarterly 30.4 (1953): 415–433. Print. Also available at . Tellings, Agnes; Hulsbosch, Micha; Vermeer, Anne, and Antal van den Bosch. “BasiLex: an 11.5-million words corpus of Dutch texts written for child- ren.” Computational Linguistics in the Netherlands Journal 4 (2014): 191–208. Web. 22 January 2021. . Text2Picto. Web. 17 March 2021. . Tjong Kim Sang, Erik; Daelemans, Walter, and Anja Hoethker. “Reduc- tion of Dutch Sentences for Automatic Subtitling.” Computational Linguistics in the Netherlands 2003. Antwerp Papers in Linguistics 111 (2004): 109–123. Web. 22 January 2021. . United Nations. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 2006. Web. 22 Ja- nuary 2021. . Vandeghinste, Vincent, and Bram Bulté. “Linguistic Proxies of Readability: Comparing Easy-to-Read and regular newspaper Dutch.” Computational Lingui- stics in the Netherlands Journal 9 (2019): 81–100. Web. 22 January 2021. . Vandeghinste, Vincent, and Yi Pan. “Sentence Compression for Automated Sub- titling. A Hybrid Approach.” Proceedings of ACL-workshop: Text Summarization Branches Out (2004): 89–95. Web. 22 January 2021. . Vandeghinste, Vincent, and Erik Tjong Kim Sang. “Using a Parallel Transcript/ Subtitle Corpus for Sentence Compression.” Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation. Paris, ELRA, 2004. Web. 22 Ja- nuary 2021. . © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 87 Vincent Vandeghinste, Adeline Müller, Thomas François, Orphée De Clercq Vandeghinste, Vincent; Bulté, Bram, and Liesbeth Augustinus. “Wablieft: An Easy-to-Read Newspaper Corpus for Dutch.” Eds. Kiril Simov, and Maria Es- kevich. Proceedings of the CLARIN Annual Conference (2019): 188–191. Web. 22 January 2021. . Vandeghinste, Vincent; Schuurman, Ineke; Sevens, Leen, and Frank Van Eynde. “Translating Text into Pictographs.” Natural Language Engineering 23.2 (2017). Web. 22 January 2021. . Vandermeersch, Damien, and Association Syndical des Magistrats. Dire le droit et être compris. Comment rendre le langage judiciaire plus accessible? Vade- mecum pour la rédaction de jugements [Tell the law and be understood. How can we make the court language more accessible? Vademecum for judgment writing]. Bruxelles: Bruylant, 2010. Print. Van Praet, Ellen; De Wilde, July, and Abdil Karanfil. “Multilingual health- care: a global view on communicative challenges.” Eds. Christiane Hohenstein, and Magdalène Lévy-Tödter. Multilingual healthcare: a global view on communicative challenges. Wiesbaden, Germany: Springer Gabler, 2020. 285–310. Print. Vlaamse overheid. Het Strategisch Plan Geletterdheid 2017–2024 [The Strategic Plan for Literacy 2017–2024]. Vlaamse overheid, 2017. Web. 22 January 2021. . Wablieft. De geschiedenis van Wablieft [The history of Wablieft]. Vlaams ondersteun- ingscentrum voor het volwassenenonderwijs. Wablieft, 2014. Web. 22 January 2021. . Wablieft. Wablieft website. 2021. Web. 22 January 2021. . Wablieft. 20 tips voor duidelijke taal [20 hints for clear language]. n.d. Web. 22 Ja- nuary 2021. . Wablieft tekstadvies. Jouw teksten in duidelijke taal. Web. 17 March 2021. . WAI-NOT. Web. 17 March 2021. . World Wide Web Consortium. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1. 2018. Web. 22 January 2021. . Zakaluk, Beverly, and S. Jay Samuels. “Issues related to text comprehensibili- ty: the future of readability.” Revue québécoise de linguistique 25.1 (1996): 41–59. Print. Also available at . 88 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Belgium Appendix 1. An illustration of guidelines for Easy Dutch and Easy French in Belgium. These example texts are not simplifications of regular texts; they have been written straight into their easy form. Easy Dutch, Duidelijke Taal Rode Kruis verkoopt weer stickers De verkoop van stickers voor het Rode Kruis is weer gestart. De traditie is al ouder dan 50 jaar. De verkoop duurt dit jaar nog tot 7 mei. In 2015 staat Wick- ie De Viking op de stickers. Wickie is geliefd bij vele kinderen. Het Rode Kruis hoopt daarom veel stickers te verkopen. Vrijwilligers van het Rode Kruis verkopen de stickers vaak op kruispunten. Vorig jaar ontstond even ophef. Is dat niet te gevaarlijk? Toch kan je opnieuw stickers kopen aan een kruispunt. Source: Wablieft, 30 april 2015 [Red Cross is selling stickers again The sale of stickers for the Red Cross has started again. The tradition dates back more than 50 years. This year, the sale will last until May 7. In 2015, Wickie The Viking is on the stickers. Many children love Wickie. The Red Cross hopes to sell many stickers. Volunteers from the Red Cross often sell the stickers at intersec- tions. Last year there was some problems. Isn‘t that too dangerous? But now you can buy stickers again at an intersection.] © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 89 Vincent Vandeghinste, Adeline Müller, Thomas François, Orphée De Clercq Easy French, FALC (Facile à Lire et à Comprendre) Le vote est un droit Avant de voter, lisez et regardez des programmes électoraux. C’est important de bien comprendre les idées de chacun avant de faire votre choix. Votre choix peut changer les choses dans votre commune.Faites votre choix librement. Le vote est un devoir Tous les Belges qui ont plus de 18 ans doivent voter. Les personnes avec un hand- icap intellectuel doivent aussi voter. Vous êtes obligé de voter. Si vous n’allez pas voter vous risquez d’avoir une amende. Inclusion ASBL Source: This excerpt is taken from a brochure on municipal elections, written by Inclusion asbl. https://www.inclusion-asbl.be/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Livret-elections- communales-2018-Jai-le-droit-de-voter...-mais-comment-je-fais-min.pdf [Voting is a right Before voting, read and watch party platforms. It’s important to understand everyone’s ideas before you make your choice. Your choice can make a difference in your municipality. Make your choice freely. Voting is a duty All Belgians who are over 18 years old must vote. People with an intellectual disa- bility must also vote. You have to vote. If you don’t vote you might get a fine.] 90 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Mirjana Lenček, Jelena Kuvač Kraljević Easy Language in Croatia 1 Introduction Croatia is a country in south-east Europe on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Its capital is Zagreb. Croatian is the official language in Croatia, and it became the 24th official language of the European Union upon the country’s accession in 2013. It is a South Slavic language, used primarily in Croatia, by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and by Croatian minorities in some neighbouring countries (e.g., Austria, Serbia, and Hungary). Croatian, like most other Slavic languages, has a rich inflection system. Case, number and gender markings are used for nouns and adjectives, while person, number and tense markings are used for verbs. Noun inflection has three genders (masculine, feminine and neutral), two numbers (singular and plural) and seven cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, locative, and instrumental). Verb forms are expressed by means of six cate- gories: person (first, second and third), number (singular and plural), tense (simple-present, aorist, imperfect, compound-perfect, pluperfect, future I and future II), aspect (perfective vs imperfective), mode (infinitive, imperative and two conditionals) and voice (active vs passive). The verb system can be further divided into seven verbal classes based on infinitive and present forms (Barić et al. 1995). Most Croatian words are polysyllabic, and 87% have open syllables, which means they end with a vowel. However, the Croatian morphological system is more demanding, sometimes even opaque. With seven cases, two numbers, three genders and aspect in the verbal system, nouns and verbs can have dif- ferent orthographic forms (e.g., dijete (child) – djeca (children) or peče (bakes; 3rd ps. sg.) – peku (bake; 3rd ps. pl.). © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 91 Mirjana Lenček, Jelena Kuvač Kraljević As with most Slavic languages, the basic word order is subject-verb-object (SVO) even though, due to the rich morphological system, word order is ac- tually relatively free. The orthographic system of the Croatian language is the so-called ‘Gaj’s Latin alphabet’, considered to be a variant of an alphabetic writing system ( Moguš 1995). It has 30 phonemes represented by 30 upper and lowercase let- ters. Standard Croatian has five monophthongal vowels and one diphthong (ie), but other diphthongs are reportedly used in non-standard dialects of Croatian (Škarić 1991, Jelaska 2004). Three digraphs in Croatian represent single con- sonant sounds (nj, lj, and dž). An additional digraph ‘je’ and one trigraph ‘ije’ (which is especially problematic for young spellers) are both considered not to be a part of the alphabet (see Jelaska 2004, Jelaska and Gulešić-Machata 2005). Croatian is a language with transparent orthography which means there is great consistency in sound-letter associations in the orthography (Gontijo et al. 2003). Despite a few exceptions in one-to-one relationships between pho- nemes and graphemes that should be acquired mostly during formal education, transparent orthography makes the decoding process in Croatian easier than in languages with non-transparent orthography. In Croatia, primary education starts when children are six or seven years old (most often at the age of seven). It consists of eight grades and is the only compulsory part of formal education. During preschool, there is no gener- al assessment of communication and language abilities or early literacy and mathematical skills. Secondary education is not compulsory and is provided by gymnasiums and vocational schools. Croatia has recorded a substantial growth in people who attained academic degrees, from 7.5% in 2001 to 16.7% today (Croatian Bureau of Statistics 2019). Unfortunately, neither Plain Language nor Easy Language (for some categories of students) is included in the design of educational content, official documents, or media announcements. The analysis of the latest research of the International Student Assessment Program (PISA), conducted in 2018, shows below-average results for the last 12 years in all three exam areas of reading, mathematics and science. There is no data on adult literacy, numeracy and problem-solving skills assessed under the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) 92 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Croatia because Croatia only joined the programme recently, in 2018 (Razvoj sustava osiguravanja kvalitete u obrazovanju odraslih 2021). Croatia has around 660 000 children and adolescents under the age of 18 and 8% of these have some form of disability (Croatian Institute of Public Health 2020). Depending on the child’s capabilities, they have three education programme options: regular, regular individualized, and special. According to the annual report of the Ministry of Science and Education (2020), around 23 000 students with disabilities attended elementary school in the academic year 2019/2020. Of these, around 20 000 were educated in accordance with the regular individualized programme, and around 3 000 in accordance with the special programme. In the same academic year, 5255 students with disa- bilities attended inclusive secondary education – 4223 students were taught in accordance with the regular programme and 1032 in accordance with the special programme in vocational schools. Speech, language and communica- tion disorders, and specific learning disorders are the most specified causes that require an appropriate type of education. For these types of disorders, the prescribed mode of education is the individualized education programme (Croatian Institute for Public Health 2019). 2 Historical perspectives The concept of Easy Language is relatively new in Croatia. Although Croatia is the co-signatory of numerous documents that guarantee the right to education for children with disabilities and different rights for adults with disabilities, Easy Language was only mentioned for the first time in 2004 in the translation of the first version of the Guidelines for easy-to-read materials (IFLA 1997, Hrvatsko knjižničarsko društvo 2004, 2005). Since then, the term Easy Lan- guage (translated as građa lagana za čitanje) has been presented and described in many conferences (Lenček 2005, 2007) and in several professional materials and brochures (Lenček 2008). Easy Language-related activities have formed parts of several professional projects carried out at the Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation, Uni- versity of Zagreb (Specifične teškoće učenja – i mi smo posebni (Specific learning © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 93 Mirjana Lenček, Jelena Kuvač Kraljević difficulties – we are special too) and Specifične teškoće učenja – idemo dalje (Specific learning difficulties – let’s move on)). Both projects were financed by the Ministry of Family Affairs, War Veterans and Intergenerational solidari- ty in 2007–2008. Easy Language-related activities were also part of projects funded by the Government of the Republic of Croatia. One such project is the Utvrđivanje problema čitanja i pisanja kod osoba s izrečenim odgojnim mjer- ama u Republici Hrvatskoj (Determining the problem of reading and writing among persons with imposed educational measures in the Republic of Croatia), financed by the Office for Human Rights of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, 2004–2007. In 2009, in the short article published in the bulletin of the Croatian Dys- lexia Association (No. 24), speech and language pathologists presented their first experiences of easy-to-read materials from the 16th European Conference on Reading (Braga, Portugal). ‘It should be speech and language pathologists who determine the adaptations based on their knowledge of the difficulties and peculiarities in language’ (Gabriel 2013: 65) 1, of course, in collaboration with librarians and Croatian language teachers. This decision raised an important question for speech and language pathologists (SLP): how to conduct language adaptation so that it is accessible for all students with disabilities (including grade- or age-appropriate concepts and language), but also keep the text stim- ulating and motivating for the child’s further development and learning? Knowing which language skills are developed in each chronological year or class is essential for starting language adaptation of a text. At this time, psycho- linguistic data (Kovačević 1996) on the specifics of the Croatian language used by children (Kuvač and Cvikić 2005) and data on the use of language in the field of educational linguistics (Kovačević and Kuvač 2004, Aladrović Slovaček 2019, Peti-Stantić 2019) were relatively scarce. Consequently, speech and language pathologists decided to start from another perspective – by analysing linguistic and graphic elements in primers 2, with the intention of determining what is difficult for all students but especially for students with language disorders such as dyslexia (Lenček and Gligora 2010). Since the primer is the first formal book 1 Translated by the authors. 2 The term primer stands for the first formal book that children use during the first two grades for learning to read and write. 94 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Croatia to which a child is exposed, it must be very carefully designed and take into consideration a number of linguistic and graphic peculiarities. Therefore, the purpose of the collected data was to ensure more effective work on the indi- vidualization of educational content for students with dyslexia and to develop new materials and textbooks that are adequate for the same population. In the last ten years, numerous studies have analysed primers (for more information, see the section on Education and Research). In 2011, the Croatian Library Association (Hrvatsko knjižničarsko društvo, HKD), in collaboration with speech and language pathologists, published the second authorized translation of Guidelines for easy-to-read materials (IFLA 2010). Since then, different types of adaptations have been made in accordance with the principles of the Guidelines. Whereas the first edition of the Guide- lines (IFLA 1997) focused only on dyslexia, the second revised edition (IFLA 2010) had a broader scope and focused on all people with disabilities who demonstrate significant reading difficulties. 3 Current situation Before defining the term Easy Language, it is important to distinguish it from the term Plain Language. Unfortunately, neither Plain Language nor Easy Language has an official status in Croatian law, and consequently the public’s awareness of these two terms is still very low. Therefore, there is no clearly agreed difference between these two terms, but the term Easy Language has been used more in the last 15 years due exclusively to children with develop- mental disorders. Plain Language (jasan jezik) is intended for the general pop- ulation, and aims to present all written information in a form that is readable to the ordinary reader. The definition of the Plain Language proposed by the International Plain Language Federation (2021) is informally accepted in Cro- atia: A communication is in Plain Language if its wording, structure, and design are so clear that the intended readers can easily find what they need, understand what they find, and use that information. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 95 Mirjana Lenček, Jelena Kuvač Kraljević 3.1 Definitions The term Easy Language (jednostavan jezik) is connected to and based on the term ‘easy-to read materials’. The term ‘easy-to-read’ (građa lagana za čitanje) first appeared in Croatian in 2004/2005. A newer term lako čitljivi tekstovi was proposed in 2018 and has been in use since then (Lenček and Kuvač Kraljević 2018). The term građa lagana za čitanje was used for the first time in the au- thorized translation of the IFLA manual Smjernice za knjižnične službe i usluge za osobe s disleksijom (Guidelines for Library Services to Persons with Dyslexia, 2001) published in Croatia in 2004 by the Croatian Library Association (Hr- vatsko knjižičarsko društvo). The extended definition of Easy Language proposed by IFLA in its second edition of the Guidelines has been accepted in Croatia: Easy Language is a linguistic adaptation of a text that makes both reading and comprehension easier. Easy Language is currently exclusively related to written text in printed and online materials. There is almost no Easy Language in the media that rely on spoken language. Unfortunately, there is a lack of awareness of the importance of understanding the content presented through speech, which is nonetheless essential for an individual’s social, political, and economic life. 3.2 Societal and legal context Croatia is the co-signatory of documents that guarantee the education of chil- dren with disabilities in mainstream schools such as the Salamanca declaration (UNESCO 1994); the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN 1989), rati- fied by Croatia in 2007; the European social charter (Council of Europe 1996); the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) (UN 2006); and many more. Moreover, the fundamental right of every child to education is stipulated in the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia (1990). The determinants of inclusive education are incorporated into all legal, strategic and curricular documents relating to the Croatian education system: the State Pedagogical Standard 2008 (Ministry of Science, Education and Sport 2008); the National Framework Curriculum for Preschool Education and Gen- eral Compulsory and Secondary Education (Ministry of Science, Education and sport 2011); the Strategy of Education, Science and Technology (Croatian 96 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Croatia Parliament 2014); and the Primary and Secondary School Education Act (Cro- atian Parliament, 2008). The Primary and Secondary School Education Act, as the fundamental document of the Croatian education system, establishes a method of teaching children with disabilities in accordance with their abilities and tendencies. Inclusive policy is defined by the Regulations on Primary and Secondary Education of Students with Developmental Disabilities (Official Gazette 2015). Another important document is the Marrakesh Treaty (2013), according to which easier access should be provided to published works for the visually impaired and all people who cannot read the standard press. On September 9th 2014, the Libraries of the City of Zagreb organized the 11th roundtable focus- ing on facilitating access to published works for the blind, the visually impaired, and people who for whatever other reason cannot read standard printing. In line with the Marrakesh Treaty, the Copyright and Related Rights Act (Official Gazette 2017) was amended to ensure easier access to adapted texts for people with reading difficulties and dyslexia. All these changes were presented in the National campaign for people with reading difficulties and dyslexia: I want to read too! (2016–2021). One of the objectives of the campaign was to raise the Croatian public’s awareness of the problems of people with different kinds of reading difficulties and dyslexia and the insufficient supply of easy-to-read materials. The campaign promoted unhindered and equal access to literary works for people with reading difficulties and dyslexia, as well as people who cannot read standard (black) print. The European Union ratified the Marrakesh Treaty on 1st October 2018, which entered into force on 1 January 2019. This allows people who cannot read the standard press, and the organizations that take care of their needs in the 28 EU Member States, to participate in the cross-border exchange of material in a customized format with third countries that are also signatories of the Marrakesh Treaty. According to the data available from 2019, more than 40 countries signed the Marrakesh Treaty. Under EU law, Croatia is required to implement the EU directive and regulation related to the Treaty. On 23rd September 2019, the Law on Accessibility of Websites and Software Solutions for Mobile Devices of Public Sector Bodies (Official Gazette 2019) entered into force. Its aim is to ensure equal inclusion and an active role in © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 97 Mirjana Lenček, Jelena Kuvač Kraljević society for all people, regardless of the type and degree of their disability and/ or reduced ability to use the digital content of public sector bodies. This Law incorporates the content of Directive 2016/2102 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Direktiva EU 2016) into Croatian legislation, which defines the circle of responsible bodies (public sector bodies) and their obligations in terms of meeting accessibility requirements and deadlines for adaptation. The Law on Accessibility, according to the provisions of the Direc- tive, prescribes the use of world standards when designing websites, webpage layouts and ways of navigating through content, searches and structure. This Law also highlights the need to use Plain Language, but its use has not yet taken root in Croatia. The application of standards ensures that the layout and functions of the website are adapted to people with disabilities and/or lower abilities. This is achieved through the basic principles of observability – users must be able to see the data displayed (it cannot be invisible to their senses), operability – users must be able to manage the interface (the interface cannot require interaction that the user cannot perform), intelligibility – users must be able to understand the information as well as the operation of the user interface (content or oper- ation must not be beyond their comprehension) and stability – users must be able to access the content regardless of the type of technology (i.e. regardless of technology development, content should remain equally accessible). The Information Commissioner is responsible for the supervision of the imple- mentation of this Law. In Croatia, the harmonization of the Croatian legislation in the field of copyright and related rights with the EU Directive is underway. Of all the legal, strategic and curricular documents that Croatia possesses, none mention Easy Language as an obligatory part of the inclusion policy. The term can be found in implemented documents such as the Guidelines for improving the support system for students with disabilities in higher education in the Republic of Croatia (Kiš Glavaš, 2016), developed by the National group to advance the social dimension of higher education. This group was established in 2015 as an advisory body of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, the Minis- try of Science and Education, the Rector’s Conference, and the Council of Polytechnics and Colleges. Despite these facts, there is constant awareness of 98 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Croatia the importance of language adaptations for groups of people with disabilities, especially within the education system. 3.3 Stakeholders Easy Language is becoming more widely accepted as a necessary part of in- clusive education and a valid tool for facilitating reading. Three associations play the most important role in the popularization of easy-to-read texts. The Croatian Library Association (Hrvatsko knjižičarsko društvo, HKD) has an important function in promoting Easy Language in society. The Croatian Dys- lexia Association (Hrvatska udruga za disleksiju, HUD), which has members who are speech and language pathologists who work on texts and strongly advocate the need for easy-to-read texts. Both associations have focused on acquainting the Croatian public with specially designed materials that can sig- nificantly facilitate reading for people with reading difficulties. In addition, the Croatian Logopedic Association (Hrvatsko logopedsko društvo), a professional organization of speech and language pathologists, supports the speech and language pathologist profession in the production of easy-to-read materials. Librarians and Croatian language teachers play an important role in text adaptation. The main responsibility of the latter is to harmonize the Easy Lan- guage text, taking into consideration the specificity of the curriculum, whereas the role of librarians is to select texts according to the age and interests of children. In recent years, the Republic of Croatia has also increasingly shown interest in how to make the language of politics more accessible and readable to the community. This is also visible in the establishment of The Commission of the Government of the Republic of Croatia for Persons with Disabilities (within the Ministry of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy in 2017 (Official Gazette 2019). The task of this Commission is to provide the Government of the Republic of Croatia with proposals, opinions and expert explanations re- garding the position, protection and rehabilitation of people with disabilities and their families, as well as to carry out activities that aim for their well-being. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 99 Mirjana Lenček, Jelena Kuvač Kraljević Since 2017, an increasing number of private publishing houses have been trying to publish primers and textbooks based on Easy Language, especially those intended for the educational purposes of students in inclusive schools. 3.4 General attitude Despite public advocacy, Easy Language is not always well received by different professionals related to the field of language and education. Many miscon- ceptions persist about the quality and purposes of Easy Language texts and complete adaptations of written texts. For example, some teachers think that language adaptation destroys the literary value of the original text. Therefore, it is important to raise awareness of the importance of Easy Language for literacy and learning among children with disabilities. No funding is available in Croatia on the national, local or any other level of government for text and literature prepared in accordance with Easy Language. Currently, only a few publishing houses publish easy-to-read textbooks and required readings, and most of these fund their own products. 4 Target groups The beginnings of Easy Language in Croatia are related to the publication of easy-to-read texts for people with dyslexia. In 2010, the publication of the sec- ond edition of the Guidelines for easy-to-read materials promoted acceptance that Easy Language was a valuable tool for people with cognitive disabilities, neuropsychiatric disorders, aphasia, dementia, deaf and deafblind people and other people with reading difficulties (e.g., immigrants, non-native speakers, poor readers) (IFLA 2010). Unfortunately, the awareness of reading difficulties, especially those related to comprehension, in the above-mentioned groups is still not such as to suggest the application of Easy Language principles in spoken language. 100 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Croatia 5 Guidelines The first edition of the IFLA guidelines (IFLA 1997) was initially translated and published by the Croatian Library Association in 2005 and promoted by speech and language pathologists who were motivated to develop a valid text modification tool in order to produce readable texts for children with dyslexia. Both sets of guidelines proposed by the IFLA (IFLA 1997, IFLA 2010) were used as a starting point for developing a more comprehensive list of factors that make texts easier to read and more understandable. The IFLA’s guidelines for language adaptations include writing concrete text and avoiding abstract language. Actions should follow logical continuity, be direct and simple without a long introduction and not involve too many char- acters. Symbolic language (metaphors), difficult words, ‘trigger’ words (e.g., indeed, therefore, hence), and abbreviations should be avoided, as well as several actions in the same sentence. Words should be arranged in a single phrase on one line, if possible. Complicated relationships should be explained in a con- crete and logical manner, and events should take place in a logical chronological framework. For an illustration of the Croatian guidelines, see Appendix 1. The adaptation process can be illustrated by a few sentences from a text written by Ivana Brlić Mažuranić: Ribar Palunko i njegova žena (Fisherman Palunko and his wife) which is required reading in the fourth grade of ele- mentary school: Još se više na ovo razjario Palunko, gdje se tako varao za dvije duge godine, te gnjevan zapovjedi ženi, da sutra prije zore pođe sa dje- tetom morskim žalom na desnu stranu, a Palunko će poći na lijevu - i da se ne vraćaju, dok ne nađu puta do Morskog Kralja. [Palunko became even angrier, because he had been deceived for two long years, and angrily ordered the woman to go to the right with the child by the sea tomorrow before dawn, and Palunko would go to the left – and that they should not return until they find their way to the Sea King.] © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 101 Mirjana Lenček, Jelena Kuvač Kraljević The adaptation first step is keyword reading – the text is first read, and key- words are extracted. The new text is synthesized from the keywords only and is then ready for a new reading. Any difficult words among these extracted keywords should be replaced (in this text that would be the word razjario because it is unfamiliar for children due to its low frequency). The second step is language simplification – this is carried out in two phases: defining the problematic parts of the text – these can be lexeme units, phrases, or clauses, and analysing text length and syntactic structure. The analysis of the previous example revealed that the sentence was too long and syntactically too complex. It consisted of almost 50 words and contained a few embedded clauses, one of which had a metaphorical meaning. All these present obstacles for children with language disorders. The substitutions for the problematic parts should be provided on the basis of the findings of the linguistic analyses, and some words should be replaced by adequate synonyms. Embedded clauses can be omitted, but only if they do not affect the meaning; more complex sentences should be simplified, and the length of the sentence reduced. The final result looked like this 3: Na to se Palunko još više razljutio. Ljut zapovjedi ženi da sutra prije zore pođe s djetetom pješčanom obalom. Ona neka ide desnom stranom. On će poći na lijevu. Nitko se ne smije vratiti dok ne nađu put do Morskog Kralja. [Palunko got even angrier at this. In anger, he orders the woman to go with the child along the sandy shore before dawn. She should go to the right. He will go to the left. No one should return until they find the way to the Sea King.] 3 Keywords are in bold. 102 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Croatia In addition to language, the graphic performance of the text is also very im- portant, not only to make the text readable and ensure the hierarchy of infor- mation, but also to attract readers and hold their attention, which is especially important for children with reading difficulties and young readers. Graphic solutions refer to text formatting and text organization. Graphic text wide margins formatting higher spacing (at least 1.5) text alignment only to the left, not to the right indented first lines of paragraphs sentences separated by double spaces new sentences starting at the beginning of a new line whenever possible font size of at least 12 (recommended 14) font Sans Serif, Arial or similar (font without redundant lines) same font used throughout the text, i.e., no combinations of different fonts no glossy paper (i.e., matte paper) no italicized or underlined text black letters on cream-coloured paper Graphic text text divided into smaller units organization short paragraphs separated by a blank line titles and subtitles highlighted picture/photographs inserted as additional support for the text clear order of text despite the ‘inserted’ photographs (it should be clear at a glance what should be read and in what order) text organized line by line or in numerical order important information bolded Table 1: List of graphic adaptations. When language and graphical adaptations are implemented, the final IFLA recommendation is to test the material with actual target groups before it goes to press. In addition to the language recommendations provided by the IFLA, other guidelines for language adaptations have been developed for speech and lan- guage pathologists to implement in the process of making text easier to read © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 103 Mirjana Lenček, Jelena Kuvač Kraljević (Kuvač Kraljević and Peretić 2015, Lenček 2010). The first informative texts about the easy-to-read system were written in 2008 in accordance with IFLA recommendations: Dyslexia/What is easy-to-read/Characteristics of easy-to- read materials (Lenček 2008), and Dyslexia in adulthood: increasingly known, much less understood (Lenček 2009). It is important to emphasize here that after the publication of the translated IFLA Guidelines in 2011, all activities continued to mainly focus on adapta- tion for people with dyslexia and people with reading difficulties exclusively through written text. This is evident, for example, in the organization of the State Matura examinations 4 in Croatia. From the beginning of their imple- mentation (2011), graphic and minor linguistic adaptations have been made to materials (for compulsory subjects – Croatian language, English language and mathematics). Applicants with dyslexia, dysgraphia, but also those with de- velopmental language disorders, ADHD/ADD disorder, dyspraxia, and other difficulties listed in the Instructions for the Adaptation of Examination Tech- nology at State Matura Examinations (National Center for External Evaluation of Education 2010) have rights to these adaptations. Some of the adaptations from the document include broader margins, right margins without alignment, higher spacing (1.5), sans serif font, bold keywords, highlighted titles, and text divided into smaller units. Certain adaptations, primarily those focusing on graphics rather than on language, have also been specifically developed for students with visual, hearing and motor disabilities. 6 Practical outcomes All the Easy Language texts published so far have mostly been presented in written form. In addition, most of these texts have been made for educational purposes (textbooks and required reading) or promotional materials. No media texts such as news follow Easy Language principles for adults with disabilities. 4 The State Matura examinations in Croatia is a secondary school leaving examination. The ex- ams are managed and organized by the National Center for External Evaluation of Education. Students who have completed their secondary education at a gymnasium, vocational or art high school are required to sit the state Matura exams. 104 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Croatia It is therefore important that other types of texts, such as information leaflets, current news materials and contents that influence individuals’ decisions, gain more representation in the future. 6.1 Literature Some primers and textbooks (from 2015) intended for students with special education needs have been produced in accordance with the principles of Easy Language. All adaptations are directed towards pupils studying according to the provisions of Article 4 of the Regulations on Primary and Secondary Ed- ucation of Students with Developmental Disabilities (Official Gazette 2015). Noticing the importance of producing and printing these types of materials, the Foundation Čujem, vjerujem, vidim (I hear, believe and see), a specialized publisher of books based on easy-to-read principles in Croatian, published 10 books in 2015–2020 (both written and audio format). All these books were exclusively from the list of required reading for primary school. The same foun- dation defines easy-to-read material as ...the term that encompasses linguistic and graphic adaptation of a text intended for people with disorders that cause difficulty in reading and comprehending text. A speech and language patholo- gist, professor of Croatian language and literature, proofreader, illustrator and editor are all involved in the process of adapting standard text. 5 These required readings are mostly used by students with dyslexia. There is also a book on the market with adapted language created by students from the Department of Cultural Studies, University of Osijek and illustrated by elementary school students (Brlić Mažuranić 2013). 6.2 Informative texts Recently, Easy Language has also become a tool for promoting health policy. A promotional leaflet was published online with the support of the Aphasia United organization. Best practice recommendations for people with aphasia 5 Translated by the authors. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 105 Mirjana Lenček, Jelena Kuvač Kraljević have been created in line with the linguistic and graphic guidelines of Easy Language and are publicly available (Aphasia United 2021). During the COVID-19 lockdown (in spring 2020), the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, published a series of short videos on the topic How to learn better, faster and easier for lower grade elementary school students, upper ele- mentary school students and high school students (Institute for Social Research in Zagreb 2021). The division into three education levels was inspired not only by the cognitive differences among students or their different educational in- terests, but also by language. These materials incorporated the guidelines for Easy Language and specially designed fonts – OmoType. Tenders for the development of websites for state administration bodies are currently underway. The focus is strong on visual solutions for the website, search capabilities, and the layout, but language adaptation of the content pro- vided on the websites is lacking. This reflects the lack of research and expert data on language adaptations. 6.3 Other projects The special contribution of easy-to-read materials is visible in newly created fonts suitable for people with reading difficulties and dyslexia. Typographers Marko Hrastovac and Petar Reić created the OmoType font family after five years of researching how children with dyslexia read and the influence of fonts on their reading (Peretić and Reić 2020). It consists of 240 different styles that leave plenty of room for adjustments to the individual user’s needs. A special novelty in such font creation is the possibility of adjusting the height of the extenders and descenders (upper and lower extensions) of the letters. It is be- lieved that their lengthening facilitates the detection of the letter sign and thus the reading (OmoType 2021). OmoType is a Croatian innovative contribution to the easy-to-read system. The full potential of OmoType is achieved with the Omoguru Reader, a mobile phone application (Omoguru Reader 2021). 106 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Croatia Picture 1: Some letters in Omotype font (used with permission from Petar Reić) The National campaign for people with reading difficulties and dyslexia: I want to read too!, had a great impact on the promotion of the easy-to-read system. This campaign started in 2016. Its aim was to inform and educate the public and raise their sensibility towards the problems and needs of people with reading difficulties and dyslexia. Furthermore, the campaign also strived to amend the Copyright and Related Rights Act (Official Gazette 167/03, Article 86) in order to provide easier access to text adapted to easy-to-read principles for people with reading difficulties and dyslexia. The Croatian Library Association proposed that Article 86 should be amended to include, in addition to people with disabilities, people with reading difficulties and dyslexia. Since 2019, CARNET (Croatian Academic and Research Network) and Al- gebra (private University College) have been working on a project aimed at the inclusive adaptation of digital educational content/digital textbooks. Speech and language pathologists are also involved in this project. Inclusive adaptation implies suggestions related to multimedia and interactive elements so that their adaptations can be more accessible to students with special educational needs. The most important part of this revision related to Easy Language lies in the linguistic simplification of the texts approved by the authors of the textbooks. This is also a way to additionally promote inclusive education and the value of Easy Language for the education system. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 107 Mirjana Lenček, Jelena Kuvač Kraljević A TEMPUS project, Education for Equal opportunities at Croatian Uni- versities − EduQuality 6, in the University of Zagreb, resulted in manuals, the purpose of which was to equalize access to higher education for students with disabilities in the Republic of Croatia. The cover page of the manuals, enti- tled Students with disabilities, states: ‘throughout the performance (content and content structure, graphic design, printing and equipment), this series of manuals was adapted for use by people with disabilities. The titles of the man- uals have been transcribed into Croatian braille, and braille tacts of standard Marburg Medium dimensions’ 7. One passage in these manuals is intended for students with dyslexia and highlights the importance of language adaptations (Lenček 2012). 7 Education and research No licensed education programme in Croatia provides the knowledge neces- sary for adapting texts and literature according to Easy Language principles. So far, several speech and language pathologists have tackled this, mostly adapting textbooks, required readings, texts for the State Matura examinations, and other similar content. However, the small number of these experts, as well as the small number of adapted texts, clearly indicate that this is a complex and de- manding job that requires knowledge not only of the specificities of language, but also of the specificities of the functioning of the particular population for which the adapted text is intended. Students of speech and language therapy acquire basic knowledge of how to make easy-to-read material in their undergraduate and graduate education. The topics related to easy-to-read material are an integral part of the theoretical knowledge of several subjects (e.g., dyslexia, developmental language disorder, alternative and augmentative communication, specific learning disorders, and clinical practicum in speech and language pathology) and are a part of learning outcomes for these subjects. To achieve these outcomes, practical papers (ad- 6 Education for Equal opportunities at Croatian Universities − EduQuality (No: 158757-TEM- PUS1-2009-1-HR-TEMPUS-JPGR). 7 Translated by the authors. 108 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Croatia aptations of texts) must be prepared. Through practical work and later through clinical and professional work, students of speech and language pathology can improve their competencies in this field. The way in which speech and language pathologists began work on the im- plementation of Easy Language is interesting. The story starts with an analysis of the linguistic and graphic elements in primers. The ultimate intention was to determine what is difficult for all students and especially for students with language disorders such as dyslexia. Numerous studies have been conducted, but their findings have been uniform – all primers demonstrate a lack of clear criteria for their linguistic and graphic design (Lenček and Gligora 2010). The lexical analyses of primers showed a great number of low frequent words that usually appear only once in primers (Kovačević and Kuvač 2004, Miličić et al. 2017). It is well known that familiar words that are repeated in different contexts ensure successful reading and lexical development. Unfortunately, Croatian primers do not contain the appropriate ratio between familiar and unfamiliar words, which should be in favour of familiar words. Moreover, a lex- ical analysis of primers conducted by Cvikić (2002) showed that four analysed primers shared only 30% of the lexical content. This means that first graders may be exposed to different lexical items, depending on which primer they use. Another analysis of data on people with dyslexia showed the peculiarities of the Croatian language in terms of demanding syntactic and semantic forms and the need to adapt these forms so that people with dyslexia could understand them (Lenček and Anđel 2012). All the results of scientific research aim to create a scientific basis for Easy Language in Croatian. The development of various databases (such as the Croatian lexical data- base – database of psycholinguistics properties of words, Kuvač Kraljević and Olujić 2018; Croatian child language frequency dictionary, Kuvač Kraljević et al., forthcoming) and the use of information and communication technology play a significant role in improving the implementation of Easy Language. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 109 Mirjana Lenček, Jelena Kuvač Kraljević 8 Future perspectives The measures carried out so far represent a good basis for the future. Fur- ther development of Easy Language should focus on two key issues: First, research should focus on the principles of language adaptation. However, there are numerous doubts as to the appropriate adaptation of, for example, com- plex sentences. Croatian speech and language pathologists should have clear linguistic instructions on how to adapt each sentence’s structure, taking into consideration the student’s age and the severity of their language, reading and writing disorders. In order to obtain these clear instructions, comprehensive research should analyse a great number of children with disorders or adults with language problems who are exposed to differently linguistically adapt- ed texts in controlled conditions. The principles of Easy Language must be empirically based, just like speech and language therapies. Research should focus on the specifics of the population of the elderly, people with intellectual disabilities, and those with aphasia and other disorders in order to improve knowledge of Easy Language and of the criteria for creating materials in Easy Language format. Second, research should raise public awareness of the easy-to-read concept. Many negative attitudes, prejudices and stereotypes related to Easy Language are often due to a low level of knowledge regarding the difficulties that children and adults with disabilities face when reading. This means that it is important to work on changing public opinion on Easy Language and to make the public begin to understand its importance for the those with disabilities. Encour- agement to produce more of Easy Language materials is crucial at all levels of government as well as in the education and health sectors. Authors Mirjana Lenček is a professor at the Department of Speech and Language Pa- thology, University of Zagreb. Her main research areas are related to reading and writing especially among the population with specific learning disorder. She focuses on text adaptation for children with dyslexia and advocates rea- 110 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Croatia sonable adjustment in education for children and youths with developmental disabilities. Contact: mirjana.lencek@erf.unizg.hr Jelena Kuvač Kraljević is a professor at the Department of Speech and Lan- guage Pathology, University of Zagreb. Her main research areas are language development and language disorders. She is particularly interested in the de- velopment of valid and reliable language tests to assess language, reading and writing skills among children and adults with developmental and acquired language disorders. References Aladrović Slovaček, Katarina. Od usvajanja do učenja hrvatskoga jezika [From acquisition to learning of the Croatian language]. Zagreb: Alfa, 2019. Print. Aphasia United. Preporuke najbolje prakse za afaziju [Best practice recommenda- tions]. 2016. Web. 17 February 2021. . 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Lenček, Mirjana. “Studenti s disleksijom.” [Students with dyslexia]. Ed. Lelija Kiš-Glavaš. Studenti s invaliditetom: opće smjernice. Zagreb: Sveučilište u Zagrebu, 2012. 223–267. Print. Lenček, Mirjana, and Maja Anđel. “Dyslexia in Croatian – some specific fea- tures with respect to spoken and written language.” Ed. Silva Giulivi. Learning Disabilities at School: Research and Education. Locarno: Department Formation and Learning DFA, 2012. Web. 4 March 2021. . Lenček, Mirjana, and Jelena Gligora. “U početku bijaše riječ: o početnicama i čitanju.” [In the beginning was the word: on primers and reading]. Logopedija 2.1 (2010): 36–44. Print. Lenček, Mirjana, and Jelena Kuvač Kraljević. “Language in primers – how different they are?” 1st Literacy Summit: practice x science x technology. Porto, Por- tugal, 1–3 November 2018. Presentation. 114 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Croatia Marrakesh Treaty. 2013. Web. 12 September 2020. . Miličić, Sanja; Kuvač Kraljević, Jelena, and Mirjana Lenček. “Leksička ana- liza početnica.” [Lexical analysis of primers]. Logopedija 7.1 (2017): 30–37. Print. Ministry of Science and Education. Annual report for 2019. Web. 8 September 2020. . Ministry of Science, Education and Sport. State Pedagogical Standard. Zagreb, 2008. Web. 17 February 2021. . Ministry of Science, Education and Sport. Nacionalni okvirni kurikulum za predškolski odgoj i obrazovanje te opće obvezno i srednjoškolsko obrazovanje [National framework curriculum for preschool education and general compulsory and secondary educa- tion]. Zagreb, 2011. Web. 17 February 2021. . Moguš, Milan. “O početku visokoškolske nastave hrvatskog jezika.” [About the be- ginning of higher education in the Croatian language]. Jezik: časopis za kulturu hrvatskog književnog jezika 43.4 (1995): 121–129. National Center for External Evaluation of Education. Upute za prilagodbu ispitne teh- nologije na ispitima državne mature [Education instruction for adaptation of exami- nation technology at the state matura examinations]. 2010. Web. 12 September 2020. . Official Gazette 24/2015. Pravilnik o osnovnoškolskom i srednjoškolskom odgoju i ob- razovanju učenika s teškoćama u razvoju [Regulations on primary and secondary education of students with disabilities]. Web. 17 February 2021. . Official Gazette 62/2017. Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o autorskom pravu i srodnim pravima [Amandments to the copyright and relate rights act]. Web. 17 Fe- bruary 2021. . Official Gazette 17/2019. Zakon o pristupačnosti mrežnih stranica i programskih rješen- ja za pokretne uređaje tijela javnog sektora [Law on accessibility of websites and software solutions for mobile devices in public sector]. Web. 17 February 2021. . Omoguru Reader. Mobile application. Web. 17 February 2021. . OmoType. Web. 17 February 2021. . Peretić, Maja, and Petar Reić. “Omoguru – prilagodba teksta na novim mediji- ma.” [Omoguru – text adaptation on new media]. EDL – Europski dan logopedije 2020: Poremećaji čitanja i pisanja – nove tehnologije i novi pristupi [European Lo- gopedics Day 2020: Reading and writing disorders – new technologies and new approaches]. Zagreb, 6 March 2020. Presentation. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 115 Mirjana Lenček, Jelena Kuvač Kraljević Peti-Stantić, Anita. Čitanjem do (spo)razumijevanja: od čitalačke pismenosti do čitateljske sposobnosti [Reading to understanding: from reading literacy to reading ability]. Zagreb: Naklada Ljevak, 2019. Print. Razvoj sustava osiguravanja kvalitete u obrazovanju odraslih [Programme for the International Assesment of Adult Competencies]. Web. 3 March 2021. . Škarić, Ivo. “Fonetika hrvatskog književnog jezika.” [Phonetics of the Croatian li- terary language]. Ed. Stjepan Babić, Dalibor Brozović, Milan Moguš, Slavko Pa- vešić, Ivo Škarić, and Stjepko Težak. Povijesni pregled, glasovi i oblici hrvatskog književnog jezika. Zagreb: Hrvatska akademija znanosti, 2004. 15–157. Print. UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989. Web. 17 February 2021. . UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2006. Web. 17 February 2021. . UNESCO. The Salamanca Statement and Framework on Special Needs Education. Paris: UNESCO, 1994. Web. 17 February 2021. . Ustav Republike Hrvatske [Constitution of the Republic of Croatia]. 1990. Web. 17 Fe- bruary 2021. . 116 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Croatia Appendix 1. An illustration of guidelines for Easy Croatian. Standard Croatian Easy Croatian U poglavlju 9. Programa mjera obnove Kako vi možete predati zahtjev za zgrada oštećenih potresom na područ- ju Grada Zagreba, Krapinsko-zagorske a) oslobađanje osiguranja i/ili županije i Zagrebačke županije detaljnije je raspisana procedura b) oslobađanje uplate sredstava za kon- podnošenja zahtjeva za oslobađanje strukcijsku obnovu zgrada i/ili osiguranja odnosno uplate sredstava za konstrukcijsku obnovu zgrada i grad- c) gradnju zamjenske kuće nju zamjenske kuće kao i sami rokovi za podnošenje zahtjeva. Zakonom o Sve podatke i rokove možete pronaći u obnovi, uvođenjem socijalnog kriterija, 9. poglavlju dokumenta pod nazivom predviđeno je oslobađanje od uplate Program mjera obnove zgrada oštećenih sredstava za konstrukcijsku obnovu potresom na području Grada Zagreba, zgrada i gradnju zamjenske obiteljske Krapinsko-zagorske županije i Za- kuće te je omogućeno podnošenje zaht- grebačke županije. jeva za navedeno oslobađanje putem obrazaca. Prema donesenom Zakonu o obno- vi, možete biti oslobođeni od uplate za konstrukcijsku obnovu zgrada i gradnju zamjenske obiteljske kuće ako ispunjavate uvjet socijalnog kriteri- ja. Da biste bili oslobođeni od ovih uplata podnesite zahtjev za navedeno oslobađanje i ispunite sljedeće obrasce. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 117 Mirjana Lenček, Jelena Kuvač Kraljević [Chapter 9 of the Program of Measures [How can you apply for the Reconstruction of Earth- quake-Damaged Buildings in the City a) not to pay insurance of Zagreb, Krapina-Zagorje County and Zagreb County describes in more b) not to pay to fix buildings detail the procedure for submitting applications for insurance exemption c) to build a new house or payment for construction recon- struction of buildings and construction All information is in Chapter 9 of the of a replacement house. The Law on ‘Program of measures for the recon- Reconstruction, by introducing a social struction of buildings damaged by criterion, provides for exemption from the earthquake in the City of Zagreb, the payment of funds for the construc- Krapina-Zagorje County and Zagreb tion renovation of buildings and the County’. construction of a replacement family house, and it is possible to submit According to the law, you do not have requests for this exemption through to pay for fixing buildings and building forms.] a new family house if you meet the criteria. Complete these forms and you will not have to pay.] 118 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Silvie Cinková, Camille Latimier Easy Language in Czechia 1 Introduction Czechia, with a population of ten million, bordering on Germany, Poland, Austria, and Slovakia, is a middle-sized, land-locked country surrounded by mountain ranges. The Czech population is ethnically and linguistically ho- mogeneous – 95% are Czech (Czech Statistical Office 2019). The Government runs a Council of Nationalities, in which major minorities have representatives. Currently Czechia has fourteen recognized national minorities: Belarusian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Hungarian, German, Polish, Roma, Ruthenian, Russian, Greek, Slovak, Serbian, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. Czech citizens from these minorities have the right to education and communication with authorities in their own language. Czech is a West-Slavic language with a free word order, rich inflection, and productive word formation (Naughton 2005). It comes in two varieties: the standard written Czech (spisovná čeština) and common Czech (obecná čeština). Only the former is considered the official language. It is centrally codified by the Institute of the Czech Language of the Czech Academy of Sciences and offi- cially associated with the highest social prestige. Common Czech is considered low standard. It is very similar to the written standard in pronunciation and vocabulary, but differs in many inflection patterns. In writing, Czech speakers do not use common Czech inflection, except in private, emotional communications. On the other hand, most Czech speakers would not speak standard written Czech by default, although they are encour- aged to do so throughout their education (colloquial Czech). The colloquial standard has been promoted by some Czech linguistic authorities since the 1930s, even under the communist government from 1948. However, collo- quial Czech has not really succeeded, except in some Eastern regions. For © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 119 Silvie Cinková, Camille Latimier many Czechs, the actual mother tongue is common Czech, and the colloquial standard equals a linguistic black tie: being underdressed is awkward, but one is as easily overdressed, and only a few wear the black tie with grace. This di- glossia is inconvenient for foreign speakers and speakers from low-education environments. Foreign speakers who are only taught the written (and colloquial) standard, are regularly lost in everyday language. Children who have not been regularly read to in their pre-school years score lower in tests of verbal competence (Ernestova et al. 2016). One reason for this is that competence tests generally present material in standard written colloquial Czech. For instance, in a series of phoneme-manipulation experiments (Zezulková 2015) examining young school children with mild cognitive disabilities, Roma children, and a control group, the Roma children, who typically grow up with a mixture of common Czech and Roma dialects and do not attend pre-school care, lagged behind the control group as much as the children with cognitive disabilities. This sad case illustrates particularly well the additional load that the dichotomy between the written standard and common Czech poses to foreign speakers. It also, at least partly, explains why in the PISA literacy/reading proficiency studies (OECD 2018), Czechia is among the countries whose educational status is most affected by family background. Indeed, lacking exposure to standard written colloquial Czech in early childhood excludes people from advanced education and thus harms social mobility. Czechia has also taken part in other international literacy/reading profi- ciency studies: in the IEA’s PIRLS 1 for 4th grade pupils (Martin et al. 2017) in 2001 and 2011, and in the OECD’s 2009 PIAAC for adults (Straková et al. 2013). In the PIRLS, Czech children scored slightly above the EU average. The overall performance of Czech teenagers in PISA is at the EU average, but specifically their reading performance has remained under the average since 1995. In the PIAAC, the adults scored slightly above the OECD average. Among both adults and children, Czechia had fewer underperforming respondents than average. This was particularly obvious in the PIAAC study. It may be due to the quality 1 International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, Progress in Interna- tional Reading Literacy Study 120 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Czechia of the education system, but also perhaps to the fact that Czechia does not face mass immigration and its established ethnic minorities are extremely well assimilated (Ernestova et al. 2016: 6). Virtually all the Czech respondents were native Czech speakers. Communicative routines reflect the degree of democracy and inclusivi- ty within a community. Can everyone participate in the public discourse, at least in topics that immediately affect them? Are clerks patronizing or do they treat their clients as equals? Is education accessible to everyone? This chapter illustrates how the Czech community has been struggling and how its societal peripeteias relate to the use of the Czech language. 2 Historical Perspectives The written standard Czech in legal and administrative documents, permeated by unavoidable domain-specific terms, can certainly be a hindrance for people who are not regularly exposed to it. However, even educated speakers struggle with the Czech administrative style – not only due to its linguistic characteris- tics but also due to its typical incoherence, ambiguity, and obscurity. Poor prose is actually an integral part of the Czech clerical tradition, it- self the offspring of the notorious Austro-Hungarian bureaucracy. Austrian laws were all written in German, although only a minority spoke the language properly. Law studies and licence exams were exclusively pursued in German. The system relied on multinational German-educated clerks to mediate the administrative content to their compatriots in their respective mother tongues: Czech, Croatian, Slovene, Polish, Serbian, Romanian, and Italian. The Hungari- an group (including Romanian, Slovak, and Ukrainian speakers) had their laws in Hungarian (Peška 1939: 34, 36). Non-speakers of German (or Hungarian) were thus raised to be guided – and patronized – by clerks, whose behaviour they could hardly control, in a system that remained alien to them. It is surely not by chance that the literary genius of Franz Kafka arose in Prague. The Empire’s 1918 collapse brought about, among other national states, Czechoslovakia, a republic in which Czechs and Slovaks merged into one na- tion in the pragmatic pursuit to outnumber Germans and claim their non-Ger- © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 121 Silvie Cinková, Camille Latimier man self-determination. Czech, which is about as similar to Slovak as Danish is to the Norwegian bokmål, became the official language. The Czech(oslovak) national mythology considers this period the Golden Age, shaped by secular humanism, social (though not economic) equality, and a booming industry. Indeed, the next two decades saw ambitious, and in many respects suc- cessful, efforts to build a modern state. Nevertheless, this state was far from democratic in the current sense. On the contrary, the lawmakers were generally convinced that law should not be comprehensible to common citizens, as it was meant to be presented to them by professional middlemen. By using an exclusive code with meaning shifts in common words, neologisms, and loan words to create a kind of implicit terminology, lawmakers deliberately protect- ed laymen from the danger of interpreting laws by themselves (Peška 1939: 34). The Czech(oslovak) independence was disrupted by the German occu- pation of 1938–1945. After a Soviet-orchestrated communist coup in 1948, Czechoslovakia’s emerging legal culture drowned in the debilitating jargon of the communist administration. Václav Havel (1936–2011), a Czech dissident playwright and later president, parodied this in his absurd piece The Memo- randum (1965) about ptydepe – an artificial administrative language designed to obscure meaning. Ptydepe was untranslatable into any natural language, because natural languages were ‘not ambiguous enough’. ‘Communists spoke differently’, a quantitative linguistic comparison of current political speeches with those from the communist era supports Havel’s artistic overstatement with data (Kubát et al. 2020). Since the collapse of the communist regime in 1989, Czech administration routines have been constantly evolving from a mixture of Austro-Hungarian, the 1920s, Nazi-German, and Soviet legal concepts, fusing with the EU law on the fly. Due to constant fervent reforms, the Czech law and administration have grown so opaque that practitioners regularly resort to ptydepe-like obscurity to protect themselves from contradicting any guideline. Unlike the original, the current ptydepe argues for the unease and frustration of individual clerks rather than for cementing a centralized power. The deeply rooted administrative culture in the Czech Republic has cer- tainly been a barrier to the emergence of comprehensible texts, but recent initiatives and new developments are now paving the way for change. Clerical 122 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Czechia professionals seem to be reaching their pain threshold, and plain-language efforts are mushrooming. Young lawyers and clerks are becoming increasingly interested in plain legal language, particularly inspired by their experience with the legal systems of English-speaking countries and the international law, which their predecessors lacked (Pastyřík et al. 2016, Vučka 2019). Linguistic clarity is promoted as part of the Procedural Justice Principle (Drápal 2020: 25–35, based on Tyler 1988: 103–135). The accessibility of administrative texts comes as a natural expansion of well-established NGO-launched transparency efforts (Reconstruction of the State 2021, Anticorruption Endowment 2021). The specific promotion of Easy Language texts has been historically initiated by NGOs and more specifically, by organizations of people with intellectual disabilities in the 2000s. In 2009, the first project run by Inclusion Czech Republic and Fokus, an organization of people with psycho-social disabilities and the Czech Alzheimer Society, focused on the accessibility of public administration and created the first Easy Language practical texts to facilitate the application process for different allow- ances and other administrative procedures (Inclusion Czech Republic 2021c). In the same year, the first alternative version of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Czech (from here on the CRPD) was in Easy Language (Latimier et al. 2009), again published by Inclusion Czech Republic. The interest of the State and local authorities came later, most probably un- der the influence of European accessibility legislation, and maybe to a certain extent the CRPD (2009). 3 Current Situation The situation in Czechia shows that the accessibility of information and Easy Language have become policy issues for different stakeholders who are slowly pushing for potential system changes. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 123 Silvie Cinková, Camille Latimier 3.1 Definitions As the Easy Language and Plain Language concepts are quite new in Czechia, the country currently has no definitions for them. The only legal text refer- ring directly to Easy Language is the CRPD (2009). However, it only uses the term 2 easy to read and understand forms of communication (snadno čitelné a srozumitelné formy). Several expressions can be used in Czech to qualify Easy Language: snadné čtení (easy read), snadno-srozumitelný jazyk (easy-to-under- stand language), srozumitelné informace (easy information) or even ETR, the abbreviation of easy-to-read (pronounced with Czech spelling). No definitive term has been adopted yet: Inclusion Czech Republic has decided to use the term snadné čtení, as a component of its long-term strategy for accessibility (Inclusion Czech Republic 2020). The Ministry of Interior proposes a defini- tion of Plain Language texts (srozumitelné texty – ‘understandable texts’) and Easy Language texts (zjednodušené texty – ‘easy texts’), but only on a project website, and none of these terms have been adopted or broadly used (Ministry of Interior 2020). 3.2 Societal and legal context The CRPD has been the driving force of changes in terms of accessibility. It has been part of the Czech legal system since its ratification and subsequent publi- cation in the Collection of Laws in February 2010. Article 9 of the CRPD is now the reference framework to ensure the accessibility of public administration and public services, including the accessibility of information in alternative formats, such as Easy Language. The principles of accessibility have been newly incorporated into the architecture of the public administration and the Princi- ples for the Creation of Digitally Friendly Legislation. The obligation to provide information accessible to people with disabilities in general can be found in two pieces of legislation. Act No. 99/2019 Coll. on the accessibility of websites and mobile applications and the amendment to Act No. 365/2000 Coll., on public administration information systems have been recently adopted or amended 2 If not otherwise stated, all English quotations used in this text have been translated by the authors. 124 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Czechia through the transposition of the European Web Accessibility Directive. The Act obliges public administration and other institutions to have ‘comprehensible’ (srozumitelné) webpages for people with disabilities. The obligation is rather narrow in scope, as it does not apply if it creates an unreasonable burden for the concrete institution (§7) (Zákon o Přístupnosti Internetových Stránek a Mobil- ních Aplikací 2021). The extent to which webpages have to be understandable is also undefined. So, if users with disabilities are not expected to claim certain benefits, the obligation may not apply. This poses the question of how many intellectually disabled people generally need this page at all? Very few people with intellectual disabilities actually work as independent workers – does this justify the lack of comprehensible information on how to apply for the status of independent worker? Eventually, due to a push by the disability community, the Government has adopted the struggle for transparency by joining the Open Government Part- nership (Open Government Partnership 2021) which targets Plain Language. Consequently, the Government commits to actions related to open justice, whistleblower protection, open data, education and citizen participation, and has begun to recognize the importance of linguistic clarity. It also promotes Plain Language by annually awarding particularly client-friendly offices. As a result, offices have begun to demand Plain Language training for their em- ployees (Slejšková 2013). Moreover, social services providers are obliged, based on Paragraph 88 of the Act on Social Services, to provide information ‘in a way that is compre- hensible for all people’ on the type, place and goals of their services; on the capacity and way of providing social services; on the obligations arising from contracts with providers; on internal rules; and on internal rules about how to complain (Zákon o Sociálních Službách 2021). The office of the Public De- fender of Rights (from here on the Ombudsman), who makes regular visits to residential care institutions, has drawn special attention to this obligation to provide information in Easy Language or alternative formats. Although no specific legislation guarantees the right to accessible infor- mation, ‘soft-law’ instruments have pushed the accessible information agenda forward. The ‘Client-oriented public administration 2030’, a key document of the Ministry of Interior, presents its overarching strategy for public administra- © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 125 Silvie Cinková, Camille Latimier tion. Improving communication between public administration and the public, including citizens with disabilities, is stated as goal number five. A budget of CZK 30 million (EUR 1.26 million) has been estimated for the realization of four activities to achieve this goal, one of them focusing on citizens with dis- abilities (Ministry of Interior 2019a). The National Plan for the Promotion of Equal Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities 2021–2025 is the second strategic document to address ac- cessibility issues. Its main goal is to support the integration of people with disabilities into society. The accessibility of public administration and public services should be improved by three specific measures: 1) the creation of a ‘Where to Office’ application, which provides citizens, including people with disabilities, with information on the accessibility of all public administration offices and the services they provide; 2) in co-operation with organizations representing people with hearing impairments, basic information on the ac- tivities of individual ministries could be translated into Czech Sign Language, and 3) designing and testing of training for the application of Easy Language methodology for local government employees, the results of which could be used to routinely train designated staff of the public administration in Easy Language as part of their lifelong learning education (Government Board for Persons with Disabilities 2020). The last activity is currently suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but should resume in 2021. 3.3 Stakeholders As the historical perspectives highlight, Easy Language was mainly promoted by the disability community in the last decade. Now, the topic also appears in public administration strategies and documents. Stakeholders can be divided into three groups: 1) non-governmental organizations (mainly disability or- ganizations but also transparency organizations) and social services for people with disabilities, 2) public administration, and 3) academic institutions. Mainly three organizations of and for people with intellectual disabilities, Inclusion Czech Republic, Rytmus and more recently Quip have regularly produced Easy Language material (Rytmus 2021, Inclusion Czech Republic 2021c). They also provide training in Easy Language or training to become 126 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Czechia evaluators of Easy Language for people with intellectual disabilities (Inclusion Czech Republic 2021b). Social services for people with intellectual disabilities should also use Easy language to produce their own internal rules, guidelines, complaint procedures, and other important information, such as personal as- sistance (Pohoda 2019). However, systematic work on Easy Language materials is still lacking even in these services. In public administration, the Ombudsman has taken the lead in the field and has adopted a real strategy to progressively deliver only Plain Language material. More recently, it has also extended its efforts to Easy Language in the framework of its new competence related to disability issues 3. In November 2016, an Expert Group for Accessibility of Public Admin- istration and Public Services was established, whose objective is to improve co-ordinated governance accessibility, i.e. the mechanisms by which public administration and public services are accessible to all citizens, in particular to people with disabilities. This expert group focuses on evaluating the current situation and proposes systematic changes in the field of accessibility. Although no representative of people with intellectual disabilities is involved on a perma- nent basis, it provides opportunities to discuss issues related to accessibility at the inter-ministerial level and to bring the agenda of easy-to-read information forward in all sectors (Government Board for People with Disabilities 2021). Two ministries, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Justice, as well as some regional and local administration, provide Plain or Easy Language texts, but their quality may vary. The website on Quality Public Administration (Ministry of Interior 2020) provides information on Plain and Easy Language and informative texts in Easy Language. This guidance material has the poten- tial to bring a breath of fresh air to all public administration, from national to local level. The Ministry of Justice website provides a catalogue of life situations (divorce, arrest, a relative in jail) in which practical advice can be found in Plain Language (Ministry of Justice 2021). Academic stakeholders are fewer in number: the Institute of the Czech Language, the highest linguistic authority, takes the state of affairs as given and 3 The Office of the Defender of Rights (Ombudsman) is the independent monitoring body according to Article 33.2 CRPD since 1.1.2018. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 127 Silvie Cinková, Camille Latimier remains unconvinced about any stylistic innovations: ‘Inspired by the business practice (and certainly also by the European institutions), particularly public administration strives to conceive (or at least to present) its activities as a service to citizens and to communicate accordingly; that is, in a forthcoming and friendly manner, and to give “user-friendly” advice to different agendas. It is pointless to argue whether or not this attitude is “sincere”; what is more important is that it always inevitably runs into limitations conditioned by the constitutive features of the institutional sphere; i.e., mainly the fact that verbal as well as non-verbal acts within this sphere are [legally, S.C.] binding.’ (Hoff- mannová et al. 2016: 181). 3.4 Funding No specific funding is dedicated to the production of Easy Language texts or their analysis. However, non-profit organizations have used several grants to produce Easy Language material, as an element allowing full participation of people with intellectual disabilities, as support material for training in active citizenship skills, or just to provide access to key information (e.g., material related to health issues). The funding sources have been the State or municipal grants, and to a larger extent, grants from the European Economic Area (EEA) and Norway, which have funded several projects since 2004. From the academic perspective, there is no dedicated source of funding, but accessibility-related grant proposals are subject to regular competition. The most important national grant providers are the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) for basic research, and the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TAČR) for applied research. Recently, the Ministry of Culture launched its own programme – the Applied Research and Development of National and Cultural Identity Programme (NAKI II). 4 Target Groups Accessibility of information has been promoted by disabled people’s organiza- tions (DPOs), mainly those representing people with intellectual and psycho- 128 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Czechia social disabilities and people with sensory disabilities. The frequent argument of disabled people’s organizations – that (Plain and) Easy Language are not only for people with disabilities but for everybody and may also aid elderly people, people with low education, people whose first language is not Czech – has not been received positively by the relatively homogeneous Czech population. Ev- idence from English-speaking countries shows that Plain Language helps poor readers substantially more than skilled readers (Mills and Duckworth 1996). Therefore, local organizations convey the message that any step towards better comprehension among common readers is simultaneously a benefit for people with cognitive disorders. Many bureaucrats do not feel comfortable publishing Easy Language texts, as they are afraid of degrading their image (and if one may even dare to say, their importance). Easy Language texts and materials are therefore primarily written for peo- ple with cognitive disabilities (birth and acquired disabilities), and this is well reflected in the choice of material currently available. 5 Guidelines Until recently, the only guidelines available for Czech Easy Language were those written by Inclusion Europe ‘Information for all!’ and adapted to the Czech language by Inclusion Czech Republic (Inclusion Europe and Inclusion Czech Republic 2013). The basic rules for Easy Czech are: 1) Think about the reader and their typical life situations and include only necessary information, 2) Use simple words or explain complicated ones, include concrete examples and make short sentences, 3) Avoid the use of irony, metaphors, double meanings, foreign words, or expert jargon, 4) Use the active voice rather than the passive voice and avoid negation, 5) Convey the key information at the beginning and keep the structure of the information clear, 6) Create a visually appealing text: short paragraphs, spacing between paragraphs, and legible font (sans serif), and if possible, include illustrations to accompany the text (photographs, pictograms etc.). Finally, the most important rule: ask a reader to evaluate the output. As © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 129 Silvie Cinková, Camille Latimier an illustration of these rules of Easy Language, an extract of a document on the elections to the Senate is provided in Appendix 1. The next example presents instructions for suspects and the accused, with their rights and obligations explained in Plain Language by one simple, clear sentence and a reference to the corresponding paragraph in the Code of the Criminal Procedure. The instructions fit on one page and each topic is illus- trated with a pictogram: an extract of the text translated into Plain English 4 would read as follows: when the Police have brought you in Notification of a third person §33/5 TŘ You have the right to tell someone about your detention. Detention/arrest duration §33/5 TŘ You must be released or taken to court within 24 hours of arrest or within 48 hours of pre-trial detention. This text is very comprehensible, but according to the Easy Language guide- lines, the paragraphs of the law would not be included and each sentence would relate to one single situation. For instance, the moment of arrest, the pre-trial by the court, and the moment of release would be treated in separate sentenc- es. This would be considered a simplification, despite making the text slightly longer. In 2019, with the support of civil society, the Ministry of Interior devel- oped a methodology for the creation of Easy Language and comprehensible texts. The document is both a pamphlet in favour of comprehensible texts and practical guidance to ensure that administrative documents addressed to the public are also comprehensible and accessible to people who have difficulties reading complicated texts (Ministry of Interior 2019b). The guidance is ac- companied by several documents in Easy Language as a practical illustration 4 The original Plain Czech text is: Když vás přivedla policie Vyrozumění třetí osoby §33/5 TŘ Máte právo dát o svém zadržení někomu vědět. Lhůta pro zadržení či zatčení §33/5 TŘ Do 24 hodin od zatčení či 48 hodin od zadržení musíte být buď předání soudu, nebo propuštění. 130 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Czechia of its use. As part of inter-ministerial co-operation, methodological and guid- ance documents were also created and published to improve communication between officials and people with autism (Government Board for People with Disabilities 2016). The focus is on oral communication, but it is an important building block. The Ministry of the Interior plans to implement pilot training for the appli- cation of the Plain and Easy Language methodology for employees of regional public administration, in collaboration with representatives of the relevant ministries. One of the measures of the new National Plan, based on the text of the ČSN ISO 17069 technical standard, ‘Accessibility measures and aids for acces- sible meetings’, is to prepare an electronic brochure that contains appropriate support measures and aid for people with disabilities to facilitate and fully participate in meetings. 6 Practical Outcomes Close examination of the Easy Language texts and books available shows that the majority of documents are informative texts, dealing with practical issues for people with intellectual disabilities. Very few accessible texts are cultural or leisure related. So far, no fiction, drama or poetry have been translated into Easy Language. No mainstream newspaper or TV broadcaster offers any Easy Language programmes. The numerous educational programmes for children do not specifically use a simplified language to include children with special education needs. Some informative texts act as symbols and practical tools for empowering people with intellectual disabilities, both within their community and outside it: for instance, since 2018, a few months before each election, Elections leaflets explaining the process of voting and the important aspects of each election have been produced on a regular basis (Inclusion Czech Republic 2021d). These leaflets help the campaign for the active citizenship of people with intellectual disabilities. Brochures for applying or renewing ID cards and passports can also be found in Easy Language (Ministry of Interior 2020). The possession © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 131 Silvie Cinková, Camille Latimier of an ID card has a particular significance because, until recently, people who were under plenary guardianship 5 were not obliged to have an ID card (all Czech citizens of aged over 15 are obliged to have this card). Such documents on public display dismantle the image of people with intellectual disabilities as passive citizens and promote their active involvement in their own affairs. Last year brought about a comprehensive brochure for new mothers in Easy Language (Inclusion Czech Republic 2020) – about the practical steps regarding maternity leave and financial support for a child aged under four. Again, this is very symbolic material, as parenthood among people with intel- lectual disabilities is still considered a taboo in Czech society. In 2016, a series of booklets on the topic of relationships and sexuality for people with intellectual disabilities was published (Inclusion Czech Republic 2016). Divided into seven parts, the booklets provide an overview of what is important in the lives of women and men. Each page contains an illustration accompanying the text, both for reasons of accessibility for non-readers and to provide practical guidance for social services staff or teachers at schools. Before this, Inclusion Czech Republic also developed a website on health issues containing information in Easy Language about common diseases and common medical examinations (Inclusion Czech Republic 2021a). Explana- tions about how body organs function as well as advice on how to arrange health check-ups are proposed through videos and an interactive body map. Czechia has a long tradition of educating pupils with special needs, listed by the Ministry of Education as pupils with intellectual disabilities, autism and multiple disabilities. Traditionally, these pupils have attended separate schools with small classes and specialized teachers. Now that inclusion is the default policy, the teaching materials and informal know-how of these specialists are in high demand among ‘ordinary’ teachers. The excerpt below is from a textbook of physics for ninth graders of schools for pupils with special needs (Macháček 2006): 5 Plenary guardianship was abolished with the new Civil Code which entered into force on 1st January 2015. 132 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Czechia Mr. Sadílek is a mason. Once when he touched his cement mixer, he got an electric shock. There was voltage between the mixer and the ground. The current passed from the mixer through Mr. Sadílek’s body down into the ground. [What did Mr. Sadílek do to make his mixer safe? First of all, he unplugged it. Then he took an iron peg and dug it into the ground. Then he connected this peg and the mixer with a piece of wire. The wire led the dangerous charge from the mixer into the ground. The mixer was safe again.] Unlike regular textbook texts, texts for pupils with special needs typically do not contain mathematical formulas, and use inductive learning techniques (i.e., they list a number of everyday-life examples and make a generalization at the end rather than introduce general knowledge, which they later back with exam- ples). However, as far as we know, there is no formal language standard for such learning materials. Our random inspection of textbooks by Septima, a dedicat- ed publisher of textbooks for pupils with special needs, revealed profound dif- ferences in terms of accessibility. For instance, the texts in the aforementioned physics textbook were very accessible, whereas the biology textbook (Skýbová 2008) felt much more difficult to read. It replaced some text with photographs and charts, and the remaining text partly covered practical topics (never eat unknown berries), but some parts still followed the meticulously descriptive botanical curriculum of regular schools, introducing numerous highly spe- cific terms for their own sake, such as in this text on mosses: Polytrichum can be found in shady forests. The base of its body is formed by a stem with leaves. Adhesive fibres fix the stem in the soil to absorb water and dissolved minerals. The Czech original reads even more alien than the English translation, as the English word stem is relatively common, but the Czech equivalent used in this context is specific to mosses (stems of trees and bigger plants would be called something else), and is thus outside the vocabulary of even educated people. In relation to daily life and social services, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MoLSA) in the framework of the ‘Life like any other’ project support- ing the transformation of large residential institutions into community-type © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 133 Silvie Cinková, Camille Latimier services, has published a number of practical factsheets on employment and social services (Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs 2021). In addition, about 100 civil servants (mainly from the Labour Office, which is attached to MoLSA) have been trained in communication needs and how to write information in Easy Language 6. The final practical life topic is banking, information on which has been developed and proposed to the Czech Banks Association by non-governmental organizations, for talking about banking and accommodation with people with intellectual disabilities. The original plan was to produce an Easy Language version of general conditions. This proved absolutely impossible, as banking materials are totally inaccessible and because many paragraphs refer to addi- tional documents. The result would ultimately have been incomprehensible. However, after many efforts, a general practical guide on banking was drafted in Easy Language. In addition to the informative texts, two initiatives in the field of culture are worth mentioning here. The largest and most famous film Festival on Human Rights, called One world took the risk of making the festival more accessible to people with disabilities and tried to reach out to all disability groups. They provide Easy Language leaflets about their programme (One World 2019) and films and have launched ‘relaxed projections’, with an adapted level of sound and light, as well as projection with audio description, Sign Language transla- tion or an induction loop (One World 2020). The Association of Library and Information Professionals of the Czech Republic (SKIP) was the first mainstream organization to be open to Easy Language texts and readers with intellectual disabilities. They offered their members participation in workshops presenting the characteristics of people with intellectual disabilities and how to write in Easy Language (SKIP 2021). In addition to the growing library of Easy Language texts and material, another important outcome is the monitoring of the obligation to provide Easy Language material for clients living in residential care services. Systematic reviews by the Ombudsman include checking the availability of Easy Language material and adequate orientation systems for people with intellectual disabil- 6 Material on file with authors (training by Inclusion Czech Republic staff) 134 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Czechia ities (including symbols rather than words). The Ombudsman then frequently recommends developing and using Easy Language material for clients of resi- dential care services; for example: ‘Important texts concerning essential aspects of clients’ lives (such as service contracts, house rules, menus) should also be drafted in Easy Language formats’ and the staff must ‘pass the information to clients in a form that is understandable to them’ 7. This monitoring also applies in psychiatric hospitals, where Easy Language material on patients’ rights should also be written and used with those who may need it. The Ombudsman described in her 2019 summary report: ‘we have often found the problem that the texts used by hospitals are mostly written in the language of the law (there is no ‘easy-to-understand’ summary), including complaint rules or house rules. Examples of good practice in this regard are, for example, instructions on the conditions for protective institutional sexological treatment in Horní Beřkovice or an information leaflet used in Opava; here the nurses also use educational sheets with checklists to verify that the patient has understood’ (Veřejný ochránce práv 2019). Since 2015, the Office of the Ombudsman has adopted Plain Legal Czech as a rule along with its new communication culture. All new lawyers entering the institution are trained in Plain Language, and the focus is progressively also moving towards Easy Language, as the Ombudsman’s mandate includes monitoring the implementation of the CRPD. The changes in the structure and language of reports, for example, of systematic visits to detention facilities before 2016 and after 2016, show this evolution. Similarly, older information leaflets for citizens on different topics included texts in which efforts to avoid legal jargon and simplify the information had been made, but the content had remained complicated (Veřejný ochránce práv 2014). In comparison, newer leaflets are clearer, more attractive, and contain practical information. This il- lustrates well how content needs to be carefully selected, not only simplified. In addition, the leaflets include illustrations that contribute to better understand- ing (Veřejný ochránce práv 2020). More recently, a leaflet in Easy Language was produced to explain the role of the Ombudsman. 7 A simple search using the key words ‘snadné čtení’ offers relevant reports of systematic reviews in residential care by the Ombudsman: https://eso.ochrance.cz/Vyhledavani/Search © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 135 Silvie Cinková, Camille Latimier 7 Education and Research Easy Language has not been a topic of either academic research or educational instructions in Czechia. On the other hand, several research paths exist in linguistics, natural language processing, and pedagogy which are related to assessing the difficulty of educational texts and language proficiency levels. The linguistic view of textual accessibility usually disregards typography or web design. The most common term for what remains is readability (or clarity, sometimes even comprehensibility). There are a number of formulas for automatically measuring this (DuBay 2007). A general issue with readability formulas is that they are language dependent. Some formulas (e.g., Kincaid et al. 1975) use apparently generic text features, such as numbers of syllables, but in fact even these are defined as well as extracted differently for individual languages. For instance, the Flesch Reading Ease (Flesch 1948) contains empir- ically obtained coefficients that rate English texts on a scale of 0–100, in which the lower the score, the less easy (more difficult) the text. When the same coef- ficients are applied to Czech texts, children’s books appear extremely complex and the rates for common newspaper articles even sink below zero, because Czech words generally have more syllables due to inflection. Smolík and Šlerka conducted a pilot study with several well-known readability formulas, which suggested that they roughly applied to Czech at least to the extent that chil- dren’s books appeared easier than scientific papers (Šlerka and Smolík 2010), but they did not fine-tune the formulas to fit the same scale as the language they had been designed for (English in all cases). An exploration of linguistic features that affect comprehension in Czech texts could help the adaptation of readability formulas to Czech. As a first step towards this inquiry, Cinková and Chromý are working on LiFR (Chromý et al. 2021), a data set of administrative texts to examine these associations. These texts are in three versions: the original legalese and two paraphrases by lawyers, one of whom is a trained Easy Language expert. Comprehension of the versions has been measured by a survey with random respondents. At present, the data have been collected and are being cleaned and explored. Initial results show that the text versions written by the Easy Language expert were better comprehended than other versions, although they 136 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Czechia were not expressly written in Easy Language. The data set will be used to adapt selected readability formulas to Czech. In addition, diverse text features will be extracted and correlations with the comprehensions will be sought, partly drawing on Cvrček et al. (2020), to define the style of this particular author in more precise linguistic terms, and to provide additional language-specific readability metrics, if any emerge from this experiment. Readability-related research is also being conducted in Czech computa- tional linguistics and natural language processing. For instance, Rysová et al. (2017) have trained a CEFR-level statistical classifier of essays written by foreign Czech speakers, and another of essays written by Czech pupils, to guess the grade they had received from their teacher. Barančíková is working on automatic paraphrasing using neural networks in a similar way to which they are used in Machine Translation (Barancikova and Bojar 2019: 125–132). Another interesting branch of research is the assessment of textbooks. In Czechia, this dates back to the 1920s, when literacy in early education was a concern. International as well as domestic educational research boomed in the 1980s. At that time, modern textbooks, even for primary schools, were regularly written by experts with no teaching experience, who were unable to adjust to the cognitive level of their readers. The products were discouraging for students and teachers alike, and educational researchers struggled to find methods to control the cognitive load in the texts (Pluskal 1996, Průcha 1998). Unfortunately, their efforts never really reached beyond academic discourse: the regime was already on the verge of collapse when the Ministry of Educa- tion began to pay attention. Centralized research was discontinued and teams dissolved in the tumults of the 1990s. Meanwhile, private publishers started flooding the market with textbooks and other didactic tools. To be purchased by schools, these products have to comply with the guidelines of the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports, but these guidelines are somewhat vague and focus on content rather than structure. This is certainly better than having poor, rigid guidelines, but on the other hand, there are not even any optional templates to follow. So, publishers compete to make their products as visually appealing as possible to succeed on the market, but the content is often poor, and headmasters lack a serious base on which to evaluate their actual didactic quality. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 137 Silvie Cinková, Camille Latimier Already in 1992, individual researchers and full-time teachers founded the Czech Educational Research Association, a member of the European Research Association, which organizes annual conferences with workshops and sends out a bimonthly newsletter. Research funding has been scattered into individ- ual grants. A larger team has since emerged at the Centre of Educational Re- search at the Masaryk University in Brno (Janoušková 2009, Knecht and Janko 2008). This team focuses on the contents and didactic structure of materials, and performs a basic readability assessment. Literacy and reading comprehension research in Czechia is particularly concerned with early stages and young adults, with a focus on intellectual disabilities and special educational needs. It has a strong tradition going back to the 1950s. It generally aims for early detection and systematic intervention to bring the challenged individual as close to the norm as possible. Recently, this care model was extended and adapted to the needs of university students (Kucharská 2014). The norm as well as deviations in text reception of any kind have been the subject of a significant bulk of research. For instance, Czechia was represented in the European ELDEL (Enhancing Literacy Development in European Lan- guages) network (cf. e.g. Caravolas et al. 2019), which resulted in a diagnostic battery of reading comprehension tests for children. In developmental cogni- tive psychology, the inquiry targets specific linguistic phenomena (e.g. Smolik et al. 2016, Smolik and Bláhová 2016). In the context of language culture and stylistics, Easy Language has never been an issue. The core stylistic concept has been, since the 1930s lectures at the Prague School, a set of functional styles and their associated elements. It is based on the assumption that ‘objective conditions of a communication’ ‘oblige the communicator to a given style-establishing behavior’ (Krčmová 2017), and has given rise to a self-perpetuating dispute on the ultimate set of functional styles and adequate communicative situations (Hoffmannová et al. 2016), far from the domain of language practitioners. Depending on clas- sification granularity, the style is administrative and educational or scientific functional (with further subclassifications), but their cultivation is left to the corresponding domain experts. 138 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Czechia 8 Future Perspectives The struggle for the democratic and inclusive use of the Czech language is definitely not behind us. The recent developments presented in this chapter show that the topic of comprehensibility, which was initially raised by a small group of non-governmental organizations and a few practitioners, now also interests academics and some key players in public administration. A number of positive outcomes and activities can be considered promis- ing practices. The intense work of the Ombudsman on Plain Language and accessible information for people with disabilities, the creation of documents in Easy Language by the Ministry of Interior, as well as the future pilot train- ing for civil servants and its potential scaling-up for regional or municipal officials are all signs that the bureaucratic tradition of written Czech is slowly being questioned. The growing amount of academic research and articles on literacy and readability will also provide evidence-based arguments to advance the use of comprehensible texts. Whereas before, Easy Language publications were almost secret, they are now promoted and related by authorities as well as mainstream organizations, beyond disability circles. However, the changes are slow: the issue concerns not only modifying how to communicate and how to write, but also taking the perspective of the reader into account and cultivating a new attitude towards citizens. Based on the experience of more advanced countries in the field, a legal framework guaranteeing Plain Language (Plain Writing Act 2010: 124 STAT. 2861) and Easy Language, as with the Accessible Information Standard (Na- tional Health System England 2016), may be necessary at some point to achieve system change in Czechia. Citizens will have to prove that they deserve clear communication and fight for it. Authors Silvie Cinková is a linguist at the Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics at the Charles University in Prague. Currently she serves on the executive boards of the Czech and European Associations for Digital Humanities. Her © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 139 Silvie Cinková, Camille Latimier main research interest used to be Germanic lexicography (her dissertation was on polysemous Swedish verbs). After her graduation, she has spent most of her time working on the syntactic annotation of corpora for Natural Language Processing. More recently, she has broadened her horizons to basic Data Anal- ysis and Text Mining. Since 2018, she has been fully absorbed in readability/ accessibility issues and their social implications. Camille Latimier is executive director of Inclusion Czech Republic (SPMP ČR.) She has more than ten years’ experience in fighting for the rights of people with intellectual disabilities, on both national and European levels. Her focus is on legal capacity and supported decision-making, the rights of children with intellectual disabilities, and accessibility (Easy Language, accessibility of public services and agencies, accessibility of elections). She is a member of the Adviso- ry body for the implementation of the CRPD at the Office of the Ombudsman. Acknowledgments This article was funded by the Czech Science Foundation Grant No. 19-19191S. References Anticorruption Endowment. Nadační Fond Proti Korupci NFPK [Anticorruption En- dowment]. Web. 1 February 2021. . 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Smolik, Filip, and Veronika Bláhová. “Comprehension of Verb Number Mor- phemes in Czech Children: Singular and Plural Show Different Relations to Age 144 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Czechia and Vocabulary.” First Language 37 (2016): 42–57. Web. 12 January 2021. . Smolik, Filip et al. “Propositional Density in Spoken and Written Language of Czech-Speaking Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment.” Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 59.6 (2016): 1461–1470. Web. 12 January 2021. . Straková, Jana et al. Předpoklady úspěchu v práci a v životě. Výsledky mezinárodního výzkumu dospělých OECD PIAAC [Prerequisites for success at work and in life. Re- sults of the OECD PIAAC International Adult Research]. Praha: Dům zahraniční spolupráce, 2013. Print. Tyler, Tom R. “What Is Procedural Justice?: Criteria Used by Citizens to Assess the Fairness of Legal Procedures.” Law & Society Review 22.1 (1988): 103–135. Print. Veřejný ochránce práv [Ombudsman]. Bydlení – Zajištění Bydlení – Obecní Byty [Housing – Provision of Housing – Municipal Flats]. Leaflet. 2014. Web. 2 January 2021. . Veřejný ochránce práv [Ombudsman]. Souhrnná zpráva ze systematických návštěv veřejného ochránce práv 2019, ochranné léčení, omezovací prostředky a další té- mata [Summary report from the ombudsman’s systematic visits 2019, treatment, means of restraint and other topics]. Brno: Veřejný ochránce práv, 2019. Web. 15 December 2020. . Veřejný ochránce práv [Ombudsman]. Dávky Na Bydlení [Housing Benefits]. Leaflet in Plain Language. 2020. Web. 15 December 2020. . Vučka, Jan. Právní psaní [Legal writing]. Praha: C.H. Beck, 2019. Print. Zákon o přístupnosti internetových stránek a mobilních aplikací [Law on the Accessibi- lity of Websites and Mobile Applications]. Web. 15 December 2020. . Zákon o sociálních službách [Act on Social Services]. Web. 15 December 2020. . Zezulková, Eva. Vybrané faktory komunikační kompetence žáků v primárním vzdělá- vání [Selected factors of communication competence of pupils in primary educa- tion]. Opava: Slezská univerzita v Opavě – Fakulta veřejných politik, Centrum empirických výzkumů, 2015. Print. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 145 Silvie Cinková, Camille Latimier Appendix 1. An illustration of guidelines for Easy Czech. Standard Czech Easy Czech INFORMACE O ZPŮSOBU Jak se hlasuje do Senátu HLASOVÁNÍ Které dny můžete volit? Volby do Senátu Parlamentu České V pátek 2. října 2020 od 14.00 do 22.00 republiky V sobotu 3. října 2020 od 8.00 do 14.00 pátek 2. října 2020 od 14.00 hodin do 22.00 hodin První kolo voleb do Senátu začíná v a sobota 3. října 2020 od 8.00 hodin do pátek 2. října 2020. V prvním kole je 14.00 hodin senátor zvolený tehdy, když ho zvolí (případné druhé kolo ve dnech 9. a 10. více než polovina lidí. Když nebude října 2020) zvolený senátor, bude se konat druhé kolo voleb do Senátu. Voličem je • občan České republiky, Česká republika je rozdělená do 81 • který nejpozději 3. října 2020 dovrší volebních obvodů. Každý volební věku 18 let; obvod má v Senátu jednoho zástupce. • ve druhém kole pak i občan České Tomuto zástupci se říká senátor. Senát republiky, který nejpozději 10. října má tedy 81 senátorů. Do Senátu se 2020 dovrší věku 18 let. tento rok volí jen 27 senátorů. Hlasování probíhá pouze na území V ostatních volebních obvodech se České republiky, a to ve 27 senátních senátor letos nevolí. volebních obvodech, kde jsou volby do Senátu vyhlášeny. Volič může hlasovat Kdy můžete volit pouze v tom volebním okrsku, kde je • Když jste občanem České republiky. přihlášen k trvalému pobytu. Výjim- • Státní občanství máte napsané v kou jsou voliči hlasující na voličský občanském průkazu. průkaz (viz níže). • Když máte alespoň 18 roků. • Volit můžete jen ve volebním obvodu, kde máte trvalý pobyt. To znamená ve vašem městě nebo vesnici. Trvalý pobyt máte napsaný v občanském průkazu. 146 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Czechia [INFORMATION ON THE [How to vote for the Senate METHOD OF VOTING Elections to the Senate of the Parlia- On which days can you vote? ment of the Czech Republic Friday, On Friday, October 2, 2020, from 2.00 October 2, 2020 from 2:00 PM to 10:00 PM to 10.00 PM PM and Saturday, October 3, 2020, On Saturday, October 3, 2020, from from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM 8.00 AM to 2.00 PM (possible second round on 9 and 10 October 2020) The first round of elections to the Sen- ate begins on Friday, October 2, 2020. A voter is: In the first round, a senator is elected • a citizen of the Czech Republic, when more than half of the people elect • a citizen who has reached the age of him. If no senator is elected, there will 18 by 3 October 2020 at the latest; be a second round of Senate elections. • in the second round, also a citizen of the Czech Republic who has reached The Czech Republic is divided into 81 the age of 18 no later than 10 Octo- constituencies. Each constituency has ber 2020. one representative in the Senate. This Voting takes place only on the territo- representative is called a senator. The ry of the Czech Republic, in 27 Senate Senate therefore has 81 senators. Only constituencies where elections to the 27 senators are elected to the Senate Senate are announced. A voter can this year. vote only in the constituency where Senators will not be elected in other he/she is registered for permanent res- constituencies this year. idence. Exceptions are voters voting on a voting card (see below).] You can vote: • If you are a citizen of the Czech Republic. Your citizenship is written on your identity card. • When you are at least 18 years old. • You can only vote in the constitu- ency where you have permanent residence. This means in your town or village. You have a permanent residence permit on your ID card.] © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 147 Leealaura Leskelä Easy Language in Finland 1 Introduction Finland is one of the Nordic countries that has promoted Easy Language for decades as a practical tool for people with language barriers. It initially adopted the Easy Language model from Sweden in the early 1980s. For a long time, co-operation between Sweden, Norway and Finland actively created new input for developing Easy Language, although the Finnish language is very different from its neighbouring Scandinavian languages. In recent years, Easy Language co-operation among European countries has intensified considerably. Finland has a population of 5.5 million. The country has two official lan- guages, Finnish (about 4.8 million native speakers) and Swedish (about 290 000 native speakers) 1. The majority language – Finnish – belongs to the Finno-Ug- ric language group, which originates from the Uralic language family and dif- fers in many respects from most languages spoken in Europe. It is characterized by a rather complicated morpho-syntactic system, with 15 cases and suffixes added to nouns and verbs, no gender or grammatical article, and a negation word that resembles a verb. The closest relative languages to Finnish are Es- tonian and Karelian. (E.g. Kotus kielitieto 2021, ISO suomen kielioppi 2010.) Finland’s minority language Swedish belongs to the Scandinavian North-Ger- manic languages of the Indo-European language family, characterized by spe- cial inflectional forms in nouns to indicate definiteness and in verbs to indicate medial or passive meaning (Nationalencyklopedin 2020). Finland Swedish is a regional variant of Sweden Swedish (Kotus kielitieto 2021). 1 The other minority languages spoken in Finland are three Saami languages (about 10 000 native speakers), Karelian (about 5000 native speakers), Finnish Romani (about 3000 native speakers), Finnish sign language (4000–9000 native speakers) and Finnish-Swedish sign language (about 100 native speakers). (Kotus kielitieto 2021.) © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 149 Leealaura Leskelä In Finland, Easy Finnish and Easy Swedish are seen as varieties of these two languages 2. They are thus associated more with recommendations and guidelines rather than with grammatical rules or standards. Their coverage and boundaries in relation to other language varieties, such as standard Finnish or standard Swedish, are difficult to show unambiguously (cf. Kielitoimiston kielioppiopas 2015: 27). As Easy Finnish and Easy Swedish have the status of language varieties, they are not covered or protected by the Language Act or any other legislation, and are not the responsibility of any authority (see chapter on Sweden). Still, for certain groups of people in Finland, Easy Languages are the only means to communicate or read. The practical use of Easy Language for such a long time has been beneficial for Finland. It has brought with it a wealth of different Easy Language mate- rials and a great deal of experience in using these materials with people with language barriers. The main shortcomings in Finland are the lack of legislation concerning Easy Language and the limited amount of research on it. Ensuring that future legislation and increased research work hand in hand on the prac- tical development of Easy Language is an important goal for the years ahead. 2 Historical perspectives The history of Easy Language in Finland goes back to the early 1980s, when the first Easy Finnish books were published and the Easy Language magazine for people with intellectual disabilities, Leija, was founded. In the beginning, Easy Finnish was primarily considered a language form for people with intellectual disabilities. However, it soon became obvious that it could also be applied to other people, for instance elderly people with memory-related illnesses, young readers with reading difficulties, or immigrants learning Finnish (e.g. Kulkki-Nieminen 2010: 30–32). The first Easy Language books were mainly for children and young readers (Rajala and Virtanen 1986, Virtanen 2009: 142). Gradually, the genre extended 2 This article mainly deals with Easy Finnish as a variety of the majority language Finnish, because most of the development work has been carried out in the Finnish language. 150 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Finland to adult literature. At the beginning of the 1990s, a national financing system to support Easy Language literature production was created (see Section 6). The general public has mainly reacted positively to Easy Language books, but in the first decades there were concerns that it may destroy the desire of Finns to read more demanding literature (Virtanen 2006: 99, 2009: 112–113). Gradually, this concern subsided and Easy Language literature was established as an accepted genre for readers who would otherwise be excluded from enjoying literature (Leskelä and Kulkki-Nieminen 2015: 136). The producers of Easy Language materials soon noticed that Easy Language needed guidelines. The first guidebook on how to write, illustrate and lay out Easy Language material was published in 1986 (Rajala and Virtanen 1986). In the 1990s, the guidelines derived inspiration from international Easy-to-Read guidelines (IFLA 1997, ILSMH 1998 3), but as these were based on Indo-Eu- ropean languages, they did not provide enough support for the production of Easy Finnish materials. This, in turn, led to deeper reflection on what kind of guidelines would be suitable for Easy Finnish, especially with respect to the morpho-syntactic structures of Finnish. Since the early 2000s, a great deal of effort has been put into developing principles that are appropriate for Finn- ish (Sainio 2000, Leskelä and Kulkki-Nieminen 2015: 41–44, Leskelä 2019b: 110–111). The principles of Easy Finnish were collected to form the Easy-to- Read Finnish Meter (Selkomittari), which was published in 2018 (Leskelä 2020, see Section 5). Co-operation between the Nordic countries has been important for Fin- land. Since the 1990s, ideas and innovations have been exchanged (see chapters on Sweden and Norway, Sainio 2000) in many informal meetings, seminars and joint projects. During the first decades, Finland closely followed Sweden in particular. The focus of the co-operation has gradually extended to other European countries. The newspapers Selkosanomat in Easy Finnish and LL-Bladet in Easy Swed- ish began to appear in 1990. Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE launched its radio news in Easy Finnish in 1992. YLE news in Easy Finnish expanded 3 ILSMH stands for the International League of Societies for Persons with Mental Handicap, the predecessor of the current Inclusion Europe organization. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 151 Leealaura Leskelä to television in 2015. This was a huge step, as it allowed people with language barriers to follow television news like everyone else. YLE news in Easy Swedish began in 2019 (See Section 6). At the turn of the millennium, the publishing of Easy Language materials gradually spread to the internet. The first websites in Easy Language were published by the Papunet Web Service (Papunet – verk- kopalvelu), founded in 2001 (Ohtonen 2002, Älli and Kyyhkynen 2006). Initial- ly, the materials were often published as PDFs on the website. As the potential of online multimodality and interactivity was discovered and knowledge about the accessibility of online services improved, Easy Language materials were further developed to cover the various needs of people with language barriers. This meant developing Easy Language audio-visual materials, animations and videos, in co-operation with web designers and software developers working in the field of general accessibility (Leskelä 2019b: 65–70). In Finland, the main promoters of Easy Language have been non-govern- mental organizations, the most active being the Finnish Association on In- tellectual and Developmental Disabilities (FAIDD, Kehitysvammaliitto) and Inclusion Finland FDUV (organization for Swedish-speaking persons with intellectual disability). The Finnish Centre for Easy Language (Selkokeskus) was founded in 2000 and the Centre for Easy Swedish in Finland (LL-Center) in 2001. In a small country like Finland, connections and networking among different parties and professionals in various fields play a crucial role. Easy Language promoters have sought to make connections in various directions, with authorities and municipalities, promoters of accessible communication, speech therapists, linguists and researchers, sign language experts, print in- terpreters and audio describers, teachers, and special education experts. The channel for co-operation has been the Finnish Advisory Committee for Easy Language (Selkokielen neuvottelukunta), originally founded in 1984 as the working group for social and health organizations. The work on Easy Swedish has been co-ordinated by the Advisory Committee for Easy Swedish in Finland (Referensgruppen) since 2018 (see Section 3). 152 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Finland 3 Current situation Easy Language is well-established in Finland in practice, but its official and legal status remains rather weak. However, the general attitude towards Easy Language is mainly positive. 3.1 Definitions Both Easy Language and Plain Language have been developed in Finland for decades. The work on Easy Language has mainly been driven by non-govern- mental organizations, whereas Plain Language has been the responsibility of the Institute of Languages in Finland (Kotimaisten kielten keskus Kotus) 4. The definition of Easy Language has been formulated by the Easy Language experts of the Finnish Centre for Easy Language and authorities at the Institution for Languages in Finland. It has been in use since the 1990s: Easy Language is a form of language in which vocabulary, lan- guage structures and contents are modified to be more readable and understandable than in standard language. It is intended for people who have difficulties reading or understanding standard language. 5 (Selkokeskus määritelmä 2021.) In Finland, Plain Language is defined according to the model of the Plain Language Association International: A communication is in Plain Language if its wording, structure, and design are so clear that the intended readers can easily find what they need, understand what they find, and use that informa- tion. (Kotus Plain Language 2021.) 4 Kotus in English, https://www.kotus.fi/en 5 Translated by the author. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 153 Leealaura Leskelä In practice, it is not entirely clear how these two language forms differ from each other. However, as it is accepted in Finland that language varieties have no clear boundaries, Easy Language and Plain Language are seen as being on a continuum from very easy to more demanding language rather than as forming clearly defined categories. Based on this reasoning, Plain Language forms the linguistically most demanding part of Easy Language (see Section 5). In Finnish, Easy Language is selkokieli, Easy Finnish is selkosuomi and Plain Language selkeä kieli or selkeä yleiskieli. In Swedish, Easy Language is lätt språk, Easy Swedish is lätt svenska and Plain Language is klarspråk. 3.2 Societal and legal context Certain laws relate to Easy Languages in Finland. The Language Act addresses the linguistic rights of Finns to use their mother tongue, Finnish or Swedish, in dealings with public authorities (FINLEX 423/2003). However, this Act does not cover native speakers with a limited Finnish or Swedish language capacity. In accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act, an authority must use appropriate, clear and comprehensible language (FINLEX 434/2003). However, this has been understood to indicate the use of Plain Language, not Easy Lan- guage. The Equality Act prohibits discrimination and related grounds for dis- crimination, including language-related discrimination (FINLEX 1325/2014). So far, no complaints have been made to the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman concerning incomprehensible language of official services (Non-Discrimina- tion Ombudsman Annual Report 2018: 28–30). The Act on Providing Accessi- ble Digital Services aims to ensure that online services are accessible to people with disabilities (FINLEX 306/2019). The Act’s paragraphs do not mention Easy Language, but the preliminary works of law state that authorities must use Easy Language in certain situations. However, as there is no case law on this, the comprehensiveness of this declaration is difficult to assess (Leskelä 2019b: 39–41, 50–51). Although the legislative status of Easy Language is not very strong, some changes may take place in the near future due to the UN Convention on the 154 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Finland Rights of Persons with Disabilities – the CRPD 6 –which Finland ratified in 2016. The CRPD mentions Easy-to-Read in the context of accessible commu- nications and sends a clear message to each country to promote and increase its use. In some European countries, such as Germany, the CRPD has already strengthened the legislative position of Easy Language (Lang 2019, see chapter on Germany). Finland has yet to see such development, but the Finnish Advi- sory Committee for Easy Language has made this one of its main goals for the coming years (Selkokielen toimenpideohjelma 2019–2022). 3.3 Stakeholders The Finnish Centre for Easy Language (Selkokeskus) 7, founded in 2000, start- ed as an Easy Finnish expert unit within the FAIDD (Kehitysvammaliitto) and is now integrated into FAIDD’s Accessibility Unit. The centre publishes material in Easy Language, provides text services such as modifications from standard Finnish to Easy Finnish and Easy Language text commenting (chargeable ser- vices), and grants the national Easy Language logo for publications that meet the criteria of Easy Finnish (free of charge). It also provides information and guidance for writers and publishers, and training on writing and speaking Easy Finnish and making Easy Finnish layouts and illustrations for publications. The centre lobbies the importance of Easy Language to policymakers and authori- ties. It also distributes state grants for Easy Language literature, a task delegated to the centre by the Ministry of Education and Culture. The guidelines for Easy Finnish have been mainly developed by experts at the Finnish Centre for Easy Language. The Finnish Centre for Easy Language is financed by the STEA Funding Centre for Social Welfare and Health Organisations of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. The Finnish Advisory Committee for Easy Language (Selkokielen neuvot- telukunta) of the Finnish Centre for Easy Language works as a co-operation channel for 53 different organizations, authorities, universities, learning in- stitutes, and media that share a joint interest in promoting Easy Language in 6 CRPD in English, https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention- on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities.html 7 Selkokeskus in English, https://selkokeskus.fi/in-english/ © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 155 Leealaura Leskelä Finland. The Advisory Committee aims to support the work of Selkokeskus, share information about Easy Language and increase collaboration. It has also published strategies for promoting Easy Language in Finland (Advisory Com- mittee for Easy Language 2021). The Swedish-speaking centre for Easy to Read in Finland (LL-Center) 8 was founded in 2001 as the Easy Swedish expert unit of Inclusion Finland FDUV. It provides services for everyone who needs Easy Swedish, including text services (modifications from standard Swedish to Easy Swedish, translations of Easy Finnish materials into Easy Swedish, text commenting, and free checking of Easy Swedish materials), and publishes the Easy Swedish newspaper LL-Bladet and other materials together with the Finnish Centre for Easy Language. The LL-Center arranges courses on writing Easy Swedish texts and offers training for Swedish-speaking reading representatives. It is supported by the Advisory Committee for Easy Swedish (Referensgruppen), which was founded in 2018 and has representatives from 14 different authorities and municipalities, or- ganizations and learning institutes. The LL-Center is financed by the STEA Funding Centre of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE broadcasts news in Easy Finnish on television, the radio and the internet (YLE uutiset selkosuomeksi) and in Easy Swedish on the radio and the internet (YLE nyheter på lätt svenska, see Section 6). Inclusion Finland KVTL (Kehitysvammaisten Tukiliitto) publishes the Easy Finnish Magazine Leija for readers with intellectual disabilities (Lei- ja Lehti 2021, see Section 6). Papunet Web Service (Papunet-verkkopalvelu) promotes accessibility and the use of Easy Language on the internet (Papunet- verk kopalvelu 2021). The Klaara Network (Klaara-verkosto) at the University of Helsinki is a network of researchers interested in Easy Languages (Klaara network in English 2021, see Section 7). The Institute for the Languages in Finland (Kotimaisten kielten keskus) promotes Plain Language and contributes to the promotion of Easy Language via the Advisory Committee for Easy Lan- guage (Kotus in English 2021). 8 LL-Center in English, https://ll-center.fi/english/ 156 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Finland The Ministry of Education and Culture (Opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriö) supports Easy Language literature production by awarding yearly grants to authors, illustrators and publishers of Easy Language books (Easy Language Literature Grants 2021). The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (Sosiaali- ja terveysministeriö) finances the functions and publications of the Finnish Centre for Easy Language and the LL-Center (STEA grants 2021). Many authorities distribute Easy Language materials in various forms, for instance The Social Insurance Institution of Finland (KELA), the Satakunta Hospital District (Sa- tasairaala), the Finnish Tax Administration (Verohallinto), and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (Terveyden ja hyvinvoinnin laitos). Every year, private publishing houses publish approximately 20–30 new Easy Language books, for instance Avain, Opike, Pieni Karhu, and Reuna (Easy Language Lit- erature 2021). 3.4 General attitude The societal status of Easy Language in Finland is somewhat paradoxical. On the one hand, legislation to support Easy Language is largely lacking, promot- ing Easy Language is not the responsibility of any authority, no formal pathways exist for training Easy Language experts, and research on the topic is limited. On the other hand, the general attitude towards Easy Language is quite positive. The long, practical tradition of Easy Language has made it, at least to some extent, an accepted form of communication for people with language barriers. The use of Easy Language materials is constantly growing and expanding, and from time to time, it becomes a matter of public debate. Just recently, a Con- gressman held a public speech in Easy Finnish in Parliament, and the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE organized an Easy Language election panel before the parliamentary elections in 2019. These election panel will be organized again before the municipal elections in 2021. The need for Easy Language is also mentioned in the current government programme (Hallitusohjelma 2019). Easy Language is mainly promoted in Finland through public funding. The main bodies responsible for Easy Language are non-governmental organiza- tions, whose funding is bound to the financing of their mother organizations. Every year, these organizations apply for funding from the STEA Funding Cen- © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 157 Leealaura Leskelä tre, which distributes the profits of the national gambling monopoly Veikkaus to organizations (STEA grants 2021). This means that Easy Language devel- opment competes for funding with stakeholders devoted to sports, social and health issues and politics, who mainly provide project-based activities with shorter attention spans (e.g., peer support groups, excursions and camps). As developing a language form requires long-term work, this system may not be ideal. It has also been criticized for the fact that the money is raised for these organizations at the expense of individuals who are potentially addicted to gambling (e.g., Egerer 2018). The main problem with the funding is that the market for accessible services in Finland is still in its infancy. In view of the vague legislative status of Easy Language, it seems unlikely that this market will grow anytime soon to provide a funding channel for developing Easy Language. 4 Target groups In Finland, people who need Easy Language are divided into three main groups: 1) People who have an innate and probably lifelong need for Easy Language due to their neuro-biologically different language processing capac- ities (e.g. people with intellectual disability, people on the autism spectrum, and people with severe reading, concentration and perception difficulties), 2) People whose linguistic skills are impaired due to an injury, illness or trauma acquired during their lifetime (e.g. people with aphasia or memory-related illnesses), and 3) People who are likely to only need Easy Language temporar- ily and have another language or means of communication (e.g. people learn- ing Finnish or Swedish as a second language, sign language native speakers, see Leskelä and Lindholm 2012, Leskelä and Kulkki-Nieminen 2015: 25–30, Leskelä 2019b: 97–103). These target groups are not divided into primary or secondary groups; they are all equally important. It is, however, recognized that they form heterogene- ous groups and differ in respect to their linguistic needs and abilities (Leskelä 2019b: 103–104, Uotila 2020: 310). Those who have two different simultaneous causes may have the greatest need for Easy Language (e.g., a person with an 158 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Finland intellectual disability who has a memory disease or an immigrant person on the autism spectrum), but no research evidence on this exists (Virtanen 2009: 37). It has also been emphasized that belonging to one of the groups mentioned above does not automatically create the need for Easy Language (ibid. 37). This applies to all groups, but especially to the third group. Some Finnish language learners may only need Easy Finnish briefly before moving on to standard language, but for others, Easy Finnish may remain the main language form for coping in Finnish society (Leskelä 2019b: 101–102). It is also worth noting that some people may need Easy Language almost constantly in their daily lives, whereas others may only benefit from it occasionally. At different times, the Finnish Centre for Easy Language (Selkokeskus) has estimated the number of people needing Easy Finnish in Finland. These esti- mates are based on statistical data from different population groups, the results of international literacy surveys, and data collected from non-governmental organizations for people with language barriers (Juusola 2019, Virtanen 2009). According to the most recent estimation (Juusola 2019), from 11%–14% of the population may need Easy Finnish, meaning 650 000–750 000 people in Finland. These estimates have taken into account the constant changes in group size (e.g., as language learners gradually achieve the standard language level or as the language skills of a person with dementia gradually deteriorate), but these changes are difficult to assess. The need for Easy Swedish in Finland has not been estimated yet, but some Easy Swedish experts have suggested that it is in line with the percentage of Finland’s Swedish-speaking population, which would mean some tens of thousands of people (Leskelä 2019b: 102). The need for Easy Finnish has gradually increased in Finland. In 2001 (Virtanen 2002), 4%–7% of Finns were estimated as needing Easy Finnish, whereas in 2014 (Virtanen 2014), this group size had increased to 8%–12% of the population. Today the estimate is 11%–14% (Juusola 2019). According to Virtanen, this is explained by the general growth of Finland’s population, particularly the proportion of elderly people, and the increased number of people with immigrant backgrounds and pupils in special education (2014: 18). Juusola (2019: 3) adds to this list the increase in weak readers among young and adult Finns, which has also been observed in international literacy studies (PISA 2015, PIAAC 2012). These estimates articulate the difficulty of reliably © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 159 Leealaura Leskelä calculating the number of people needing Easy Finnish (Virtanen 2002, 2014, Juusola 2019); for instance, the risk of double counting or ignoring certain groups of people. They can only give approximate group sizes, as extensive research on the topic is lacking. However, as these estimates are made on the basis of approximately the same variables, the overall image they provide can be considered quite reliable. They are also in line with the results of the inter- national literacy surveys on the number of weak readers in Finland (PISA 2018, PISA 2015, PIAAC 2012). From time to time, there are discussions about the usability of Easy Lan- guage for the larger public. Certain readers may benefit from Easy Language in certain situations, but may not need to use it constantly. It is estimated that if these people, known as inexperienced readers, were included, the percentage of those needing Easy Finnish could rise to as high as 20%–25% (Leskelä and Kulkki-Nieminen 2015: 34, Virtanen 2014: 20). It is, however, good to bear in mind that these people may also benefit from Plain Language. It is widely recognized in Finland that the kind of people needing Easy Language are very heterogeneous (e.g., Leskelä and Kulkki-Nieminen 2015: 25–32, Virtanen 2002: 12–21, also Uotila 2020: 311). Due to their differences, they may experience different features of language as difficult or easy. There are discrepancies between the groups. On whose terms should the compromises in Easy Language be made? The following shows a concrete example of this dilemma: If there are two synonyms for a word, say the word information in Finnish, the loanword informaatio and the shorter, more frequent and indig- enous Finnish word tieto, which one should be used in an Easy Finnish text? Some language learners would probably better recognize the loanword, but the Finnish original word may possibly be easier for native readers with intellectual disabilities or dyslexia. In practice it is not at all clear how the groups differ linguistically from each other (Leskelä 2019b: 103–104). When attempting to define a language form that would be particularly suitable for a certain group, say for people on the autism spectrum or immigrants, we tread on a minefield of stereotypes. There is no such thing as a typical autistic or immigrant reader. Instead, there is a wide spectrum of different individuals with varying skills and challenges, and the discrepancies within the same group may be even great- er than those between the groups (Leskelä and Kulkki-Nieminen 2015: 31). 160 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Finland One attempt to resolve this persistent problem is to divide Easy Language into three levels of difficulty, though these levels have not yet been established in Finland. This division avoids stereotyping groups, because everyone can take advantage of the level that is most suitable for them, regardless of which group they belong to. One aspect worth considering is the potential of Easy Language to bal- ance the power relations between different language users. This applies to all groups with language barriers, but especially to communications between native and non-native speakers. If non-native speakers are addressed in Easy Language instead of standard language, the dominant position of native speak- ers is weakened, as Easy Language challenges native speakers in the same way that speaking the target language challenges non-native speakers. This may empower language learners, which is one of the special merits of Easy Lan- guage. However, it may also irritate some native speakers, as they may feel they are being forced to learn a new language to make it easier for immigrants. Thus, developers of Easy Language need to consider how to respond to such situations and explain the opportunities of Easy Language to a wider audience. The role of the target groups in developing and promoting Easy Language has also occasionally been a topic of discussion. The widely used international slogan nothing about us without us, adopted by the disability movement, em- phasizes the fact that people with disabilities should not be the objects of any measures without being involved themselves. In the context of Easy Language, this has been interpreted as referring to the roles of people with disabilities as Easy Language experts (Netzwerk Leichte Sprache 2021). In Finland, the importance of involving people with language barriers in developing Easy Language has been widely recognized, but a testing process involving people with disabilities is not a prerequisite for granting materials the Easy Language logo (Leskelä 2011). This is due to the general perception that all people with language barriers are equally important: none of them is considered a primary group. This in turn means that testing groups should include testers from all groups needing Easy Language. In practice, this would be quite difficult to arrange, and this may undermine the production of Easy Language materials. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 161 Leealaura Leskelä 5 Guidelines After the first guidebook (Rajala and Virtanen 1986), the guidelines for Easy Finnish have been modified and refined over the decades in 10 different pub- lications. The first guidelines relied on mechanical readability formulae and mainly treated comprehensibility as a computational equation: a text is com- prehensible if it has short sentences with short words. In the 1990s, the Easy Language guidelines were influenced by international Easy-to-Read guidelines (IFLA 1997, ILSMH 1998), but also by the criticisms of Finnish linguists, which followed the same lines. A text’s comprehensibility is not merely a matter of countable text surface features; it is also very strongly connected to internal cohesion and textual structures (e.g., Laurinen 1994, Kulkki-Nieminen 2001). Gradually, the special features and requirements of the Finnish language were taken better into account in Easy Finnish guidelines. For example, new instructions were given for avoiding certain difficult infinitive and participle structures of Finnish (Kulkki-Nieminen 2010: 38–39). The guidelines have also been refined and expanded as experience in test readings with various reader groups has increased (Leskelä 2011) and on the basis of critical remarks and suggestions from researchers, language authorities and Easy Finnish experts (Leskelä 2020, Virtanen 2009: 112–118). For an explanation of the Finnish guidelines, see Appendix 1. Recently, international co-operation has been important in further devel- oping the guidelines – for instance, Easy Language experts from Germany and Switzerland have commented on the Finnish Easy-to-Read Meter (Selkomitta- ri), and international Easy Language research has provided new, scientifically based perspectives that are also useful for Easy Finnish guidelines (e.g., Bredel and Maaß 2016, Bock 2019, see chapter on Germany). In Finland, in addition to linguistic recommendations, many visual guide- lines have been formulated (e.g., Rajala and Virtanen 1986: 32–35, Laukka 2002, Itkonen 2006, Virtanen 2009: 119–140, Leskelä 2019b: 173–210). As new technological solutions and publication forms have developed, Easy Language guidelines have followed. For instance, guidelines now cover accessible Easy Language websites, videos, animations, voice-overs, and e-publishing (e.g. Ohtonen 2002, Älli and Kyyhkynen 2006). For 15 years, recommendations 162 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Finland have also been provided for using Easy Language in spoken interaction (e.g., Kartio 2009, Leskelä 2012). If reviewed from a general perspective, the guidelines for Easy Finnish could be described as practical rather than pedantic. Their main purpose has been to help the writers and producers of Easy Finnish materials understand the various needs of readers with language barriers (e.g., Leskelä and Kulk- ki-Nieminen 2015: 39, Rajala and Virtanen 1986: 34–36). Because the readers are a highly heterogeneous group, Easy Finnish guidelines have recognized that one size does not fit all. Thus, they have stressed flexibility and multi-purpose adaptability as their goal. As a language variety, Easy Finnish has guidelines and recommendations rather than rules and standards. They encourage the writer/ producer to process the text as a whole rather than cling to details: one single difficult word or structure rarely makes a text unreadable, but an inconsistent and confusing body of text often does (Leskelä and Kulkki-Nieminen 2015: 43, Sainio 2006, Kulkki-Nieminen 2002: 39–40). Although the guidelines suggest that poor visual solutions may greatly hinder the reading process, they refuse to give strict regulations concerning the visual appearance of a publication (Itkonen 2006). The guidelines also emphasize that writing Easy Language is not merely a technical performance; it is a matter of creativity and profession- alism (Virtanen 2009: 64, 70, Sainio and Rajala 2002). Producing good Easy Language material is only possible for someone who can also create the same material in standard language. 5.1 Difficulty levels of Easy Finnish Flexibility in relation to Easy Language determinants has many positive effect – producers of Easy Language materials dare to try out new adaptations and provide readers with a varied, multi-faceted range of materials. However, this has also led to problems of readers not always knowing whether the material they have at hand is easy or challenging enough for them (Leskelä 2019b: 160). Uncertainty can be frustrating and unmotivating if readers are offered materi- als that are too difficult or too simple. Partly because of this, a need has arisen in Finland to divide Easy Finnish into different difficulty levels. The following categories have been suggested (ibid. 160–172): © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 163 Leealaura Leskelä Level Users Easiest Easy Finnish Users with the most severe language and reading difficulties, who need maximal simplified language, and probably do not read by themselves. This corresponds approximately to levels A1–A2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Basic Easy Finnish Average Easy Finnish readers, who are mainly able to read by themselves, but have considerable problems with standard Finnish. This corresponds approximately to levels A2–B1 of the CEFR. Advanced Easy Finnish Users with minor reading challenges. This corresponds approximately to levels B1–B2 of the CEFR. Table 1: Difficulty levels of Easy Finnish. This suggestion of dividing Easy Language into difficulty levels is based on the fact that Easy Language texts have always existed at different difficulty levels in Finland: some them being very easy, others being more difficult. However, the division also raises some questions. It seems relatively easy to outline the lin- guistic criteria for the two first categories, Easiest Easy Finnish and Basic Easy Finnish, but the third category of Advanced Easy Finnish comes rather close to Plain Finnish. Combining these two varieties is an option worth considering. Other Nordic countries have made different categories for Easy Language literature. In Sweden, Easy-to-Read literature is produced at three difficulty levels (see chapter on Sweden), and in Norway at two levels (see chapter on Norway). Both Sweden and Norway have practical rather than strict linguis- tic criteria for these levels, and they only apply to Easy Language literature. It may not be possible to define precise linguistic criteria for each level in all Easy Finnish text genres, so although the first outlines for the criteria of Easy Finnish difficulty levels have been made, for the time being they still need to be treated as preliminary (Leskelä 2019a, 2020). 164 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Finland 5.2 Criteria for writing Easy Finnish Recently, the long-term work on Easy Finnish guidelines has been used to pro- vide a background for developing the Finnish Easy-to-Read Meter (Selkomit- tari). The Meter is an evaluation tool that allows Easy Language experts and researchers to estimate whether a text is or is not Easy Finnish (Leskelä 2020). It includes 106 criteria for an Easy Finnish text, divided into four main sections: Criteria Subsections Examples of criteria Textual features, • General criteria • The text contains no infor- 32 criteria • Subject and theme mation gaps (reader obtains handling sufficient information at all • Information burden points for understanding the • Tone and interaction text). with reader • The subject is discussed from • Parse of the text a perspective that is mean- • Text genre criteria ingful to the reader. Vocabulary, • General criteria • The writer favours common 18 criteria • Explanations of words everyday words that are • Repetitions of words supposedly familiar to the and references reader. • Figurative language • The words are explained in • Abbreviations and a natural manner that does numbers not give the impression of “pointing the finger”. Morpho-syntax, • General criteria • The text does not contain 30 criteria • Declension, conjuga- difficult infinitive and par- tion and derivation of ticipial constructions (e.g., words agent participle structure). • Sentence and clause • Rare cases of nouns are constructions avoided (e.g., abessive, comi- tative and instructive). © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 165 Leealaura Leskelä Criteria Subsections Examples of criteria Visual features, • General criteria • The hierarchy and the read- 26 criteria • Line divisions and ing order of the text is clear columns (e.g., headlines clearly differ • Type and size of font from body type and the main • Background and headline differs from the colours subtitles). • Pictures and photos • The pictures (if used) are congruent with the main message of the text and help the reader understand it. Table 2: Criteria for writing Easy Finnish. 5.3 Guidelines for speaking Easy Finnish Finland, unlike many other countries, has recommendations for using Easy Language in spoken interaction (ELI guidelines). These recommendations aim to help speakers in linguistically asymmetrical conversations in which the par- ticipants, linguistically more competent and less competent speakers, do not share the same language skills (Leskelä 2012, Leskelä and Lindholm 2012, Leskelä and Lindholm forthcoming). The theoretical background of the ELI guidelines is Conversation Analysis (e.g., Heritage 1984). As they are much newer than the Easy Finnish writing recommendations, they are still mainly preliminary. The ELI guidelines include 45 recommendations for the more competent speaker, divided into five main sections (Leskelä 2012: 279–298). 166 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Finland Sections Subsections Examples of guidelines Orientation and • Appeasing the environ- • Helping the co-partic- context of the talk, ment ipant orient towards 3 guidelines • Supporting orientation the situation at hands; towards the situation indicating what happens • Paying attention to the now and next. context of the conversa- tion Encountering the • Allowing time to react • Listening sensitively to co-participant, • Sensitive listening your co-participant. 5 guidelines • Encouraging expression • Paying attention to your of views actions in the situation; • Taking possible acquies- yet not focusing solely on cence into account monitoring your own ac- • Considering ways to tions and use of language. minimize the risk of losing face Reciprocity and • Supporting co-partici- • Upholding turn-taking turn taking, pants’ initiatives and reciprocal progress of 6 guidelines • Turn-taking the conversation. • Sharing responsibility for • Asking questions but the progress of the talk avoiding an interrogative tone. Verbal means of • Use of frequent everyday • Giving concrete exam- speech, vocabulary ples when talking about 25 guidelines • Use of language struc- abstract topics. tures common in spoken • Speaking at a calm pace language yet not slowing down • Structure of turn speech or unnaturally • Prosodic features that stretching sounds. facilitate understanding • Facial expressions and gestures • Augmentative and alter- native communication methods © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 167 Leealaura Leskelä Sections Subsections Examples of guidelines Checking and • Correcting misunder- • Using common repair repairing under- standings initiators to express diffi- standing checks, • Repairing problems in culty understanding. 6 guidelines understanding • Avoiding overinterpreta- • Taking responsibility for tions. When unsure about not understanding. interpretation, asking about it directly. Table 3: Guidelines for speaking Easy Finnish. The ELI guidelines need to take into account the dynamic nature of using language in conversation. Speakers do not have much time for linguistic deci- sions, so they are probably unable to follow complicated guidelines concerning simple words and structures in the way that writers are. But, unlike writers, they receive constant feedback from their interlocutors and may thus change their language usage accordingly (Leskelä 2019b: 214). For the ELI guidelines this means that the recommendations given to speakers must be applicable to real language use in different speaking situations. The main purpose of ELI guidelines is to strengthen co-operation between linguistically asymmetrical speakers. This implies that maximal comprehensibility, which is the main goal of Easy Language writing, is only achieved if co-operation is the goal of Easy Language speaking (Leskelä and Lindholm, forthcoming). 6 Practical outcomes Easy Language has been applied in Finland for many different purposes; for example, in the media and in the production of literature and informative texts. It has also been used in practical projects in which its applications have been tested and further developed. 168 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Finland 6.1 Media The Easy Language media in Finland provides media information in Easy Finnish and Easy Swedish for audiences with language barriers. This includes media publications, which have co-operated closely for decades by, for instance organizing joint campaigns, test reading events and reader meetings to obtain feedback from readers. They also occasionally commission external reader surveys to gain a deeper understanding of the needs and wishes of their users (Selkomedia 2021). YLE news in Easy Finnish (Yle Uutiset selkosuomeksi) 9 has been broadcast- ed since 1992. The radio news was extended to the internet at the beginning of 2000 and redirected towards immigrants learning Finnish (Seppä 2006). Later, a goal was set to further expand the audience to, for instance, elderly people and people with aphasia (Virtanen 2009: 164–165). Since 2015, YLE has also provided a five-minute TV newscast in Easy Finnish every weekday. YLE’s daily news material is chosen and processed into Easy Finnish by trained news editors, and mainly focuses on domestic news. The emphasis is on fast daily news that has not been covered by other Finnish Easy Language media with a slower news release rate (Seppä 2006: 176). As the starting point has been radio news, which must be understood audibly, YLE news in Easy Finn- ish has developed principles for radio news talk that supports understanding (Virtanen 2009: 165). Easy Finnish TV news pays special attention to ensuring that voice, subtitles and visual narration are congruent and proceed at the same pace. In addition, a great deal of work has been devoted to explaining news events and correlated vocabulary in Easy Finnish. However, linguistic simplification should not lead to disregarding general journalistic principles such as providing reliable and neutral news coverage and offering the audiences news material that follows conventional news structures (Leskelä and Kulkki- Nieminen 2015: 73–76). YLE news in Easy Finnish thus seeks to expand the range of Finnish news offerings, but should not be equated with, for example, actual and formal Finnish language learning materials, although they may be used as such. Thus, the primary task of YLE news in Easy Finnish is to help 9 YLE selkosuomi, https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/selkouutiset/ © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 169 Leealaura Leskelä target audiences understand news contents and the society around them, and not to teach certain features of language (Seppä 2006). YLE news in Easy Swedish (YLE Nyheter på lätt svenska), 10 provides Easy Swedish news every weekday online and on the radio. It is partly aimed at the same audiences as Easy Finnish news, namely people with intellectual disabil- ities or elderly people with language barriers, though in this case, the mother tongue of the audience is Swedish. The Easy Finnish newspaper Selkosanomat (earlier Selkouutiset) 11 is pub- lished as a printed newspaper (20 issues a year) and as online news with weekly news coverage. It is directed towards all people with language barriers and focuses on domestic and foreign news, sports, culture, and entertainment (Les- kelä 2019b: 267–268, Virtanen 2009: 156). The online newspaper also pro- vides weekly symbol-supported, picture-based news for readers with the most extensive language barriers (Selkosanomat kuvilla 2021). The newspaper is published by the FAIDD and aims to follow general journalistic principles in its news production. Due to its slower news release rate, its emphasis is not on daily news but on giving background information to news events and explain- ing larger news patterns (Virtanen and Österlund 2006: 158). In addition to the news, it offers general media text genres such as editorials, columns, causeries, and feature-type reportages (Leskelä and Kulkki-Nieminen 2015: 58). The Easy Swedish newspaper LL-Bladet 12 is the sister newspaper of Selko- sanomat, published in co-operation with Inclusion Finland FDUV for Swed- ish-speaking people and with the FAIDD. Approximately 75%–80% of its content is similar to that of Selkosanomat, and the editors of both newspapers work closely together. LL-Bladet, however, also aims to provide contents that are especially interesting for Swedish-speaking readers (Leskelä 2019b: 269). Its reader profile is somewhat different from that of Selkosanomat; it has fewer readers with an immigrant backgrounds and more Finnish-speaking elemen- tary pupils and high school students who are learning Swedish (Virtanen 2009: 157, Virtanen and Österlund 2006: 155–157). 10 YLE på lätt svenska, https://arenan.yle.fi/audio/1-50362086 11 Selkosanomat, https://selkosanomat.fi/ 12 LL Bladet, https://ll-bladet.fi 170 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Finland Leija magazine (Leija), 13 founded in 1983, is the oldest Easy Language media product in Finland. It is a magazine for young people and adults with in- tellectual disabilities, and includes information on current issues, readers’ own stories, poems, opinions, and requests for pen friends. The needs and wishes of its readers are taken into account in both language and content choices. The interviewers and interviewees are often people with intellectual disabilities (Lesk elä and Kulkki-Nieminen 2015: 77, Leskelä 2019b: 272). Leija is published as a printed magazine six times a year by Inclusion Finland (Kehitysvammaisten tukiliitto), in co-operation with Me Itse, a self-advocacy organization for people with intellectual disabilities (Virtanen 2009: 161). A set of special guidelines has been developed for Easy Language news. As the general guidelines for Easy Language are sometimes insufficient or even contradictory to some journalistic principles, special guidelines are needed. For example, they urge journalists to follow the actuality and neutrality prin- ciples of journalistic news texts; to remember that the reader, perhaps having only a fragmentary perception of the news events, needs sufficient background information to process different media text types (news, opinions, features); and to make clear whose ideas, opinions and voices are reported in the text. They also remind us that news texts often include culture-bound assump- tions and concepts that might be strange for a reader with language barriers. If such assumptions cannot be avoided, they must be explained (Leskelä 2019b: 270–271, Leskelä and Kulkki-Nieminen 2015: 96, Seppä 2006, Virtanen and Österlund 2006). 6.2 Literature The first Easy Finnish book, a translation of Norwegian author Bjarne Verthus’ book, was published in Finland in 1983 (Rajala 2006). Since its early days, Easy Language literature has expanded to cover most of the main fiction genres available in standard Finnish, including novels, short stories, poetry, and some examples of drama (Leskelä and Kulkki-Nieminen 2015: 134). Non-fiction Easy Language books are also published every year in Finland. The first Easy 13 Leija Magazine, https://www.tukiliitto.fi/tukiliitto-ja-yhdistykset/tukiliiton-lehdet/leija/ © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 171 Leealaura Leskelä Language books were mainly originals, but since the beginning of the 1990s, many standard Finnish books have been adapted to Easy Language books (e.g., Sainio 2006, Virtanen 2006, 2009: 144). Easy Language books are main- ly produced by specialized writers, and some have a rather large production (Leskelä and Kulkki-Nieminen 2015: 137). Only a few famous Finnish authors have written books in Easy Language (see chapter on Norway; Leskelä and Kulkki-Nieminen 2015: 135). The annual number of new Easy Language books is rather modest at 20 to 30 new books, at least in comparison to the volume of new books in standard language (about 11 000–13 000 new books per year). The total number of Easy Language book titles is little less than 500. The threshold for publishing Easy Language books in Finland is high. Only a few rather small publishing hous- es are specialized in Easy Language literature. The bigger publishing houses mainly see this type of literature as financially risky, despite state grants for Easy Language literature (Leskelä 2019b: 274–275, see Section 3). However, although Easy Language books are usually not bestsellers for publishers, they are steady sellers; demand is low but permanent (Peltomaa 2006). The quality of Easy Language books is controlled by the Working Group for Easy to Read Literature (Selkokirjatyöryhmä), which grants the national logo for Easy Language books. This working group, originally set up by the Min- istry of Education and Culture, works under the auspices of the FAIDD, and has representatives from associations of authors, libraries and readers (Selko- keskus selkokirjatyöryhmä 2021). Book production is, however, not regulated through any national plan or strategy, and the annual variation of the number of books or those towards whom they are targeted is great. Generally, the idea that all books in Easy Language should look alike or be homogeneous in terms of linguistic difficulty has always been viewed critically in Finland. On this matter, Finland has adopted a common Nordic policy, based on the Inter- national Federation of Library Associations’ (IFLA) Easy-to-Read guidelines (IFLA 1997, 2010). Easy Language fiction books, both originals and adaptations, include books for adults, young readers and children. Many Finnish literature classics have been published as Easy Language adaptations, for instance, Aleksis Kivi’s Seitsemän veljestä (Seven Brothers, adapted by Helvi Ollikainen and Pertti 172 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Finland Rajala, 1995) and Tove Jansson’s Muumipeikko ja taikurin hattu (Finn Family Moomintroll, adapted by Pauliina Heine, 2003). More recent literature mas- terpieces, such as Salla Simukka’s Lumikki-trilogia (The Snow White Trilogy, adapted by Hanna Männikkölahti, 2017, 2018) and Tuomas Kyrö’s Mielensäpa- hoittaja (The Grump, adapted by Ari Sainio, 2019) have also been published in Easy Language. Easy Language originals include novels and short stories, for instance Marja-Leena Tiainen’s Tyttö lukitussa huoneessa (Girl in a locked room, 2019) and Sanna-Leena Knuuttila’s Ne lensivät tästä yli (They flew over here, 2017). A relatively small amount of poetry has been published, mainly poems written directly in Easy Finnish, for instance, Ari Saino’s Sinun käsiesi hyväily (The Light Touch of Your Hands, 1995) and Tuija Takala’s Onnen asioita (Things of Happiness, 2017). Easy Language non-fiction books, mainly originals, include guides and reference books on various themes, for instance, natural sciences, history, cul- ture, social issues, Finland and Finnish culture, sexuality, art, health, illness, disabilities, and famous personalities. Some examples of popular non-fiction Easy Finnish books are Tittamari Marttinen’s Seksistä selkoa (About Sex in Easy Language, 2019) and Markus Hotakainen’s Avaruus (Space, 2015). Books in Easy Swedish are rarely published in Finland, perhaps because Easy Swedish books from Sweden are used in Finland (Leskelä and Kulk- ki-Nieminen 2015). Some examples of popular Finnish Easy Swedish books are Maria Turtschaninoff ’s Maresi (Maresi, adapted by Jolin Slotte, 2016) and Kjell Westö’s Där vi en gång gått (Where we once walked, adapted by Peter Sandström, 2015). A set of special guidelines for Easy Language literature has been developed. In order to keep the book production vibrant and innovative and the book selection diverse and attractive to a variety of readers, these guidelines empha- size the creative nature of the writing process (Leskelä and Kulkki-Nieminen 2015: 138, Virtanen 2009: 150). They urge the writer to consider the theme of the text: traditional and easily predictable themes may be new and fresh for an inexperienced reader, but Easy Language literature can also contain unconventional and surprising themes. The guidelines encourage the writer to present changes of time, place, situation, and states of affairs as clearly as possible and to cut down side plots in order to highlight the main plot, at © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 173 Leealaura Leskelä the same time being careful not to reduce the text to a dull series of reported events. They also recommend limiting the number of characters and describing each of them in a way that makes them easy to recognize in the text (Leskelä and Kulkki-Nieminen 2015: 142–146, 160–163, 190, also Virtanen 2009: 152, Sainio 2006, Sainio and Rajala 2002). 6.3 Informative texts Informative materials have been produced in Finland in both Easy Finnish and in Easy Swedish since the 1980s. They include practical information on how to cope with basic everyday issues, for instance, housing, studying, working, mov- ing, taking care of health issues and daily chores, socializing, and participating in community activities. They also include material on topics such as funda- mental human rights, citizenship and politics, but more works are published on practical topics. Few legislative texts have been adapted to Easy Language in Finland. The Constitution of Finland and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities can be found in Easy Language, but other legislation in Easy Language is fragmentary (Leskelä and Kulkki-Nieminen 2015: 99). The producers of informative Easy Language materials vary from author- ities and municipalities to non-governmental organizations. Enterprises have not very actively produced information in Easy Language, not even market- ing materials for buyers who might experience language barriers. Some Easy Language informative materials appear on a fairly regular basis, for instance brochures on social security benefits produced by The Social Insurance Insti- tution of Finland (KELA selkosuomi 2021, KELA lättläst 2021), but for the most part, informative materials only appear occasionally. The publication formats of informative materials are also diverse. Many materials are no longer, or at least not only, in printed form; they are also available online. The increase in the amount of Easy Language online material has both positive and negative effects. People needing Easy Language may have insufficient digital skills and equipment, which make them more dependent on printed materials than other citizens, and potentially excluded if printed Easy Language materials gradually disappear (see chapter on Germany). However, Easy Language online materials also have advantages. It is easier to keep up to 174 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Finland date with rapidly changing information online than it is in printed materials. Online materials can be individually adjustable to the user’s needs. Moreover, as communication with authorities often demands completing and delivering dif- ferent kinds of forms, which are particularly difficult text types for people with language barriers, accessible, interactive smart forms in Easy Language could well be a future innovation (Leskelä and Kulkki-Nieminen 2015: 98–99, 112). Informative Easy Language materials are mainly produced in accordance with the general guidelines for Easy Language. However, a few special guide- lines have also been developed. For instance, these guidelines encourage the writer to carefully consider the appropriate accuracy level of the given infor- mation and to favour the conventions of the chosen text type (e.g., instruc- tions, general presentation, memorandum, decision, form, etc.) if there is no particular reason to change it. They advise reflecting extensively on different approaches to motivate the reader to read on (e.g., addressing the reader, using dialogue, making use of emotions and personal experience, questions that arouse the reader’s curiosity, interesting claims as starters) and using different ways to provide information (e.g. information boxes, infographics and visual features, voices, animation, games, videos, cartoons, humour). They also ask the writer to submit the text for revision by an expert on the theme, but to be careful that the expert review does not make the text more difficult (Leskelä and Kulkki-Nieminen 2015: 132). 6.4 Other projects The development of Easy Language adaptations has been strongly project-ori- ented in Finland. Many innovations, services and procedures have started as projects in disability organizations, and subsequently have led to wider distri- bution and applications in society. This is largely due to the funding system that finances Easy Language work in Finland, as the STEA Funding Centre favours project-oriented approaches (see Section 3). The positive aspect of projects is that they enable open-mindedly experimenting with new approaches, includ- ing trial and error, which in turn enables quick reactions to different societal problems and needs. However, project funding is also short term and easily © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 175 Leealaura Leskelä leads to short-term thinking and aiming for quick results. The projects below have been especially influential in developing Easy Language in Finland: Supported interaction (Tuettu vuorovaikutus), a project carried out by the FAIDD (Kehitysvammaliitto) in 1995–1997. This project aimed to find ways through which people with intellectual disabilities and the elderly with mem- ory-related illnesses could have access to reading in small reading groups, re- gardless of whether they were literate. In these groups, they read Easy Language materials (newspapers, books, brochures) and discussed them. The project highlighted how both written language and spoken language may be difficult for people with language barriers (Hintsala 1997, Hintsala and Kartio 2002). The Easy Language and interaction project (Selkokieli ja vuorovaikutus), carried out by the FAIDD in 2007–2009, further developed the model of lin- guistically and socially supported discussions. The project included recordings of a large amount of video data on both dyadic and multiparty discussions, involving people with intellectual disabilities, young people with dysphasia, and young adults on the autism spectrum. These data were analysed by means of Conversation Analysis and were used as a basis for formulating preliminary guidelines for using Easy Language in interaction (ELI guidelines, see Kartio 2009, Leskelä and Lindholm 2012). The Reading representatives in Swedish-Finland (Läsombud i Svenskfin- land), carried out by Inclusion Finland FDUV in 2010–2013, trained Swed- ish-speaking reading representatives to read Easy Swedish materials in centres for elderly people and people with intellectual disabilities. The reading group model was developed further by taking advantage of the läsombuds activity experiences of Sweden’s Centrum för Lättläst (see chapter on Sweden), and by implementing the results in Finland (LL-Center 2021). Together (Yhdessä) was a joint project of the FAIDD and the Union for Sen- ior Services (VALLI, Vanhus- ja lähimmäispalvelun liitto Valli) in 2017–2019, in which people with immigrant backgrounds learning Finnish had joint reading sessions with elderly Finns in day-care centres and other care units. A new model was developed which combined the use of Easy Language materials and allowed different Easy Language target groups to become familiar with each other. On the annual ‘I will read to you’ day (Minä luen sinulle -päivä) hundreds of voluntary readers with immigrant backgrounds shared reading 176 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Finland moments with elderly people and those with learning disabilities around Fin- land (Valli 2021). The Papunet Web Service began as a project in the FAIDD in 2001–2003, but unlike many other projects, received permanent funding and continued later as its own unit in the FAIDD. The aim of the project was to create an online service that would be easy to use for those who needed Easy Language and people with speech impairments (Ohtonen 2002). The service has contents in Easy Finnish and Easy Swedish, in standard Finnish and standard Swedish, in Bliss Language and in symbol-supported Easy Language, and it provides a base for innovating and investigating what Easy Language could be online. The long-term outcome of this project was the launching of accessibility and Easy Language on the internet in Finland, one milestone of which was the implementation of the Accessibility Directive of the EU in Finnish legislation in 2019 (Papunet-verkkopalvelu 2021). 7 Education and Research So far, the training of Easy Language experts has mainly been carried out by the Finnish Centre for Easy Language (Selkokeskus) and the Centre for Easy Swedish (LL-Center). The Finnish Centre for Easy Finnish has trained over 40 experts who, in addition to providing Easy Finnish text services, provide training on how to write and speak Easy Finnish and how to make an Easy Language publication (layout and illustrations). For these training courses, together with its experts, the Centre has developed comprehensive training material that covers a wide range of topics, discussion themes and exercises. Courses related to web accessibility are held in co-operation with experts from the Papunet Web Service. The LL-Center provides training courses on Easy Swedish and for Reading representatives. The Savonia University of Applied Sciences (Savonia Ammattikorkeakoulu) offers Easy Language training for healthcare professionals. These courses are available in both the vocational degree programme and in-service training. They deal with Easy Language, accessibility and communication in health work assignments (Savonia AMK 2021). © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 177 Leealaura Leskelä Demand for Easy Language training has grown significantly in recent years, and the need to extend the responsibility for organizing training to other parties such as adult learning centres, learning institutes and universities has been discussed. This is also mentioned as one goal in the Finnish Easy Lan- guage Action Plan published by the Advisory Committee for Easy Language (Selkokielen toimenpideohjelma 2019–2022). Many professionals in various occupations need at least a basic understanding of Easy Language, for instance teachers, therapists, health and social care professionals, press officers, and journalists. Designing practical Easy Language training material that is sensi- tive to the specific needs of each profession is a time-consuming task that must be carried out in collaboration with experts of the profession. The knowledge of Easy Language that a doctor needs to provide good care for a patient with language barriers is not the same as the information that would help a press officer write an Easy Language ministry bulletin. Finland does not yet have a formal higher education path for educating Easy Language experts or for providing courses on accessible communication at the university level (see chapter on Germany). However, preliminary plans for this are under way. The University of Helsinki provides individual theoreti- cal and practical courses, workshops and teaching experiments on Easy Finnish in the optional studies of Finnish Language and Translation Studies. Tampere University also offers courses on Easy Language and accessibility. These are im- portant new openings, as the lack of formal higher education in Easy Language is problematic in many ways. For instance, as long as Easy Language is not part of the formal training of language professionals, Easy Language expertise will not be properly identified or recognized. From a practical point of view, linguists in Finland do not have the same employment opportunities in the growing field of accessibility as engineers and software developers. Due to this, linguistic aspects are often overlooked and considered unnecessary or too dif- ficult to implement when developing accessible technologies and innovations. Research on Easy Language is growing rapidly in Finland. In order to pro- vide a channel of collaboration for researchers interested in Easy Language, the Klaara network 14 (Klaara-verkosto) was founded in 2018 at the University of 14 Klaara network in English, https://blogs.helsinki.fi/klaara-network/in-english/ 178 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Finland Helsinki. Klaara aims to provide opportunities for networking, joint projects and sharing, and freely testing ideas and views. In recent years, some Easy Language research projects have also received significant foundation fund- ing. The ‘At the core of Easy Language’ (Selkokielen ytimessä) research project (2020–2022), funded by the Kone Foundation, aims to study what Easy Finnish is like and what it should be like, and to provide new information for giving rec- ommendations regarding spoken Easy Finnish, explaining in Easy Language texts, and core vocabulary in Easiest Easy Finnish (Klaara-tutkimus 2021). The ‘Easy Swedish in Finland’ (Lätt finlandssvenska) project (2021–2023), funded by the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland, aims to study both written and spoken Easy Swedish and Finland Swedish Sign Language. In 2019, the first international Easy Language Research conference was organized by Klaara in the University of Helsinki, and gathered over 80 researchers and experts from around the world to reflect on key research issues of the topic. A little later, the Finnish linguistic research journal Speech & Language (Puhe & Kieli) published a thematic issue on Easy Finnish research (Puhe & Kieli 4/2019). So far, two dissertations on Easy Language have been published in Finland. Irja Vinni’s dissertation study Tekstistä selkoa (Making sense of what you read, 1998) was in the field of special education. Vinni explored differences in the reading comprehension of adults with intellectual disabilities in Easy Finnish and standard Finnish texts, and the factors that influence comprehension, using test readings, interviews and observations as methods. Auli Kulkki- Nieminen’s dissertation study Selkoistettu uutinen (Easy Language News, 2010) was in the field of linguistics. Kulkki-Nieminen compared news texts published by the Finnish News Agency (STT) and their adaptations into Easy Finnish in the Easy Finnish newspaper Selkosanomat (earlier Selkouutiset). She presented a linguistic analysis, based on systemic-functional grammar, of the ways in which these news texts differed, and investigated the writers’ linguistic choices in the modifying process. No dissertations have been written on Easy Swedish yet. However, several doctoral studies on both Easy Finnish and Easy Swedish are currently underway at various universities in Finland (Klaara-tutkimus 2021). Easy Language has been the subject of master’s theses somewhat more wide- ly and for a longer time in Finland. The first master’s theses appeared in 1992, but for some time these theses were mostly isolated cases. Over the last ten © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 179 Leealaura Leskelä years, however, there has been a significant increase in the number of master’s theses on Easy Finnish, and a few master’s theses on Easy Swedish have also been published. The growing number of master’s theses on Easy Language and accessibility is a positive sign of the increased research interest in the subject. The multidisciplinary nature of Easy Language may be one reason why research on this topic is now growing in Finland. Easy Language has linguistic roots and attachments, but also has anchors and special interests in many other disciplines, such as disability studies, sociology and psychology, education, literature, journalism, logopedy and phonetics, graphics and art sciences, tech- nology studies, and political economics. This overwhelming multidisciplinarity brings with it a variety of scientific methods, traditions and terminologies, which is in many ways inspiring, but which may also at times be laborious and confusing. This, however, can be translated into a resource for Easy Language research, as it demands that researchers thoroughly reconsider their premises and delimitations. 8 Future perspectives In many ways, the prospects of Easy Language in Finland are promising. A general awareness of the need for Easy Language and research on the topic is growing. International co-operation between European countries has intensi- fied and expanded views on Easy Language. Although not all the models and standards of other countries can be implemented in Finland, they contribute valuable new aspects and visions to the work. The vision of the future of Easy Language in Finland is articulated in the Finnish Easy Language Action Plan (Selkokielen toimintaohjelma), published by the Finnish Advisory Committee for Easy Language in 2019. In the best future, according to the Action Plan, in Finland, Easy Languages and the com- municational rights of people with language barriers are better supported by national legislation. Easy Language should thus be an established form of com- munication used widely by authorities and municipalities, and there should be an authority that is responsible for promoting and regulating the use of Easy Finnish and Easy Swedish in Finland. The Action Plan highlights the impor- 180 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Finland tance of a wide supply of informative materials that cover a range of different areas of life, versatile publishing of Easy Language literature and evolving Easy Language media that provide up-to-date information in simplified forms. It also emphasizes the need for more research on Easy Language as well as the need for experts who are specialized in different fields and able to provide di- verse materials and know-how on the topic. To create more expertise, a higher education path for training Easy Language professionals at the university level is needed. In general, the Action Plan believes that Easy Language will best be developed through co-operation between people with language barriers, ex- perts in the field, and researchers (Selkokielen toimenpideohjelma 2019–2022). There is good reason to assume that this vision could eventually be realized. However, three obstacles, all inextricably linked, may slow down or even pre- vent this future, namely money, resources and attitudes. Traditionally, linguistic expertise is not very highly valued in Finland. This can be seen in the low number of investigations into language-promoting processes in enterprises and administrative organizations. Linguistic consultation has often been ignored, even in linguistic projects such as the naming of administrative bodies and agencies by authorities and municipalities, or when creating new online ser- vices for communicating with people and developing accessible technologies. This attitude also casts a shadow over the work of Easy Language in the form of a reluctance to adequately resource activities, employ experts and invest in Easy Language when strategies, projects and reforms are planned – even when they concern people with language barriers. This is the core problem: overall, the promotion of Easy Language is not ignored or rejected because of negative attitudes towards, for example, people with disabilities; it is ignored or reject- ed because language itself is seen as a less important factor (cf. Tiililä 2014). Language is considered something that naturally accompanies all projects. It is assumed that it does not require special effort or language professionals. As this is the general attitude, it is understandable that competition for the scarce resources directed towards language processes in Finland is fierce. Promoting Easy Language is thus seen as an extra drain of finances that takes resources away from other language projects which are already hard pressed for funds. However, the solution to this problem is not to stop pursuing the vision of Easy Language in Finland described above, but to take part in these dis- © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 181 Leealaura Leskelä cussions as actively as possible and to call for language awareness. It is crucial that we show that language inevitably has a central position in all activities and services directed towards citizens, and that supporting languages means supporting people (Tiililä 2020). As language has such a strong influence on human lives, it can also exclude and marginalize people. And that is why we have Easy Language. Author Leealaura Leskelä is a PhD student of Finnish language, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Helsinki. Her research interests in- clude Easy Finnish and its use in spoken language in linguistically asymmetri- cal conversations. For a long time, she has been involved in the concrete work of Easy Language as the head of the Finnish Centre for Easy Language. Contact: leealaura.leskela[at]helsinki.fi Acknowledgements My special acknowledgements go to my Finnish colleagues and Easy Language experts and researchers, who commented on this article: Ella Airaksinen, Hen- na Kara, Auli Kulkki-Nieminen, Camilla Lindholm, Sonja Miettinen, Raisa Rintamäki, Johanna von Rutenberg, Ari Sainio, Pertti Seppä, Antti Teittinen, Jaana Teräväinen, Ulla Tiililä and Nuppu Tuononen. I also wish to express my gratitude to my Nordic colleagues Ulla Bohman from Sweden and Hanna Bovim Bugge from Norway, as well as to researchers Anne Parpan-Blaser and Simone Girard from Switzerland and Xavier Moonen from the Netherlands. 182 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Finland References Advisory Committee for Easy Language. Web. 15 January 2021. . 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Lumikki-trilogia [The Snow White trilogy]. Helsinki: Tammi, 2013, 2014. Adapted to Easy Language by Hanna Männikkölahti with the name Lumik- ki-trilogia [The Snow White trilogy]. Helsinki: Avain, 2017, 2018. Print. STEA grants. Web. 15 January 2021. . Takala, Tuija. Onnen asioita [Things of happiness]. Easy Language book. Helsinki: Avain, 2017. Print. Tiainen, Marja-Leena. Tyttö lukitussa huoneessa [Girl in a locked room]. Easy Lan- guage book. Helsinki: Avain, 2019. Print. Tiililä, Ulla. Kielikäsitykset hyvän virkakielen esteenä [Language perceptions as an obstacle to good official language]. Kielikello 3/2014. Web. 22 September 2020. . Tiililä, Ulla. Kielten tukeminen on ihmisten ja yhteisöjen tukemista [Supporting languages is supporting people and communities]. Helsinki: Koneen säätiö, 2020. Print. Koneen säätiön julkaisuja 1:2020. Turtschaninoff, Maria. Maresi. Helsinki: Schildts & Söderström, 2014. Adapted to Easy Swedish by Jolin Slotte with the name Maresi. Vaasa: Lärum, 2016. Print. Uotila, Eliisa. “Selko Suomessa. Selkokielen kehitys ja sovelluksia.” [Easy Language in Finland. The development and adaptations of Easy Language]. Puhe ja Kieli 39.4 (2019): 307–324. Web. 15 January 2021. . Valli [The Union for Senior Services Valli]. Web. 15 January 2021. . Vinni, Irja. Tekstistä selkoa [Making sense of what you read]. Helsinki: Kehitysvam- maliitto, 1998. Print. Virtanen, Hannu. Selko-opas [Easy Language guide]. Helsinki: Kehitysvammaliitto, 2002. Print. Virtanen, Hannu. “Selkokirjoista selkokieleen, tapahtui vuosina 1981–1990.” [From easy-to-read to Easy Language, what happened in years 1981–1990]. Eds. Leealau- ra Leskelä, and Hannu Virtanen. Toisin sanoen. Selkokielen teoriaa ja käytäntöä. Helsinki: Opike, 2006. 87–103. Print. Virtanen, Hannu. Selkokielen käsikirja [The handbook of Easy Language]. Helsinki: Opike, 2009. Print. Virtanen, Hannu. Selkokielen tarvearvio 2014 [Estimate for the need of Easy Langu- age 2014]. Helsinki: Kehitysvammaliitto, 2014. Print. Virtanen, Hannu, and Maria Österlund. “Selkokieliset ajankohtaislehdet.” [Newspapers in Easy Language]. Eds. Leealaura Leskelä, and Hannu Virtanen. Toi- sin sanoen. Selkokielen teoriaa ja käytäntöä. Helsinki: Opike, 2006. 155–167. Print. Westö, Kjell. Där vi en gång gått [Where we once walked]. Helsinki: Schildts & Sö- derström, 2006. Adapted to Easy Swedish by Peter Sandström with the name Där vi en gång gått [Where we once walked]. Vaasa: Lärum, 2015. Print. YLE på lätt svenska [YLE news in Easy Swedish]. Web. 15 January 2021. . YLE selkosuomeksi [YLE news in Easy Finnish]. Web. 15 January 2021. . 188 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Finland Appendix 1. An illustration of guidelines for Easy Finnish. Standard Finnish Easy Finnish Kirjastokortti ja lainaaminen Kirjastokortti Kirjastokortin ja tunnusluvun saat Saat kirjastokortin ja siihen kuuluvan mistä tahansa Helmet-kirjastosta tunnusluvun ilmoittamalla osoitteesi ja esittämällä Espoon, Helsingin, Kauniaisten kirjaston hyväksymän voimassaolevan ja Vantaan kirjastoista tai kirjastoautoista. henkilötodistuksen, jossa on valokuva Ensimmäinen kirjastokortti ja henkilötunnus. Kirjastokortin on maksuton. myöntämiseen tarvitaan Suomessa Kun haet kirjastokorttia, oleva osoite. ota mukaasi voimassa oleva henkilötodistus. Source: http://www.helmet.fi/Preview/ Se voi olla fi-FI/Info/Asiakkaana_kirjastossa/ • EU-maiden henkilöllisyystodistus Kirjastokortti_ja_lainaaminen • passi • suomalainen ajokortti • kuvallinen Kela-kortti. Kirjastokortti on henkilökohtainen. Source: https://www.helsinginseutu.fi/ hs/selkosivut-fi/Vapaa-aika/kirjastot/ kirjastokortti/ [Library card and borrowing [Library card You can get a library card and PIN You can get a library card and its code from any Helmet library by provid- from libraries or library buses in Espoo, ing your address and presenting a Helsinki, Kauniainen and Vantaa. valid ID card, accepted by the library, The first library card is free. which has a photo and ID. To issue a When you apply for a library card, library card, an address in Finland is take a valid identity card with you. required.] It can be a • EU identity card • passport • Finnish driving license • Kela card with a photo. The library card is personal.] © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 189 Christiane Maaß, Isabel Rink, Silvia Hansen-Schirra Easy Language in Germany 1 Introduction German is the official language in Germany and Austria, and one of the official languages in Switzerland, South Tyrol (Italy), Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, East Belgium, and the Opole Voivodeship (Poland). This chapter focuses on Easy German in Germany. Several other regional languages (Sorbian, Frisian) are also spoken in Germany, but are mainly limited to local residents. Currently no Easy or Plain Language activities are known to be related to these regional languages. At the end of 2019, Germany had 83.2 million inhabitants, 7.9 million of whom were living with a severe disability. The origins of these disabilities can be broken down as follows: 97% are acquired, 89% are caused by disease, 1% are caused by accidents or occupational diseases, only 3% are congenital or acquired during the first year of life, and 6% are due to other causes. The most relevant factor for disability is old age, that is, most disabilities are acquired during the more advanced stages of life: 44% of people with severe disabilities belong to the 55–74-year age group and 34% are 75 years or older. Only 2% are children and adolescents under 18 years of age (Maaß 2020: 31). The purchasing power of the 55+ year group in Germany is EUR 720 billion a year (Destatis 2021). Accessible communication is therefore not only related to the participation in society of people with different needs; it also has an eco- nomic perspective. The market is considerable for accessible communication products that provide an income for the ever-growing number of specialists and text experts. Disability may take the form of communication disabilities, which is the case in cognitive disability, prelingual hearing loss, aphasia, dementia type illnesses, and Parkinson’s disease. This group comprises 2.2 million people in © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 191 Christiane Maaß, Isabel Rink, Silvia Hansen-Schirra Germany, roughly 3% of the German population. Factors other than disability may also cause a need for accessible communication products: poor reading skills, diverging education opportunities, live-changing events such as forced migration, etc. German is a Germanic language of the West Germanic branch which in- cludes English, Dutch and Afrikaans. German has a rich inflection system with a quadripartite case system for nouns, adjectives and pronouns (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative), a three-gender system (masculine, feminine, neu- ter) and a pronounced system of verbal inflection with many irregular verb forms (Dryer and Haspelmath 2013). Easy Language has a relatively short tradition in Germany, the first efforts dating back to the Inclusion Europe initiative in the late 1990s. Most prominent are the efforts of the Netzwerk Leichte Sprache (the Easy Language Network 1) which is sustained by the empowerment movement of people with cognitive impairments and their care service providers. Easy Language has been the subject of scientific research since 2010 and has constantly developed. Easy Language has been given a firm legal status (see Lang 2019) leading to a robust translation market and an increasing level of professionalization of Easy Lan- guage translators. It is part of university curricula and professional formation programmes, and is currently expanding to oral formats. 2 Historical perspectives As mentioned above, the beginnings of the German Easy Language movement date back to the Inclusion Europe initiative. Inclusion Europe was founded in 1988 and was, at the end of the 1990s, the initiator and leader of the Pathways project, which aimed to create a best practice for lifelong learning among peo- ple with cognitive impairments (Bredel and Maaß 2016a: 67). The pilot project Wir vertreten uns selbst (We represent ourselves auton- omously, 1997–2001) led to the foundation of the empowerment association 1 Netzwerk Leichte Sprache, https://www.leichte-sprache.org 192 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Germany Mensch Zuerst (People First Germany 2) (Maaß 2015: 19). Mensch Zuerst is one of the members of the Netzwerk Leichte Sprache, which was founded in 2006 and is today the most influential among the empowerment-related organiza- tions that promote Easy Language in Germany. In September 2009, Mensch Zuerst presented a petition comprising more than 13 000 signatures claiming the right for people with communication disabilities, especially with cognitive impairments, to more publicly available Easy Language texts. The petition was officially handed to the Vice President of the German parliament at the time who stated that Easy Language was a prominent instrument to achieve inclu- sion and equality for people with cognitive disabilities (BIZEPS 2021). The petition was an important catalyst for the creation of the legal status that Easy Language currently has in Germany. Currently, the availability of Easy Language texts is mandatory for federal websites in Germany, alongside the availability of German Sign Language. With the implementation of the Euro- pean Accessibility Act and EU Directive 2016/2102 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the accessibility of websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies, even more text types will be requested in accessible formats in different media. In January 2014, the Research Centre for Easy Language (Forschungsstelle Leichte Sprache) was founded at the University of Hildesheim 3, forming a pillar of Easy Language research in Germany. It is dedicated to applied sciences in the field of linguistics and translation studies. A first compendium of scientif- ically based rules for translators was published in 2015 (Maaß 2015) and was followed by the Duden Leichte Sprache (Bredel and Maaß 2016a-c, see Section 3). The Duden is a publishing house that issues a dictionary series on a regular basis covering different aspects of the German language. In Germany, it is per- ceived as the most influential and standard-setting institution in terms of the German language, and it provides sets of rules on German grammar, spelling and language use (Maaß 2020: 69). From 2014 to 2018, the first Easy Language research project with federal funding was carried out (the LeiSA project, Schuppener and Bock 2019, Bock 2 Mensch zuerst, www.menschzuerst.de. 3 German Research Centre for Easy Language, www.uni-hildesheim.de/leichtesprache. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 193 Christiane Maaß, Isabel Rink, Silvia Hansen-Schirra 2019, Goldbach and Bergelt 2019). Since then, Easy Language research has thrived in Germany. Currently, a DIN SPEC PAS 4 Easy Language is being developed as a basis for future public tendering (DIN SPEC PAS 33499). A DIN SPEC PAS is the precursor of an industrial norm developed by a consortium of experts to be made publicly available. It will be evaluated in three years’ time and may even- tually be promoted as a norm or integrated into legislation. 3 Current situation This section discusses the basic concepts of Easy Language in Germany. First it presents the most important definitions and the social and legal context of Easy Language. It then introduces the stakeholders and the general attitude to Easy Language in Germany. Finally, it describes the funding situation. 3.1 Definitions Easy Language is a variety of German with maximally enhanced comprehen- sibility (Bredel and Maaß 2016a). It is defined by guidelines and concrete rules and is limited to basic vocabulary and a maximally simple sentence structure. Terms and concepts beyond basic vocabulary have to be explained. The layout is perceptibility enhanced so that Easy Language texts visibly stand out from the standard. Plain Language is more open and less concretely defined, and covers the area between Easy Language and standard language. Currently, an intermediate form (Easy Language Plus) is being modelled and applied in text practice (see Maaß 2020). In German, the following terms are used: Leichte Sprache (Easy Language), Einfache Sprache (Plain Language), Leichte Sprache Plus (Easy Language Plus). As regards media formats, Easy Language is predominantly produced in the form of written texts, often enriched by illustrations. However, a recent devel- 4 DIN stands for Deutsches Institut für Normung (German Institute for Standardization), SPEC stands for Specification, PAS stands for Publicly Available Specification. 194 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Germany opment is Easy Language interpreting, which takes place in inclusive meetings and conferences (Schulz et al. 2020). Written texts are produced in print or online, the latter being the media channel for Easy Language texts preferred by tendering authorities, especially in the field of political participation and legal texts. However, online text reception is not the preferred access route to information for some of the target groups; for example, people with cognitive impairments, senior citizens. These groups are ‘offliners’: 48% of the 70+ age group are offliners in Germany (D21-Digital Index 2020: 14, Maaß 2020: 31). In Bosse and Hasebrink’s (2016: 98) survey, 52% of people with cognitive impair- ments living in facilities are also offliners. Providing information exclusively online does not serve these users. 3.2 Societal and legal context Easy Language is mentioned in the Act on Equal Opportunities of Persons with Disabilities (Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz, BGG). This Act was first passed in 2002, and amendments have been continually made to adjust it to European legislation. Plain Language is mentioned as the first means, and if it does not suffice, Easy Language must be used. This has led to a practice in which Easy Language is preferred. Plain Language is currently rarely used in Germany, but Easy Language has a very active text practice, especially in administrative bodies’ tendering processes. Another important legal foundation of Easy Language in Germany is the Accessible Information Technology Regulation (Barrierefreie-Informations- technik-Verordnung, BITV 1.0 – 2002; BITV 2.0 – 2011), which applies to the area of information and communication technology in the exchange between administrative bodies and citizens. It regulates the accessibility of websites, mobile apps, e-government tools of all kinds, and graphical interfaces. It was drafted on the basis of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C 5). The first version of the BITV was issued in 2002, and the amended version (BITV 2.0) in 2011, which is adapted to the second version of the WCAG (WCAG 2.0). The BITV 2.0 was the first 5 W3C Word Wide Web Consortium, www.w3.org. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 195 Christiane Maaß, Isabel Rink, Silvia Hansen-Schirra among Germany’s laws and regulations to expressly mention Easy Language: it states that Easy Language should be used to explain the content and navigation of each and every federal agency homepage. Most importantly, it contains an appendix with 13 basic rules that specify what Easy Language is and how Easy Language texts should be designed. The BITV 2.0 has been of major impor- tance for the perception and presence of Easy Language in official contexts in Germany. It has also given rise to the development of an Easy Language translation market. As mentioned above, the DIN SPEC PAS 6 standard is being developed by a consortium of about 70 people who are involved in Easy Language in Ger- many from the areas of science, translation and empowerment. It formulates recommendations for Easy Language that are intended to replace the BITV 2.0 basic rules for public tendering. 3.3 Stakeholders In Germany, some of the Easy Language stakeholders are officials. Easy Lan- guage is part of the inclusion policy of government and administration bodies. Easy Language translation is therefore a subject of public tendering by these authorities. On the federal level, the implementation of the accessibility reg- ulations is monitored 7. This monitoring body was set up in March 2020 in compliance with European regulations on communicative accessibility. Ger- many has governments on federal as well as on federal state levels. Each of these levels has separate legislation with regard to accessibility and inclusion. The Federal Government, all Federal State Governments and also most Cities and Regions have representatives of people with disabilities who are responsi- ble for the implementation of the inclusion policy in their respective scope of action. Easy Language is their responsibility and they keep close contact with empowerment organizations. This results in a tight network of responsibilities for inclusion and a multifold effort for its implementation. 6 DIN stands for Deutsches Institut für Normung (German Institute for Standardization), SPEC stands for Specification, PAS stands for Publicly Available Specification. 7 BFIT-Bund, https://www.bfit-bund.de. 196 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Germany Among the non-governmental organizations, the private organization Ak- tion Mensch 8 funds many initiatives in the field of inclusion, including com- municative inclusion and Easy Language. Netzwerk Leichte Sprache 9 is the largest association of text providers from inclusive settings; it has crafted the most widely used practical Easy Language guidelines. The Association of In- terpreters and Translators (Bundesverband der Dolmetscher und Übersetzer BDÜ 10), with more than 7000 professional members, as well as the Associated Interpreters and Translators of Northern Germany (Assoziierte Dolmetscher und Übersetzer in Norddeutschland, ADÜ 11), are Germany’s largest professional associations of translators and interpreters who dedicate their efforts to Easy Language. They have certification programmes for their members. 3.4 General attitude Communicative accessibility and Easy Language are relatively new topics in Germany, but during the last 10 years, progress has been rapid in all fields. Easy Language however, is not always well-received, especially if the texts are not compliant with the German language standard. Some features of Easy Language trigger strong negative responses in the general population. These are mainly the features that separate Easy Language texts from standard ex- pectations with regard to, for example, orthography and layout (Maaß 2020). These features tend to be more pronounced in texts that have been executed in inclusive settings. The Easy Language bureaus of the Netzwerk Leichte Sprache have shaped Easy Language text conventions to make the texts stand out from regular text practice. Through their differentness and their inclusive produc- tion process (i.e., the integration of target members as proofreaders), such texts serve a symbolic function of making the Easy Language target groups visible to the public. On the other hand, their differentness also triggers rejection in the primary target groups and leads to reduced acceptability of Easy Language in the general population (Maaß 2020). 8 Aktion Mensch, https://www.aktion-mensch.de. 9 Netzwerk Leichte Sprache, https://www.leichte-sprache.org. 10 BDÜ, www.bdue.de. 11 ADÜ Nord, https://adue-nord.de. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 197 Christiane Maaß, Isabel Rink, Silvia Hansen-Schirra 3.5 Funding Easy Language translations have to be paid for by each tendering authority or client. There is no public funding for the development of text to comply with the Act on Equal Opportunities of Persons with Disabilities (Behindertengleich- stellungsgesetz, BGG) or the Accessible Information Technology Regulation (Barrierefreie-Informationstechnik-Verordnung, BITV 2.0). There is no system- atic funding for literature or any other text types in Easy Language. Products of accessible communication have to be claimed by each individual with dis- abilities in the framework of a personal budget or subsidies for participation (e.g., vocational training). In practice, written Easy Language texts are rarely granted funding under this line. These means are more often used for sponta- neously produced forms of accessible communication such as Sign Language interpreting or speech-to-text interpreting. Easy Language profits from these means in the form of Easy Language interpreting or complexity-reduced forms of speech-to-text interpreting. A very important funding line for Easy Language comes from Aktion Mensch (Initiative human 12), the largest private funding organization in the field of disability management. Aktion Mensch grants funds for accessible events, but also funds private bodies’ accessibility projects, among which are Easy Language translation bureaus that work with an inclusive approach. 4 Target groups Easy Language has been promoted as a tool for the communicative inclusion of people with cognitive disabilities (often named ‘learning difficulties’). Par- agraph 11 of the German Federal Act on Equality for People with Disabilities expressly addresses people with cognitive and mental disabilities (Lang 2019). Paragraph 4 of the same Law specifies that people with disabilities have the right to choose the aids and devices necessary for their disability. Under this regulation, people with other types of communication impairments have also successfully claimed Easy Language texts. Such impairments may include pre- 12 Aktion Mensch, https://www.aktion-mensch.de. 198 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Germany lingual hearing impairment, aphasia, dementia-type illnesses, autism spectrum disorders, and multiple disabilities (Bredel and Maaß 2016a: 139ff, Rink 2020: 142ff). Easy Language has also been used to grant access to people without dis- abilities who have other forms of communication difficulties due to functional illiteracy, recent immigration or immigration with separation-type accultur- ation strategies (Bredel and Maaß 2016a: 166ff, Rink 2020: 29ff, Ahrens 2020, Pehle and Schulz 2021). These groups cannot claim accessible communication services on the grounds of the Act on Equality for People with Disabilities, but may profit if texts are made publicly available to include target groups with disabilities. The group of people without disabilities in need of Easy Language outnumbers the groups with disabilities by far, as Table 1 shows: Dyslexia 470,000 – + +/– – Cognitive 400,000– + + +/– – disability 800,000 Dementia 1,300,000 + + +/– +/– Prelingual Hear- 80,000 +/– – + – ing Impairment 130,000– Aphasia +/– – – – 240,000 Functional illiter- acy Alpha-Levels 6,200,00 – +/– +/– +/– 1–3 Functional illiter- 10,600,000 acy Alpha-Level 4 German as a >1,000,000 – – + +/– second language Table 1: Size and profile of Easy Language target groups (Maaß 2020: 190, based on Bredel and Maaß 2016a: 142) © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 199 Estimated size of group Permanent need of Easy Language Oral communication skills in German on (near) native level Oral communication skills in other than German language on (near) native level Fluent reading skills in other than German language Christiane Maaß, Isabel Rink, Silvia Hansen-Schirra The target groups are highly heterogeneous in their requirements and their capacities. Not all need Easy Language for all text types. Some groups and individuals would be more adequately addressed in somewhat more enriched forms of easy-to-understand languages, such as Plain Language or Easy Lan- guage Plus. Easy Language is nevertheless often chosen as the only means of communicative inclusion, as it is believed to include the most extensive range of user profiles. However, this might be a misconception, as potential users are often deterred by Easy Language because they consider it inadequately simplistic and potentially stigmatizing (Maaß 2020). 5 Guidelines In Germany, the guidelines have been developed from different perspectives. On the one hand, sets of rules have emerged from practical work with primary target groups and then been established by empowerment groups. On the other hand, scientifically grounded guidelines critically reflect the state-of-the-art in linguistics, cognitive science and comprehensibility research. 5.1 Practical guidelines The German title of the brochure ‘Information for all. European standards for making information easy to read and understand’ is Informationen für alle. Europäische Regeln, wie man Informationen leicht lesbar und leicht verständlich macht. It was published by Inclusion Europe (2009; for a discussion of the Inclusion Europe guidelines see Maaß 2015: 64ff, Bredel and Maaß 2016a: 84ff and Maaß 2020: 71f), an initiative of empowerment groups for people with cognitive disabilities and their families. Accordingly, the brochure sees people with cognitive disabilities as the priority target group of Easy Language. The materials have been developed for and published in different languages, including German. Most of the formulated rules are applicable to all project languages with very few rules added for some single languages. The Inclusion Europe brochure was the first among the Easy Language guidelines, but is rarely used today in German text practice. 200 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Germany The most widespread among the practical guidelines in Germany is the Easy Language manual Netzwerk Leichte Sprache. These guidelines were made public in 2009 on the network’s website 13 and were later published on the website of the Ministry of Work and Social Affairs 14 (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, BMAS; 2013, the ministry responsible for the concerns of people with disabilities). The publication on the ministerial homepage lends high visibility to the network’s manual which is sometimes even used as reference material in public tendering processes. The network aims for participation of the primary target groups as proofreaders in text production processes, with a strong preference for the group of people with cognitive disabilities. Netzwerk Leichte Sprache sees this group as a gatekeeper ‘down to the level of each single text’ (Maaß 2020: 71), but the target groups actually include a greater range of profiles 15: Leichte Sprache hilft vielen Menschen. Easy language helps many people. Zum Beispiel: For example: • Menschen mit Lern-Schwierigkeiten. • People with a cognitive disability. • Menschen mit der Krankheit • People with the illness dementia. Demenz. • People who can not speak German • Menschen, die nicht so gut Deutsch very well. sprechen. • People who can not read very well. • Menschen, die nicht so gut lessen können. Table 2: Adapted from Netzwerk Leichte Sprache (2013: 16): Target audience of Easy Language (Maaß 2020: 72) This gap between the target groups on the one hand and the aspired role of the group with cognitive impairments in the text production process on the other often leads to problematic results with respect to the acceptability of the texts produced under these circumstances (Maaß 2020: 72). 13 Netzwerk Leichte Sprache, www.leichtesprache.org. 14 BMAS, www.gemeinsam-einfach-machen.de. 15 Translated by Christiane Maaß. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 201 Christiane Maaß, Isabel Rink, Silvia Hansen-Schirra The Accessible Information Technology Regulation (Barrierefreie-Informa- tionstechnik-Verordnung, BITV 2.0) implements the Act on Equal Opportunities of Persons with Disabilities (Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz, BGG) with regard to online information of federal public administration bodies. Appendix 2 of the BITV’s second version provides a short outline of how Easy Language texts are meant to be produced. The Appendix lists 34 requirements for the linguistic and typographic outline compiled in 13 regulations. Although these regulations are somewhat inconsistent and imbalanced, the BITV 2.0 has proven to be very important for the Easy Language text practice and translation market. These three practical guidelines introduced in the previous paragraphs add up to a total of 120 rules, only 17 of which are present in all three sets of guide- lines (Bredel and Maaß 2016a: 82ff, 2016b: 21ff; an English summary in Maaß 2020: 74ff), as shown below: 1. Bigger type-size Visual and 2. Each sentence on a new line medial design 3. No word truncation at the end of the line 4. Text is left-aligned 5. Short words 6. Separation of compound words with hyphens Word structure 7. No abbreviations 8. No passive voice 9. Easy-to-understand words Vocabulary 10. Preferably no foreign words 11. Foreign words are explained where they are needed Sentence structure 12. Short sentences Semantics 13. No negation No lexical variation in the text: same designation for same 14. concept Text 15. Relevant information first 16. Clear structure: subheadings are used 17. Readers are addressed directly Table 3: Rules common to all three sets of practical guidelines (according to Bredel and Maaß 2016b: 22, English version in Maaß 2020: 75) 202 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Germany These 17 rules provide a representative outline of Easy Language, but are not sufficient to sustain text creation and translation processes. However, even though they are not sufficient for translators, they are convenient for identify- ing a text as an Easy Language text and are thus helpful for clients and tendering authorities. For an illustration of the German guidelines, see Appendix 1. 5.2 Scientifically based rulebooks In contrast to other languages, Easy German not only has practical guidelines, but also scientifically based rulebooks. These were developed at the University of Hildesheim, where the Research Centre for Easy Language (Forschungsstelle Leichte Sprache) was founded in 2014. They are based on theoretical evidence from several disciplines. Studies carried out in empirical linguistics, cognitive science and comprehensibility research are evaluated and geared to the needs of Easy Language target groups. The first scientific guidelines, called Leichte Sprache. Das Regelbuch (Easy Language. The Rulebook) were written in German in 2015, and are available in both printed form and online (Maaß 2015). They are divided into three parts: an introduction to the subject of Easy Language, its legal position and target groups; an evaluation of the existing practical manuals; and a presentation of the Easy Language ruleset elaborated by the Research Centre for Easy Language used at the time. The main resources for the Regelbuch (Rulebook) were the practical manuals presented above, experience from translation projects car- ried out by the Research Centre for Easy Language, and the preceding research on German grammar, text, specialized communication, and translation. Duden Leichte Sprache (Duden Easy Language, Bredel and Maaß 2016a-c, see Section 2 for a description of Duden) is more sophisticated in terms of em- pirical and scientific evidence. It consists of three volumes: a comprehensive scientific manual (Bredel and Maaß 2016a), a guidebook for the wider public (Bredel and Maaß 2016b), and a workbook (Bredel and Maaß 2016c). The sci- entific manual (Bredel and Maaß 2016a) compiles the research related to and helpful for the subject of Easy Language. It describes Easy Language from a ‘sociolinguistic perspective as a strategically reduced variety of German’ (Maaß © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 203 Christiane Maaß, Isabel Rink, Silvia Hansen-Schirra 2020: 84) which is frequently perceived by average readers as a provocation and potentially stigmatizes the primary target groups, especially if it displays certain features (such as widespread layout features) that are described in the manual. It describes the main functions of Easy Language and deduces the characteristics it should have in order to enable these functions. Easy Lan- guage is placed in the context of other complexity-reduced varieties such as Plain Language or Foreigner Talk (Ferguson 1971). The required features are deduced on the basis of perception/perceptibility and comprehension/com- prehensibility research as well as research on the different Easy Language tar- get groups. Easy Language is placed in the context of translation studies and defined as a form of intralingual translation (Maaß 2019, Maaß 2020: 171ff). The manual describes the structure of Easy Language on all language levels, also with regard to the required layout features, and conceptualizes its central structural principles, such as proximity, maximum explicitness and continuity, as well as its core functions of comprehensibility and perceptibility. The book concludes with a draft of a Plain Language rule model (For a more extensive overview, see Maaß (2020: 83ff)). Bredel and Maaß (2016b) contains a digest for the practical application of the scientific manual, and Bredel and Maaß (2016c) is a self-instruction workbook for Easy Language translators. 6 Practical outcomes This section presents some perspectives of the implementation of Easy Lan- guage in Germany. They concern informative texts, multimedia settings, lit- erary publications, and other areas (e.g., cultural or multi-modal communi- cation). 6.1 Informative texts Due to the many legal regulations that have been implemented regarding Easy Language and accessible communication in Germany, Easy Language is thriv- ing in legal and administrative communication as well as in organizational communication: all administrative bodies on the federal, and most on the 204 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Germany federal state level, as well as many German Cities and Regions offer Easy Lan- guage on their homepages, even if sometimes to a very limited extent. Most of these texts are purely informative, but others are also interaction texts (i.e., texts that trigger interactive behaviour, e.g., when dealing with municipal ser- vices). Rink (2020) provides an outline of information and interaction texts in legal communication in Easy Language in the framework of a project with the Ministry of Justice of the Federal State of Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony). In recent years, political parties or public administration have provided many texts in the area of political participation: polling information, political party programmes, explanations of the German political system, news, etc. The latest newcomer is texts from the domain of public health, in the attempt to improve the health literacy of vulnerable groups that have been identified as not being able to access standard health information (Schaeffer et al. 2016, 2018). Although a great deal remains to be done, in recent years progress has been enormous. 6.2 Media Most Easy Language material is written text distributed online or in print. This does not comply with the media preferences of the primary target groups which are under-average internet users with poor reading proficiency (Maaß 2020: 30ff). Nevertheless, Easy Language material in forms other than writing is still rare. Some material is in audio formats, such as the audio tracks of written Easy Language texts, read by professional news-speakers. This service is provided by the North German Broadcasting Association (Norddeutscher Rundfunk, NDR). Another service is available from Germany’s Broadcasting Association (Deutschlandfunk) and distributed via radio. Easy Language subtitles are still very rare and are limited to certain projects (e.g., fairy tales in Easy Language and Sign Language by the NDR 16; for Easy Language subtitling see Marmit 2021 and Maaß and Hernández Garrido 2020). 16 NDR, https://www.ndr.de/fernsehen/service/gebaerdensprache/Maerchen-in-Leich- ter-Sprache-und-Gebaerdensprache,maerchengebaerden100.html. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 205 Christiane Maaß, Isabel Rink, Silvia Hansen-Schirra 6.3 Literature In Germany, literary texts in easy-to-understand languages are available to only a very limited extent and are predominantly in Plain Language. There is no official funding policy and only a few rather small publishers currently dominate the market (Spaß am Lesen Verlag 17, Naundob Verlag 18, Passanten Verlag 19). Their publications include some translations of popular literature but are mostly original works by Plain Language authors. To date, Easy and Plain Language literature remains a great necessity in Germany, as do general entertainment texts of all kinds. 6.4 Other projects Forms of accessible communication, including Easy Language, are increasingly present in the cultural field: in museums (Rantamo and Schum 2019, Scheele 2021, Al Masri-Gutternig and Reitstätter 2017), in opera or theatre perfor- mances (Mälzer 2017, Mälzer and Wünsche 2019) or in recreational parks (Kröger 2020). These institutes use Easy Language on their websites, but also in complex multimodal situations that combine different sign systems; Easy Language is only one of the resources used in the situation (Kaul 2021). In inclusive events, Easy Language interpreting (Schulz et al. 2020, Degenhardt 2021) and Easy Language speech-to-text interpreting (Witzel 2019) are used for accessibility in live situations. This is a rapidly expanding market for Easy Language service providers. 7 Education and research Easy Language is established as part of different academic programmes in Ger- many: the Barrierefreie Kommunikation (Accessible Communication) master’s degree programme at the University of Hildesheim focuses on Easy Language 17 Spaß am Lesen Verlag, https://einfachebuecher.de. 18 edition naundob, www.naundob.de. 19 Passanten Verlag, www.passanten-verlag.de. 206 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Germany translation. Furthermore, the Sprache, Kultur, Translation (Language, culture, translation) bachelor’s degree programme includes a module on Easy Lan- guage. Programmes of further training are typically offered outside univer- sity curricula, for instance by the Netzwerk Leichte Sprache or by the largest professional association for translators in Germany, the Bundesverband der Dolmetscher und Übersetzer (BDÜ, the Professional Association of Interpreters and Translators). On the post-graduate level, the first doctoral Easy Language programme dedicated to the empirical research of the scientific ruleset began in August 2018 (the ‘Simply complex’ – Easy Language research group, Univ. of Mainz/ Germersheim); these doctoral projects engage in user-oriented research de- sign and explore the relationship between linguistic complexity, cognitive pro- cessing and comprehension of Easy Language features and texts (for the first results see Part 4 of Hansen-Schirra and Maaß 2020b). April 2020 saw the beginning of the doctoral programme on accessible medical communication at the Forschungsstelle Leichte Sprache (‘Accessible medical communication’ research group, BK-Med). As a research subject, Easy Language has been studied from different per- spectives: mainly linguistics (see, e.g., Bredel and Maaß 2016a-c, Bock 2019, Fix 2017, Lasch 2017), translation studies (see, e.g., Maaß 2019, Hansen-Schirra et al. 2020a-b), specialized communication research (see Schubert 2016, Rink 2020, Welch and Sauberer 2019), and educational theory (see, e.g., Schuppener and Bock 2019, Kilian 2017). More recently, more disciplines have become aware of the phenomenon, ranging from psychology (an overview in Christ- mann and Groeben 2019) and German studies (with multiple publications, like many of the contributions in Bock et al. 2017) to museology (see, e.g., Rantamo and Schum 2019, Scheele 2021, Al Masri-Gutternig and Reitstätter 2017). Germany also has a wide range of methodological approaches for investi- gating Easy Language. From a theoretical perspective, Easy Language is de- scribed as a language variety of German (Maaß 2015, Bredel and Maaß 2016a-c, 2017, 2018, 2019). Corpus-based studies empirically show the properties of Easy Language (Rink 2016, 2019, 2020, Maaß 2019, Maaß and Rink 2017, 2018). Taking the viewpoint of the user, empirical cognitive experiments reveal the cognitive processing costs of reading Easy Language texts (Hansen-Schirra © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 207 Christiane Maaß, Isabel Rink, Silvia Hansen-Schirra and Gutermuth 2018, Gutermuth 2020, Hansen-Schirra et al. 2020a-b, Deilen 2020, Schiffl 2020, Sommer 2020). Finally, questions of inclusion and partic- ipation are also addressed from the perspective of special needs pedagogy (Goldbach and Bergelt 2019, Schuppener et al. 2019, Bock 2019, Lange 2018, Bock et al. 2017). From a chronological perspective, academic Easy Language Research began in 2010 at the University of Hildesheim in the context of translation studies and research on expert–lay communication. As a result of intense research activities and different translation projects in the field of legal communica- tion, the Research Centre for Easy Language was founded in January 2014. Also in 2014, the LeiSA (Leichte Sprache im Arbeitsleben ‘Easy Language in professional life’ 20) project began at the University of Leipzig, which involved a mixed team of sociologists and linguists. This project is currently ongoing in the LeiSA-parti at the University of Cologne 21. In April 2016, a national Easy Language conference took place at the University of Leipzig which gathered together researchers from various fields such as German studies, sociology, psychology and comprehensibility research, translation studies, and special- ized communication research. This conference led the way to various co-op- eration in the field and to further research (proceedings in Bock et al. 2017). 8 Future perspectives Easy Language faces various challenges. One of the most urgent requirements involves developing and establishing text type patterns in thematic areas that have not yet been the focus of Easy Language practice and research. In many areas, Easy Language texts are still unavailable. However, text production and translation processes need to be professionalized in order to provide percepti- ble, comprehensible texts that are at the same time acceptable and relate to the previous knowledge of the users. These are the prerequisites for Easy Language texts to be action-enabling for the primary target groups. 20 LeiSA, https://research.uni-leipzig.de/leisa. 21 LeiSA-parti, https://idsl2.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/forschung/forschungsprojekte/leisa-par- ti-leichte-sprache-im-arbeitsleben-partizipativ. 208 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Germany Many Easy Language texts in Germany are written in a way that is not acceptable to some of the primary and secondary target groups. This is es- pecially the case when the texts sharply diverge from standard expectations; for example, in terms of orthography, layout, or more generally, text type and discourse standards. Texts that are very different from the standard can poten- tially stigmatize users, as texts of poor acceptability are perceived as a hazard to the standard language and the primary target groups are perceived as being responsible for threatening it. Professionalization is only part of the solution; another direction to be considered is the differentiation of various complexity levels in order to balance comprehensibility and acceptability in accordance with the user groups’ needs. For Germany, the development of Easy Language Plus, as an intermediate stage between Easy and Plain Language at the tipping point between com- prehensibility and acceptability, may serve this purpose (for an outline, see Hansen-Schirra and Maaß 2020a, Maaß 2020). Another challenge in the field of professionalization is the adaptation of interlingual translation tools such as translation memories, terminology management, or even machine translation or text simplification for Easy Language translation (Klaper et al. 2013). Despite the dynamically developing research situation of Easy German, huge research gaps remain in the areas of modelling and validation that require a synergetic research approach: previous research has focused exclusively on the perceptibility and comprehensibility of Easy Language texts. As mentioned above, existing Easy Language texts may not promote inclusion and potentially even impede it because of their stigmatizing character. Therefore, researching and potentially remodelling the set of rules and guidelines according to these additional categories is essential, as it will lead to the empirical validation of Easy Language Plus. Authors Christiane Maaß, Professor of Media Linguistics, University of Hildesheim, Institute for Translatology and Specialised Communication, Director of the © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 209 Christiane Maaß, Isabel Rink, Silvia Hansen-Schirra Research Centre for Easy Language (Forschungsstelle Leichte Sprache), Head of the ‘Accessible Medical Communication’ PhD Research Team. Isabel Rink, Tenured Lecturer at the University of Hildesheim, Institute for Translatology and Specialised Communication, Managing Director of the Research Centre for Easy Language, Co-Director of the ‘Accessible Medical Communication’ PhD Research Team. Silvia Hansen-Schirra, Professor of English Linguistics and Translation Stud- ies, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Faculty of Translation Studies in Germersheim. Director of the Translation & Cognition (TRA&CO) Center, Head of the ‘Simply complex – Easy Language’ Research Group. 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Schiffl, Laura. “Hierarchies in Lexical Complexity: Do Effects of Word Frequen- cy, Word Length and Repetition Exist for the Visual Word Processing of People with Cognitive Impairments?” Eds. Silvia Hansen-Schirra, and Christiane Maaß. Easy Language Research: Text and User Perspectives. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2020. 227–239. Print. Schubert, Klaus. “Barriereabbau durch optimierte Kommunikationsmittel: Ver- such einer Systematisierung.” [Removing barriers using optimized means of com- munication: Attempts of systematization]. Ed. Nathalie Mälzer. Barrierefreie Kom- munikation – Perspektiven aus Theorie und Praxis. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2016. 15–33. Print. Schulz, Rebecca; Czerner-Nicolas, Kirsten, and Julia Degenhardt. “Easy Language Interpreting.” Eds. Silvia Hansen-Schirra, and Christiane Maaß. Easy Language Research: Text and User Perspectives. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2020. 163–178. Print. 216 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Germany Schuppener, Saskia, and Bettina Bock. “Geistige Behinderung und barrierefreie Kommunikation.” [Mental disability and accessible communication]. Eds. Christi- ane Maaß, and Isabel Rink. Handbuch Barrierefreie Kommunikation. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2019. 221–247. Print. Sommer, Johanna. “A Study of Negation in German Easy Language – Does Typogra- phic Marking of Negation Words Cause Differences in Processing Negation?” Eds. Silvia Hansen-Schirra, and Christiane Maaß. Easy Language Research: Text and User Perspectives. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2020. 257–272. Print. Spaß am Lesen Verlag [Pleasure of reading publishing house]. Web. 8 March 2021. . W3C Word Wide Web Consortium 2021. Web. 8 March 2021. . Wagner, Susanne, and Christa Schlenker-Schulte. Textoptimierung von Prü- fungsaufgaben. Handreichung zur Erstellung leicht verständlicher Prüfungsaufgaben [Text optimisation of audit tasks. Handout on generating easy to comprehend au- dit tasks]. 2nd revised edition. Halle: FST, 2006. Print. Welch, Birgit, and Gabriele Sauberer. “Easy-to-Read Language and Termino- logy: New Needs, New Rules, New Software?” Proceedings of the European Con- ference on Software Process Improvement. EuroSPI 2019: Systems, Software and Service Process Improvement, 2019. 647–658. Witzel, Jutta. “Ausprägungen und Dolmetschstrategien beim Schriftdolmetschen.” [Characteristics and interpreting strategies in speech-to-text interpreting]. Eds. Christiane Maaß, and Isabel Rink. Handbuch Barrierefreie Kommunikation. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2019. 303–325. Print. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 217 Christiane Maaß, Isabel Rink, Silvia Hansen-Schirra Appendix 1. An illustration of guidelines for Easy German. Standard German Easy German Opferschutz: Opfer·schutz Jedes Opfer einer Straftat erhält von Sie sind Opfer von einer Straf·tat? der Polizei oder der Staatsanwaltschaft Zum Beispiel: ein Merkblatt, aus dem es seine Eine Person hat Sie verletzt? Rechte ersehen kann, z. B. anwalt- Oder eine Person hat Ihre Sachen liche Beratung und Vertretung bei beschädigt? der Wahrnehmung seiner Interessen Dann haben Sie bestimmte Rechte. im Strafverfahren, Erlangung von Sie können einen Anwalt bekommen. Schadensersatz, Schmerzensgeld und Sie können vielleicht Geld bekommen. sonstiger Entschädigung. Die Polizei gibt Ihnen Informationen. Source: Leichte Sprache in der Nied- ersächsischen Justiz, Information on the project, https://www.mj.nieder- sachsen.de/startseite/leichte_sprache/ pilotprojekt_leichte_sprache_in_der_ niedersachsischen_justiz/pilotprojekt- leichte-sprache-in-der- niedersaechsischen-justiz-123609.html [Protection of victims: [Protection of victims Each victim of a crime will be given an Are you a victim of a crime? information leaflet by the police or the For example: public prosecutor from which he/she Has a person injured you? [literally: ‘it’ as ‘victim’ is neuter in Ger- Or has a person done damage to your man] can learn about his/her [literally: property? ‘its’] rights, e.g. legal counselling and Then you have certain rights. representation in the execution of his/ You can perhaps get a lawyer. her [literally: ‘its’] interests in the crim- You can perhaps get money. inal proceedings, restitution of damage, The police will give you information.] compensation for pain or other forms of compensation.] 218 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Péter László Horváth, Lili Ladányi Easy Language in Hungary 1 Introduction Hungary is a country in Central Europe. It covers an area of 93 030 km2 in the Carpathian Basin and borders Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the north-east, Romania to the east and south-east, Serbia to the south, Croatia and Slovenia to the south-west, and Austria to the west. With about 9.7 million inhabitants in 2019, Hungary is a medium-sized Member State of the European Union. The population has been declining since 1980. Hungary’s capital and largest city is Budapest. Other major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs, and Győr. The foundations of the Hungarian state were established in the late ninth century AD by the Hungarian grand prince Árpád after the conquest of the Carpathian Basin. His great-grandson Stephen I ascended to the throne in 1000 AD, converting his realm into a Christian kingdom. The seminal opening of the previously restricted border with Austria in 1989 accelerated the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and subsequently the Soviet Union. On 23rd October 1989, Hungary became a democratic parliamentary republic. It joined the Europe- an Union in 2004 and has been part of the Schengen Area since 2007. It is a member of numerous international organizations, including UN, Nato, World bank and Council of Europe. The only official language in Hungary is Hungarian, with 9.82 million peo- ple (99%) speaking it as a first language and 0.68 million people (1%) speaking it as a second language. Hungarian is one of the 24 official languages of the EU. Outside Hungary, it is also spoken by Hungarian communities in present-day Slovakia, Western Ukraine (Subcarpathia), Central and Western Romania (Transylvania), Northern Serbia (Vojvodina), Northern Croatia, North-East- ern Slovenia (Mur region), and Eastern Austria. It is also spoken by Hungarian © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 219 Péter László Horváth, Lili Ladányi diaspora communities worldwide, especially in North America (particular- ly the US and Canada) and Israel. With 13 million speakers, it is the largest member of the Uralic family in terms of the number of speakers. Under the terms of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, Hungary provides special protection for the Armenian, Boyash, Bulgarian, Croatian, German, Greek, Polish, Romani, Romanian, Rusyn, Serbian, Slovak, Sloveni- an, and Ukrainian languages. In November 2009, the Hungarian Parliament unanimously passed Act CXXV of 2009 on Hungarian Sign Language. The Hungarian language is phonetic, i.e., a writing system in which a letter or a combination of letters represent each speech sound. However, many am- biguous words may cause difficulties for people with intellectual disabilities. The language is also enriched by foreign words, the proper interpretation of which requires knowledge of their meaning and the Hungarian equivalent. A significant feature of the Hungarian language is that it appends suffixes, even several suffixes (syllables, signs, suffixes) to the word. For example, in the Hungarian word ablakomban which means ‘in my window’, the ablak part means ‘window’, the om part means ‘my’ and the ban part means ‘in’. In many cases, the suffix changes the meaning of the word so significantly that it can be difficult to interpret. Words, in turn, depend on formation, composition, and other aspects. Although words longer than seven syllables are written separately or hyphenated, understanding complex word combinations can be problematic. People with intellectual disabilities may need support for un- derstanding words with abstract meanings and pronouns, as well as complex and long sentences. The Survey of Adult Skills, part of the Programme for the International As- sessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), successfully gathered a representa- tive sample of 6149 adults aged 16 to 65 with a residential address in Hungary from 250 settlements in the country. In international comparison, Hungary is slightly below the OECD average in terms of reading comprehension and problem-solving skills. Among the Hungarian adult population, 25–34-year- 220 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Hungary olds performed best in comprehension tasks, whereas 55–65-year-olds had the lowest average scores (Magyar Távirati Iroda 2019) 1. 2 Historical perspectives The development of Easy Hungarian can be divided into seven steps from 2002 to the present. It began with a research programme, followed by the publication of a set of rules translated into Hungarian. This was followed by the publication of easy-to-understand materials in Hungarian. Following this, the need arose for Easy Hungarian to become known to as many professionals as possible who come into contact with people with intellectual disabilities. At the same time, a complex development programme was carried out to prepare people with intellectual disabilities for independent living and self-advocacy. The aim was to create equal access to public administration information. Easy-to-un- derstand communication was integrated into university programmes with special pedagogical content to make Easy Hungarian applicable in the school system. Building on the results achieved, a large-scale, four-year development programme began on January 1st, 2020. The historical antecedents of accessible communication 2 in Hungary can be dated back to the early 2000s. In 2002, the European umbrella organization Inclusion Europe co-ordinated the international research project ‘Promoting the Human Rights of People with Intellectual Disabilities in Civil Society’. The starting point was the United Nations (UN) Standard Rules (1993). The Hun- garian Alliance of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (Értelmi Fogyatékosság- gal Élők és Segítőik Országos Érdekvédelmi Szövetsége, ÉFOÉSZ) also partici- pated in the project. Information was collected from professionals, parents, and people with intellectual disabilities. The authors of the report drew the 1 More information on the results of the first measurement in Hungary is available in Hungarian here: https://epale.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/dr_lukacs_fruzsina_a_magyarorszagi_piaac_ felmeres_eredmenyei.pdf. 2 In Hungarian, the terms used are könnyen olvasható (easy-to-read), könnyen érthető (easy-to-understand) and könnyen érthető kommunikáció (easy-to-understand communica- tion). To follow the practice of this handbook, we use the terms accessible communication, Easy Language and Easy Hungarian. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 221 Péter László Horváth, Lili Ladányi following picture of the situation of Easy Language in Hungary in 2002: its use is not regulated by law and its reputation is far from satisfactory. This research is considered the starting point of the written history of Easy Language in Hungary (Gyene et al. 2002). The next notable event in 2002 was when the ÉFOÉSZ published a Hungar- ian translation of the 1998 publication of the International League of Societies for Persons with Mental Handicap (ILSMH). These were the first Hungarian guidelines for the creation of Easy Language materials (Csató 2002), and they paved the way for the production and distribution of Easy Hungarian publi- cations (see more in Section 5). The ministry responsible for disability policy also understood the impor- tance of Easy Hungarian. To promote legal knowledge and awareness among people with intellectual disabilities, between 2004 and 2010, the Ministry is- sued several disability policies and legal documents in Easy Language (e.g., the National Disability Program, the Madrid Declaration, the Employment Policy Guidelines, People with Disabilities) under the remit of the Department for Disability Policy. The Easy Language adaptations were prepared by the ÉFOÉSZ (Horváth 2020). Later, in 2006, the ÉFOÉSZ suggested that training should be developed to spread Easy Hungarian in Hungary. Thus, with the support of the EU, the development of training began at the organization then known as the Public Foundation for the Opportunity for the Disabled (Fogyatékosok Esélye Közal- apítvány, FOKA, later Fogyatékos Személyek Esélyegyenlőségéért Közalapítvány, FSZK – the ‘Public Foundation for Equal Opportunities for People with Dis- abilities’) (see more in Section 7). In 2009, the Down Foundation (Down Alapítvány) launched a programme called Mental Accessibility to promote accessible communication and cre- ate a barrier-free environment for people with intellectual disabilities. It focused on public administration, and attempted to cover everything from situation analysis and needs assessment to the development of educational materials, training and implementation. The project gathered the experienc- es of 150 people with intellectual disabilities on dealing with applications for identity cards, passports, tax and social security identification numbers. (Társadalombiztosítási Azonosító Jel, TAJ) or applications for various social 222 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Hungary benefits, but also the preparation for banking transactions. Easy Hungarian templates and procedures have been prepared to help these people cope with these procedures; and training has been provided for public administration officials (Leveleki and Gruiz 2009). An important milestone was when Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Needs Education, Eötvös Loránd University (Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Bárc- zi Gusztáv Gyógypedagógiai Kar) started offering courses on Easy Language in 2012, followed by Juhász Gyula Faculty of Education, University of Szeged (Szegedi Tudományegyetem Juhász Gyula Pedagógusképző Kar) in 2015. (see more in Section 7). The next stage of development was the launch of a currently ongoing state-funded programme at the University of Szeged in 2020: ‘Creation of an Easy Language Information Centre’ (ELIC, Könnyen Érthető Információs Központ, KÉIK, see more in sections 6 and 8). 3 Current situation Although Easy Language emerged in Hungary two decades ago following the research of the Hungarian Alliance of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (ÉFOÉSZ) (Gyene et al 2002), no significant results regarding this language variety have been obtained. Two universities run professional workshops and two non-governmental organizations train professionals in the social field. However, the results of the professional workshops are not yet widely available. The general public knows little about the existence of Easy Hungarian. 3.1 Definitions In Hungary it is considered very important to distinguish between Plain Lan- guage (közérthető fogalmazás ‘comprehensible writing’ or világos beszéd ‘clear speech’) and Easy Language. They are seen as two, artificially developed lan- guage levels that have a different target group, and different sets of rules. Plain Hungarian is more commonly used in public administration, and justice and © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 223 Péter László Horváth, Lili Ladányi financial services (Benkovicsné 2018), whereas Easy Hungarian is used in the world of people with intellectual disabilities (Horváth 2020). In Hungary we call Easy Language Könnyen Érthető Kommunikáció (easy-to-understand communication), abbreviated as KÉK, which means ‘blue’ as a colour. This abbreviation is also popular among professionals and people with intellectual disabilities because the materials of Easy Hungari- an are marked with the well-known logo of Inclusion Europe, which is also blue. In Hungary, the terms könnyen olvasható (easy-to-read), könnyen érthető (easy-to-understand) and hozzáférhető információ (accessible information) are also used in publications. The terms Easy Language (könnyű nyelv) and Easy Hungarian (könnyű magyar) are not used at all. The reason for this, in our opinion, is that the professionals who deal with simplified language are not linguists or communication specialists, but special educators, sometimes even social workers, who work with people with intellectual disabilities. The ped- agogical aspect is much more characteristic of the Hungarian approach than the linguistic one. There are currently no debates in Hungary on Easy Language. No research groups exist, and no scientific conferences or outreach workshops specifically dedicated to Easy Language have ever been held. However, two authors have addressed the concept of Easy Language in a written publication. These are presented below. Farkasné created the first Hungarian definition of Easy Language on the basis of some international and national examples of the topic, and with the participation of experts through experience. ‘Easy Language is a version of the common language; it uses its vocabulary and follows its basic rules. Easy Language is the representation of important content units of information in common language or the elaboration of independent information content in a simple, clear form that serves to make the information understandable. The processing of information through Easy Language is supported by the adequate use of pictures and illustrations, which observe the content-related and formal rules of adaptation’ (Farkasné 2018a: 70) 3. 3 Translated by the authors. 224 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Hungary According to Horváth (2020), instead of defining Easy Language, it would be more appropriate to define the concept of ‘encoding an Easy Language mes- sage’. Based on the literature and his research experiences from interviews, he proposed the definition below. An Easy Language message aims to ensure that people with intellectual disabilities who require a high level of support to understand standard infor- mation can enjoy reading and accessing humanity’s cultural assets in the same way as others. It also ensures that when they have this information, they will be able to make decisions about their lives on the same terms as others. In this way, they will be able to exercise their human and civil rights to self-determi- nation. When we speak of encoding an Easy Language message, we mean the process by which the communicator composes their verbal, written-, picture-, or film-based message according to written encoding rules that correspond to the decoding abilities of the person with intellectual disabilities receiving the message, i.e., their competence to recognize, perceive, and interpret the mes- sage. In this process, the communicator employs one or more people from the target recipient group to verify the intelligibility of the Easy Language message communicated in writing or as a picture or video. The goal of encoding an Easy Language message may be to convert an existing message into an Easy Language message or to create a new Easy Language message. An existing message is converted into an Easy Language message in the same language (Horváth 2020). Defining the Easy Language concept is not limited to print and online lit- erature. Based on the principle of equal access to the definition of the concept, Farkasné (2018b) made a video in Easy Language about the concept of Easy Language. 3.2 Societal and legal context Easy Hungarian is still little known and uncommon in Hungary. The only legal basis for its development is the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Hungary signed the CRPD 2007 and in the same year added it to Act XCII of 2007. It entered into force in Hungary on 3rd May 2008. The CRPD can be considered the fundamental document of disability policy. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 225 Péter László Horváth, Lili Ladányi However, the Hungarian literature and disability policy documents show no provisions of the CRPD being applicable to Easy Language (Horváth 2020). The CRPD includes cross-cutting Easy Language provisions that can and should be taken into account when interpreting its full text. On the other hand, it highlights areas of everyday life in which the creators of the CRPD deemed consideration of Easy Language especially important. The CRPD’s Articles 2, 3, 4, and 9 on accessibility are significant from a horizontal perspective. Article 2 defines the concept of communication, Article 3 explains the basic principle of accessibility, Article 4 identifies the necessary state obligations, and all these articles explicitly contribute to the realization of the human right to Easy Language. The CRPD highlights four areas of everyday life for the use of Easy Language. These are freedom of opinion and expression and access to information (Article 21), education (Article 24), participation in political and public life (Article 29), and participation in cultural life, recreation, leisure, and sport (Article 30) (Horváth 2020). In Hungary, however, no laws have been enacted to make the rights to Easy Language consistent with the CRPD. Moreover, no regulations governing the day-to-day operation of Easy Language have been implemented. Perhaps the only exception is the law governing the procedure for assessing the capacity to function (CXXX of 2016 on the Code of Civil Procedure), which states that ‘the summons and information served to the defendant during a trial must be consistent with the mental state of the party’ (Section 443(4) of the Act) 4. However, no data or information on how this provision is implemented in practice are available. The role of spoken Easy Language in the lives of children and adults with intellectual disabilities is unquestionable. Consistent use of labelling infor- mation resources aimed at people with intellectual disabilities provides them with predictability. Spoken Easy Language is important in kindergartens and schools for children and students with intellectual disabilities. For example, in school, a special education teacher explains the curriculum to children with intellectual disabilities in spoken Easy Language. Therefore, it is very important to develop the speaking skills of special educators. It is also important in the life 4 Translated by the authors. 226 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Hungary of adults with intellectual disabilities in social institutions or in cases in which people with intellectual disabilities act independently in public administration. Spoken Easy Language also applies to information given on the radio or TV. It can also be important at conferences. Unfortunately, spoken Easy Language has no tradition in Hungary yet. Several sections of this chapter state that Easy Language is not widely used in Hungary. Although there is no scientific or experiential data on society’s attitude towards Easy Language, all the initiatives so far have received a positive response. Education development ideas are well received by both teachers and social professionals. In 2020, the press also reported Easy Hungarian many times. 3.3 Stakeholders In Hungary, no central organizations currently manage developments related to Easy Language on a national level. There is also a lack of Easy Language offices and agencies. Any developments in the field are carried out by non-gov- ernmental organizations (NGOs) and higher education institutions, often in- dependently of each other. An important stakeholder is Rita Farkasné Gönczi, an independent expert. She developed the first Easy Hungarian website 5. The website is very inform- ative, and publishes news related to Easy Hungarian. Of particular note is the Easy Hungarian kitchen menu, from which people with intellectual disabilities can download Easy Hungarian recipes for preparing various foods and drinks. She was one of the first people to create Easy Hungarian materials on behalf of the Ministry responsible for disability policy, and was one of the develop- ers of Easy Hungarian training courses. From the very start, Rita Farkasné Gönczi has participated as a trainer in professional training programmes for professionals. Since 1900, special education teachers have been trained at the Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Needs Education, Eötvös Loránd University (Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Bárczi Gusztáv Gyógypedagógiai Kar). 5 Könnyen érthető kommunikáció – könnyen érthető élet, http://konnyenertheto.gonczirita.hu/. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 227 Péter László Horváth, Lili Ladányi The Budapest- based university is a key player in the training of disability specialists in Hungary 6. The University of Szeged (Szegedi Tudományegetem) is the second oldest university in Hungary: its history can be traced back to the Middle Ages. The training of special education teachers began in 2002. After structural changes at the Juhász Gyula Faculty of Education (Juhász Gyula Pedagógusképző Kar), an independent Institute of Special Needs Education (Gyógypedagógus-képző Intézet) was established in September 2007. The Institute aims to train spe- cial education teachers so that they can enter work equipped with thorough, comprehensive, and up-to-date theoretical and practical knowledge that can be further extended 7. The Hungarian Alliance of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities, ÉFOÉSZ, was established in 1981 as an umbrella organization for local organizations concerned with the care and rehabilitation of people with intellectual disa- bilities in Hungary. The ÉFOÉSZ represents 50 member associations, 25 local branches, and 22 000 individual members all over the country, and offers nine community-based services 8. The Budapest-based Down Foundation (Down Alapítvány) was established in 1992. It provides many social services to people with intellectual disabilities, and also employs them. Their important activity is to promote the adoption of children with Down’s syndrome and to support these families 9. The Hand in Hand Foundation (Kézenfogva Alapítvány) has been working since 1993 for a tolerant society in which people with disabilities can live with dignity. The main task of the foundation is to promote the cause of people with disabilities, especially those living with intellectual disabilities and the most disadvantaged backgrounds, as well as those living with multiple disabilities. The Foundation has contacts with people with disabilities both directly and 6 Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Bárczi Gusztáv Gyógypedagógiai Kar, https://barczi.elte.hu/ en/. 7 Szegedi Tudományegyetem Juhász Gyula Pedagógusképző Kar Gyógypedagógus-képző Intézet, http://www.jgypk.hu/tanszek/gyogypedagogia/in-english/. 8 Értelmi Fogyatékossággal Élők és Segítőik Országos Érdekvédelmi Szövetsége, https://efoesz.hu/. 9 Down Alapítvány, https://www.downalapitvany.hu/node/337. 228 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Hungary indirectly, at all stages of their lives, and involves family, professionals, and charities, or addresses society as a whole 10. The Equal Opportunities of Persons with Disabilities Non-profit Ltd. (Nemzeti Fogyatékosságügyi- és Szociálpolitikai Központ Közhasznú Nonprofit Kft., FSZK) was established by the Hungarian State to promote equal rights, social integration, and complex rehabilitation of people with disabilities. Its mission is to contribute to the creation of a society in which every person with a disability can participate equally as a full citizen. 11 4 Target groups The target group of Easy Language is a highly debated topic both internation- ally and in Hungary. The primary target group includes people who need as- sistance for completing intellectual tasks, for example, people with intellectual disabilities. In the 2011 census, 58 761 people reported having a communica- tion or information retrieval disability in Hungary (Tausz et al. 2015). The target group could also include deaf people who use Sign Language as a first language and in practice learn the national language as a second language. Easy Language could also be useful for people with low language competence, for people with a different native language to the language of the Easy Language information source, or for children and elderly people. At the same time, too broad a definition of the target group of Easy Lan- guage risks inhibiting the communication rights of people with intellectual disabilities. Information that is easier to understand can help many people. The real challenge is determining the language level at which to communicate with people with intellectual disabilities. Therefore, Hungary focuses its forces to close co-operation with this target group. 10 Kézenfogva Alapítvány, https://kezenfogva.hu/. 11 Today: Nemzeti Fogyatékosságügyi- és Szociálpolitikai Központ Közhasznú Nonprofit Kft., https://fszk.hu/. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 229 Péter László Horváth, Lili Ladányi 5 Guidelines Creating Easy Language information suitable for the language competence of a target group (people with intellectual disabilities) is subject to complex, complicated rules that also apply to perceptibility (the formal appearance of a text) and comprehensibility (the content of a text). No Hungarian logo has been designed, implemented, or used to identify Plain Language or Easy Language texts. In Hungary, the comprehensibility of Easy Language information must be checked by one or more members of the target group (people with intellectual disabilities), if possible, as paid work (Csató et al. 2009, Európai Bizottság 2015, Farkasné 2018a, Katona and Maleczki 2016). The function of a rule system is to help the communicating person find the methods for encoding their message at the level closest to the decoding competence of the receiver of the message. Rules are the cornerstones of Easy Language; without them, there would be no accessible information. A great number of different rules exist on both the international and national stage. Currently, there are five rule systems for Easy Hungarian language. Four of these are translations of foreign language rules, but the fifth is an extract in Hungarian based on these four. The first rule system was published in 2002 (Csató 2002) 12, and was superseded by three inter-connected rule systems cre- ated in 2009 through international co-operation (Inclusion Europe and the Hungarian Association for Persons with Intellectual Disability 2009a, 2009b, 2009c) 13. The publication year of the Hungarian rule system is unknown (Gruiz n.d.) 14. All five rule systems were developed and published by civil organiza- tions, and their use is not mandatory in Hungary. As for their scope, four of 12 Egyszerűen, érthetően. Útmutató könnyen érthető tájékoztatók készítéséhez (Make it Simple! European Guidelines for the Production of Easy-to-Read Information for People with Learning Disability for authors, editors, information providers, translators, and other interested persons). 13 Információt mindenkinek! A könnyen érthető kommunikáció európai alapelvei (Information for all. European standards for making information easy to read and understand). Az egész életen át tartó tanulás oktatóinak képzése. Iránymutatás azoknak az embereknek a képzéséhez, akik könnyen érthető dokumentumokat készítenek (Training lifelong learning staff. Guidelines on training people to write documents that are easy to read and understand). Ne írjon nekünk, nélkülünk! Hogyan vonjunk be értelmi fogyatékossággal élő embereket könnyen érthető szövegek készítésébe (Do not write for us without us. Involving people with intellectual disabilities in the writing of easy-to-read texts). 14 Hogyan készítsünk könnyen érthető környezetismereti segédanyagot? – Irányelvek (How to make Easy Language materials – Guidelines) 230 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Hungary them are used nationwide (Csató 2002, Gruiz n.d., Inclusion Europe and the Hungarian Association for Persons with Intellectual Disability 2009a, 2009b, 2009c), and one is used specifically in the civil organization that published it (Gruiz n.d.) (see more in Section 8). For an illustration of the Hungarian guidelines, see Appendix 1. The Guideline for the Education of Children and Pupils with Special Edu- cational Needs, issued by the Ministry of Human Resources (Decree 32/2012 (X. 8.)), also deserves a mention. These guidelines remind special educators working with children and students with intellectual disabilities of the impor- tance of formulating simple sentences that are easy to understand, familiar to the students, and arouse their interest (or are tailored to their interest). When writing a text, one must follow the rules of Easy Hungarian (Emberi Erőforrások Minisztere 2020). 6 Practical outcomes Although Easy Language is increasingly present in education (especially in the training of bachelor’s students in special education and the continuing education of social workers), its practical results are still quite limited. This chapter focuses on the results achieved so far. 6.1 Media and literature In Hungary, neither the public service nor the commercial media currently use Easy Language. The online journal Index 15 was an exception for a short time (2019 and 2020). In 2020, the ÉFOÉSZ and Index published Easy Language news related to the municipal elections and coronavirus. The self-advocacy group of the ÉFOÉSZ operates an online news portal entitled Együtt Velünk (Together with Us) 16, which publishes Easy Language news. The authors report on their work at the national and international level 15 Index kereskedelmi hírportál, https://index.hu/mindekozben/poszt/2019/10/09/konnyen_ ertheto_cikkek_az_onkormanyzati_valasztasrol_az_indexen/. 16 Együtt Velünk, https://egyuttvelunk.onervenyesites.hu/. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 231 Péter László Horváth, Lili Ladányi to protect the interests of people with intellectual disabilities. Self-advocates regularly publish Hungarian translations of the newsletters of the European Platform (EPSA, Önérvényesítők Európai Platformja). They also report on their tasks for teaching Easy Language. No Easy Hungarian books have yet been published in Hungary. In higher education, students learning Easy Language have translated works of fiction (novels, poems) or excerpts from them (novels) as part of project work. How- ever, these are not available to the public. 6.2 Informative texts In Hungary, Easy Language publications are primarily for adults with intel- lectual disabilities. These publications are mainly produced by NGOs and are provided free of charge in print or online. Topics include disability policy, office administration, information on public transport, independent living, cooking and eating, shopping, health, leisure activities, social benefits, and employment. 6.3 Other projects The ÉFOÉSZ has developed a mobile app called Önálló Életvitel (Independ- ent Living) to support independent living among people with both lower and higher support needs. The app also has a read-aloud function for people who cannot read. It is very easy to use. People with intellectual disabilities can use this app to plan, for example, using public transport (how to get from A to B) or shopping (what to eat or drink). They can use it when they need help (e.g., they can easily call an ambulance or the police). They can create a list of daily tasks. The application only works on the Android operating system and is optimized for two types of devices. 17 The Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Needs Education, Eötvös Loránd University, has organized a Disability Science Conference every year since 17 Önálló Életvitel app, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=hu.codevision. efoesz&hl=hu&gl=US. 232 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Hungary 2010. In 2018 18 and 2019 19 it was a pioneering initiative to organize and hold a conference section in Easy Language by and with people with intellectual disabilities (see more in Section 8). The ‘Creation of an Easy Language Information Centre (ELIC)’ pro- gramme 20 is financed by the Government (from the central budget) for the four-year period 2020–2023. The whole project is based on a Government decision (1264./2019(V. 7.)) on the establishment of the Complex Therapeutic Centre in Mórahalom 21, within the framework of which services for people with disabilities will be established. The programme is administrated by the Special Needs Education Training Institute (Gyógypedagógus-képző Intézet) at the Juhász Gyula Faculty of Edu- cation, University of Szeged (Szegedi Tudományegyetem Juhász Gyula Pedagó- gusképző Kar). The new centre will work in co-operation with the ÉFOÉSZ and the Ásotthalom Department of the Csongrád-Csanád County Sunshine Home. Other members of the network are the Csalogány Unified Special Educational Methodological Institution (USEMI 22, Egységes Gyógypedagógiai Módszertani Intézet, EGYMI) in Budapest, the Kozmutza Flóra USEMI (Kozmutza Flóra Egységes Gyógypedagógiai Módszertani Intézet) in Hódmezővásárhely, and the Bárczi Gusztáv USEMI in Szeged. The centre will have a close connection to Easy Language target groups. People with intellectual disabilities living in the 18 Hatodik Fogyatékosságtudomány Konferencia, https://barczi.elte.hu/content/hatodik-fogyate- kossagtudomanyi-konferencia.e.190. 19 Hetedik Fogyatékosságtudommányi Konferencia, https://www.barczi.elte.hu/content/hetedik- fogyatekossagtudomanyi-konferencia.e.258. 20 Könnyen Érthető Információ Központ, KÉIK, https://www.facebook.com/konnyenertheto and https://konnyenertheto.hu/. 21 Mórahalom is a small town in south Hungary 20 km from Szeged. 22 USEMIs may be established for assisting the education of learners with special educational needs (SEN), together with other learners. Within the framework of the institution will be a unit that exclusively performs kindergarten, primary school, school, or secondary school activities, and conducts developmental education for learners with SEN, as well as a mobile network of special educators and conductors. USEMIs may also fulfill the tasks of family sup- port services and school healthcare services, as well as lend special education and conductive education tools and aids. They may also operate a hall of residence. More information in Eng- lish about special education services in Hungary is available here: Hungary, Separate Special Education Needs Provision in Early Childhood and School Education, https://eacea.ec.europa. eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/separate-special-education-needs-provision-ear- ly-childhood-and-school-education-29_en and Country information for Hungary – Systems of support and specialist provision, https://www.european-agency.org/country-information/ hungary/systems-of-support-and-specialist-provision. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 233 Péter László Horváth, Lili Ladányi Csongrád-Csanád County will be able visit the centre if they want to obtain information in an Easy Language form and exercise their rights of commu- nication. The centre will also employ two people with intellectual disabilities. The professional, financial and administrative part of the ‘Creation of an Easy Language Information Centre’ programme is managed by a three-mem- ber project management team. The eight-member advisory board consists of university staff and representatives of the partner organizations. Their task is to develop the concept, go through the feasibility plan of each programme, monitor, and participate in the dissemination of the results. An important aspect in the organization of the programme is the right to participate, and the commitment to include people with intellectual disabilities. Thus, the Advisory Board and all sub-programmes have members with intellectual disabilities. The participation of people with intellectual disabilities is guaranteed at all stages of the programme, from the development of the concept to the implementation of the smallest details. Thirty people have already worked in the implemented sub-programmes in the past year. Every element of the project is novel: people with intellectual disabilities participate in university training for special education teachers and peers that prepare them for Easy Language methodology as educators. People with in- tellectual disabilities from the Csongrád-Csanád County who complete the training will be able to check the comprehensibility of Easy Language infor- mation and will work at the ELIC, the first Easy Language Information Centre (KÉIK) (See more in Section 8). 7 Education and research Currently, no accredited or informal courses in Hungary specifically provide training for professionals in making Easy Language materials. There is also a lack of training for people with intellectual disabilities, who are the primary tar- get group of Easy Language, in tasks related to checking the comprehensibility of Easy Language materials (See more in Section 8). However, at the same time, in Hungary, Easy Language is included in the bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes and professional examinations of special educators working with 234 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Hungary children and students with intellectual and learning disabilities. Perhaps this explains why most of the research can also be linked to the higher education institutions that provide Easy Language courses. 7.1 Education A recent exploratory study (Horváth 2020) presented results from various forms of teaching Easy Language in Hungary. The Public Foundation for Equal Opportunities for People with Disabilities (Fogyatékos Személyek Esély- egyenlőségéért Közalapítvány, FSZK) had an accredited training programme for trainers to teach Easy Language. However, this is no longer available. The number of professionals qualified for this task in Hungary today is eight, which is rather few (Horváth 2020). The Public Foundation for Equal Opportunities for People with Disabilities (FSZK) had accredited programmes in health care (40 hours), pedagogy (30 hours) and in the social field (30 hours), but these credentials have expired, and have not been renewed. The social training was organized by the Hand in Hand Foundation (Kézenfogva Alapítvány). Author- ization has been renewed twice, but the contents have not changed since 2009. Eleven people were trained in Hungary in Easy Language for healthcare, 9 people for teacher training, and 127 people for the social institution system. However, there is no information on how these qualified experts use their ac- quired knowledge. It is not known whether they still work in positions in which they need the knowledge they acquired in the programmes, and if so, whether they use the verbal rules of Easy Language and Easy Language information sources, or create such sources themselves (Horváth 2020). An examination of the quality of the programmes showed that the content of the training pro- grammes has not changed since they were first created. They exist as online teaching material, as a collection of texts (Csató et al. 2009), as an educational film (Gáspár and Szekeres 2008) and as a workbook (Farkasné 2014); that is, only four products (Horváth 2020). The range of additional educational programmes lags far behind the edu- cational programmes found in the CRPD. The educational capacity (two civil organizations) to offer this type of programme, and the number of qualified Easy Language trainers (eight people) and people with actual educational expe- © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 235 Péter László Horváth, Lili Ladányi rience (six people) is extremely small in itself. Moreover, in comparison to the educational requirements stated in the CRPD, this capacity will definitely not be sufficient for taking further steps. Educational materials for Easy Language programmes are still very sparse: some can still be used today, but most are out- dated and do not include any knowledge gained since their publication (Hor- váth 2020). Today, the ÉFOÉSZ and the Hand in Hand Foundation (Kézenfogva Alapítvány) have a social continuing education programme (30 hours). According to the results of the exploratory study presented above, new procedures were needed for educational development and accreditation after the academic year 2012/13. Based on the training development activities, the integration of Easy Language into the courses at the Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Needs Education, Eötvös Loránd University took place in four steps during 2012–2021. In the first stage (the academic year 2012/13), in the bachelor’s degree pro- gramme of Special Education, Easy Language was included in the framework of various courses as partial knowledge. In the second stage, a mandatory, stand- alone subject of Easy Language in the professional examination for special edu- cation teachers was announced for the academic year 2017/18, starting from the autumn semester. The course covered two consecutive semesters, and lasted 15 hours per semester. This educational organizational solution paved the way for true competency development for special education teachers. A full academic year is sufficient time for the development of spoken Easy Language, and for example, the rule system of Easy Language, to become real practical knowledge. In the third step (in the spring semester of academic year 2017/18) Easy Language appeared in the ‘Teacher of special needs education’ master’s course. Of this 24-hour course, six hours were spent learning Easy Language. It is important to note that participatory educators were involved in teaching Easy Language. Participatory education is new to higher education. The emergence of people with intellectual disabilities as educators is beneficial in several ways. Students learning special education knowledge have direct contact with people with intellectual disabilities. Already in the seminar session they can deter- mine whether they are able to speak in Easy Language and whether the Easy Language texts they produce can be understood. Thus students are taught and tested by adults with intellectual disabilities while they are preparing to edu- 236 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Hungary cate children with intellectual disabilities. The roles are temporarily reversed (Horváth et al. 2019). Finally, in the autumn semester 2020/21, the first – albeit optional – Easy Language MOOC 23 was created for the ‘Teacher of special needs education’ master’s programme. The essence of the MOOC course, which is specifically designed for distance learning, is that students complete the course according their own schedule, acquire knowledge independently, and complete assign- ments on their own. They do not meet with the lecturer in the classroom or online. However, the lecturer, as a mentor, continuously supports the learning process of the students online. At the Institute of Special Needs Education, Juhász Gyula Faculty of Ed- ucation, University of Szeged, similar progress has been made as a result of training development activities. In the bachelor’s degree programme in special education, Easy Language initially appeared as partial knowledge within the framework of the mandatory subject ‘Educational Support for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities’. It was taught as a 30-hour elective course from spring semester 2016/17. In the context of higher education, this was the first time that Easy Language appeared as a stand-alone subject (Horváth and Magyar 2017). In the academic year 2017/18, we also integrated this knowledge into specialized continuing education introduced in Vojvodina (Serbia). One school year later, Easy Language became part of a 60-hour mandatory course as 15 hours in the specialization of education of people with intellectual disabili- ties 24. Another year later these 15 hours increased to 30 hours. Easy Language courses are taught using a project-based learning method. Students generally work in groups of three to five. The groups each create Easy Language materials that could actually be used in special education work. For example, they create policies for schools in Easy Language or an easy-to-un- 23 Massive Open Online Course, taught by Péter Horváth. 24 The Special Needs Education programme is an eight-semester bachelor’s programme. After a general introduction to special needs education and associated disciplines (including human biology, the theory of education, psychology, arts) students continue their studies in one or two specializations from their third semester. These specializations are the following: Education of People with Autism Spectrum Disorders, Education of People with Emotional and Behavioural Disorders, Education of People with Hearing Impairment, Education of People with Intel- lectual Disabilities, Education of People with Learning Disabilities, Education of People with Physical Disabilities, Education of People with Visual Impairment, and Speech and Language Therapy. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 237 Péter László Horváth, Lili Ladányi derstand version of a curriculum. They also often create a cookbook or an instruction manual for household appliances in Easy Language. Easy Language films and translations of news from standard news portals are another example. Hundreds of examples of such materials have been produced in recent years, and some are of such good quality that they could actually be used in practice. Thus, the development of higher education training is moving from the teaching of Easy Language as partial knowledge to the emergence of Easy Language as an independent unit of study. Easy Language was initially an optional area of knowledge and has become mandatory. The number of hours and the amount of time available for training has increased (a move from a one-semester subject to a two-semester subject). People with intellectual disabilities work as co-lecturers at the university. In addition to classroom education, remote education has emerged in the form of online courses. The knowledge is gradually integrated into the undergraduate programme, then into various continuing education courses, and finally into the master’s pro- gramme. The Easy Language method has also been taught to representatives of Hungary across the border. 7.2 Research Very little Hungarian scientific research exists on the subject of Easy Language (Almási 2018, Fischborn 2018, Hegedűs 2020). Some studies of Easy Language can be found in bachelor’s and master’s dissertations or in postgraduate theses, as well as in the framework of the New National Excellence Program 25 (Új Nemzeti Kiválóság Program, ÚNKP) funded by the Hungarian Government. BA and MA dissertations at the Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Needs Education, Eötvös Loránd University and at the Juhász Gyula Faculty of Ed- ucation, University of Szeged have partly focused on the systematic study of international and Hungarian literature as Easy Language (Almási 2018, Fis- chborn 2018, Hegedűs 2020) and partly on the work of NGOs active in the field of Easy Language (Galai 2020). Other bachelor’s and master’s dissertations have 25 Új Nemzeti Kiválóság Program, https://stip.oecd.org/stip/policy-initiatives/2017%2Fdata%2F- policyInitiatives%2F15888 or http://www.unkp.gov.hu/unkp-rol. 238 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Hungary investigated the extent to which existing Easy Language information carriers correspond to the written rule system of Easy Language (Keszey 2020, Vecseri 2020). One bachelor’s dissertation has compared the comprehensibility of an Easy Language and a standard message (Német 2020), and a master’s disser- tation has examined the use of Easy Language in the integration process into education (Berényi 2019). Rimaszombati (2018) investigated language levels and produced a case study on the use of self-developed Easy Language teach- ing materials. Szarapka (2019) introduced a news column in easy language on a Hungarian-language news portal in Vojvodina (Serbia) and presented this innovation in her dissertation. Horváth’s (2020) PhD dissertation examined the implementation of the rights to Easy Language in Hungary contained in the CRPD and in the histo- ry of Hungarian vocational education. According to his results, in Hungary, continuing education courses are only accredited for professionals who already have secondary or higher education. Continuing education courses are offered to those working in healthcare, social services and public education. As a result of the advanced training, 155 people were able to use Easy Language. However Easy Language was not integrated into any of the bachelor’s or master’s degree programmes in higher education until 2012/13 (Horváth 2020) (See the first part of Section 7 (Education and research) for more about the degrees of de- velopment after 2013). As part of the New Excellence Program (Új Nemzeti Kiválóság Program, ÚNKP) funded by the Hungarian Government, a new study is investigating the language development of children and adults with intellectual disabilities using the TROG-H test (Test for Reception of Grammar, Hungarian version) 26. The study has assessed almost 80 students with intellectual disabilities from four primary schools. The research is not yet complete, but some observations 26 ‘The TROG-H (Test for Reception of Grammar-Hungarian; Grammar Comprehension Test) examines grammatical comprehension using 72 items. For each task, the participant must choose one of four pictures that corresponds to the phrase or sentence. This is the first Hungarian language test to contain normative data collected from a representative sample of a wide age range (from 3 to 14 years of age, from a total of 1476 children). We hope that the test can be widely used in the case of language and communication developmental disorders, such as specific language developmental disorder, hearing impairment, intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, and cerebral palsy, but that it can also be used to test the language comprehension of adults with aphasia’. (Lukács et al. 2013: 1) Translated by the authors. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 239 Péter László Horváth, Lili Ladányi regarding the comprehensibility of negative statements are already clear. For example, understanding negative statements is difficult for students with intel- lectual disabilities. During the test recording, two-thirds of the students who gave an incorrect answer marked the picture that was the confirmation pair of the negative statement as a good answer. For example, the picture ‘dog is sitting’ was chosen instead of the picture ‘dog is not sitting’. Thus, it seems that it was not the missing vocabulary (dog, sitting) that caused the problem. This confirms the rule that sentences with a negative statement should be avoided in Easy Language, and that it is more effective to use positive sentences (Horváth and Hegedűs 2021). Studies based on the dissertations above appeared in a special issue of the Hungarian academic journal ‘Disability and Society’ (Fogyatekossag es tarsadalom) in the spring of 2021. This journal is available online 27, and is the first study volume in which articles specifically related to Easy Language are published in Hungarian. Some scientific results regarding the characteristics and development of lan- guage competence of people with intellectual disabilities, based on Hungarian measurements, could also be built upon. Several important research topics are related to Easy Language: 1) the study of the comprehensibility of the Easy Language message (are Easy Language messages easier for children and adults with intellectual disabilities to un- derstand than standard messages?); 2) the scientific basis for a set of rules describing the creation of Easy Language messages; 3) the compliance of Easy Language messages already created using the rules; 4) the comprehensibility of textbooks and teaching aids used in the education of students with intellectual disabilities in public educational institutions; 5) examination of the language development of children with intellectual disabilities (especially the receptive side of language) and communication of adults with intellectual disabilities; 6) the level of language comprehension and reading of people with intellectual disabilities; and 7) perception and comprehension of various media (percep- tion and interpretation of written text and visual and / or auditory information supporting or replacing written text). 27 Fogyatékosság és Társadalom, http://fogyatekossagtudomany.elte.hu/. 240 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Hungary 8 Future perspectives As no set of rules currently exists for the peculiarities of the Hungarian lan- guage, the primary task would be to develop such a set, which could be used for the preparation of Easy Hungarian materials and which are based on scientific research. At the Institute of Special Needs Education, Juhász Gyula Faculty of Education, University of Szeged, a team of special needs education teachers, Hungarian language teachers and linguists is currently working on a set of rules for Hungarian. In Hungary, services providing equal access to information for people with intellectual disabilities are still lacking, and the employment rate of these peo- ple is low, especially in occupations that require intellectual activity. At the beginning of 2022, a new publicly funded Easy Language Information Centre (ELIC) will open at the Juhász Gyula Faculty of Education, University of Sze- ged. Its aim will be to improve the quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities, and to create a world in which everyone can live together. The centre has two main objectives. First, to develop preparatory training for the practical application of the Easy Hungarian method for special educa- tion teachers. Second, to develop a training programme for people with intel- lectual disabilities to test the comprehensibility of Easy Language messages. The Centre will organize training in all counties in Hungary and in the capital (Budapest), using instructors with intellectual disabilities, for a total of 400 special education teachers and 200 people with intellectual disabilities. A 16-hour course, which prepares students for Easy Language, will also be offered at the University of Public Service (Nemzeti Közszolgálati Egyetem) as a continuing education programme for civil servants, starting in 2021. Since 1st January 2020, a research and working group at the Institute of Spe- cial Needs Education, Juhász Gyula Faculty of Education, University of Szeged, has been co-operating with other stakeholders and making plans for a new cen- tre. According to Steklács (2019) 28, the eye-tracking method can be useful in educational research. The use of eye-tracking studies can also provide a better 28 Szemmozgás, Tanulás, Olvasás, Szemkamerás Kutatóműhely, https://eye-tracking-education. webnode.hu/in-english/. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 241 Péter László Horváth, Lili Ladányi understanding of how students with intellectual disabilities read. The results of this research could be used to create Easy Language educational materials. Therefore, the Juhász Gyula Faculty of Education, Institute of Special Needs Education, University of Szeged plans to conduct this type of research in 2021. Also in 2021, the first two-day international Easy Language conference will be held in Hungary at the Institute of Special Needs Education, Juhász Gyula Faculty of Education, University of Szeged. Learning about national and inter- national good practices is essential. It also provides a platform for professional discussions on, for example, the concept of Easy Language, the usability of materials written in Easy Language and the role of people with intellectual disabilities in the creation of Easy Language products. Below are recommendations for naming new disability policy goals in Hun- gary. First, Easy Language should be put on the disability policy agenda, and the Hungarian Parliament should hold a professional policy discussion day on Easy Language. Second, the Parliament and the Government should revise the National Disability Programme, which is considered the fundamental docu- ment of Hungarian disability policy. Although Easy Language is not a language in its own right, it is a version of the Hungarian language, and the right to Easy Language should be included in the Constitution, similarly to Hungarian Sign Language (HSL). Third, in order to secure the right to Easy Language as stated in the CRPD, the Hungarian Parliament should also create a separate law on Easy Language, similar to the provisions of Act CXXV of 2009 on Hungari- an Sign Language and the use of Hungarian Sign Language. If this does not appear to be an achievable goal, as a further option, these legal requirements could also be created by amending Act XXVI of 1998 on the Rights and Equal Opportunities of Persons with Disabilities. Fourth, the National Cultural Fund should issue a separate tender for the translation of literary works into Easy Language, for the creation of Easy Language for museum pieces, and for the development of Easy Language theatrical productions. Hopes are high that the coming decade will see significant progress in as- serting the communication rights of people with intellectual disabilities. 242 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Hungary Authors Horváth Péter László is a senior lecturer at the Institute of Special Needs Edu- cation, Juhász Gyula Faculty of Education, University of Szeged. He is a quali- fied special needs education teacher. His main field of research and education is applying the method of Easy Language in the skills assessment and education of children and students with intellectual disabilities. Since 1st January 2020, he has been responsible for a four-year professional project, the aim of which is to create the first Easy Language Information Centre in Hungary. Contact: horvath.peter.laszlo@szte.hu Ladányi Lili is assistant lecturer at the Institute of Special Needs Education, Juhász Gyula Faculty of Education, University of Szeged. She is a qualified special needs education teacher. Her main field of education is inclusive lei- sure-time education and the use of Easy Language in leisure-time activities, for example, summer camps. From 2020, as a co-worker of Horváth Péter László, she has been involved in a four-year professional project, the aim of which is to create the first Easy Language Information Centre in Hungary. Contact: ladanyi.lili@szte.hu References Act CXXV of 2009 on Hungarian Sign Language and the use of Hungarian Sign Lan- guage [A magyar jelnyelvről és a magyar jelnyelv használatáról szóló 2009. évi CXXV. törvény]. Web. 5 March 2021. . Act CXXX of 2016 on the Code of Civil Procedure [A polgári perrendtartásról szóló 2016. évi CXXX. törvény]. Web. 5 March 2021. . Act XXVI of 1998 on the Rights and Equal Opportunities of Persons with Disabilities [A fogyatékos személyek jogairól és esélyegyenlőségük biztosításáról szóló 1998. évi XXVI. törvény]. Web. 5 March 2021. . Almási, Lilla. Könnyen érthető kommunikáció – annotált bibliográfia [Easy Langu- age – annotated bibliography]. Bachelor’s dissertation. Budapest: Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Bárczi Gusztáv Gyógypedagógiai Kar, 2018. Unpublished. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 243 Péter László Horváth, Lili Ladányi Berényi, Zoltánné Tünde. A könnyen érthető kommunikáció, mint innováció meg- jelenése az integrált nevelési-oktatási folyamatban [The appearance of Easy Langu- age as an innovation in the integration process in education]. Bachelor’s dissertati- on. Budapest: Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Bárczi Gusztáv Gyógypedagógiai Kar, 2019. Unpublished. Country information for Hungary – Systems of support and specialist provision. Web. 5 March 2021. . Csató, Zsuzsa. Egyszerűen, érthetően. Útmutató könnyen érthető tájékoztatók kés- zítéséhez [Make it Simple! European Guidelines for the Production of Easy-to- Read Information for People with Learning Disability for authors, editors, infor- mation providers, translators and other interested persons]. Budapest: Értelmi Fogyatékossággal Élők és Segítőik Országos Érdekvédelmi Szövetsége, 2020. Print. Csató, Zsuzsa; Farkas, Miklós; Gráf-Jaksa, Éva; Monostori, Katalin, and Rita Móricz. Hallgatói szöveggyűjtemény a könnyen érthető kommunikáció téma- köréhez [Collection of texts for students about Easy Language]. Budapest: Fogyaté- kos Személyek Esélyegyenlőségéért Közalapítvány, 2009. Print. Decree 32/2012 (X.8) of the Ministry of Human Rights on the Guideline for school education of learners with special educational needs [32/2012. (X. 8.) EMMI rendelet a Sajátos nevelési igényű gyermekek óvodai nevelésének irányelve és a Sajátos nevelési igényű tanulók iskolai oktatásának irányelve kiadásáról]. Web. 5 March 2021. . Down Alapítvány [Down Foundation]. Web. 27 February 2021. . Együtt Velünk [Together with Us]. Web. 27 February 2021. . Emberi Erőforrások Minisztere. Irányelvek. A sajátos nevelési igényű tanulók iskolai oktatásának irányelvei [Guideline for the school education of children and pupils with special educational needs]. Budapest: Emberi Erőforrások Minisztériuma, 2020. Web. 27 February 2021. . Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Bárczi Gusztáv Gyógypedagógiai Kar [Eötvös Loránd University Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Needs Education]. Web. 27 February 2021. . Értelmi Fogyatékossággal Élők és Segítőik Országos Érdekvédelmi Szövetsége [Hun- garian Alliance of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities]. Web. 27 February 2021. . Európai Bizottság. A pontos fogalmazás művészete [How to write clearly]. Luxembourg: Európai Unió Kiadóhivatala, 2015. Web. 27 February 2021. . 244 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Hungary Farkasné, Gönczi Rita. Könnyen érthető kommunikáció. Adaptációs kézikönyv középiskolában dolgozó pedagógusok számára [Easy Language. Adaptation hand- book for high school teachers]. Budapest: Fogyatékos Személyek Esélyegyen- lőségéért Nonprofit Kft., 2014. Print. Farkasné, Gönczi Rita. “A könnyen érthető kommunikáció fogalma és szabály- rendszere nemzetközi és hazai példák, illetve magyar tapasztalati szakértők ja- vaslatai alapján.” [The concept and rules of Easy Language based on international and national examples and the suggestions of Hungarian experts by experience]. Gyógypedagógiai Szemle 46.1 (2018a): 64–76. Print. Farkasné, Gönczi Rita. A könnyen érthető kommunikáció fogalma és jele [The con- cept and symbol of Easy Language]. 2018b. Web. 27 February 2021. . Fischborn, Regina. Megnyílik egy rendkívüli út és megváltoztatja a történetet. An- notált bibliográfia a KÉK külföldi helyzetértékelésének bemutatására [An extraor- dinary opportunity comes in the picture and changes the story. Annotated biblio- graphy to present Easy Language’s assessment of the situation abroad]. Bachelor’s dissertation. Budapest: Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Bárczi Gusztáv Gyógy- pedagógiai Kar, 2018. Unpublished. Fogyatékosság és Társadalom [Disability and Society]. Web. 27 February 2021. . Galai, Bianka. Az Értelmi Fogyatékossággal Élők és Segítőik Országos Érdekvédelmi Szövetsége törekvései a könnyen érthető kommunikáció területén [The efforts of the Hungarian Alliance of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities in the field of Easy Language]. Bachelor’s dissertation. Szeged: Szegedi Tudományegyetem Juhász Gyula Pedagógusképző Kar, 2020. Unpublished. Gáspár, Judit, and Csaba Szekeres. Az élet egy kissé bonyolult [Life is a little complicated]. Duna Televízió, 2018. Web. 28 February 2021. . Government decision of the establishment of the Complex Therapeutic Center in Mórahalom (1264./2019.V.7.) [A Mórahalmi Komplex Fejlesztő Centrum létreho- zásáról szóló 1264./2019.(V.7.) Kormány határozat]. Web. 5 March 2021. . Gruiz, Katalin. Hogyan készítsünk könnyen érthető környezetismereti segédanyagot? –Irányelvek [How to make an Easy Language material? – Guidelines]. Budapest: Down Alapítvány, n.d. Web. 28 February 2021. . Gyene, Piroska; Babolcsay, Dorottya, and Péter László Horváth. Az ér- telmi fogyatékossággal élő személyek emberi jogai. Nemzeti Jelentés, Magyarország [Rights of People with Intellectual Disabilities. Monitoring Report, Hungary]. Bu- dapest and Brüsszel: Értelmi Fogyatékossággal Élők és Segítőik Országos Érdekvé- delmi Szövetsége and Inclusion Europe Értelmi Sérültek és Szüleik Közösségeinek Európai Szövetsége, 2002. Print. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 245 Péter László Horváth, Lili Ladányi Hatodik Fogyatékosságtudomány Konferencia [VI. Conference on Disability Studies]. Web. 27 February 2021. . Hegedűs, Hanga. “A kevesebb néha több.” [Sometimes less is more]. Fogyatékosság és Tár- sadalom 6.1 (2020): 63–73. Web. 27 February 2021. . Hetedik Fogyatékosságtudommányi Konferencia [VII. Conference on Disability Studies]. Web. 27 February 2021. . Horváth, Péter László. A könnyen érthető kommunikációs képzési programok kép- zésfejlesztésének története Magyarországon a fogyatékossággal élő személyek jogairól szóló ENSZ egyezmény tükrében [The history of the educational development of Easy Language training programmes in Hungary in context of the UN Conventi- on on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities]. PhD dissertation. Eger: Eszterházy Károly Egyetem Neveléstudományi Doktori Iskola, 2020. Web. 27 February 2021. . Horváth, Péter László, and Hanga Hegedűs. “Értelmileg akadályozott, 1-8. osztályos általános iskolai tanulók receptív nyelvi képességeinek vizsgálata a TROG-H teszt segítségével.” [The receptive language skills of elementary school students with intellectual disabilities using the TROG-H test]. Presentation. 17 January 2021. IX. Neveléstudományi és Szakmódszertani Konferencia. Komarno: International Research Institute s.r.o., 2021. Horváth, Péter László, and Adél Magyar. ”KÉK kurzus a gyógypedagógus hallgatók képzésében Szegeden.” [Easy Language course in the training of students in special needs education BA]. Presentation. 22 November 2017. Az “ADÁS-ban” nincs zavar. VI. Válaszok a gyógypedagógiai gyakorlat kihívásaira. Szeged: Szegedi Tudományegyetem Juhász Gyula Pedagógusképző Kar Gyógypedagógus-képző Intézet, 2017. Horváth, Péter László; Sallai, Ilona; Bercse, László, and Tibor Czakó. “A könnyen érthető kommunikáció inkluzív oktatása a Szegedi Tudományegye- tem Juhász Gyula Pedagógusképző Karán.” [Inclusive teaching of Easy Language at the University of Szeged Juhász Gyula Faculty of Education]. Eds. Vanda Kato- na, Csilla Cserti-Szauer, and Anikó Sándor. Együtt oktatunk és kutatunk! Inkluzív megközelítés a felsőoktatásban. Budapest: Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Bárczi Gusztáv Gyógypedagógiai Kar, 2019. 156–166. Print. Hungary, Separate Special Education Needs Provision in Early Childhood and School Education. Web. 27 February 2021. . Inclusion Europe, and Hungarian Alliance of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (ÉFOÉSZ). Információt mindenkinek! A könnyen érthető kommunikáció európai alapelvei [Information for all. European standards for making information easy 246 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Hungary to read and understand]. Brüsszel and Budapest: Inclusion Europe and Értelmi Fogyatékossággal Élők és Segítőik Országos Szövetsége, 2009a. Print. Inclusion Europe, and Hungarian Alliance of Persons with Intellectual Disabili- ties (ÉFOÉSZ). Az egész életen át tartó tanulás oktatóinak képzése. Iránymutatás azoknak az embereknek a képzéséhez, akik könnyen érthető dokumentumokat készí- tenek [Training lifelong learning staff. Guidelines on training people to write do- cuments that are easy to read and understand]. Brüsszel and Budapest: Inclusion Europe and Értelmi Fogyatékossággal Élők és Segítőik Országos Szövetsége, 2009b. Print. Inclusion Europe, and Hungarian Alliance of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (ÉFOÉSZ). Ne írjon nekünk, nélkülünk! Hogyan vonjunk be értelmi fogyatékossággal élő embereket könnyen érthető szövegek készítésébe [Do not write for us without us. Involving people with intellectual disabilities in the writing of easy to read texts]. Brüsszel and Budapest: Inclusion Europe and Értelmi Fogyatékossággal Élők és Segítőik Országos Szövetsége, 2009c. Print. Index kereskedelmi hírportál [Index commercial news portal]. Web. 28 February 2021. . Katona, József Álmos, and József Maleczki. Eds. Jogalkotás érthetően. A pontos fogalmazás művészete [Making legal language understandable. The art of clear wri- ting]. Budapest: Magyar Nyelvstratégiai Intézet, 2016. Print. Keszey, Borbála. Könnyen érthető kommunikáció értelmileg akadályozott személyek- kel. Névmások használatának vizsgálata könnyen érthető információkat tartalmazó dokumentumokban [Easy to understand communication with people with intel- lectual disabilities. Investigate the use of pronouns in documents with Easy Lan- guage]. Master’s dissertation. Budapest: Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Bárczi Gusztáv Gyógypedagógiai Kar, 2020. Unpublished. Kézenfogva Alapítvány [Hand in Hand Foundation]. Web. 27 February 2021. . Könnyen Érthető Információ Központ, KÉIK [Easy Language Information Center, ELIC]. Web. 27 February 2021. and . Közérthető fogalmazás [Plain Language]. Web. 5 March 2021. . Könnyen érthető kommunikáció – könnyen érthető élet. Farkasné Gönczi Rita hon- lapja. [Easy to understand communication – easy to understand life. Website by Farkasné Gönczi Rita]. Web. 28 February 2021. . Leveleki, Orsolya, and Katalin Gruiz. “A MAK (Mentális Akadálymentesítés) projekt.” [MAC (Mental Accessibility) project]. Ed. Katalin Gruiz. Mentális aka- dálymentesítés. Elvek, etika, gyakorlat. Budapest: Down Alapítvány, 2009. 85–104. Print. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 247 Péter László Horváth, Lili Ladányi Lukács, Ágnes; Miklós, Győri, and Sándor Rózsa. “TROG-H: új sztenderdizált módszer a nyelvtani megértés fejlődésének vizsgálatára.” [TROG-H: a new stan- dardized method for examining the development of grammatical comprehension]. Gyógypedagógiai Szemle 41.1 (2013): 1–22. Print. Magyar Távirati Iroda. Magyarországon a felnőtt lakosság számolási készsége meg- haladja az OECD országok átlagát [In Hungary, the numeracy of the adult po- pulation exceeds the average of OECD countries]. 2019. Web. 27 February 2021. . Német, Beáta. Valóban könnyebben érthető-e a könnyen érthető üzenet? [Is easy read message really easier to understand?]. Bachelor’s dissertation. Szeged: Szegedi Tu- dományegyetem Juhász Gyula Pedagógusképző Kar, 2020. Unpublished. Nemzeti Fogyatékosságügyi- és Szociálpolitikai Központ Közhasznú Nonprofit Kft. [Equal Opportunities of Persons with Disabilities Non-profit Ltd.]. Web. 27 Febru- ary 2021. . Önálló Életvitel app [Independent Living app]. Web. 27 February 2021. . Rimaszombati, Dóra. A könnyen érthető kommunikáció és a Hublow olvasástanítá- si módszer kapcsolata egy esetismertetés tükrében [The relationship between Easy Language communication and the Hublow reading teaching method in the light of a case study]. Bachelor’s dissertation. Budapest: Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Bárczi Gusztáv Gyógypedagógiai Kar, 2018. Unpublished. Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities [A fo- gyatékossággal élő emberek esélyegyenlőségéről szóló 1993. évi ENSZ alapvető sz- abályok]. Web. 5 March 2021. . Steklács, János. Ed. Szemkamerás vizsgálatok a pedagógiai kutatásban [Eye tracking examinations in pedagogical research]. Kaposvár: Kaposvári Egyetem Pedagógiai Kara, 2019. Print. Also available at . Szarapka, Dóra. Könnyen érthető hírek és azok készítése [Easy to understand news and how to create it]. Bachelor’s dissertation. Szeged: Szegedi Tudományegyetem Juhász Gyula Pedagógusképző Kar, 2019. Unpublished. Szegedi Tudományegyetem Juhász Gyula Pedagógusképző Kar Gyógypedagógus-kép- ző Intézet [Institute of Special Needs Education, Juhász Gyula Faculty of Educati- on, University of Szeged]. Web. 27 February 2021. . Szemmozgás, Tanulás, Olvasás, Szemkamerás Kutatóműhely. Prof. Dr. Steklács János kutatóműhelye honlapja [Eye Tracking, Learning, Reading, Research Lab. Web- site of Prof. Dr. János Steklács research group]. Web. 27 February 2021. . Tausz, Katalin; Bácskay, Andrea; Csordás, Gábor; Kovács, Beáta; Németh, Eszter; Panyik, Barbara, and Judit Nikoletta Tóth. 2011. évi népszám- lálás. 17. A fogyatékossággal élők helyzete és szociális ellátásuk [2011 census. 17. 248 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Hungary The situation and social benefits of people with disabilities]. Budapest: Központi Statisztikai Hivatal, 2015. Print. Új Nemzeti Kiválóság Program. A felsőoktatásért felelős Innovációs és Technológiai Minisztérium pályázati programjának honlapja [New National Excellence Pro- gram. Website of the application program of the Ministry of Innovation and Tech- nology responsible for higher education]. Web. 27 February 2021. or . UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities [A Fogyatékossággal élő személyek jogairól szóló egyezmény és az ahhoz kapcsolódó Fakultatív Jegyzőkö- nyv kihirdetéséről szóló 2007. évi XCII. törvény]. Web. 5 March 2021. . Vecseri, Zita. Könnyen érthető kommunikáció értelmi sérült személyekkel. A monda- tok használatának vizsgálata könnyen érthető információkat tartalmazó dokumen- tumokban [Easy Language communication with people with intellectual disability. Examining the use of sentences in documents with Easy Language]. Bachelor’s dis- sertation. Szeged: Szegedi Tudományegyetem Juhász Gyula Pedagógusképző Kar, 2020. Unpublished. Világos beszéd [Plain Language]. Web. 5 March 2021. . © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 249 Péter László Horváth, Lili Ladányi Appendix 1. An illustration of guidelines for Easy Hungarian. 250 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Hungary © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 251 Sigríður Ólafsdóttir, Karítas Hrundar Pálsdóttir Easy Language in Iceland 1 Introduction Icelandic is the official language of the 364 000 inhabitants of Iceland (Statistics Iceland 2020), and for the majority it is their first language. However, the pro- portion of immigrants has grown rapidly in recent years: in 2020, immigrants formed 15% of the population in comparison to 8.8% in 2015 and 2.4% in 1998 (Statistics Iceland n.d.). The number of foreign students studying at the Universi- ty of Iceland has also increased. In the academic year 2019–2020, foreign students made up 1549 (out of 13 333) or 11.6% of the university population (University of Iceland 2020). In 2017, four hundred students applied to study Icelandic as a second language at the University, adding up to over 40% of all applications to the School of Humanities that year (Halldórsson 2017). Icelandic texts in Easy Language are needed for this diverse population, not only for their Icelandic language studies, but also for their participation in the Icelandic community. Because of the strong reading culture in Iceland (Einarsson 2014, Gold- smith 2013, Pálsson 1989), Icelandic citizens have generally developed good literacy and language skills; or at least this was the case until the 20th century (OECD 2019, Ólafsdóttir and Sigurðsson 2017). In 2000, when the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) was introduced, Icelandic youths’ reading comprehension performance corresponded to the OECD average. Sub- sequent tests, however, have shown a steep decline. This downward trend is also manifested in the rising proportion of students at the lowest levels of compe- tence and a declining ratio at the highest levels (Directorate of Education 2019, Ólafsdóttir and Sigurðsson 2017, 2019). Clearly, this growing population needs to have access to information in language that is easily understood. In the 18th century, scholars adopting the Enlightenment ideology empha- sized the right of ordinary people to have access to, for example, science and © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 253 Sigríður Ólafsdóttir, Karítas Hrundar Pálsdóttir medicine texts, in a language understandable to them. The Icelandic Society for the Learned Arts (Hið íslenska lærdómslistafélag) wrote a series of publications with this as its guiding principle. There was also a marked tendency in these publications to avoid the use of foreign words and idioms, thus advocating linguistic purism (Halldórsson 1979: 78, as cited by Hilmarsson-Dunn and Kristinsson 2010: 215). This linguistic policy of language transparency; that is, Plain or Easy Language and the preservation of the Icelandic language, is still strong in Iceland (Hilmarsson-Dunn and Kristinsson 2010: 216). Since settlement in Iceland in the year 874 (Hilmarsson-Dunn and Kristins- son 2010: 211, Kristinsson 2019: 135–136, Kvaran 2005) the Icelandic language has preserved its basic vocabulary and grammar (Kristinsson 2019: 135–136). To succeed in this, Icelanders have created new words for new concepts over the years instead of borrowing from other languages (Kristinsson 2019: 135–136, Kvaran 2005). Whereas other languages have readily adopted English techno- logical words, for example, Icelanders have created their own new Icelandic words. New words are often constructed by combining existing words or word parts, thus creating compound words. For this reason, the language can be quite transparent, making it often easy to detect the meaning of individual words. As an example, the word hlaupahjól is made from hlaup meaning ‘run’, and hjól meaning ‘wheel’ and ‘bicycle’, clearly illustrating the function of the object, hlaupahjól, which in English is called scooter. What also distinguishes Icelandic from other Germanic languages is its system of declensions and conjugations: nouns, pronouns, numbers, and adjec- tives are declined on the basis of their context, gender and number, and verbs change accordingly. Because of all the noun declensions, verb conjugations and different grammatical structures, Icelandic is considered more grammatically complex than, for example, English, Norwegian, and even German. While German indeed has many declensions and conjugations, its grammar has, in contrast to Icelandic grammar, become simpler over the years. The fact that Icelandic grammar has remained ‘complicated’ is one of the language’s main characteristics (Kvaran 2005: 26). Thus, when composing Icelandic texts in Easy or Plain Language, writers can take into account the transparency of Icelandic words, making it possible 254 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Iceland for readers to detect the meaning of newly encountered words. Icelandic gram- mar, however, can be a barrier. 2 Historical perspectives After the economic collapse in Iceland in 2008 (Kristinsson 2016: 91–92), a need arose to increase transparency in Icelandic society. For example, Iceland- ers became aware that their constitution was written in language that was only comprehensible to a few, in particular those educated in law. People claimed that it was not written ‘in common style’ and contained ‘too many legal terms’, incomprehensible to the general public. However, despite these debates, the constitution remains unchanged. Plain Language was first officially mentioned in a legal context in 2011, in the Act on the Status of Icelandic and Icelandic Sign Language in 2011 (Sigurðardóttir et al. 2011). Article 10 asserts that the language used by the authorities ‘shall be of good quality, easy to understand and precise.’ In 2015, the National University Hospital researched the experience of women visiting pregnancy and maternity wards, for example, to monitor whether they found the information they received satisfactory (Kristinsson 2016: 90–91). In their answers, many complained that they did not understand the terms on the signboard – ómskoðun (ultra-sound scanning, ultra-sonog- raphy). This is a pure Icelandic term, but is rarely used by Icelanders, whereas the loan word sonar is the generally accepted alternative, used in both spoken and written Icelandic. Thus, even though Icelanders tend to invent new words for new concepts, some exceptions to this ‘rule’ have to be taken into consid- eration when texts are composed with the objective of being understood by Icelandic laypeople. A Parliamentary Resolution was passed on a policy and action plan for the rights of people with disabilities in 2017–2021 (Alþingi 2017). The plan states that people with disabilities have the right to access information on their rights, available services and so on in Easy Language. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 255 Sigríður Ólafsdóttir, Karítas Hrundar Pálsdóttir 3 Current situation 3.1 Definitions The Icelandic terms for Easy and Plain Language are auðlesið efni (easily read material), auðskilinn texti (easy text), skýrt mál (clear language) and einfalt mál (Plain Language). Thus, Easy or Plain Language is clear, easily read, and simple. Easy Language is a variation of the Icelandic language that is intended for people with limited Icelandic language skills, who need easily comprehensible language. Plain Language, on the other hand, is spoken or written language about a complex topic in an academic or formal field (e.g., legal, medical), which is intended for laypeople without specific knowledge of the field. 3.2 Legal and societal context The mention of Easy and Plain Language in an Icelandic legal context is limited to the Act on the Status of Icelandic and Icelandic Sign Language from 2011, and the Parliamentary Resolution on the policy and action plan regarding the rights of people with disabilities from 2017 (Alþingi 2017, Sigurðardóttir et al. 2011). The parties responsible for the implementation of the 2017 resolution were the Ministry of Social Affairs; the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture; the Directorate of Health; the Mission of the State Diagnostic and Counselling Centre; the National Association of Intellectual Disabilities; local authorities; and the Icelandic Association of Local Authorities. The main issue of the Icelandic language policy for the period 2020–2024 is the increasing number of inhabitants of foreign origin in Iceland’s growing multicultural society. In Icelandic schools, a large number of students have first languages other than Icelandic, and the role of the schools is to provide all learners with equal learning opportunities, in which skills in the Icelandic language play a pivotal role. The focus is on effective language instruction for youths and adults. The council also emphasizes the need to take measures to ensure that Icelandic is, and can be, used in all social settings: in restaurants and shops, when communicating with technology, when reading signboards, etc. However, nowhere is it stipulated in the policy that texts should be presented in Easy or Plain Icelandic language. 256 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Iceland Easy Language translations have to be paid for by each tendering authority or client, whether these be legal authorities, local authorities, political par- ties, health services, educational authorities or institutions, disability services, broadcasting institutions, or social media. In Iceland, there is no systematic funding for literature, nor any other types of text written in Easy or Plain Language. 3.3 Stakeholders The role of the Icelandic Language Council (n.d.) is to provide the authorities, in particular, the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, with guidance on the Icelandic language and to publish recommendations on language policy. It also annually evaluates the status of the language in society and highlights examples of good practice and current challenges in the official use of the language. The National Association of Intellectual Disabilities (n.d.) has recently taken on the responsibility of acting as a centre for Easy Language text com- position, in accordance with the Parliamentary Resolution concerning a policy and an action plan for the rights of people with disabilities for 2017–2021, Act 5 (Alþingi 2017). It also leads the field in providing guidelines and information in Easy Language. 4 Target groups As previously mentioned, Icelandic laypeople need Plain Language when they read texts in specific fields such as law. The target groups of Easy Language, however, include language learners and people with reading difficulties, lan- guage disorders and/or disabilities. Many immigrants need to have access to practical information in Easy Language, and second/foreign language learners of Icelandic need reading ma- terial at a suitable level of difficulty to advance in their studies. Through the years, different reasons have inspired people to learn Icelandic as a foreign or a second language. Foreign scholars and students have studied the language as © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 257 Sigríður Ólafsdóttir, Karítas Hrundar Pálsdóttir part of their linguistic research, to be able to read Icelandic works of literature, or to conduct their research in Iceland (Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies 2005). In these current times of increased globalization and migration, work and travel also motivate people to learn the language. Icelandic is taught at more than a hundred universities around the world under the supervision of the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies (Árni Magnússon Insti- tute for Icelandic Studies n.d. a, Mennta- og menningarmálaráðuneytið 2019). As part of the national budget for the cultivation of Icelandic language and literature, the Icelandic government supports classes in modern Icelandic at approximately 14 foreign universities (Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies 2005, Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies n.d. b). Due to the rising number of students in Iceland and abroad who acquire Icelandic as a second or foreign language, there is an increasing demand and need for literature and information in Easy Icelandic. Among the Icelandic citizens who may need texts in Easy Language are the 7%–10% of the population with specific language disorders (Icelandic Asso- ciation for Speech and Language Therapists n.d.) and approximately 6% who have intellectual disabilities (National Association of Intellectual Disabilities n.d.). In addition, in recent years, standardized tests have shown that around 30% of 15-year-old learners in Iceland do not have basic reading fluency skills (Hansen 2019). Furthermore, 25% of the same age group demonstrated very limited reading comprehension performance in the 2018 PISA test; that is, under the second proficiency level (OECD 2019). This ratio had increased dramatically since the first PISA assessment in 2000, when it was 14% (Direc- torate of Education 2019, Ólafsdóttir and Sigurðsson 2017, 2019). This young population clearly needs Easy Language texts. 5 Guidelines The first ever guidelines on how to write a text that is easily understood were published in 2009: Auðskilinn texti: Kennslurit um gerð auðskilins texta (Sig- urðsson 2009). The publisher was Ás styrktarfélag, a non-profit organization 258 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Iceland and one of the leading companies that provide services to people with disabil- ities in Iceland (Ás styrktarfélag n.d.). Visual design Attractive front page Large letters, at least 16 points Clear and simple type font Words not split between lines One sentence per line Break long words down with hyphens Split text into many paragraphs Text and headings left-aligned Word structure Short words No abbreviations Use numerals Avoid symbols like % Vocabulary High frequency words Short words Use pronouns, like I and you, when possible, as it makes the text personal and therefore easier to understand When low-frequency words or idioms cannot be avoided, explain their meaning Use the same words for the same concepts Sentence structure Short sentences (preferably under 15 words, max. 40) Use full stops instead of commas Start a new sentence with conjunctions if it shortens the previous sentence © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 259 Sigríður Ólafsdóttir, Karítas Hrundar Pálsdóttir Semantics No negations Reader should not have to infer the meaning from context, use explicit statements Be objective rather than subjective Use idioms sparsely Give examples from everyday life Text Bold most important parts of the text. Don’t underline or use italic, or CAPITAL LETTERS Put the most important information first Make use of images Table 1: The Auðskilinn texti: Kennslurit um gerð auðskilins texta (Sigurðsson 2009) book gives detailed guidelines on the presentation of Easy or Plain Language. Icelandic Easy Language consists of short phrases, few subordinate clauses, not too many nouns at the cost of the use of verbs, and no loanwords from other languages (mainly English). Easy Language avoids the use of unnecessary words, as well as specific word sequences, and long word combinations that make new words. Easy Language should include few or no rare or specific words, or conjunctive verbs. Furthermore, it should follow pragmatic rules according to situations and audiences/readers (Kristinsson 2005, Kvaran 2001, Sigurðsson 2009). For an illustration of these guidelines, see Appendix 1. As vocabulary is an important factor that affects a text’s level of difficulty, it is wise when composing texts for foreign or second language learners to limit the range of vocabulary (the number of different words) at the start and then add to it steadily once a strong foundation has been formed (Schmitt 2008). In this regard, the vocabulary of the story collection for Icelandic language learners Textar í íslensku fyrir erlenda stúdenta (Texts in Icelandic for Foreign Students) (Sigmundsson 1998) has been revised to align with the four hun- dred most common words in Icelandic according to the Icelandic Frequency Dictionary (Íslensk orðtíðnibók, Magnússon et al. 1991). An example of a specific word sequence that may be problematic, and not easily understood by all speakers of the Icelandic language, is the narrative 260 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Iceland inversion (frásagnarumröðun). Narrative inversion is when the common word sequence of Icelandic: subject, verb, object, is changed so that the verb is at the beginning of the sentence (Þráinsson 2005: 602). This structure is commonly used in storytelling, dating back to the Icelandic sagas, as well as in news re- porting and other instructional texts (Þráinsson 2005: 272, 604). Shaking up the common word sequence increases a sentence’s level of difficulty. Stylistic inversion (stílfærsla), which was common in old Icelandic and is still used in formal language today, has the same effect (Þráinsson 2005: 605): a single word – a participle, adverb, particle or adjective – is moved up in the word sequence (Þráinsson 2005: 579–580). Features such as font, letter size and line spacing can influence how easy a text is to read. People who have difficulties reading on the internet because of dyslexia, visual disturbance or for other reasons sometimes have the option of changing the visual characteristics of texts on Icelandic webpages using Stillingar.is (n.d.). An example of a website that offers the option of changing visual settings is the news site Mbl.is (n.d.) which has a special page for readers that offers the same news in a layout of individual preference; for example, with big white letters on a black background. 6 Practical outcomes Despite growing awareness of the need for Easy and Plain Language, such options are still lacking when it comes to the media, literature and informative texts. 6.1 Media RÚV, the Icelandic National Broadcasting Services, as well as other Icelandic media, present the news in standard Icelandic. However, RÚV (n.d. a) also has a special children’s website and every weekday broadcasts children’s news on its TV channel. In the programme, the main headings are discussed in a way that children can easily understand, and important terms and words are explained. Although the news is delivered in clear language, it is not the lan- © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 261 Sigríður Ólafsdóttir, Karítas Hrundar Pálsdóttir guage usage but the content that mainly distinguishes it from standard news. As an example, many interviewees are children. In addition, to provide a service to people whose native language is not Icelandic, RÚV translates some news into English and Polish – English being a widely spoken language and Polish being the mother tongue of 38.1% of Iceland’s immigrants (RÚV n.d. b, n.d. c, Statistics Iceland 2019). Despite addressing a portion of the target group for Easy Language, these programmes do not substitute Easy Language news. The need for easy news in Icelandic therefore continues to exist. Icelandic web dictionaries, such as Snara.is and Malid.is, do not have Easy Language options, such as those that the English language dictionary Merri- am-Webster offers children and English language learners, in which the defi- nitions have been phrased and examples specifically chosen for the intended users (Merriam-Webster 2007, 2020). 6.2 Literature There is no tradition in Iceland of publishing simplified literature. In class- es teaching Icelandic as a second language, adults have typically had to read children’s books or other short stories that were not written specifically with difficulty level or content in mind, including the use of figurative language and allusions. The first collection of fictional stories written for people studying Icelandic as a second language, Árstíðir – sögur á einföldu máli (Seasons – Stories in Easy Language) broke new ground in the Icelandic literary world (Pálsdóttir 2020). The book was published by Una útgáfuhús, a new, progressive publishing house with strong grass roots, and contains 101 flash fiction stories. Treading new ground, the author encountered some challenges in the process of writing the book, but the result was well received (e.g., O’Donnell 2020, Summers 2020). 6.3 Informative texts The Easy Language informative texts published during the Covid-19 crisis in 2020 were made available in Icelandic, English and Polish in the media and on health care websites, for example (National Association of Intellectual Disabili- 262 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Iceland ties et al. 2020). Other examples of informative texts available in Easy Language include a text on the topic of violence against disabled women and the laws on services for disabled individuals with a prolonged need for help, found on the National Association of Intellectual Disabilities’ website (National Associa- tion of Intellectual Disabilities n.d., Snæfríðar-Gunnarsdóttir and Traustadóttir n.d.). Finally, on the website of the Office of the Ombudsman for Children’s (n.d.), the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child has been published in Easy Language that is understood by children (see Appendix 1). 7 Education and Research Second language studies were first offered as an MA programme at the Uni- versity of Iceland during the academic year 2016–2017 (University of Iceland 2016). The focus of the studies is on applied linguistics, multilingualism, and the teaching, learning and usage of second and foreign languages. The teaching of Icelandic as a second language has only been an academic programme in the School of Education since the year 2019. However, courses in this field have been offered since the beginning of the century. Children with first languages other than Icelandic receive support in Ice- landic as a second language at school, both the newly arrived in Iceland and those with longer residence; that is, when needed (Alþingi 2008). However, teachers complain that they are poorly prepared to meet the needs of this stu- dent population (Ágústsdóttir 2020, Jónsdóttir 2020, Ólafsson 2019). Teachers also complain of a shortage of quality teaching material in Icelandic as a second language for different age groups, and that textbooks suitable for learners of different proficiency levels in the Icelandic language are needed in various school subjects (Ágústsdóttir 2020, Jónsdóttir 2020). Although there is little research on Easy or Plain Icelandic, some studies have been conducted in nearby fields. Þórisdóttir (2017) showed in her study of Icelandic 5th and 6th graders reading science texts, that 98% of words must be understood for successful reading comprehension. This means that if students cannot understand two or more words out of every one hundred they fail to sufficiently grasp the content (Þórisdóttir 2017). This is consistent with findings © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 263 Sigríður Ólafsdóttir, Karítas Hrundar Pálsdóttir of studies of students working on texts in English (Hu and Nation 2000, Laufer and Ravenhorst-Kalovski 2010). The main aim of research by Pálsdóttir and Ólafsdóttir (2019) was to inves- tigate the consistency of word frequency in Icelandic and English texts from the reading and natural science literacy sections of the 2018 PISA tests. The OECD translation and adaptation guidelines establish non-language specific criteria for how the difficulty of words relates to their frequency, length or specialization. When determining whether words are complicated or simple, the guidelines claim that longer words tend to be more complicated, technical and/or abstract than shorter words (OECD 2016: 11). The guidelines do not require translators to refer to word frequency lists when selecting words of similar difficulty to that in the original texts. Pálsdóttir and Ólafsdóttir used the VocabProfile (Cobb n.d.) software to gather information on the frequency of English words. Their work was based on two corpora: The New General Service List and The New Academic Word List. When the English texts were passed through the software, an instantaneous frequency-based classification of the words was obtained. The 1000 most common word category was represented by blue, the next 1000 by green, followed by pink for the next 1000, yellow for the next 1000, and words that were less common than the above, or did not exist in the corpora, appeared in red. Information on the frequency of Icelandic words was obtained from a frequency list from the Icelandic Gigaword Corpus (Ste- ingrímsson et al. 2018, Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies 2017), and the Icelandic words were then divided into the five frequency bands above. The results of the study indicate that the share of words in the highest frequency band was lower in the Icelandic translated texts than in the English versions, and the share of Icelandic words in the lowest frequency band was higher in all four analysed texts. In addition, the English words were more evenly distributed between the five frequency bands than the Icelandic words. Specifically, a discrepancy and imbalance was revealed in that two thirds of the Icelandic words that were found to be in a different frequency band from the original English words were less common in Icelandic than their English counterparts were in English. Over 30% of the more frequent Icelandic words were longer than their less frequent synonyms, which suggests that for Ice- landic words, the rule that longer words tend to be less frequent than shorter 264 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Iceland words does not always apply. It must, however, be kept in mind that knowledge on the strength of the relationship between word frequencies in the Icelandic Gigaword Corpus and the word knowledge of Icelanders at different ages is insufficient. One source of information worth mentioning in this respect is the book Tíðni orða í tali barna (Frequency of words used in children’s speech) (Einars- dóttir et al. 2019). This is a corpus of Icelandic words used by two to eight-year- old children when expressing themselves in oral communication with adults. It is based on 100 107 running words, comprising 3879 lemma listed in order of frequency and word class. The corpus provides a valuable reference when choosing words for teaching Icelandic as a second or foreign language, when supporting children with a specific language disorder, and when writing texts in Easy or Plain Language. 8 Future perspectives Awareness of the need for texts in Easy and Plain Language in Iceland is grow- ing. However, at present, no strong official policy exists to protect the growth and accessibility of such texts: the Icelandic Language Council was unsuc- cessful in addressing the issue in the 2020–2024 language policy, and the Par- liamentary Resolution for 2017–2021 only applies to people with disabilities, excluding other groups in the target population for Easy and Plain Language. Although it is true that in some cases, Easy or Plain Language texts benefit people across the different target groups, in other cases the texts need to be tailored to specific needs. Individuals with language and/or mental disabili- ties, immigrants and language learners, citizens with poor literacy skills, and readers of specialized texts such as legal documents, may not have anything in common other than the desire to be able to easily access information. Providing individuals with texts tailored to their needs is an important factor for making them feel included and heard. Easy Language texts support civil consciousness, making it easier for people to be active citizens and make informed decisions. Thus, the phenomenon of Easy Language texts should receive more attention from Icelandic politicians and scholars alike. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 265 Sigríður Ólafsdóttir, Karítas Hrundar Pálsdóttir Further research is needed on language content and form for making Ice- landic texts more easily understood. Training in the writing of Easy Language is not yet available and no formal assessments exist. As elsewhere, the problem faced by Easy Language development in Iceland is a shortage in funding. Of even more concern is the lack of legal/official guidelines and support. Last but not least is the challenge of making Easy Language accessible and recognized. Publishing Easy and Plain Icelandic Language texts would enhance the unification of diverse groups by giving individuals equal access to information and education, thus promoting a common source of comprehension. Authors Sigríður Ólafsdóttir, PhD, is Assistant Professor at the School of Education, University of Iceland. Research fields: vocabulary acquisition, reading com- prehension, writing proficiency, second language acquisition, PISA reading literacy assessment, longitudinal literacy research. Karítas Hrundar Pálsdóttir, is a PhD student of Creative Writing at the Univer- sity of East Anglia. She holds an MA in Creative Writing and a BA in Icelandic with a minor in Japanese from the University of Iceland. She is the author of the book: Árstíðir – Sögur á einföldu máli (Seasons: Stories in Easy Language), published by Una útgáfuhús in 2020. Acknowledgements Special acknowledgements go to Ari Páll Kristinsson, Professor at the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies, and Baldur Sigurðsson, Associate Professor in Icelandic language and linguistics at the School of Education, University of Iceland. 266 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Iceland References Ágústsdóttir, Berglind. Stefna í kennslu grunnskólanemenda af erlendum uppru- na, ásamt reynslu og viðhorfum kennara: Samanburður milli Íslands og Noregs [Po- licy in the education of compulsory school students of foreign origin as well as the teachers’ experience and attitudes: Comparison between Iceland and Norway]. Master’s thesis. University of Iceland, Reykjavík, 2020. Web. 12 February 2021. . Alþingi. Lög um grunnskóla, nr. 91/2008 [Law on compulsory schools]. Web. 11 Febru- ary 2021. . Alþingi. 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O’Donnell, Sam. “Learning Icelandic through literature: ‘Árstíðir’ sets the standard for learning Icelandic.” Grapevine 3 (2020): 32. Web. 12 February 2021. . OECD. PISA 2018 translation and adaptation guidelines. Prague: First meeting of the PISA 2018 national project managers. 2016. Web. 12 February 2021. . OECD. PISA 2018 Results Volume I: What Students know and can do. Paris: PISA, OECD Publishing, 2019. Web. 12 February 2021. . © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 269 Sigríður Ólafsdóttir, Karítas Hrundar Pálsdóttir Office of the Ombudsman for Children. Barnasáttmálinn á barnvænu máli [The Uni- ted Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child in language easily understood by children]. n.d. Web. 12 February 2021. . Ólafsdóttir, Sigríður, and Baldur Sigurðsson. “Hnignandi frammistaða íslenskra nemenda í lesskilningshluta PISA frá 2000 til 2015: Leiðir til að snúa þróuninni við.” [Icelandic learners’ declining performance on the PISA reading li- teracy test from 2000 to 2015: Suggestions for effective approaches]. Netla – Online Journal on Pedagogy and Education (2017). Web. 12 February 2021. . Ólafsdóttir, Sigríður, and Baldur Sigurðsson. “Rýnt í niðurstöður lesskil- ningshluta PISA 2018 og tækifæri til framfara.” [Analysis of reading literacy results on PISA 2018 and ways forward]. Ed. Directorate of Education. PISA 2018: Helstu niðurstöður á Íslandi. Reykjavík: Directorate of Education, 2019. 38–61. Web. 12 February 2021. . Ólafsson, Ragnar. TALIS 2018: Starfshættir og viðhorf kennara og skólastjóra á unglingastigi grunnskóla: OECD [TALIS 2018: Teaching practices and attitudes of teachers and principals in Icelandic lower secondary schools]. 2019. Web. 12 Feb- ruary 2021. . Pálsdóttir, Auður, and Sigríður Ólafsdóttir. “Greining á orðanotkun í less- kilnings- og náttúruvísindahlutum PISA 2018: Samanburður á íslensku þýðingun- ni og enska textanum.” [Analysis of word use in the reading comprehension and natural science sections of PISA 2018: Comparison of the Icelandic translation and the English original]. Netla – Online Journal on Pedagogy and Education: Special is- sue on international assessments (2019). Web. 12 February 2021. . Pálsdóttir, Karítas Hrundar. Árstíðir: Sögur á einföldu máli [Seasons: Stories in Easy Language]. Reykjavík: Una útgáfuhús, 2020. Print. Pálsson, Gísli. “Towards an anthropology of Iceland.” Eds. Paul Durrenberger, and Gísli Pálsson. The anthropology of Iceland. Iowa City: The University of Iowa Press, 1989: vii–xxvii. Print. RÚV. Krakkarúv [Children’s channel]. n.d. a. Web. 12 February 2021. . RÚV. English. n.d. b. Web. 12 February 2021. . RÚV. Polski [Polish]. n.d. c. Web. 12 February 2021. . Schmitt, Norbert. “Review article: Instructed second language vocabulary lear- ning.” Language Teaching Research 12.3 (2008): 329–363. Web. 12 February 2021. . Sigmundsson, Svavar. Ed. Textar í íslensku fyrir erlenda stúdenta [Texts in Icelandic for foreign students]. Reykjavík: Málvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands, 1998. Print. Sigurðardóttir, Jóhanna; Jóhannesdóttir, Ásta R., and Ingibjörg Ben- ediktsdóttir. Act on the status of the Icelandic language and Icelandic sign language. 270 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Iceland 2011. Web. 12 February 2021. . Sigurðsson, Sigurður. Auðskilinn texti: Kennslurit um gerð auðskilins texta [Easy text: Guidelines on how to write a text that is easily understood]. Reykjavík: Ás styrktarfélag, 2009. Web. 12 February 2021. . Snæfríðar-Gunnarsdóttir, Hrafnhildur, and Rannveig Traustadóttir. Ofbeldi gegn fötluðum konum [Violence against disabled women]. Reykjavík: The Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Iceland, n.d. Web. 12 February 2021. . Statistics Iceland. Innflytjendum heldur áfram að fjölga [A continuous increase in num- ber of immigrants]. 2 December 2019. Web. 12 February 2021. . Statistics Iceland. Mannfjöldi [Population]. 2020. Web. 12 February 2021. . Statistics Iceland. Mannfjöldi eftir bakgrunni [Population based on country of origin]. n.d. Web. 12 February 2021. . Steingrímsson, Steinþór; Helgadóttir, Sigrún; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur; Barkarson, Starkaður, and Jón Guðnason. “Risamálheild.” [Icelandic gi- gaword corpus]. Ráðstefnurit LREC 2018. 4361–4366. Web. 12 February 2021. . Stillingar.is. Fyrir notendur [For users]. n.d. Web. 12 February 2021. . Summers, Julie. “Learning Icelandic, one story at a time.” Lögberg-Heimskringla 18.11 (2020). Print. UNESCO. UNESCO: Creative Cities Network. n.d. Web. 12 February 2021. . University of Iceland. Nemendur [Students]. 2019–2020. Web. 12 February 2021. . University of Iceland. Second Language Studies, MA, 120 ECTS. Course Catalogue 2016–2017. 2016. Web. 12 February 2021. . Þórisdóttir, Erla Lind. Orðaþröskuldur íslenskra grunnskólanemenda á miðstigi: Hlutfall þekktra orða í náttúrufræðitexta og lesskilningur [Word threshold of Icelan- dic middle school students: The proportion of known words in science texts and reading comprehension]. Master’s thesis. University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland, 2017. Web. 12 February 2021. . Þráinsson, Höskuldur. “Setningar: Handbók um Setningafræði.” [Sentences: Ma- nual on syntactic structures]. Íslensk tunga. Reykjavík: Almenna bókafélagið, 2005. Print. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 271 Sigríður Ólafsdóttir, Karítas Hrundar Pálsdóttir Appendix 1. An illustration of guidelines for Easy Icelandic. Standard Icelandic Easy Icelandic Í samningi þessum merkir barn hvern Hugtakið barn þann einstakling sem ekki hefur náð 18 Barn er einstaklingur undir 18 ára ára aldri, nema hann nái fyrr lögræðis- aldri. aldri samkvæmt lögum þeim sem hann lýtur. Öll börn eru jöfn Öll börn eiga að njóta allra réttinda Aðildarríki skulu virða og tryggja Barnasáttmálans án tillits til hver þau hverju barni innan lögsögu sinnar þau eru, hvar þau búa, hvaða tungumál réttindi sem kveðið er á um í samningi þau tala, á hvað þau trúa, hvernig þau þessum, án mismununar af nokkru hugsa og líta út, af hvaða kyni þau eru, tagi, án tillits til kynþáttar, litarháttar, hvort þau eru fötluð, rík eða fátæk og kynferðis, tungu, trúarbragða, stjórn- án tillits til þess hvað fjölskylda þeirra málaskoðana eða annarra skoðana, up- gerir eða trúir á. Aldrei skal koma fram pruna með tilliti til þjóðernis, þjóðhátta við barn af óréttlæti. eða félagslegrar stöðu, eigna, fötlunar, ætternis eða annarra aðstæðna þess eða foreldris þess eða lögráðamanns. 272 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Iceland Standard Icelandic Easy Icelandic [For the purposes of the present Con- The meaning of ‘child‘ vention, a child means every human A child is a person who is younger being below the age of eighteen years than 18 unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier. All children are equal All children have the rights stated in States Parties shall respect and ensure the UN Convention on the Right of the the rights set forth in the present Con- Child, no matter who they are, where vention to each child within their juris- they live, what language they speak, diction without discrimination of any what their religion is, how they think, kind, irrespective of the child‘s or his what they look like, whatever their sex, or her parent‘s or legal guardian‘s race, whether they have a handicap, are rich colour, sex, language, religion, political or poor, no matter what their family or other opinion, national, ethnic or does for a living or what they believe social origin, property, disability, birth in. It is forbidded to treat a child or other status.] unfairly.] The United Nation’s Convention on the Right of the Child. Here the United Nation’s Convention on the Right of the Child has been written in language that can be understood by children. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 273 Elisa Perego Easy Language in Italy 1 Introduction Italy is a south Central European country that forms a peninsula delimited by the Alps and surrounded by several islands, with a long Mediterranean coastline. Its capital is Rome. Italian is the official language of Italy, the Republic of San Marino and Vatican City. In Italy, 93% of the population are native Italian speakers. Italian is also used as a common language in France (the Alps and Côte d’Azur) and in small communities in Croatia and Slovenia. It is a national language in Switzer- land and has official status in some of its regions (see chapter on Switzerland). Italian belongs to the Italo-Western group (Eberhard et al. 2020, Giacalone Ramat and Ramat 1997) and it is one of the five most widely spoken Romance (or Latin) languages. Its sound system is similar to that of Latin or Spanish. Its grammar is similar to that of the other modern Romance languages, with a rich inflectional morphology, agreement of adjectives and nouns, use of definite and indefinite articles, loss of noun declension for case, two genders (masculine and feminine), and an elaborate system of perfect and progressive verb aspects (Encyclopedia Britannica 2015). Italy has approximately 29 native, living, spoken languages and related di- alects (Eberhard et al. 2020), which are spoken approximately by 50% of the population as a mother tongue, though they are not official. Full bilingualism is only legally granted to German, Ladin, Slovene, and French, and enacted respectively in the three autonomous regions 1 of Trentino Alto-Adige, Friuli Venezia Giulia, and Valle d’Aosta. Many dialects are mutually unintelligible. 1 In Italy, autonomous regions became autonomous in order to take into account their cultural differences and protect linguistic minorities. They have legislative, administrative and financial power to a varying extent, depending on their specific statute. The five autonomous regions are: Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Sardinia, Sicily, Trentino-Alto Adige, and Valle d’Aosta (Aosta Valley). © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 275 Elisa Perego Italy has approximately 60 million inhabitants, of which 6% (3.1 million, half of which are older than 75) live with disabilities and health-related con- ditions that severely impair their quality of life – as reported by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istituto nazionale di statistica) (ISTAT 2018, 2019). In Italy, the distribution of functional disabilities, including sensory and motor disabilities, is comparable to its average distribution in Europe, with 2% of the Italian population reporting severe vision limitations, 4% severe hearing loss, and 7% difficulties walking. Women are more affected than men (ISTAT 2019: 30–31). Overall, disability has a considerable societal impact: people with disabil- ities work less and are normally public employees; their social and cultural life is severely reduced (ISTAT 2019). The number of schoolgoers with dis- abilities and mental health problems is growing (Giuliani 2018). They select their secondary school type from a narrow range of choices, they often drop out of school, and are not provided with adequate, professional or constant support. Overall, the inclusion of people with disabilities in education is still problematic and suffers gender inequalities as well as general inequalities in the achievement of high educational qualifications (ISTAT 2019: 43). Such data dramatically impact the context of inclusion and accessible com- munication: people suffering from sensory and learning disabilities often have limited literacy, are under-educated, and can only access content successful- ly if it is specifically adapted to their needs. Other types of communication disabilities, including chronic illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, dementia, depression, or aphasia – which in Italy affect a considerable part of the population – cause mild to severe communicative limitations. So, enhancing the potential of this large population group and giving it the means to function properly and contribute to society is in order – as also claimed by Italian President Mattarella on Disability Day in 2019 (Mattarella 2019, see also Mattarella 2020). 276 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Italy 2 Historical perspectives Easy and Plain Language in Italy have a relatively short tradition. Although the most vigorous debate on the need for clear and effective writing reached Italy in the 1990s (Sciumbata 2018, Viale 2008), some significant milestones trace back to earlier years. In the 1960s, the Italian writer Italo Calvino (1971) drew attention to the disadvantages of the vagueness and lack of standardization of non-literary Italian (see also Bhatia et al. 2005), and to the complexity of bureaucratic lan- guage – or ‘anti-language’. Anti-language displays a lexical and syntactic opacity linked to its indirectness, which makes it artificial (Giunta 1997). The features contributing to its artificiality include the extensive use of periphrases, complex formulas, or routinized expressions substituting direct formulations, as well as what Calvino (1971) refers to as ‘semantic terror’, i.e., the fear of using clear words (e.g., the selection of the reflexive movement verb recarsi, ‘to make one’s way’, over the more common and more frequently used andare, ‘to go’). Quite the opposite of what Plain English (Cutts 2013), Plain Italian (Cortelazzo and Pellegrino 2002, Sciumbata 2020), and general guidelines suggest (Inclusion Europe 2009). According to some scholars, the complexity of the Italian bureaucratic style is simply a variant of the educated standard (e.g., Serianni 2003); according to others, it is the result of historical and political choices that have later been challenged: Philosopher Giovanni Gentile, Minister of the Department of Public Education, demanded the adoption of a complicated written style and mandated that Italian students gradually learn to write in a complex manner (Vezzoli 1996). Due primarily to these historical linguistic trends, we now find many Italian documents written in what Italo Calvino called l’antilingua (‘the anti- language’) (Calvino 1971). Use of this alienating language persists in spite of efforts by famous linguists, such as Tullio De Mauro, Giacomo Devoto, Bruno Migliorini, Leo Pestelli, and Italo Zingarelli, to promote simplicity and clarity in writing. (Crivello 1988: par. 3) © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 277 Elisa Perego In Italy, academic work on language simplification was initiated in the 1980s and the 1990s by a group of Italian linguists (Cortelazzo and Pellegrino 2002, De Mauro 1997, Lucisano and Piemontese 1988, Piemontese 1996) interested in topics such as the readability of Italian and the best practices for writing in an intelligible or easy-to-understand way. An important milestone tracing back to the 1990s is the publication of the Style Code (Codice di stile) by the Italian Minister and Law Professor Sabino Cassese which opposed the ‘verbose Italian style’ (Dipartimento per la Fun- zione Pubblica 1993). The book recommends simpler ways of writing admin- istrative documents based on the needs of the addressees, and tackles layout principles and general text organization recommendations that are still in use today. These recommendations were consolidated a few years later in the Style Manual (Manuale di stile), edited by Law Professor Alfredo Fioritto (1997). The pleas for clarity in administrative language were reinforced in the 21st century. In 2002, the Italian Public Service Department launched the Chiaro! (Clear!) project on legal language simplification (Cortelazzo 2002). This project was the result of a specific directive of 8th May 2002 and of the previous ‘Direc- tive on communication activities of public administrations’ of 14th February 2002. It continues the previous initiatives of the Department, and points to a new awareness of how important it is for the Government to provide infor- mation that is easy to understand, highlighting that easy information is in fact the right of every citizen. Despite the limitations and the prescriptive nature of the project (Cortelazzo 2002), it is certainly an important step towards the recognition of inclusive communication. In addition to these national and local initiatives, which are currently grow- ing despite remaining inconsistent and difficult to trace, joining the Inclusion Europe network through the EU project Pathways 2 – Adult Education for People with Intellectual Disabilities 2 represented an invaluable opportunity for Italy to compare itself with other countries, to make its mark in the sector and to capitalize on EU expertise and good practices. 2 Pathways 2, https://www.inclusion-europe.eu/pathways-2/; cf. an Easy Italian press release: http://www.anffas.net/it/progetti-e-campagne/progetti-conclusi/pathways-2. 278 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Italy The recent participation of Italy as a partner in diverse EU projects (e.g., EASIT and Train2Validate) 3 is a further sign of its vitality and dynamism in learning and implementing accessible communication formats. 3 Current situation Italy’s current position in terms of the awareness, recognition and implemen- tation of Easy and Plain Language is not easy to determine. The following paragraphs tackle some aspects of Easy and Plain Language in Italy to help the reader orient to some extent, but also to make the reader aware of the flexibility of the situation. Specifically, they explore some definitory aspects as well as the main contexts in which Easy and Plain Language are implemented. Their social status and the nature of the stakeholders in the field is also illustrated. Note that no Easy or Plain Language activities related to the regional languages mentioned in the introduction are known. 3.1 Definitions Broadly speaking, Easy Language, a minimal language variety, is a variety of language with maximally enhanced comprehensibility for an audience with cognitive and intellectual disabilities (Maaß 2020, Perego 2020a). Easy Lan- guage concerns not only language, but also paralanguage. Besides reducing the message to the minimum (content- and language-wise), it relies on easifica- tion devices (Bhatia 1983) that guide users through the text via language-inde- pendent features, enhancing its comprehensibility and increasing its usability. Usability is the extent to which something is user-oriented, cognitively effec- tive, and satisfactory. Text usability depends on the degree of text complexity, readability and ambiguity (Perego 2020a: 19). Easification devices include page 3 The EASIT project (Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training, 2018–2021; https://pagines.uab. cat/easit/en) is currently working on the incorporation of simplified (or ‘Easy-to-Understand’, E2U; EASIT 2019) language principles into audiovisual translation (Matamala and Orero 2019). The Train2Validate project (Professional training for easy-to-read facilitators and vali- dators, 2020-2023; https://plenainclusionmadrid.org/train2validate/) aims to produce material for the training of easy-to-read validators and facilitators as well as testers with cognitive and intellectual disabilities. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 279 Elisa Perego layout and the use of pictures and/or images. In contrast, Plain Language covers the area between Easy Language and standard or even specialised language, and is meant to make the message (of specialized texts) readily available to all (i.e., non-specialist users). Both Easy and Plain Language are user-centred, reader- vs text-oriented varieties. The official website definition of Easy Italian offered by Anffas Nazionale, the National Association of Families of Persons with Intellectual and/or Rela- tional Disabilities (Associazione Nazionale Famiglie di Persone con Disabilità Intellettiva e/o Relazionale) 4, is given below in back-translation, following the original text layout: Easy-to-read language is language that helps people read and understand difficult information. Information that is easy to read and understand is important for the life of people with disabilities. Information that is easy to read helps people find the things they need to know. It helps them make decisions and choices. Easy-to-read language makes lifelong learning easier to deal with for people with intellectual disabilities.5 The terminology used to refer to Easy and Plain Language is still flexible, not unique, quite varied, at times ambiguous, and sometimes the two labels and implied notions are used as synonyms 6. Easy Language is referred to as Lingua (or linguaggio) facile da leggere e da capire (easy-to-understand and easy-to- read language). The shorter form Linguaggio facile da leggere (easy-to-read lan- guage) is widespread and used by, for instance, Anffas Nazionale itself, though 4 Anffas Nazionale, http://www.anffas.net/. 5 Anffas Nazionale, Linguaggio facile da leggere, Linee Guida, http://www.anffas.net/it/ linguaggio-facile-da-leggere/linee-guida/. 6 See also Table 2 in chapter on Switzerland: According to the authors, in the French and Ital- ian-speaking regions, the labels used suggest a similar scenario in which no formal distinction is made between Easy and Plain Language. 280 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Italy it hints too directly (and in some cases inappropriately and misleadingly) at the readability (vs general comprehensibility, which might also refer to aural texts) of written text and their accompanying facilitating images or pictures. Lingua facile (Easy Language), another more neutral lexical variant, is found in several contexts. In the expression linguaggio controllato (Piemontese 1996), the participial adjective controllato refers to easy writing techniques. Finally Linguaggio facile seems an adequate compromise, as it merges the linguistic and non-linguistic simplification strategies that characterize this variety. As regards Plain Language, both the English loan word Plain Language and the expression semplificazione linguistica (language simplification) are used to refer to this variety or to simplified texts in which it is not necessary to make a sharp distinction between Easy and Plain Language. The word ‘clarity’ (cf. Linguaggio chiaro e semplice, ‘Clear and simple language’) is also found in some contexts (Tab. 1). Interestingly, the EASIT has project opted for the use of the inter-label Easy to Understand (or E2U) (facile da capire) as an umbrella term to cover all forms of language comprehension enhancement, including, and also falling in between, Plain Language and Easy Language (EASIT 2019, In- clusion Europe 2009, Matamala and Orero 2019, Perego 2020a). Easy Language Lingua facile da leggere e da capire Linguaggio facile da leggere e da capire Linguaggio facile da leggere Lingua facile Linguaggio facile Scrittura controllata Plain Language Plain Language Semplificazione linguistica Linguaggio chiaro e semplice Easy-to-Understand Language Lingua facile da capire Table 1: Easy Language and Plain Language in Italian: terminological differences The use of the Italian terms lingua and linguaggio, which still co-exist in a seemingly synonymous form, is an interesting definitory aspect that has not © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 281 Elisa Perego yet been resolved in the Easy Language vs Plain Language debate. The words lingua and linguaggio both translate as language in English. Linguaggio has a rather hyperonymic value, covering both verbal and non-verbal forms of com- munication. It refers to the more general ability, typical of – but not restricted to – human beings, to communicate through both verbal and body language, or any unspoken variable of communication: tone of voice, paralanguage, prox- emics, etc. Lingua, on the other hand, can only refer to a structured system that is used by a certain community (ethnic, cultural, etc.) to communicate. It is the concrete and historically determined way in which the faculty of lan- guage is manifested (e.g., Beccaria 1996). Whether this distinction is clear to non-specialists is not obvious and might be the reason why the two terms are still too often used interchangeably. A closing terminological note describes the way Easy and Plain Language activities are referred to in Italy. Thorough research carried out with colleagues in a European project setting (EASIT 2019) generated the following four clus- ters of labels: creation/writing, adaptation/editing/translation, validation/re- vision, and quality control. When necessary, in this paper, we use the English multiword label to refer to each activity, which in Italian can be translated as produzione/scrittura, adattamento/traduzione, validazione/revisione, and con- trollo della qualità. 3.2 Societal and legal context It is difficult to define the current status of Easy Language in Italy, where sparse initiatives exist but clear legislation on the matter, or consistent use of this minimal language variety, is still lacking. Viale (2010, but see also Vellutino 2018), for instance, lists a series of key legislative milestones relating to commu- nication accessibility and inclusion in the administrative realm, but they relate more to Plain Language than to Easy Language. The list shows that the concern for transparency in the quest for efficacy (and I would add usability; Perego 2020a) in administrative communication began to appear in formal documents and laws around the 2000s – quite late compared to other countries. However, instructions on how to apply clear writing principles to administrative texts 282 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Italy and laws are not contained in these documents, and Easy Language is never explicitly referred to, although appeals to clarity are made. Regarding the legislative framework, the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), adopted on 13th December 2006 at the United Na- tions Headquarters in New York, and ratified in Italy in 2009 by Law 18/2009, requires the ‘translation of texts and important information into Easy-to-Read and Understand forms’ (Art. 9). Even though the CRPD is binding in Italy, no national law seems to incorporate or implement this explicit requirement. However, autonomous regions, which enjoy freer legislation, tend to be more sensitive to matters regarding inclusion and to implement regulations in favour of disadvantaged target audiences. A virtuous example: on 14th July 2015, the self-governing Province of Bolzano, commonly known as South Tyrol (Alto Adige in Italian), in the Trentino Alto Adige Region, issued Law 7/2015, Partic- ipation and Inclusion of People with Disability (Partecipazione e inclusione delle persone con disabilità). The law is available in an Easy Language version, and emphasizes all forms of easified communication (comunicazione facilitata) and maintains that laws and other official documents that particularly concern peo- ple with disabilities must also be written in Easy Language (Chapter 9, Art. 29). 3.3 Stakeholders In Italy, one very active stakeholder is the National Association of Families of Persons with Intellectual and/or Relational Disabilities (Associazione Nazionale Famiglie di Persone con Disabilità Intellettiva e/o Relazionale), known as Anffas Nazionale (previous name Anffas Onlus). It is a major association created by parents, relatives and friends of people with intellectual and/or relational dis- abilities, and operates at local, regional and national levels to promote and protect human rights. It works strenuously towards the ideals of equal oppor- tunities, non-discrimination, and social inclusion. Anffas Nazionale normally participates in most activities and projects linked to language simplification. Other Nazionale associations cater for specific users and address Easy Lan- guage. The Association of People with Retinopathy and Low Vision (Associ- azione Pro Retinopatici ed Ipovedenti), known in Italy by the acronym APRI, mainly works for people who are sight impaired. The Golden Thread League © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 283 Elisa Perego (Lega del filo d’oro) is engaged in the assistance, education, rehabilitation and reintegration into family and society of deafblind and psychosensory disabled children, young people and adults. Substantial work related to the communication accessibility sector is being carried out in one of the five Italian autonomous regions: Trentino Alto Adige. This is a trilingual region (Italian/German/Ladin) with strong connections with the German-speaking countries. It has managed to capitalize on the col- laboration with Germany on Easy Language matters and has succeeded in ap- plying the German good practice to the Italian more intricate and multifaceted context. The Easy Language office okay – l’ufficio per un linguaggio facile 7, is a branch of the private not-for-profit Lebenshilfe ONLUS Association. It oper- ates in the self-governing Province of Bolzano and is devoted to supporting people with disabilities and their inclusion 8. The results of the EASIT project conclude this section on the current situa- tion in Italy. The data gathered for the EASIT project offer an up-to-date snap- shot of the most established and produced formats, the activities performed most often, and the fields of application of Easy and Plain Language in Italy (Perego 2020b, see also EASIT 2019, Perego 2020a) 9. These data are based on an online survey designed for experts in the field (Italian sample: N = 19, 74% female, mainly adults with an age range from 51 to 60). They mostly have more than one area of expertise and many also work as trainers. Some have or come from a profession that is not related to Easy or Plain Language (e.g., teaching, journalism or writing, research, education, the cultural sector, psy- chology, publishing or graphic work, etc.). This suggests that their involvement with Easy or Plain Language has developed at a later stage in their lives and the 7 okay – l’ufficio per un linguaggio facile, https://www.lebenshilfe.it/163d1749.html. 8 Lebenshilfe ONLUS, https://www.lebenshilfe.it/. 9 Overall results show that the Italian situation does not differ dramatically from the general European situation as far as the (solid and varied) educational and professional background of the experts is concerned, as well as the scant training opportunities that are offered and the limited involvement of academia in training. On the other hand, some specificities of the Italian situation do emerge, such as the dominance of theory over practice when E2U is concerned, both in training and in practice, and the unbalanced implementation of E2U which abounds in the area of education and overlooks other crucial areas of communication. The re- sults of the Italian survey point to the need for more consistent and systematic training as well as more awareness-raising of communicative integration and inclusion through simplification (Perego 2020a, 2020b). 284 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Italy production of Easy and Plain Language content is not always their primary or full-time job. I believe that this is partially explained by the older age of Italian experts in comparison to the average European age (Perego 2020b). In Italy, Easy Language is the most often produced modality, and only rarely do experts work with and produce both Easy and Plain Language formats. Printed content is the format that almost all the experts work with, followed by digital content, produced by half of the respondents, and audiovisual content, which is still in its infancy. The creation/writing of Easy Language is the most performed activity: approximately 70% of the respondents normally create new content. Easy Language adaptation/editing/translation and validation/ revision are performed by only a few respondents. Plain Language seems to be overlooked when it comes to professionally producing content. Unfortunately, in Italian public contexts, simplified language materials are often produced by non-expert personnel (Sciumbata 2017). As for the field (EASIT 2019: 30, Perego 2020a: 81), Italian experts mainly produce educational content, and operate less frequently in the areas of public administration and justice, culture and literature, media and journalism – the latter being completely overlooked. This shows an imbalance in the creation of simplified content. The content is still mainly directed towards schools rather than the rest of social and public life, where in fact it would actually be equally crucial. 4 Target groups Easy Language is normally meant for users with disabilities, particularly cogni- tive disabilities (or learning difficulties), prelingual hearing impairment, apha- sia, dementia-type illnesses, autism spectrum disorders, or multiple disabilities (Gargiulo and Arezzo 2017, IFLA 2010). Easy Language can, however, benefit both people who have severe literacy deficits and basic level language learners. Plain Language is normally meant for all users accessing specialized con- tent. Fortis (2003: 3) defines it as the language variety that manages to make information available in the simplest and most effective way, and is free of unnecessary complexity (though his definition does not delineate complex- ity). The author illustrates Plain Language using a metaphor and compares © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 285 Elisa Perego it to ‘the shortest way between two points, i.e., the sender and the recipient of the message’ 10. The level of simplification and usability of Plain Language, however, make it also useful for people with mild forms of communication disabilities or mild illiteracy, intermediate language learners, tourists, young children, and many others. In spite of its considerable potential application for several end users, no widespread active Plain Language text practice is currently implemented in Italy. A target group that could extensively exploit both language varieties is im- migrants. According to recent census data (ISTAT 2020), in 2019 the number of immigrants in Italy was slightly over five million (one million more than in 2011, and approximately four million more than in 2001). Twenty-three per cent of these migrants are Rumanians, i.e., speakers of a Romance language that shares morphological and structural similarities with Italian, and the rest belongs to countries and cultures that are very distant (Albanians, Moroccans, Chinese, Ukrainians, Filipinos, Indians, Bangladeshi, Egyptians, Pakistani, etc.), and might considerably benefit from accessible communication, given their severe functional illiteracy and their educational needs, especially in the area of Italian as a second language (Wagner and Kozma 2005). As stressed for other countries, it is difficult to classify clear user groups for each language variety. The target groups are always heterogeneous in their backgrounds, literacy levels, requirements and capacities (Maaß 2020, Perego 2020b), and some groups and individuals would be more adequately addressed by more enriched forms of easy-to-understand languages, or generally en- riched forms of communication that require the simultaneous use of diverse senses (Maaß 2020). 10 Translated by the author. 286 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Italy 5 Guidelines Currently, Italy’s official Easy Language guidelines are the Italian translation of the Inclusion Europe recommendations sponsored and translated by Anffas Nazionale. These guidelines, the Italian version of which is entitled Informazio- ni per tutti. Linee guida europee per rendere l’informazione facile da leggere e da capire per tutti (Information for all. European standards for making informa- tion easy to read and understand) (Inclusion Europe 2009), are available online. They represent a major step in a country that up to now lacked rules on this subject. These guidelines do not include language-specific recommendations on how to produce Easy Italian. However, some recommendations do exist, and compiling them in the same place would certainly be beneficial for actors in this area. For an illustration of Easy Italian, see the excerpt in Appendix 1. As far as Italian is concerned, Easy and Plain Language recommendations are often mixed or listed interchangeably. The thirty ‘clear language’ rules is- sued by Cortelazzo and Pellegrino (2002) are closer to a set of Plain Language guidelines, even though they include recommendations that would also be suitable for Easy Language content. Fortis (2003) and Sciumbata (2017, 2020) are useful reference publications that guide readers towards the acquisition of simplification strategies – but again they lean towards Plain Language: the for- mer offers linguistic recommendations through a descriptive perspective; the latter (Sciumbata 2017) focuses on the simplification of bureaucratic language, with examples and practical language-specific tips on improving text readabil- ity for the benefit of general users. However, we still cannot talk of Easy Italian standards. What is referred to as scrittura controllata (controlled writing) in Piemontese (1996) is closer to the Easy Language than the Plain Language pole of the continuum. The volume authored by Gargiulo and Arezzo (2017) is an- other useful purveyor of recommendations, examples, and hands-on exercises. Some of the specificities of Easy and Plain Italian can be seen by the works mentioned above. Cortelazzo and Pellegrino (2002), Fortis (2003) and Sci- umbata (2017, 2020), for instance, emphasize the need to avoid or limit the subjunctive mood as well as the past and present participles: explicit forms are always preferred. They propose staying away from impersonal forms and Latin words or expressions. They also suggest avoiding the combination of the ‘d’ © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 287 Elisa Perego consonant (d eufonica, ‘euphinic d sound’) with the Italian conjunctions e, ‘and’, and o, ‘or’ before a vowel. Accordingly, the Italian temporal expression e ora, ‘and now’, is considered better and more accessible than its counterpart ed ora employing a linking or euphonic sound. However, it appears that this rule has never been tested empirically to assess whether such a stylistic adjustment has the desired effect of making a text less taxing for a struggling reader. This lack of empirical testing of each recommendation is a general problem. If we wish to duly label what is complex and what is simple (or usable) we need established linguistic measures of complexity and reception research that involves the end users rather than recommendations based on intuition. Double negation, which is frequent in Italian style (e.g., non infelice, ‘not unhappy’) should be replaced by a single word (e.g., felice, ‘happy’), which is more straightforward: interpreting double negation sentences correctly as equivalent to affirmative sentences is known to take longer than processing its affirmative counterpart. Such structure is acquired late by native speakers, thus posing serious cognitive load and hindering comprehension (e.g., Carpenter and Just 1975, Jou 1988). This means that negative information is psycholog- ically more difficult to process. We can now move to the lexical level. Given the tendency of Italian towards ‘obscure ways of expression’, most authors maintain that it is important that in Easy Italian common (e.g., ricordare, ‘to remember’) and concrete words (e.g., segnali, ‘(road) signs’) substitute formal and low-frequency (e.g., rammentare, ‘to recall’) or abstract (e.g., segnaletica, ‘signage’) items. On the same note, sim- ple verbs (e.g., assicurare and pagare, ‘to insure against’ and ‘to pay for’) should be preferred to long and intricate circumlocutions (provvedere alla copertura assicurativa and provvedere al pagamento, ‘to provide insurance coverage’ and ‘to arrange payment of ’). This also applies to nouns: sfratto, ‘eviction’, is better than a longer noun phrase such as provvedimento esecutivo di rilascio, ‘tenant removal from rental property’. Furthermore, the use of mild or indirect words or expressions to substitute those considered too harsh, blunt, unpleasant or embarrassing, is quite common – but not efficient in terms of enhanced com- prehensibility. In this respect, the use of the direct verb morire, ‘to die’, would boost text comprehensibility more than the use of euphemistic multi-word expressions such as passare a miglior vita, ‘to pass away’. Figurative expressions 288 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Italy (correre come un pazzo, ‘to run like crazy’) should be avoided irrespective of their level of idiomaticity (e.g., Gargiulo and Arezzo 2017: 136–137). Finally, a strategy used by the Easy Language office okay – l’ufficio per un linguaggio facile is to use a dot to break down long and morphologically com- plex words such as perseguirate (to persecute), which in Easy Italian is written per·seguitare. 6 Practical outcomes Due to the lack of a strong tradition of Easy and Plain Language content pro- duction, it is difficult to find large amounts of accessible material in many fields. However, as illustrated in the following paragraphs, informative texts outnumber other text types, though even they remain scant. 6.1 Informative texts A large proportion of the Italian informative material produced or translated into Easy Language and designed for people with intellectual and cognitive disabilities is provided by Anffas Nazionale. In spite of the diverse initiatives of its local or regional branches, the central webpage of the association in- cludes a dedicated section called Linguaggio facile da leggere (Easy-to-Read Language), containing the Italian Inclusion Europe guidelines, as well as Easy Italian distance learning didactic resources for students with disabilities; vari- ous documents on healthcare, tourism, and everyday life; and important laws and conventions. Accessible video and audio files (e.g., on the right way to surf the web and use social networks, all created under the framework of the SafeSurfing project 11) are also available along with the Easy Language video and the CRPD manual (UNGA 2006), which was translated into Easy Italian in 2011 12. Recently, Easy Italian print and audiovisual coronavirus information 11 Anffas Nazionale, SafeSurfing, http://www.anffas.net/it/progetti-e-campagne/safe-surfing/. 12 Anffas Nazionale, Convenzione Onu e disabilità: Quale applicazione in Italia?, http://www. anffas.net/it/news/1361/convenzione-onu-e-disabilita-quale-applicazione-in-italia. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 289 Elisa Perego has been produced 13 to enhance the comprehensibility of this new phenom- enon and to instruct people on how to behave to prevent the virus spreading and becoming infected. Anffas Nazionale also contributes to the production of content for third par- ties. For instance, the consumer rights manual commissioned by the Consumer Movement, or tour guides to places of cultural interest 14 have been produced, such as that for the Trieste Museum of Natural History, for which both Easy Language and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) materials are available (Span et al. 2016) 15. A pioneering initiative has been undertaken in the self-governing Province of Bolzano, in the autonomous Region of Trentino Alto Adige: a rich, official bilingual website in Easy Italian has been designed for all citizens to easily access information 16. In the same region, outstanding work is being carried out by the German Netzwerks Leichte Sprache and the German Centre for Easy Language Research at Hildesheim University (see chapter on Germany) and by the private association Lebenshilfe ONLUS through its dedicated Easy Language office okay – l’ufficio per un linguaggio facile, which translates and validates documents into Easy Language based on the recommendations issued by Inclusion Europe. Furthermore, Lebenshilfe ONLUS is currently planning to develop and offer Plain Language services along with the established Easy Language services they have been working on for some time now. The name assigned to this mode of simplification is based on the established German label (einfache Sprache) and will be lingua semplice. The importance of language accessibility in delicate realms such as the legal realm is shown by the work of some private companies that offer translation of legal documents into Easy Italian. 13 Anffas Nazionale, Coronavirus: 10 consigli in facile da leggere per non ammalarsi!, http:// www.superando.it/files/2020/03/coronavirus-consigli-easy-to-read.pdf. 14 Anffas Nazionale, TURISMO E SERVIZI, http://www.anffas.net/it/linguaggio-facile-da- leggere/documenti-facili-da-leggere/. 15 Museo di storia naturale, Museo accessibile, https://museostorianaturaletrieste.it/museo- accessibile/. 16 Amministrazione Provincia Bolzano in lingua facile, https://lingua-facile.provincia.bz.it/. 290 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Italy 6.2 Literature and Media The literature and media fields have been overlooked in Italy, and outcomes remain scarce. Again, Anffas Nazionale plays a role in the provision of this type of content. Currently, one children’s book is available on its website in Easy Italian, L’avventura di Oliver tra i ricordi (Oliver’s adventure among memories), by Gabriella Fredduselli (2006), along with some comic strips and magazines in both Easy Language and AAC 17. A noteworthy initiative has been the first Italian Easy-to-Read monthly journal Due parole. Mensile di facile lettura (Two words. An Easy-to-Read monthly journal) 18, issued in 1989 by the Rome University La Sapienza. Its first online version was launched in 2001 when the print version became financially unsustainable. The journal was designed to be the first high-level readability journal at a time when not many existed (a situation which is no different to- day). Never properly advertised, Due parole managed to spread through word of mouth and good reviews by scholars and specialists. However, its last issue was in 2006 (Piemontese 1996). As emerged from the EASIT survey carried out in Italy (Perego 2020b), simplified content seems to be usually, though not yet extensively, produced in the field of education. In fact, school material for children with intellectual disabilities is produced by several school publishers. Simplified material in Italian is also provided for foreign learners of Italian. Anffas Nazionale has produced specific material in Easy Italian and in Augmentative and Alterna- tive Communication (AAC) to support the new distance learning needs that emerged during the coronavirus outbreak in 2019 19. 17 Anffas Nazionale, Didattica a distanza: risorse e materiali per alunni e studenti con disabilità, http://www.anffas.net/it/linguaggio-facile-da-leggere/didattica-a-distanza-risorse-e-materiali- per-alunni-e-studenti-con-disabilita/. 18 Due parole, mensile di facile lettura, http://www.dueparole.it/default_.asp. 19 Anffas Nazionale (n.d.), Didattica a distanza: risorse e materiali per alunni e studenti con disabilità, http://www.anffas.net/it/linguaggio-facile-da-leggere/didattica-a-distanza-risorse-e- materiali-per-alunni-e-studenti-con-disabilita/. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 291 Elisa Perego 6.3 Other projects Guidelines in Italian also represent a recent and important outcome. As men- tioned earlier in the text, the EU project Pathways 2 led to the creation of the first European standards on how to make information easy to read and understand (Information for all. European standards for making information easy to read and understand, 2009). Anffas Nazionale sponsored the translation of these standards into Italian (Informazioni per tutti. Linee guida europee per rendere l’informazione facile da leggere e da capire per tutti, 2009). The translation process involved end users in both the actual translation and the validation process. Participation in the project enabled Anffas Nazionale to give Easy Italian real visibility for the first time, but also to start in-house training and produce Easy Italian writers, trainers and validators who actively create, translate and validate (still today) all Anffas Nazionale material. An early but nonetheless impactful project in the field was initiated by the Italian linguist Michele Cortelazzo (Padua University), who set up a website with his team (last updated in 2010) that is fully devoted to the simplification of administrative language 20. The website is called Linguaggio amministrativo chiaro e semplice (Clear and simple administrative language), which may either accidentally or deliberately have avoided the Italian terms used to refer to either Easy or Plain Language. The website lists 30 rules (regole) for writing clear and simple administrative texts, with suggestions that are meant to produce ‘effective and elegant texts’ 21 (Cortelazzo and Pellegrino 2002), thus seemingly focusing more on style than on objective or empirically based recommenda- tions. The website also includes a corpus of administrative texts rewritten (or rather ‘translated’) according to the criteria of linguistic simplification and communicative effectiveness; a collection of norms relating to the efforts made for the simplification of administrative language and, more generally, for public communication, a bibliography, links to related websites, and a collection of articles. More recent projects are those involving inclusive tourism, especially in the Alpine and pre-Alpine territories, by the Interreg project GATE (Granting 20 Linguaggio amministrativo chiaro e semplice, http://www.maldura.unipd.it/buro/. 21 Translated by the author. 292 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Italy Accessible Tourism for Everyone) 22, launched in 2018. This is an impressive example of how intangible culture can also be made accessible through wise use of language and effective, targeted communication. Given the lack of a strong Italian network on the subject, it is not easy to obtain an overview of what is actually being done or even whether there is overlap. The recent University of Trieste Research project Facilitating commu- nication in the healthcare setting, for instance, launched in 2020, explores the possibilities of facilitating communication between professionals and patients in the healthcare setting by taking into account simplification strategies in both vertical and horizontal communication, thus considering people with cognitive difficulties and people with low schooling, and patients belonging to different cultural and linguistic backgrounds (Russian, Romanian, etc., but also Swahili, Somali, Hamar, Arab Moroccan) in the contexts of medical co-operation in the so-called Low-Income Countries. 7 Education and research The EASIT data (Perego 2020b) show that in Italy, the provided and received training – though scarce – mainly concerns Easy Language rather than Plain Language, although sometimes the two modalities are taught together. In terms of activities, Easy Language creation/writing is always taught, whereas Easy Language adaptation/editing/translation and validation/revision – in this order – are only occasionally tackled. Plain Language, on the other hand, is not given the same emphasis in training. In terms of formats, all Italian experts have been trained to work with printed or digital content, but not necessarily with audiovisual content. When it comes to teaching how to apply the principles of Easy and Plain Language in specific fields, the focus (and implementation) is limited to education, in which half of the Italian respondents had in fact already been trained. The fields of media and journalism, as well as culture and literature, in turn, are overlooked (Perego 2020b; a different scenario can be observed in other European countries: see EASIT 2019 and Perego 2020a). 22 The gate project for inclusive tourism, https://gateproject.dolomitiunesco.info/. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 293 Elisa Perego The EASIT data do not reveal where exactly training takes place. Howev- er, they show that in Italy (as well as in some other EU countries, cf. Perego 2020a, 2020b, EASIT 2019) systematic training is still needed, and is not fully or consistently established. Only approximately half of the people who work in the Italian Easy and Plain Language sectors have received training. Moreover, the training that they have received is not intensive, with the same number of respondents (approx. 40%) having received training of 10 to 30 or 30 to 60 hours, and only 20% more than 60 hours. Furthermore, the training mainly occurs outside the academic world, and takes the form of one-off workshops or in-house training, vocational courses, and even self-training sessions. Anf- fas Nazionale, for instance, offers training opportunities for people who wish to become experts in the production, adaptation and validation of accessible information for people with intellectual disabilities. This ad hoc training of- fered by Anffas Nazionale focuses on teaching Easy Italian techniques based on the Italian version of the Inclusion Europe (2009) guidelines, and aims to form people who can not only actively operate but also teach in the sector. End users are reserved specific training to become Easy Italian validators. Anffas Nazionale courses are currently available, and are also interactive, with trainers correcting the task and exercises of the trainees. As far as research is concerned, we already mentioned that in Italy this is still limited, inconsistent and above all, not empirical. Scientific publications are scarce, and mainly pertain to Plain rather than Easy Language, or to other in-between varieties which apply different levels of simplification. Plain Italian has been studied specifically – and applied more or less successfully – in the sector of bureaucratic, institutional and administrative (vs regular) language, with various authors, mainly from the field of Italian linguistics, working to- wards what they call ‘clear style’ (e.g., Cortelazzo and Pellegrino 2002, Fioritto 1997, 2009, Lubello 2016, Lucarelli 2001, Vellutino 2018, Viale 2008). The need to research (or rather, suggest) ways to simplify the style of institutional texts is linked to their ‘obscure’ nature (e.g., Giunta 2017). The language of the docu- ments of public administration and courts is in fact often referred to in Italian as legalese and politichese (e.g., Dardano 1985), which are clearly derogatory terms for the language of politics and legal matters. 294 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Italy The concern for readability 23 (in Italian leggibilità, Perego 2020a: 19) has produced noteworthy research projects and outcomes. The development of lan- guage-specific measures and software that help determine the level of usability of a given text should be highlighted. The Gulpease index (De Mauro 1997, Lucisano and Piemontese 1988, Mastidoro and Amizzoni 1993, Piemontese 1996), for instance, is a readability index used to assess how complex, read- able and usable an Italian text is. It takes into account the length of a word in characters rather than syllables, which has proven to be more reliable for assessing the readability of Italian texts. It ranges from 0 (lowest readability) to 100 (maximum readability) (Tonelli et al. 2012). The Gulpease index can be calculated using the automatic fee-based online service Corrige! 24 to help evaluate the textual quality of documents and verify their readability. The fee- based software READ-IT is a similar advanced readability assessment tool which combines traditional raw text features with lexical, morpho-syntactic and syntactic information (Dell’Orletta et al. 2011). READ-IT was developed at the ItaliaNLP Lab at the Istituto di Linguistica Computazionale ‘Antonio Zampolli’ (ILC-CNR) 25, which brings together scholars from computational linguistics, computer science and linguistics, to work on developing resources and algorithms for processing and understanding human languages, paying particular attention to the Italian language. 8 Future perspectives In Italy, the implementation of Easy and Plain Language is still irregular and still in progress. This means many challenges are still to be faced. The lack of a mono-referential expression for the two language varieties is one of the gaps that needs filling, and an indication that the field is still new and flexible, in need of being established. The status of Easy Language in Italy is another blurred issue: in spite of growing references to the need for clear communica- 23 The degree to which printed information is unambiguous on the basis of the language fluency of the reader, the message communicated, and the quantity and the quality of the delivered text. 24 Corrige, www.corrige.it. 25 ItaliaNLP Lab, http://www.italianlp.it/. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 295 Elisa Perego tion in several types of documents (particularly administrative documents), Easy Language does not seem to enjoy a firm status in the country, though at least some autonomous regions give it the deserved emphasis. The lack of its consistent implementation confirms this situation. This might be one of the reasons why Italy is still lacking unique language-specific official and wide- spread guidelines – a considerable challenge to meet in the near future – for the benefit of experts in the field and end users. It is currently possible to retrieve language-specific instructions in diverse publications, but a unique reference is the desired direction. In this respect, the involvement of academia is needed as much as a larger, stronger and more collaborative national network, enabling researchers and stakeholders to know what is being done, to share knowledge and competences, to capitalize on previous outcomes, to exploit cross-fertili- zation opportunities and to avoid duplicating work, effort, and results. Increased participation of academia in research and training is also en- visaged in this country where language is still perceived as too ‘obscure’ to be inclusive. The contexts in which Easy and Plain Language are taught and the type of training experts receive in fact show that academia in Italy is currently not yet ready (or willing?) to offer fully-fledged formation in this important and emerging field, where structured curricula would make great a difference and benefit all citizens in the long run. In addition, the sensibilization of authorities and citizens should also be enhanced. This could be done either directly or indirectly, via lobbying and implementing inclusive models of communication, enhancing the status of Easy and Plain Language, and using them in a growing number of contexts. In this respect, the work of Anffas Nazionale and other stakeholders in the sector is paramount. It should be sustained and disseminated more widely. The work of the EASIT project is certainly stirring waters in at least the audiovisual sector, and could potentially also have a wide impact on other sectors. Because Easy-to-Understand Language is still not implemented systematically in the media or journalism, nor in the culture and literature sectors in Italy, a joint effort could make major, much needed changes. The ultimate, remarkable area of interest that deserves research in the Ital- ian, but also wider context, is the empirical study of text complexity and usa- bility in relation to Easy and Plain Language. Although readability measures 296 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Italy are being taken into use, systematic, linguistic and cognitive research on the text parameters that determine complexity is still lacking. We strongly believe this could dramatically change the views on, and the applications of, inclusive communication. Author Elisa Perego is a professor of English Language and Translation at the Univer- sity of Trieste. Her main research areas are audiovisual translation (AVT) – particularly audio description, the English language of podcasts and their translation, AVT research methodology, media accessibility and language simplification in audiovisual texts. Contact: eperego@units.it Acknowledgements The preparation of this article was supported by the University of Trieste Re- search Fund FRA 2020 (Facilitating communication in the healthcare setting) awarded to Ilaria Micheli, Elisa Perego and Goranka Rocco; by the COST ac- tion LAED-ME (Leading Platform for European Citizens, Industries, Academia and Policymakers in Media Accessibility) (CA19142), 2020–2024, awarded to Giacomo Inches; and by the EASIT (Easy Access for Social Inclusion Train- ing) project, co-ordinated by Anna Matamala. The EASIT project has received funding from the European Commission under the Erasmus+ Programme, Key Action 2 Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Prac- tices, Strategic Partnership, grant agreement 2018-1-ES01-KA203-05275. The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views of only the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. For carefully reading this chapter and providing varied and useful informa- tion, I would like to sincerely thank Simone Belci (OKAY – Büro für Leichte Sprache / okay - l’ufficio per la lingua facile), Daniela Cannistraci and Maria © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 297 Elisa Perego Cristina Schiratti (Anffas Nazionale Roma), Luisa Carrer (ZHAW School of Applied Linguistics Institute of Translation and Interpreting, Switzerland), Carlo Eugeni (SSML Pisa, Italy), Ilaria Micheli and Goranka Rocco (University of Trieste), Stefano Rastelli (University of Pavia), and Stefania Span (Coopera- tiva Sociale Trieste Integrazione, Anffas Nazionale). References Alfieri, Gabriella. “Il linguaggio figurato.” [Figurative language]. Eds. Francesco Bruni, Gabriella Alfieri, Serena Fornasiero, and Silvana Tamiozzo Goldman. Ma- nuale di scrittura e comunicazione. 1st ed. Bologna: Zanichelli, 1997. 169–204. Print. 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Linguaggio amministrativo chiaro e semplice [Clear and simple administrative langu- age]. n.d. Web. 1 March 2021. . Lubello, Sergio. “Nel labirinto del burosauro. Web e burocrazia; una semplificazio- ne possibile?” [In the labyrinth of bureaucracy. Web and bureaucracy: is simplifi- cation possible?]. Ed. Sergio Lubello. L’e-taliano. Scriventi e scritture nell’era digitale. Firenze: Franco Cesati, 2016. 73–91. Print. Lucarelli, Aurora. Semplificare il linguaggio burocratico. Meccanismi & tecniche [Strategies for the simplification of bureaucratic language]. Ufficio comunicazione e relazioni con il pubblico. 2001. Web. 24 February 2021. . Lucisano, Pietro, and Maria Emanuela Piemontese. “GULPEASE: una for- mula per la predizione della difficoltà dei testi in lingua italiana.” [GULPEASE: a formula for predicting the difficulty of texts in Italian]. Scuola e città 31.3 (1988): 110–124. Print. Maaß, Christiane. Easy Language – Plain Language and Beyond: Balancing Compre- hensibility and Acceptability. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2020. Print. Mastidoro, Nicola, and Maurizio Amizzoni. “Linguistica applicata alla leggi- bilità: considerazioni teoriche e applicazioni.” [Linguistics applied to readability: theoretical considerations and applications]. Bollettino della Società Filosofica Ita- liana 149 (1993): 49–63. Print. Matamala, Anna, and Pilar Orero. “EASIT: Media Access Services Made Easier to Understand.” Actas del I Congreso Internacional de Innovación Docente e Investi- gación en Educación Superior: Un reto para las Áreas de Conocimiento (2019): 445. Web. 1 March 2021. . © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 301 Elisa Perego Mattarella, Sergio. “Intervento del Presidente della Repubblica Sergio Mattarella all’iniziativa promossa da ISTAT, Comitato Italiano Paralimpico e INAIL, in occa- sione della Giornata internazionale delle persone con disabilità.” [Statement by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella at the initiative promoted by ISTAT, the Italian Paralympic Committee, and INAIL, on the occasion of the Internatio- nal Day of Persons with Disabilities]. 2019. Web. 25 February 2021. . Mattarella, Sergio. Statement by President Mattarella on the occasion of the In- ternational Day of Disabled Persons. 2020. Web. 25 February 2021. . Museo di storia naturale, Museo accessibile [Natural History Museum, Accessible Museum]. n.d. Web. 1 March 2021. . okay – l’ufficio per un linguaggio facile [ok - the Easy Language office]. n.d. Web. 25 February 2021. . Pathways 2. n.d. Web. 1 March 2021. . Pathways 2, press release in Easy Italian. n.d. Web. 1 March 2021. . Perego, Elisa. Accessible Communication: A Cross-country Journey. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2020a. Print. Perego, Elisa. “The Practice and the Training of Text Simplification in Italy.” Lingue e Linguaggi 36 (2020b): 233–254. Web. 25 February 2021. . Piemontese, Maria Emanuela. Capire e farsi capire. Teorie e tecniche della scrittu- ra controllata [Understanding and being understood. Theories and techniques of controlled writing]. Napoli: Tecnodid, 1996. Print. Sciumbata, Floriana C. Sono solo coincidenze? Proposte a Trenitalia per farsi capire (meglio) dai suoi viaggiatori [Are these just coincidences? Proposals to Trenitalia to be (better) understood by travelers]. Trieste: EUT, 2017. Print. Sciumbata, Floriana C. “Un’esperienza di insegnamento tra plain language e tradu- zione.” [A teaching experience between plain language and translation]. Internatio- nal Journal of Translation 20 (2018): 195–207. Print. 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Museologia Scientifica Memorie 18 (2019): 127–130. Print. Tonelli, Sara; Manh, Ke Tran, and Emanuele Pianta. “Making Readability In- dices Readable.” NAACL-HLT Workshop on Predicting and Improving Text Reada- bility for target reader populations (PITR 2012). Association for Computational Linguistics. 7 June 2012. 40–48. Stroudsburg, PA, Stati Uniti. Web. 1 March 2021. . Train2Validate project (Professional training for easy-to-read facilitators and validators). n.d. Web. 1 March 2021. . UNGA (UN General Assembly). Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 13 December 2006. Web. 1 September 2020. . Vellutino, Daniela. L’italiano istituzionale per la comunicazione pubblica [Instituti- onal Italian for public communication]. Bologna: il Mulino, 2018. Print. Vezzoli, Vittore. “La comunicazione scritta non è morta. È cambiata.” [Written communication is not dead. It has changed]. Comunico 1 (1996): N. pag. Print. Viale, Matteo. Studi e ricerche sul linguaggio amministrativo [Studies and research on administrative language]. Padova: CLEUP, 2008. Print. Viale, Matteo. “Normativa.” [Regulations]. 2010. Web. 1 September 2020. . Wagner, Daniel A., and Robert Kozma. New Technologies for Literacy and Adult Education: A Global Perspective. Paris: UNESCO Publishing, 2005. Print. Williams, Joseph M. Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. 4th ed. New York: Har- per Collins College Publishers, 1994. Print. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 303 Elisa Perego Appendix 1. An illustration of guidelines for Easy Italian with an English back-translation. Standard Italian Easy Italian STALKING STALKING Indica il comportamento controllan- Stalking è una parola inglese e significa: te messo in atto dal persecutore nei per·seguitare. confronti della vittima da cui è stato ri- Un uomo ti per·seguita per esempio fiutato (prevalentemente è l’ex partner). quando: Spesso le condotte dello stalker sono • Ti segue tutto il tempo. subdole, volte a molestare la vittima e • Ti aspetta quando esci da casa o dal a porla in uno stato di soggezione, con lavoro. l’intento di compromettere la sua se- • Ti manda tutto il tempo messaggi o renità, farla sentire braccata, comunque email. non libera. • O ti telefona tutto il tempo. E tu non lo vuoi. Fonte: Opuscolo dell’associazione “Donne contro la violenza – Frauen Fonte: traduzione di okay – l’ufficio per gegen Gewalt” | Source: Brochure un linguaggio facile | Source: translation from the association “Women against by okay – the easy language office violence – Frauen gegen Gewalt” (https://www.donnecontrolaviolenza. (https://www.direcontrolaviolenza.it/ org/contents/files/Per_il_mio_bene. wp-content/uploads/2014/03/opusco- pdf) lo_RavonA.pdf) [STALKING [STALKING This is controlling behavior by a perse- Stalking is an English word and it cutor towards the victim by whom they means to persecute. were rejected (mostly it is an ex-part- A man is stalking you, for example, ner). The stalker’s behaviors are often when: subtle, aimed to harass the victim and • He follows you all the time. put them in a state of subjection, with • He waits for you when you get out of the intent of compromising their peace your house or from work. of mind, making them feel cornered, • He sends you text messages or emails basically not free.] all the time. • He phones you all the time. And you do not want him to.] 304 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Gunta Anča, Irīna Meļņika Easy Language in Latvia 1 Introduction Latvia, or the official Republic of Latvia, is a Baltic region country in North- ern Europe. Its capital is Riga. The Latvian State was founded in 1918 and maintained its independence until the Second World War. In 1944, Latvia was forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union. Latvia regained its national independence in 1991, at which time the Latvian language became the only official language in Latvia. In 2004, Latvia became a member of the European Union. Since then, Latvian has been one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. According to data from the Central Statistical Bureau, at the end of 2020, Latvia had 1 896 000 inhabitants. The population has historically been mul- tinational: 10 different nationalities are officially registered in Latvia. The in- digenous peoples of Latvia are Latvians, and the second largest population group are Russians, at 25.2%. Together with several representatives of other nationalities (Ukrainians, Belarusians, etc.), they form the Russian-speaking community of Latvia. Most Russian-speaking residents entered Latvia during the Soviet occupation, and many of them have not fully integrated or learned the Latvian language. Historically, some of Latvia’s population moved to live outside the country. Since the end of the 19th century, more than 370 000 Latvians have left Latvia in several waves of emigration, and they currently form the Latvian diaspora abroad. The largest Latvian diaspora – about 120 000 people – live in Britain. Latvian, one of Europe’s most ancient languages, rooted in Sanskrit and with an Indo-European past, shares a common bond with only Lithuanian. These two languages form a separate branch of the whole European language classification. For Latvian to have survived, despite invasions by different na- © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 305 Gunta Anča, Irīna Meļņika tions from near and far, is nothing short of astounding. Latvia’s counties have different dialects, the most widely used of which is the Latgalian dialect, spoken in the Eastern part of the country. A large part of the country’s population is also fluent in Russian. During Soviet Union times the Russian language was imposed as the official language, thus all official documents were in Russian. The effects of this language, as well as the impact of the long years of Soviet occupation, are still felt. Part of the country’s population poorly understand the Latvian language. Russian becom- ing the second official language has been discussed on several occasions, but the preservation and development of the Latvian language has been recognized as a way of strengthening the sense of belonging to the national cultural area. The large Latvian diaspora abroad and the considerable proportion of the country’s population with poor Latvian language skills constitute an important group alongside other traditional target groups of Easy Language, and accord- ingly create opportunities for its future development. 2 Historical perspectives The idea of Easy Language came to Latvia from Sweden in the second half of the 1990s, when representatives of the Latvian Umbrella Body for Disability organ- isations Sustento, made a study visit to Stockholm to visit various organizations, including the Easy Language Centre. The idea of introducing Easy Language in Latvia was born immediately, in the first meeting with the Easy Language Centre in Sweden, and so co-operation with the Swedish Easy Language Centre (Centrum för lättläst, see chapter on Sweden) began. This work was completed in 2014, after which additional resources were sought for materials. The first book published in Easy Language was Milda dzīvos Rīgā (Milda will live in Riga), written by Britt Nedestam and Dace Uzore (1999). The original text and illustrations of the Latvian girl Milda, who begins her independent life, was prepared in co-operation with the day care centre for people with intellectual disabilities. A new organization, the Easy Language Agency (Vieglās Valodas aģentūra), was founded in 2000. It has been the only organization in the country that is 306 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Latvia constantly and resolutely active in the field of Easy Language for different target groups. Through the agency’s work, Easy Language is becoming increasingly familiar and is now used by many different organizations. Easy Language has developed in Latvia in several different ways. Initially, the Easy Language Agency relied solely on the experience gained in Sweden and only produced materials for people with intellectual disabilities. The agency consisted of teachers from special education institutions, who joint- ly produced various materials and organized other activities. The activeness of the Easy Language Agency led to an increased national interest in Easy Lan- guage, particularly in special schools for children with intellectual disabilities. In 2001, for the first time in Latvia’s history, following the initiative of the Easy Language Agency, all municipal election materials were prepared in Easy Language, including informative posters and a booklet Kā vēlēt? (Do you know how to vote?). In the mid-2000s, several Easy Language publications were issued by the Gaismas School (Gaismas skola) and the Boarding School for Hard-of-Hear- ing and Deaf Children of Valmiera (now the Gaujaskrastu skola), as well as by the Pelču Special Boarding School-Development Centre (Viduskurzemes pamatskola – attīstības centrs). During this time, some teaching materials were also published, for example, Ģeogrāfija. Vieglā valodā (Geography in Easy Lan- guage, Āboliņa 2002). In 2009–2010, the World Association of Free Latvians (PBLA) published different materials for teaching and learning the Latvian language. The publi- cations in this area were merely an attempt to demonstrate the need for Easy Language; the opportunities for its use have not yet been fully determined. In 2014, the Latvian Umbrella Body for Disability organizations SUSTEN- TO participated in the EU project Tourist Guides for People with Intellectual & Learning Difficulties in Europe. As part of this project, tourism guides from five countries, including Latvia, acquired the necessary skills and knowledge to be able to fully involve people with intellectual development disabilities or learning difficulties in tourism activities. The guides learned to use Easy Lan- guage, both verbally and in writing. Some of them said that the knowledge of Easy Language helped their everyday work. Nevertheless, not many specific tourist groups actually use Easy Language for guiding tourists. In 2016, the © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 307 Gunta Anča, Irīna Meļņika Zelda resource centre for people with psychosocial disabilities carried out a project to train different service providers to use Easy Language in communi- cation and when preparing information. In 2015–2017, most of Latvia’s ministries created an ‘easy-to-read’ (Viegli lasīt) homepage section, for which the Easy Language Agency prepared texts in Plain Language. Despite the effort to include the Easy Language section on the websites, its information was limited to a brief description of the ministry’s activities and contact information. Each ministry made this section at its own discretion, and no common approach to these issues was developed at the public administration level. For a long time, the activities of many organizations, including the Easy Language Agency, were limited due to a lack of national interest and pub- lic awareness. However, by 2019, interest in the need for Easy Language had increased, possibly due to the new EU legislation on accessibility to public websites. This gave rise to the restoration of the Easy Language Agency and its activities. 3 Current situation Easy Language is becoming increasingly recognizable in society, facilitated by the need to use it on the official websites of public administration institutions. The circle of Easy Language users is expanding, and the demand for Easy Lan- guage is growing accordingly. Although national legislation does not include a strict requirement to use Easy Language as a form of communication, thanks to the active involvement of various stakeholders, the use of Easy Language is increasing. 3.1 Definitions Latvia uses Easy Language definitions from various other languages such as Swedish and English, as well as those used by other organizations such as Inclusion Europe and IFLA (the International Federation of Library Associa- tions). Latvia has yet to adopt an official definition of the Easy Language (vieglā 308 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Latvia valoda) that was developed in Latvia at the end of the 1990s and is still in use today. In Latvia, the most commonly used definitions are based on IFLA 1997: 1. Easy Language is a simplification of linguistic text that makes it easier to read, but not easier to understand the content. 2. Easy Language is a simplification of text, content, and form that makes it easy to read and to see content. The work of the Easy Language Agency is based more on the second definition, since it is considered that not only the creation of text should be in line with the basic principles of Easy Language, but also the structure and design of the text. Easy Language is divided into three levels in accordance with Swedish practice: Level 1 is the simplest and Level 3 is the most complex. Some coun- tries also have a fourth level which in English translates into Plain Language, but to date, Latvia has no corresponding level. Due to the lack of a stable, commonly understood term in Latvian, a number of different terms are used, for example, vienkāršā valoda (plain language), atvieglotā valoda (relieved language). It is still difficult to draw a strict line between Easy and Plain Language, mainly because there are no commonly accepted definitions of the differences between them. Unfortunately, this leads the individuals who are responsible for the publication of information to do what they believe to be best, inevitably resulting in increased use of Plain Language instead of Easy Language. This makes the information more difficult to read, through no fault of the writer. 3.2 Societal and legal contexts In 1999, when Easy Language was new in Latvia, the government developed the concept of ‘Equal Opportunities for All’ (Vienlīdzīgas iespējas visiem) to enable the inclusion of people with disabilities in society, and for the first time, it acknowledged the need for Easy Language at a national level. The concept included publishing Easy Language editions in Latvia in a similar way to that in Sweden. Different kinds of texts were planned, containing, for example, information on society and everyday life, fiction, and news. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 309 Gunta Anča, Irīna Meļņika Unfortunately, the programme never passed the official recommendation stage and the state institutions responsible for its implementation, i.e., the Ministry of Welfare and the Ministry of Education and Science, showed no particular activity in this area. There is still no legislation in Latvia to determine the need for the use of Easy Language. The only official regulation is based on the Directive (EU) 2016/2102 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and on the acces- sibility to websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies. Based on this, the website of Latvia State institutions should also include the heading Viegli lasīt ‘Easy to Read’. However, the rules do not state what information the ‘Easy to Read’ section should include and what level of Easy Language should be used. This decision is left to the authorities. In practice, this means mainly contact information and a brief description of the work of the institution, rather than up-to-date information. 3.3 Stakeholders Although there is no consistent policy on the use of Easy Language in Lat- via, different stakeholders recurringly engage in working with one of the Easy Language audiences. The public authorities periodically show an interest in Easy Language. The Ministry of Education and Science has prepared some training tools for spe- cial school children with intellectual disabilities. This result does not neces- sarily correspond to the basic principles of Easy Language but at least gives teachers something they can use in their work. The Ministry of Welfare has developed accessibility guidelines which also include a section on the acces- sibility of information. This section has a part on Easy Language as one of the tools for accessing information. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Minis- try of Health prepared information on rules for emergencies in Easy Language. This information was supported by the World Health Organization (WHO). The Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs are interested in providing information that is accessible to migrants. One of the most interested bodies in recent years, which has encouraged a number of co-operation projects with the Easy Language Agency, is the Lat- 310 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Latvia vian Language Agency. The projects concern the use of Easy Language for the Latvian diaspora and minority students. They offer a training programme and regularly provide teacher training in the use of basic Easy Language principles to improve the perception of learning materials. A video about Easy Language has also been created for teachers, and the methodology for learning basic Easy Language principles is available online for teachers to use in their everyday work. The University of Latvia is also interested in the development of Easy Language. In 2020, it initiated an Erasmus+ project for further developing Easy Language in Latvia. The Latvian capital city, Riga City Council has recently shown an interest in preparing information in Easy Language. Easy Language is to become part of their accessibility strategy. Training is arranged for the staff of the City Council’s one-stop agencies to improve their communication with clients. Two higher education institutes in Latvia work in the field of Easy Language in special pedagogy. The Liepajas University of Pedagogy (Liepājas Pedagoģi- jas universitāte) has a special education faculty from the Soviet times. They still have students on courses of special education. These students together, with their teachers, prepare texts for special education purposes. They work in close co-operation with the Liepajas Livupes primary school for children with intellectual disabilities. Many teaching materials are created for children with severe intellectual disabilities. In another higher education institute, the Rezekne Academy of Technologies (Rēzeknes Tehnoloģiju akadēmija), students on both levels – bachelor’s and master’s degrees – complete a special training course on alternative communication of which Easy Language is a part. Non-governmental organizations play the most important role in the development of Easy Language in Latvia. Easy Language materials, books, training courses, and other activities have been funded by different projects in co-operation with different national partners, focusing on the accessibility of information. Most commonly, these partners are organizations that work with one or more of the Easy Language target groups. The day care centre for people with intellectual disabilities, Saule, was one of the first to start using Inclusion Europe guidelines in Latvia. Inclusion Europe also arranged Easy Language training for social workers. At the moment, Easy Language is only used inside © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 311 Gunta Anča, Irīna Meļņika the day care centre as a tool to communicate with clients. In some projects, different non-governmental organizations have promoted Easy Language. The resource centre for people with mental disabilities, Zelda (Resursu centrs cilvēkiem ar garīgiem traucējumiem Zelda), regularly works with the staff of the Municipal Police by providing training on communication with people with mental disabilities, of which part is Easy Language theory and practice. The non-governmental organization Papardes zieds (Biedrība Papardes zieds) works with issues of sexual and reproductive health prepares information on sex-related issues for students with intellectual disabilities. The Easy Language Agency (Vieglās Valodas aģentūra) is the only non- governmental organization that does not represent any particular group but that has set itself the goal of promoting the development of Easy Language in Latvia to ensure that information is accessible to everyone. 3.4 General attitude As the use of Easy Language in Latvia has no systematic approach, most com- monly, it is occasionally used in different projects that include the prepara- tion of information in Easy Language or the training of employees or other target groups. Professionals, i.e., teachers, social workers in day care centres and some ministry officials who work with target groups have only a partial understanding of Easy Language and do not develop a wider vision of its use or its benefits for society. For a long time, the most important challenge in Latvia was the lack of guidelines tailored to the specific features of Latvian. This hampered a com- mon understanding of the conformity or non-compliance of text with Easy Language requirements. A huge challenge is the lack of public awareness of the need for Easy Language and the importance of promoting an accessible information idea. Part of the public is in denial of an audience with perceptual disorders because it considers their inability to capture information their own problem which does not require seeking a solution as a society. In general, the lack of understanding and lack of interest of the state and society has led to fragmented, unsystematic and unco-ordinated activities in the field of Easy Language. For example, information on state and local au- 312 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Latvia thorities’ and institutions’ websites is legally required to be in Easy Language, but there is no common understanding of how to do this. This often results in not only an incomplete but sometimes a totally non-functional publication, which in the worst case leads to discrediting Easy Language. Therefore, building a common understanding and methodology is a major challenge and the objectives can only be achieved through the co-operation of all stakeholders. Governmental influence is of paramount importance for both the development of a single policy on access to information and the provision of the necessary financial resources. 4 Target groups In the early 2000s, when Easy Language arrived in Latvia, people with different kinds of disabilities were generally considered the target group – the deaf, peo- ple with intellectual disabilities, etc. At the moment, the Easy Language Agency, as the only organization in the country that promotes Easy Language, sees a much wider audience for Easy Language, including people with disabilities due to different causes, but also people without disabilities. Governmental institutions use increasingly complex language to avoid pos- sible accusations of providing incomplete, ambiguous information. Modern society on the whole is less and less willing to read a complex text to understand the idea it contains. Therefore, Easy Language will become increasingly neces- sary not only in specific target groups, among which its need is determined by objective preconditions, but also for a much wider audience, which is simply not ready to perceive complex information. However, Easy Language is still primarily used in Latvia for only certain target groups. Currently, the first and most important target group of Easy Language is people with intellectual disabilities. According to the statistics of Latvia, around 16 000 people with intellectual disabilities currently live in the country. Some of these stay at home and visit day care centres but many are in institu- tions. The exact number of people with dyslexia in Latvia is unknown but may be about 5% of the population. Unfortunately, not enough attention is paid to © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 313 Gunta Anča, Irīna Meļņika the needs of this group, many of which are students placed in special schools, whose education is poor and inefficient. Deaf people are a very specific target group of Easy Language in Latvi- an. Those with a prelingual hearing impairment have very poor language and need Easy Language for reading, but many claim to need only sign language. Schools for children with hearing impairments still use Easy Language to pre- pare teaching materials. Statistic shows that about 15% people have different levels of hearing impairments in Latvia. In addition to the groups already mentioned are people with psychoso- cial disabilities, elderly people with cognitive disabilities, diaspora, people for whom Latvian language is not their mother tongue, and people with brain injuries or who have suffered a stroke. All of these may benefit from the Easy Language system. A sensitive issue is the use of Easy Language without compromising human self-esteem. Some Easy Language audiences, such as deaf people or seniors, are keenly receptive to texts in Easy Language, but the general public attitude is that they are less valuable to society because they use Easy Language. Literary translations into Easy Language face a similar problem – part of society sees them as low-value, literally discrediting publications. 5 Guidelines Previously, Latvia had no specific Easy Language guidelines of its own. Their development began in late 2020 in co-operation with the University of Latvia, Vilnius University and three non-government organizations – the Easy Lan- guage Agency (Vieglās valodas aģentūra), the Information Collection and Dis- semination Centre (VšĮ Informacijos kaupimo ir sklaidos centras) in Lithuania, and the Risa Institute, Centre for General, Functional and Cultural Literacy (Zavod RISA, Center za splosno, funkcionalno in kulturno Opismenjevanje) in Slovenia. Until the development of these guidelines, Easy Language was used in Latvia on the basis of the Swedish guidelines. The Vieglās valodas vadlīnijas (Easy Language guidelines) were translated into Latvian by the Easy Language Agency but were not officially published. 314 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Latvia The current Easy Language Guidelines divide the basic principles of easy language into six different categories: text formatting, morphology, lexicology, syntax, text design, and illustrations in Easy Language texts. Each of these cate- gories includes both the well-known basic principles of easy language accepted elsewhere in the world and recommendations appropriate for the specifics of the Latvian language. In Latvian, for example, the meaning of verbs changes according to prefixes. The same verb with three different prefixes results in three words of different meanings. Therefore, the need for the use of the prefix should be carefully considered. Latvian also tends to use a great deal of aux- iliary sentences, separating them with commas and sometimes creating long cascades of auxiliary sentences. This complicates the perception of the text, because it is not clear which auxiliary sentence refers to which word and the basic idea of the sentence is lost. For an illustration of the Latvian guidelines, see Appendix 1. The Towards adult education for people with intellectual disabilities, carried out in the 2007–2009 project by Inclusion Europe with the support of the European Union’s Lifelong Learning Programme, was important for Latvia. The Latvian partner organization Saule, the day care centre for people with intellectual disabilities, first adapted the guidelines for the use of Easy Language in adult education for people with intellectual disabilities. 6 Practical outcomes Latvia does not have many publications in Easy Language and most of those that exist were published in the first half of the 2000s. There are several reasons for this. During this time, the Easy Language Agency was actively supported by funding from Sweden. In addition, other financial resources were relatively easily available, as Latvia had not yet joined the European Union. However, later, the lack of funding, as well as the poorer capacity of the Easy Language Agency, significantly reduced the number of editions. Only a few materials were adapted on the different websites. An available source of current news in Easy Language is a daily radio news programme that summarizes the most important information of the day in a small overview. Since 2019 however, the © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 315 Gunta Anča, Irīna Meļņika Easy Language Agency has resumed its activities more actively and has already produced visible results with several national and international projects, as well as its involvement in international activities in this field. 6.1 Media As national legislation does not state that Easy Language must be used to en- sure access to information, and due to a lack of funding for this type of project, Latvia has not developed any media in Easy Language. In 2001, the Easy Language Agency published a newspaper in Easy Lan- guage, Spārni (Wings), which compiled social information. The newspaper was part of a small project and had only six editions. In 2016, in co-operation with the Latvian State Radio and Easy Language Agency, radio news in Easy Language was also launched. The idea was taken from a similar broadcast in Finland (see chapter on Finland), and experts from the Easy Language Agency trained radio journalists in Easy Language on several occasions. The news is read once a day and summarizes the most significant events of the day. The same messages can also be read on the lsm.lv social media portal. 6.2 Literature Latvia does not have many Easy Language literature publications. Any that do exist are published as part of specific projects. In the early 2000s, the Easy Lan- guage Agency launched the Latvian Classics Library series in Easy Language. Unfortunately, funding was only available for two books – Noveles (Anča et al. 2004a) and Pasakas (Anča et al. 2003). A colouring book for children was produced that explained the meanings of Latvian sayings – Mana krāsojamā parunu grāmata (Anča et al. 2004b). The fairy tale Rūdis (Sunda et al. n.d.), a story about troll with an intellectual disability was also translated from Swedish. Although several works of Latvian literature classics have been translated into Easy Language and adapted to a specific audience, most frequently for pupils of special schools, none are available as a general release publication (e.g., fairy tales about flowers written by famous Latvian author Anna Sakse – Pasakas par ziediem, n.d.). They are only available online and for work with 316 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Latvia pupils at each particular school. Several books are available for children among the diaspora, to assist in language learning: Roku rokā (Cīrule et al. 2001), Easy and Understandable Latvian Grammar, Latvian Language Book 2, etc. 6.3 Informative texts In the first half of the 2000s, the Easy Language Agency also issued information booklets on various topics such as banking, employment, and sexuality, as a part of several projects. For instance, Banka (Bank), Kā atrast darbu (How to find a job), Pazīsti savu ķermeni! (Get to know your body!), Ieva un Aleksis (Ieva and Alex), Ieva (Ieva), Aleksis (Alex), Cilvēks kas strādā (A person who works), Kas ir pašvaldība (What is a municipality?). Several translations of policy documents have emerged in recent years, for example, the Easy Language Agency translated information from the UN on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disa- bilities, and the Academic Information Centre translated information on the functioning of the National Contact Point for the purposes of their website. 6.4 Other projects The Easy Language Agency, as a partner of the University of Latvia, participates in the Promoting the use of easy language for social inclusion Erasmus+ project. The project is carried out together with colleagues from Lithuania and Slovenia and will run until autumn 2022. Its overarching goal is to improve linguistic and communicative inclusion. It directly targets two big groups: po- tential Easy language translators and writers, who are responsible for creating information for people with permanent or temporarily limited reading profi- ciency. The project has several activities. A comparative study has been conducted of the project countries’ situations in terms of the acceptance of Easy language by people with permanently or temporarily limited reading proficiency, and Easy language writers, transla- tors and researchers on the one hand, and the acceptance of Easy language by society at large on the other. The project aims to comparatively study the © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 317 Gunta Anča, Irīna Meļņika situation in the selected countries over the span of two years in order to accu- rately measure results. A comparative study of Easy language guidelines has also been conducted in Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia. It created the grounds for the analysis of core shared and language-independent aspects for forming the basis of com- mon European training contents. The training opportunities for Easy language translators in the selected countries were compared and further developed as an online course. This gives grounds for exploring the opportunities for a future professional certification for Easy language translators to enhance recognition of their roles and their career profile. Multi-language dictionaries of synonyms have been developed which con- tain recommended words, complemented by lists of semantic primes, and Easy Language materials that might be repurposed in different training situations. The project develops graded readers, Easy Language level descriptors and per- formance standards. The Latvian Ministry of Education and Science is currently implementing an unprecedented project in Latvia in the field of educational resources. It involves the adaptation of three-level digital learning resources to students in grades 7–9. The adaptation of Level 1 teaching materials is intended for chil- dren with severe intellectual disabilities and is carried out by the Easy Language laboratory at the University of Liepaja, Faculty of Pedagogy & Social Work. The adaptation of Level 2 teaching materials is intended for children with moderate intellectual disabilities and is prepared by the Easy Language Laboratory of the Rezekne Academy of Technology. The Easy Language Agency is preparing the adaptation of teaching materials for pupils without intellectual disabilities but with significant perceptual disorders. 7 Education and research In Latvia, the Easy Language Agency provides practical seminars (8–32 aca- demic hours) on the possibilities for using Easy Language and the basic princi- ples of adaptation and preparation of texts. The seminar programme includes a short introduction to Easy Language and its history in Europe, and information 318 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Latvia on different target groups and their different needs. It also covers the rules of preparing and adapting Easy language texts according to the needs of different audiences. Practical text adaptation training is provided for participants to develop their skills and to teach them to use theoretical knowledge in practice. ‘Easy Language as an aid to teachers in creating an inclusive learning envi- ronment and ensuring the availability of learning content’ (Vieglā valoda kā palīglīdzeklis pedagogiem iekļaujošas mācību vides veidošanā un mācību satura pieejamības nodrošināšanā) is a new professional competence development training programme developed especially for teachers. Its aim is the adaptation of teaching materials. The Easy Language Agency operates training courses for different groups in society, including social workers, public relation specialists, educators, and local government employees, whose work focuses on informing the public and serving customers. Participants also include employees of various institutions such as the Welfare Ministry, the State Revenue Service, Riga City Council, and Latvian radio. These courses take place within the framework of various other projects, as well as through the funding of companies interested in training themselves. No Latvian universities specialize in the field of Easy Language, which un- fortunately means limited academic research on and no higher education in the language. Although various aspects of its use have been studied by students from different universities in their bachelor’s and master’s degrees, the main work has been in radio news and the use of Easy Language as an aid for the integration of immigrants and refugees, as well as its use for children with intellectual disabilities. 8 Future perspectives Further development of Easy Language could take a number of important directions. First, national legislation should be designed to set the standards and uses of Easy Language in different areas, not only on the websites of na- tional and local authorities. Second, a single strategy should be developed that includes communication between public authorities and customers (written © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 319 Gunta Anča, Irīna Meļņika and verbal) and training of service providers. Third, Easy Language should be seen as a communication tool not only for people with disabilities but for a much wider audience, thereby reducing the stigma created by Easy Language. Discussion with the Latvian Parliament to develop clear and understand- able legislation on royalties has begun. Work has also started on developing legislation on using Easy Language in public places. An academic base for Easy Language should be established, involving differ- ent universities representing specialist subjects such as linguistics, psychology and pedagogy. At the moment, some of the people involved in working on Easy Language issues are students, and hopefully this will lead to the beginning of an academic network in this field. The University of Latvia is already involved in the project and we hope that other Latvian Universities will be interested in following their example. A methodological basis should be established for the creation and assessment of the compatibility of Easy Language texts at different levels. Theoretical knowledge and best practices of other languages could be part of this basis, but it is important not to neglect the specific characteristics of the Latvian language. In co-operation with the Latvian Language Agency, an Easy Language methodology has already been developed for teachers. The next steps are to develop further methodologies for other professional groups who currently work with our target groups. We still need to create a strong network of professionals in the field of Easy Language. Therefore, different training programmes should be developed to provide Easy Language training for specialists who are capable and ready to adapt information according to the needs of each particular audience type. Currently we have one national media (Latvia Radio) in Latvia which pro- vides a short news programme every day. To improve the situation, a modern national media policy should be developed which considers Easy Language an integral part of the provision of information. The library for blind people in Riga is the only one that provides accessible information for different audi- ences, and they also have some material available in Easy Language. To make Easy Language materials accessible to everyone in Latvia, a national network of libraries should be built. This would ensure that Easy Language editions are available to everyone, regardless of their place in life. 320 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Latvia Although Easy Language is a necessity in our schools and for other target groups, still very few literary works have been translated into Easy Language. Therefore, in co-operation with the Ministry of Culture of Latvia, work has begun on the creation of the Latvian classical library. This would provide a selection of works from the most prominent Latvian authors for translation. In addition to this, one of the most outstanding modern Latvian writers, Nora Ikstena, has agreed to allow her work Mātes piens (Mother’s Milk, 2015) to be translated into Easy Language, making her an Easy Language ambassador. This will help reduce the stigma associated with the use of Easy Language. The greatest challenge in the future will be ensuring that the citizens of Lat- via understand the importance of Easy Language in ensuring that any person who needs information is able to receive it. Authors Gunta Anča has a master’s degree in Latvian language and literature and is the founder of the ‘Easy Language Agency’. She has co-authored several books in Easy Language. As a lecturer of the LUBDO SUSTENTO Training Centre, she conducts training on the accessibility of information, including the use of Easy language. Contact: gunta.anca@sustento.lv Irīna Meļņika has a master’s degree in journalism. She is the Chairperson of the Board of the Easy Language Agency. She takes a special interest in the issues of accessibility of information and its provision in state and municipal institu- tions, as well as in the business environment. In collaboration with the Latvian Language Agency, she is developing a curriculum and runs training courses for teachers on the use of Easy language. Contact: irina.melnika@vieglavaloda.lv © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 321 Gunta Anča, Irīna Meļņika References Āboliņa, Aina. Ģeogrāfija. Vieglā valodā [Geography. Easy Language]. Riga: Reto- rika A, 2002. Print. Access to EU law. Directive (EU) 2016/2102 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2016 on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applica- tions of public sector bodies. n.d. Web. 25 February 2021. . Aleksis [Alex]. Riga: Papardes zieds, Vieglās Valodas aģentūra, 2003. Print. Anča, Gunta; Aņisko, Rita; Banceviča, Inese; Ģēģere, Rasma; Kuike, Asja; Store, Dzintra; Šmite, Ilze; Varanauska, Dina; Vīksna, Maija, and Solveiga Zemdega. Pasakas [Fairy tales]. Riga: Vieglās Valodas aģentūra, 2003. Print. Anča, Gunta; Aņisko Rita; Banceviča, Inese; Ģēģere, Rasma; Kuike, Asja; Store, Dzintra; Šmite, Ilze, and Solveiga Zemdega. Noveles [Novels]. Riga: Vieglās Valodas aģentūra, 2004a. Print. Anča, Gunta; Aņisko, Rita; Banceviča, Inese; Ģēģere, Rasma; Kuike, Asja; Store, Dzintra; Šmite, Ilze; Varanauska, Dina; Vīksna, Maija, and Solveiga Zemdega. Mana krāsojamā parunu grāmata [My coloring book of say- ings]. Riga: Vieglās Valodas aģentūra, 2004b. Print. Auziņa, Una. Vieglā un saprotamā latviešu valodas gramatika [Easy and under- standable Latvian grammar]. PBLA, 2010. Print. Auziņa, Una. Roku rokā Latvijā [Hand in hand in Latvia]. PBLA, n.d. Print. Banka [Bank]. Riga: Vieglās Valodas aģentūra, n.d. Print. Central Statistical Bureau. Iedzīvotāju skaits un iedzīvotāju dabiskās kustības galvenie rādītāji pa mēnešiem [Population and main data of vital statistics by month]. n.d. Web. 24 February 2021. . Central Statistical Bureau. Latvijas iedzīvotāju nacionālais sastāvs [Usually resident po- pulation by ethnicity]. n.d. Web. 25 February 2021. . Cilvēks kas strādā [Person who is working]. Riga: Vieglās Valodas aģentūra, n.d. Print. Cīrule, Līga; Dmitrijeva, Ilona, and Aija Jezerska. Roku rokā. Vieglā latviešu valoda [Hand in hand. Easy Latvian]. Riga: LVAVP, UNDP, 2001. Print. Cross-Sectoral Coordination Centre Republic of Latvia. Latvijas ilgtspējīgas attīstī- bas stratēģija 2030 [Sustainable development strategy of Latvia until 2030]. n.d. Web. 25 February 2021. . Ieva [Ieva]. Riga: Papardes zieds, Vieglās Valodas aģentūra, 2003. Print. Ieva un Aleksis [Ieva and Alex]. Riga: Papardes zieds, Vieglās Valodas aģentūra, 2003. Print. 322 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Latvia IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions). Guidelines for Easy-to-Read Materials. Ed. Bror Tronbacke. The Hague: IFLA Headquarters, 1997. Print. IFLA Professional Reports 54. Ikstena, Nora. Mātes piens [Mother’s milk]. Riga: Diena grāmatas, 2015. Print. Kas ir pašvaldība? [What is a municipality?]. Riga: Vieglās Valodas aģentūra, 2001. Print. Pasakas par ziediem vieglajā valodā [Fairy tales about flowers in Easy Language]. n.d. Valmiera Gaujaskrastu secondary school – development center. Web. 25 February 2021. . Pazīsti savu ķermeni! [Get to know your body!]. Riga: Papardes zieds, Vieglās Valodas aģentūra, 2003. Print. Sunda, Čerstina. Rūdis [Rudis]. Riga: Vieglās Valodas aģentūra, n.d. Print. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 323 Gunta Anča, Irīna Meļņika Appendix 1. An illustration of guidelines for Easy Latvian. Standard Latvian Easy Latvian Var palīdzēt e-asistents Latvijā daudzus pakalpojumus var saņemt E-asistents palīdz cilvēkiem, elektroniski. kuriem ir grūtības pieteikt Tam ir vajadzīgs internets. nepieciešamos pakalpojumus Dažiem cilvēkiem internetu lietot var būt elektroniski. Šo pakalpojumu var sarežģīti. saņemt sev tuvākajā Valsts un Tāpēc Valsts un pašvaldību klientu ap- pašvaldību vienoto klientu ap- kalpošanas centros strādā e-asistenti. kalpošanas centrā, ierodoties per- Viņi var palīdzēt saņemt elektroniskos sonīgi un uzrādot pasi vai ID karti. pakalpojumus ikvienam. Darbinieks izdrukās un palīdzēs Jāatrod sev tuvākais apkalpošanas centrs. aizpildīt pilnvaru, uz kuras pamata Pie e-asistenta jānāk ar savu pasi vai ID pieteiks elektronisko pakalpojumu. karti. Ar e-asistenta palīdzību var pie- E-asistents izdrukās pilnvaru. teikt pabalstus VSAA, piemēram, Viņš to var palīdzēt aizpildīt. slimības, bezdarbnieka vai inva- Uz pilnvaras pamata e-asistents piesaka liditātes pabalstu u.c. E-asistenta vajadzīgo elektronisko pakalpojumu. pakalpojums ir bez maksas. Tā var pieteikt slimības vai invaliditātes https://www.sustento.lv/var- pabalstu. palidzet-e-asistents/ Var izmantot arī citus elektroniskos pa- kalpojumus. E-asistenta pakalpojums ir bez maksas. 324 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Latvia [The e-assistant helps people [Many services can be electronic in Latvia. who have difficulties applying for You need the internet. necessary services electronically. Some people may find it difficult to use the This service can be obtained at the internet. nearest State and local government Therefore e-assistants work in the State and customer service centre by visiting local government customer service centres. in person and presenting a pass or Find your nearest service centre. ID card. The employee will print Come to the e-assistant with your pass or and help you fill in the power of ID card. attorney on the basis of which the The e-assistant will print the power of electronic service will be submitted. attorney and With the help of an e-assistant, you help you fill it. can apply for benefits to The State The power of attorney lets the e-assistant Social Insurance Agency: sickness, apply for the electronic service you need. unemployment or invalidity ben- You can apply for sickness or disability efits, etc. The e-assistant service is benefits, etc. free of charge.] E-assistant service is free.] © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 325 Eglė Šumskienė, Miglė Baltrūnaitė Easy Language in Lithuania 1 Introduction Lithuania has a population of 2.8 million. The official language in the country is Lithuanian, and the other main languages are Russian and Polish. Lithuanians make up about 80% of the population of Lithuania. Lithuanian is also spoken by the autochthon Lithuanian populations in some border areas of Poland and Belarus, and by numerous Lithuanian expatriates in other countries (Subačius 2002: 3). This means that more than three million people consider Lithuanian their mother tongue. The Lithuanian language, like the other Baltic languages, belongs to the Indo-European language family, and seems to have changed more slowly than other Indo-European languages, as the contemporary forms of these languages have features similar to those of such ancient languages as Sanskrit, Greek and Latin (Schmalstieg 1982). However, the late development of standard Lithua- nian offers certain advantages to learners of the language. Even native speakers believe that pronunciation is almost entirely consistent with spelling: that is, that the words are pronounced exactly as they are spelled. One letter usually corresponds to one sound (Subačius 2002: 6). In Lithuanian, verbs are conjugated according to person, number, tense, aspect, voice, etc. The verb changes in accordance with the person it is referring to; for example, aš einu ‘I go’, but ji eina ‘she goes’, and the number of subjects: aš einu ‘I go’, but mes einame ‘we go’. The tenses in Lithuanian are the present, past, past frequentative, and future tenses. Aspect connects the Lithuanian verb to the flow of time, for example, tu eidavai ‘you used to go’ and tu ėjai ‘you went’, both relate to the past, but the former is frequentative. Voice indicates the passive or active actor; for example, aš matau ‘I see’ and aš esu matomas ‘I am being seen’ (Cooljugator n.d.). © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 327 Eglė Šumskienė, Miglė Baltrūnaitė Due to the ancient features of Lithuanian grammar, most foreign students find it a very difficult language to learn. Some learners are frustrated by the mobile stress in the different forms of the same word, which sometimes outwits even native speakers. All this is the heritage of Proto-Indo-European, traps set for the learner of Lithuanian by the history of sounds. The very concept of an ending is difficult to grasp if a person speaks only English. It can be frustrating to have to learn five declensions, each with seven cases, both in the singular and the plural (Subačius 2002: 6). People with disabilities comprise 8.43% of the total Lithuanian population. In 2019, 15 359 children had some type of officially recognized disability. The total number of people with disabilities in Lithuania is 236 000 (data from the Lithuanian Department of Statistics 2019). Twenty-nine per cent of people with disabilities are employed. The users of Easy and/or Plain Language in Lithuania include people with an immigrant background (73 751 individu- als), people with dementia (31 944), and people with poor reading skills or low education. In accordance with to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), 77 800 people in Lithuania are graded ISCED 0 (less than primary education), ISCED 1 (primary education), or ISCED 2 (lower secondary education). 2 Historical perspectives For 50 years, Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union and implemented an exclu- sion- and isolation-based disability policy. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Lithuania inherited a widely developed network of large residential social care institutions for people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities. The decades of exclusion that people with disabilities had experienced had resulted in stigmatizing attitudes towards them, a lack of awareness of their rights in society, and a restriction-oriented disability policy. Since 2004, Lithuania has been a Member State of the European Union, and important developments in the field of disability are related to the country’s international commitments. One of these obligations is the deinstitutionali- zation of care for people with disabilities, which started in 2014. The essence 328 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Lithuania of this reform is to help people with disabilities to live in the community as equal citizens, to promote their rights, and foster the culture of inclusion. Deinstitutionalization leads to a holistic transformation of the lives of people with disabilities and aims for inclusion in the community, the provision of community-based services, and living arrangements, employment, supported decision-making, etc. These developments also require an adjusted and disability-friendly infor- mational environment, including information available in Easy Language. Un- like in the ‘old’ Member States of the European Union, these developments in Lithuania are new and rather random, instead of coherent and alleged processes. The development of Easy Language in Lithuania began in early 2000, thus its history is currently being slowly created. This process has been facilitat- ed by the international commitments initiated and propagated by disability non-governmental organizations and funded by international donor organiza- tions. However, still today, the development of Easy Language is insufficiently prioritized on the disability policy agenda as well as in discourse. 3 Current situation 3.1 Definitions Easy Language is a variety of Lithuanian language, the comprehensibility of which has been maximally enhanced. It is defined by international guidelines such as ‘Information for All: European Standards for making information easy to read and understand’, developed by Inclusion Europe in 2009, and has concrete rules adapted to the peculiarities and features of the Lithuanian language, although this adaptation is rather unofficial and based on solitary ad hoc initiatives. For example, the Lithuanian Forum of Disability Organizations defines Easy Language as a new, essentially simplified text, prepared on basis of original information. It is dedicated to those users for whom linguistically sim- plified text is insufficient and who are in need of additional visual information that supplements the textual information (Internetas visiems 2018: 59). Terms synonymously used in Lithuania include lengvai skaitoma kalba (easy-to-read © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 329 Eglė Šumskienė, Miglė Baltrūnaitė language), lengvai suprantama kalba (easy-to-understand language) and lengva kalba (Easy Language). 3.2 Societal and legal context Easy Language and Plain Language are not explicitly mentioned in any Lithu- anian laws or legislation. Plain Language is not used in Lithuania. The Lithu- anian legal system lacks directions and provisions on Easy Language. Certain laws, such as the Law on the rights of patients and compensation of damage to their health (Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas. Lietuvos Respublikos pacientų teisių ir žalos sveikatai atlyginimo įstatymas 1996-10-03), stipulate that: The patient, upon presentation of the documents confirming his identity, shall be entitled to receive information about his state of health, diagnosis, methods of treatment or examination applied in the health care institution or alternatives known to the doctor, potential risks, complications, side-effects, the prognosis of the treatment and other circumstances that may have an effect on the acceptance or rejection by the patient of the proposed treat- ment, as well as about the consequences of rejecting the proposed treatment. The doctor must give the patient this information in a comprehensible form, taking into account his age and state of health, explaining special medical terms. (Art. 5 Right to Informa- tion, official translation) Since Easy Language is a new phenomenon and is not widespread, society lacks knowledge and awareness of it. Thus, it is not possible to estimate whether there is public support for Easy Language or opposition against it. On the one hand, the Government has to comply with certain international obligations (e.g., obligations of the UN Committee for the Rights of Persons with Disa- bilities (CRPD)), one of which is ensuring accessible information for certain groups of people with disabilities, but on the other hand, a comprehensive and systemic attitude towards Easy Language is lacking, which in turn results in the absence of research, training, and legislation in this field. 330 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Lithuania Easy Language has not yet become part of the disability policy of govern- mental and administrative bodies. Certain governmental institutions (such as the Department for the Affairs of the Disabled under the Ministry of Social Security and Labour) have piloted some ad hoc initiatives by providing infor- mation in Easy Language. For example, since 2015, the website of the Lithua- nian Department of Disability Affairs has contained the text of the UN CRPD in Easy Language. In addition to these institutions that are directly responsible for disability policy, some other governmental institutions have also introduced initiatives. One such example is the Important and Easy Understandable In- formation on the Parliamentary Elections on 11th October 2020. The Law stipulates that all information related to the elections, including debates, party programmes and voting bulletins, must also be provided in Easy Language, and this initiative was jointly developed by the Central Electoral Commission and Society for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities, Viltis. Such initiatives are the result of the long-lasting advocacy efforts of disability organizations. 3.3 Stakeholders In addition to the abovementioned advocacy efforts directed at governmen- tal institutions, disability non-governmental organizations provide expertise, initiate projects, and publish information in Easy Language. Two main organ- izations working in the field of Easy Language are Viltis (Society for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities) and the Lithuanian Forum of Disability Or- ganizations. Both organizations participate in international projects that aim for the inclusion of people with disabilities. They also publish texts in Easy Language, collaborate with governmental institutions, and develop standards and guidelines for the usage of Easy Language in Lithuania. In addition to these initiatives, Viltis publishes texts in Easy Language on a regular basis in their quarterly magazine as well as information in Easy Language on their website 1. In Lithuania, no sustainable regular funding is available for the promotion of Easy Language. Certain solitary non-governmental initiatives receive pro- ject-based funding, but this ends when the project ends. This type of funding 1 Society for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities ‘Viltis’, www.viltis.lt. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 331 Eglė Šumskienė, Miglė Baltrūnaitė is characterized by a lack of sustainability and feasibility. Governmental initi- atives are a recent phenomenon; they are very few in number and are funded from the state budget. Since they started only several years ago, it is not yet possible to assess their sustainability and feasibility. 4 Target groups The target groups of Easy Language include people with disabilities: individ- uals with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities, dementia, or multiple/com- plex disabilities. Easy Language is also useful for a number of people without disabilities, such as illiterate individuals, or those with an immigrant back- ground. Another important group is people with dyslexia, who face difficulties in institutions of higher education. Some universities provide information and recommendations for their teachers on helping students with dyslexia, which include using larger fonts and pictures and allowing additional time during exams. Some educational material and tools provide guidance for parents and teachers about the learning and teaching process of students with dyslexia. One such instance is a free online book called ‘Simply about Dyslexia’ published by the Lithuanian Library for the Blind in 2020. The book is dedicated to parents of children with dyslexia to help them understand their needs and reveal their strengths and potential. Other books about dyslexia, such as ‘The Archipelago of Dyslexia’ (Gedutienė 2017) or ‘Dyslexia – from Evaluation to Overcoming’ (Gedutienė 2018) focus on the educational needs of students with dyslexia. 5 Guidelines The first guidelines, recommendations and standardization of Easy Language in Lithuania appeared in the last decade. Since then, only a few guidelines or recommendations have addressed Easy Language and adjusted it to the Lithua- nian context. In most cases, they have been the result of international projects, and their dissemination and active usage has ended at the end of the respective project. Among these publications are the European Recommendations on 332 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Lithuania developing texts in Easy Language, and the ‘Shift in business, public sector, and society: new standards fighting discrimination’ guide on standards and recommendations for developing information in Easy Language. The ‘Easy Reading. Information about writing texts in Easy Reading’ guide was originally written by the Swedish author Ulla Bohman, and was translated into Lithuanian and adjusted to the Lithuanian context in 2016. The guide contains information on the concept of Easy Reading and the key components of text, including content, language, layout, and pictures. The language part is adjusted to the Lithuanian context and discusses certain features of the Lithu- anian language that might impede understanding of texts. The guide suggests avoiding words with a double meaning, such as indas, which means both cit- izen of India and a dish; or metaphoric expressions such as ‘something is as unnecessary as a fifth foot for a dog’. However, other linguistic features of the Lithuanian language and issues related to its grammar are omitted from this guide. For an illustration of these guidelines, see Appendix 1. Some of the above-mentioned projects’ products are no longer available or accessible after the they ended. Such a lack of continuity also means that new Easy Language initiatives cannot rely on earlier developed platforms and have to start from scratch. Such a trend leads to a lack of true ‘ownership’ of the theme, a lack of sustainability of the products developed, and a lack of a system- ic, holistic approach towards the development of Easy Language in Lithuania. 6 Practical outcomes These diverse initiatives by civil society, governmental institutions, media rep- resentatives, and international partners have led to some practical outcomes. Among these outcomes are a journal, websites, a TV Show, and guidelines, developed during joint projects. These are presented below. 6.1 Media A good, long-existing example of a publication containing information in Easy Language is the Viltis journal. Since 1997 it has been published quarterly by © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 333 Eglė Šumskienė, Miglė Baltrūnaitė the Society for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities – Viltis. This journal covers more than mere disability issues, and also focuses on other aspects of social life that are relevant for everyone: travelling, achievements, summer camps, projects, news on policy and legislation, etc. One of the main projects related to Easy Language is the development of a website about Easy Language. The website, which itself is in the Easy Language format, was developed in collaboration among the Lithuanian Forum of Dis- ability Organizations and the Swedish organization Centrum för Lättläst, the Latvian Easy-to-Read agency, and Viltis. The project aimed to increase society’s awareness of disability. However, despite the importance and necessity of this initiative, the website is currently inactive and inaccessible. Another current media project called Aš galiu (‘I can’) began on the 1st July 2015 and continues today. The project is implemented by a private television channel and the Department for the Affairs of Disabled under the Ministry of Social Security and Labour. The goal of this project is to inform society of disabilities, to raise awareness of the rights of people with disabilities, and to fight stigma, stereotypes, and incorrect practices in all fields of life. The information includes disability-related articles, reports, messages, and aware- ness-raising initiatives. A significant part of this information is also provided in Easy Language. Although the project aims to follow broader aims such as initiating relevant discussions in society, it explicitly focuses on issues related to disability and mainly addresses audiences of people with disabilities. The messages developed and broadcast by the project lack broader societal aspects that could be translated into Easy Language. The European recommendations for texts in Easy Language were devel- oped in the framework of an international project co-ordinated by Inclusion Europe and funded by the European Commission, Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency under the Grundtvig Programme (2007‒2009). The outcomes of the project were four methodological aids for professionals on how to develop texts in Easy Language. A ‘Puzzle’ project (Developing easy-to-read formats for people with intel- lectual disabilities) was implemented in the framework of the Erasmus+ KA2 - Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices programme in 2016. The project aimed to facilitate access to information, education, and 334 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Lithuania training for young people and adults with intellectual disabilities in Greece, Poland and Lithuania. The trainers and experts of the project were from the Swedish Agency for Accessible Media and the RIX Research & Media Centre at the University of East London in the UK. The project resulted in the ‘Easy Reading. Information about writing texts in Easy Reading’ guide, which is briefly described in Section 5. In 2018, another project-based activity was implemented by the Lithuanian Equal Opportunities’ Ombudsman and the Lithuanian Forum of Disability Organizations and funded by the European Social Fund Agency. A project called ‘Shift in business, public sector, and society: new standards fighting discrimination’ focused on fighting discrimination and raising awareness of the needs of vulnerable populations. The emphasis of this project was on vulnerable groups’ participation in the labour market and educating employ- ers about their particular needs. Part of this project focused on fostering the participation of people with intellectual disabilities in the labour market. The project’s website (Lietuvos Respublikos lygių galimybių kontrolieriaus tarnyba ir Lietuvos negalios organizacijų forumas 2021) contains useful resources for institutional support, educational materials, research, and legislative data. 6.2 Literature Good examples of literature in Easy Language are scarce. In 2020, the Lithuani- an Library for the Blind issued a book about coronavirus in Easy-Read format. Originally, this book was published in English for children ‘Coronavirus: A Book for Children about COVID-19’. It has now been translated into Lithua- nian and adjusted according to the requirements of Easy Language. Some publishing houses have experimented with the easy-to-read concept and adjusted the literature to the needs of children. These adjustments include shorter sentences, larger fonts and pictures. However, these books are not spe- cifically dedicated or adjusted to the needs of people with disabilities, and do not correspond to the requirements of Easy Language. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 335 Eglė Šumskienė, Miglė Baltrūnaitė 6.3 Informative texts Informative texts in Easy Language are important because they enable reaching all target groups and providing them with relevant information. Some websites occasionally provide certain information in Easy Language, but this is not a frequent practice. One of the main governmental institutions that actively provides information in Easy Language is the Department for the Affairs of Disabled. Some instances are the UN CRPD in Easy Language and information in Easy Language about COVID-19. Another active organization in disability rights issues is the Lithuanian Forum of Disability Organizations. They also publish texts in Easy Language on their website. One of their initiatives is the provision of commentaries on the UN CRPD in Easy Language. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, this website was currently inactive. Viltis is also active on social media. On its Facebook page, Viltis shares texts and information on the rights of people with intellectual disabilities in Easy Language. The ‘Independent living’ association has recently issued two publications on the UN CRPD in Easy Language. The editors of these publications involved people with intellectual disabilities as lay experts, who were responsible for proofreading the texts and providing feed- back and comments. The final versions of these publications were corrected and adjusted according to their remarks. These publications are accessible online: UN CRPD General Remark No 4 on Inclusive Education (in Lithuanian) and UN CRPD General Remark No 7 on Working with Disability Organizations (in Lithuanian). As already mentioned in Section 2, one of the newest informative texts is related to the parliamentary elections – Important and Easy Understandable Information about the Parliamentary Elections on 11th October 2020. It was jointly developed by the Central Electoral Commission, the Lithuanian Forum of Disability Organizations and Viltis. 6.4 Other projects Some cultural objects also provide information in Easy language. The National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania is one of the most popular museums in Vilnius. Its exhibition includes a description in Easy Language. 336 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Lithuania Some Vilnius University professors participated in this initiative and helped draft information in Easy Language. One of these was Associate Professor Violeta Gevorgianiene, according to whom these descriptions do not fully cor- respond to the requirements of Easy Language, but the simple texts developed by disability experts are helpful for understanding the information (personal communication with Violeta Gevorgianiene, 2020). It is worth noticing that some upcoming large-scale cultural events in Lith- uania aim to be accessible to people with disabilities. A good example of this is the ‘Kaunas for all. Design for happiness. Kaunas 2022’ guide, dedicated to a year-long cultural event in Kaunas – Capital of Europe in 2022. In a friendly and stylish manner, this publication provides information on the main prin- ciples of Easy Language on social media, in social networks, and in cultural events, emphasizing the needs of people with diverse disabilities. The Declaration of Riga, signed by the EU Member States in 2006, recom- mends that equal participation of all citizens in the Digital Society is more than just a social necessity. It is also an economic opportunity that should also be offered to people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups. The European Commission adopted documents related to the implementation of (EU) Di- rective 2016/2102 of 26th October 2016 on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies. The Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/2048 of 20th December 2018 on the harmonized standard for websites and mobile applications was drafted in support of (EU) Directive 2016/2102 of the European Parliament and of the Council. As a result, in 2018, the Lithuanian Forum of Disability Organizations together with the Equal Opportunities Ombudsman Office developed a guide called ‘Internet for all’ on digital information and recommendations for adjusting the digital environ- ment to the needs of people with disabilities. Some chapters of this guide are dedicated to the principles of Easy Language. As mentioned above, the process of deinstitutionalization of care of people with disabilities is currently underway in Lithuania. The official website ded- icated to deinstitutionalization (Pertvarka 2021) also includes information in Easy Language, as well as some basic information on the main principles of Easy Language. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 337 Eglė Šumskienė, Miglė Baltrūnaitė 7 Education and research One of the main activities in Lithuania related to education on Easy Lan- guage was an EU-funded project called ‘Development of Special Teaching Aid’, in 2004. An independent experts’ group was formed, which provided consultations and recommendations for the development of special teaching aid and textbooks. In the framework of the project, these recommendations were translated and adjusted to the Lithuanian context. Unlike other initiatives, the establishment of the independent experts’ group is set in legislation and still functions today. In 2005–2007, the development of textbooks for children with special needs began. It was based on the principles of Easy Language and a set of principles. The EU provided support and covered the publishing costs of these textbooks. The main principles were that the content corresponded to the stu- dents’ cognitive abilities; that the methodological system was applicable to diverse learning styles; and that the visual material, text design, language style, and complexity corresponded to the students’ cognitive abilities. According to the teacher and teaching aid author, Mrs. M. Pošiūtė-Žebe- lienė (cited in Ragickaitė 2016), adaptation of textbooks is a very complicated process: the text needs to be shortened, and some parts might be lost. It also requires agreement with the authors as to what can be modified without losing meaning. In some cases, a middle ground between the requirements of Easy Language and the original text is chosen, which means adjustment of the text- book material, avoiding unnecessary visualization or associations, and keeping only the information needed to form basic abilities. This requires competent pedagogues who can work with and adjust the teaching materials and explain them in Easy Language. In Lithuania, no research has been conducted on Easy Language, except for some thesis written in recent years. Although these students’ works only scratch the surface of the entire complexity of this theme, they can be considered the first, promising initiatives. One example is the master’s dissertation: ‘Devel- opment of layouts of publications “General Comments of the United Nations Committee on the rights of people with disabilities”’ written by social work stu- dent Kristina Dūdonytė in the Alytus University of Applied Sciences in 2020. 338 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Lithuania She involved people with intellectual disabilities as consultants in the writing process. The dissertation resulted in an Easy Language publication called ‘The right of people with disabilities to obtain a good education in the same places as people without disabilities’ (Savarankiškas gyvenimas 2020), which is available online and thus has significant potential for practical application. Vilnius University social work student Migle Baltrunaite is currently work- ing on her master’s dissertation ‘Accessibility of information in Easy language for people with intellectual disabilities in Lithuania’ (2021). The goal of this dissertation is to identify the most relevant areas in the lives of people with intellectual disabilities and to evaluate the availability of information in Easy Language in these areas. 8 Future perspectives The knowledge about and responsibility for Easy Language should be divided and shared between disability non-governmental associations, governmen- tal institutions, and academia. Moreover, a knowledge centre or a think-tank should be established to take over the ownership of the topic, accumulate the necessary know-how, advocate the development of the necessary legislative measures and take responsibility for international collaboration with foreign experts, researchers and change agents in the field. A meeting in the form of a seminar, workshop or roundtable could help gather all the national experts and stakeholders together and facilitate further joint actions. These could be the first measures for moving forward with this important theme, to establish a platform, and switch from sole initiatives to a systemic change. It is also worth noting that during the process of preparing this chapter, new, relevant information on new initiatives in this theme emerged constantly, which proves that the subject of Easy Language is currently gaining momentum in Lithuanian society. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 339 Eglė Šumskienė, Miglė Baltrūnaitė Authors Eglė Šumskienė is Associate Professor and Director of the Institute of Sociol- ogy and Social Work at Vilnius University and Head of the ‘People and places: transformations of communities’ welfare in the process of deinstitutionaliza- tion of care services’ Research Group. Miglė Baltrūnaitė is a master’s student in the Department of Social Work and Social Welfare at Vilnius University, and a social worker in the ‘Open Com- munity’ daycare centre for adults with intellectual disabilities. References Bohman, Ulla. Lengvas skaitymas. Informacija, kaip rašyti lengvai skaitomus tekstus [Easy Reading. Information about writing texts in Easy Reading]. 2016. Web. 1 December 2020. . Cooljugator. n.d. Web. 5 February 2021. . European Commission. Riga Declaration adopted during the Ministerial Conference in Riga. 11 June 2006. Web. 3 February 2021. . European Migration Network. The website of the European Migration Network. 2019. Web. 1 February 2021. . Gedutienė, Reda. Disleksijos archipelagas [Archipelago of dyslexia]. Klaipėda: Klaipėdos universiteto leidykla, 2017. Print. Gedutienė, Reda. Disleksija ‒ nuo įvertinimo iki įveikos [Dyslexia – from evaluation to overcoming]. Klaipėda: Klaipėdos universiteto leidykla, 2018. Print. Gevorgianiene, Violeta. Personal communication. Autumn 2020. Institute of the Hygiene. 2020. Web. 1 February 2021. . Jenner, Elizabeth; Wilson, Kate, and Nia Roberts. Informacija lengvai skaito- ma kalba apie koronavirusą (COVID-19) [Coronavirus: A book for children about Covid-19]. Vilnius: The Lithuanian Library for the Blind, 2020. Web. 1 February 2021. . Jones, Mike. Apie disleksiją paprastai [Dyslexia explained]. Translated by Jūratė Jo- lanta Žeimantienė. Vilnius: The Lithuanian Library for the Blind, 2020. Print. Also 340 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Lithuania available at . Lietuvos negalios organizacijų forumas [Lithuanian Forum of Disability Organizations]. Internetas visiems. Prieinamos skaitmeninės informacijos rengimo vadovas [Internet for everyone. Guide for accessible digital information]. Vilnius: Lietuvos negalios organizacijų forumas, 2018. Web. 5 February 2020. . Lietuvos negalios organizacijų forumas [Lithuanian Forum of Disability Organiza- tions]. Žmonių, turinčių negalią, teisė balsuoti [Right to vote for persons with disabi- lities]. Vilnius: Lietuvos negalios organizacijų forumas, 2020. Web. 5 February 2021. . Lietuvos Respublikos lygių galimybių kontrolieriaus tarnyba ir Lietuvos negalios or- ganizacijų forumas [Lithuanian Equal Opportunities’ Ombudsman and the Lit- huanian Forum of Disability Organizations]. Pokytis versle, viešajame sektoriuje, visuomenėje – nauji standartai diskriminacijos mažinimui [Shift in business, public sector, and society: new standards fighting discrimination]. 2018. Web. 5 February 2021. . Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas. Lietuvos Respublikos pacientų teisių ir žalos sveikatai atlyginimo įstatymas [The law on the rights of patients and compensation of the damage to their health] (1996). Adopted on 1996 10 03; I-1562 Parliamentary re- cord, 1997-07-01, Nr. 7. Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas. Lietuvos Respublikos Seimo rinkimų įstatymas [The law on the elections to the Seimas]. Nr. VIII-1870, 2000 07 18, Žin., 2000, Nr. 59-1760. Lietuvos statistika [Statistics Lithuania]. 2020. Web. 1 February 2021. . My Languages. n.d. Web. 5 February 2021. . Neįgaliųjų reikalų departamentas prie Lietuvos Respublikos Socialinės apsaugos ir darbo ministerijos [Department for the Affairs of the Disabled under the Ministry of Social Security and Labour]. Informacija lengvai skaitoma kalba apie koronavi- rusą (COVID-19) [Easy to read information about Coronavirus]. 2020. Web. 30 December 2021. . Pertvarka. Valstybės vaiko teisių apsaugos ir įvaikinimo tarnyba prie Socialinės apsau- gos ir darbo ministerijos [The State Child Rights Protection and Adoption Service under the Ministry of Social Security and Labour]. Website on the deinstitutiona- lization of care. Web. 10 March 2021. . Ragickaitė, Brigita. Su neįgaliais vaikais dirbanti mokytoja apie tai, kas jų laukia baigus mokyklą [Teacher working with children with disabilities about their fu- ture after graduation]. 26 September 2016. Web. 2 February 2021. . Savarankiškas gyvenimas [Independent living]. Žmonių su negalia teisė gauti gerą mokymą ten pat, kur mokosi žmonės be negalios [The right of people with disabilities to get a good education in the same places as people without a disability]. Vilnius: Savaran- kiškas gyvenimas, 2020. Web. 5 February 2021. . Schmalstieg, William R. “Lithuanian. The Origin of the Lithuanian Language.” Quarterly Journal Of Arts And Sciences 28.1 (1982): N. pag. Print. Also available at . Society for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities ‘Viltis’. n.d. Web. 5 February 2021. . Statistics Lithuania. 2020. Web. 1 February 2021. . Subačius, Giedrius. The Lithuanian Language: Traditions and Trends. Vilnius: Inter Se, 2002. Print. Also available at . Tutlytė, Jūratė, and Gediminas Banaitis-Skrandis. Kaunas visiems. Di- zainas laimei. Kaunas 2022 [Kaunas for all. Design for happiness. Kaunas 2022.] Kaunas: n.p., 2020. Web. 5 February 2021. Xanthidis, Dimitrios, and Paul Nikolaidis. People with disabilities in the digital era: a basic review of the policies and the technologies. 2015. Web. 2 February 2021. . 342 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Lithuania Appendix 1. An illustration of guidelines for Easy Lithuanian. Standard Lithuanian Easy Lithuanian Tik įtraukus švietimas gali užtikrinti Kodėl įtraukus mokymas yra svarbus? neįgaliųjų kokybišką išsilavinimą ir Įtraukus mokymas yra labai svarbus. socialinį vystymąsi bei garantuoti, kad Jis gali padėti žmonėms su negalia: įgyvendinant teisę į mokslą būtų laiko- • gauti gerą mokymą, kas yra jų teisė; masi visuotinumo ir nediskriminavimo • būti labiau savarankiškiems ir išmok- principų ti daugiau įgūdžių; Neįgalūs besimokantieji gauną pagalbą, • prisijungti ir būti kažko dalimi; skirtą užtikrinti veiksmingą perė- • vėliau gauti darbą ir pasisekimą savo jimą nuo mokymosi mokykloje prie gyvenimuose. profesinio ir aukštojo išsilavinimo bei Įtraukus mokymas gali padėti visiems: galiausiai išėjimo į darbą. Ugdomi • gauti geresnį mokymą; besimokančiųjų gebėjimai ir pasitikėji- • išmokti apie vienas kitą ir gerai mas savo jėgomis, besimokantiesiems sutarti. sudaromos tinkamos sąlygos, jie ver- Source: Žmonių su negalia teisė gauti tinami ir egzaminuojami lygiateisiškais gerą mokymą ten pat, kur mokosi pagrindais, jų gebėjimai ir pasiekimai žmonės be negalios. (2020), https:// yra sertifikuojami lygiai su kitais savarankiskasgyvenimas.lt/wp-content/ asmenimis. uploads/2020/07/1-leidinys.pdf Įtrauki ugdymo aplinka – tai prieinama aplinka, kurioje kiekvienas jaučiasi saugus, palaikomas, skatinamas bei galintis išreikšti save ir kurioje yra daug svarbos teikiama besimokančių- jų įtraukimui į pozityvios mokyklos bendruomenės kūrimą. Pripažįstamas bendraamžių vaidmuo mokymosi procese, kuriami pozityvūs santykiai, stiprinama draugystės saitai ir formuo- jamos palankaus požiūrio nuostatos. Source: Neįgaliųjų teisių komitetas Bendroji pastaba Nr. 4 (2016) dėl teisės į įtraukų švietimą, http://www.ndt.lt/wp-content/uploads/ Comment-4_Education_vert_final.pdf © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 343 Eglė Šumskienė, Miglė Baltrūnaitė Standard Lithuanian Easy Lithuanian [Only inclusive education can provide [Why is inclusive education important? both quality education and social Inclusive education is very important. development for persons with disabil- It can help people with disabilities: ities, and guarantee universality and • get a good education that is right for non-discrimination in the right to them education. • do more on their own and learn Learners with disabilities receive sup- more skills port to ensure the effective transition • join in and be part of things from learning at school to vocational • get a job later on and do well in their and tertiary education, and finally lives to work. Learners’ capacities and Inclusive education can help everyone: confidence are developed and learners • get a better education] receive reasonable accommodation and equality in assessment and examination procedures, and certification of their capacities and attainments is on an equal basis with others. Inclusive learning environments must create an accessible environment where everyone feels safe, supported, stimu- lated and able to express themselves, with a strong emphasis on involving students themselves in building a posi- tive school community. Recognition is afforded to the peer group in learning, building positive relationships, friend- ships and acceptance.] 344 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Xavier Moonen Easy Language in the Netherlands 1 Introduction In December 2020, about 17.5 million people lived in the territory of the Dutch kingdom. For most inhabitants, Dutch Standard Language is their native lan- guage. It is also the native language of most inhabitants of Flanders in Belgium, of Suriname in South America, of several islands in the Caribbean, and of some smaller groups of people throughout the world. The estimated number of Dutch native speakers worldwide is about 25 million. The linguistic border between Dutch and German has been established gradually and its precise location is largely due to political factors. A ‘dialect continuum’ remains and any boundary drawn in the historical continuum between a Dutch and a German dialect will always be arbitrary. The origins of Dutch Standard Language lie in Old Low Franconian, because of the dialec- tic differentiation within the West Germanic group. As Dutch Standard Lan- guage, like every language, changes over time, the Dutch Language Union 1, in Dutch-Flemish co-operation, has been given a mandate to review and make recommendations on the official spelling of Dutch Standard Language. Dutch Standard Language is the official language taught in schools in the Netherlands and used by the government and in the public domain in legis- lation, administration, commerce, media etc. In addition to Dutch Standard Language, the Netherlands has two other official languages. The first is the standardized West Frisian Language, spoken by around one million people, mainly in the Dutch province of Friesland. The second is the Dutch Sign Lan- guage, which was officially recognized in the Netherlands in September 2020. Of the possible 230 000 sign language users in the Netherlands, Dutch Sign 1 Taalunie, https://taalunie.org/. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 345 Xavier Moonen Language is the first language for 40 000. As regards the Frisian Language, offi- cial recognition implies that all chapters of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ETS No. 148; 1998) 2 are applicable in, for instance, culture, education and juridical procedures. The consequences of the recent official recognition of Dutch Sign Language imply that the Dutch government should take measures to also meet these obligations for Dutch Sign Language. Furthermore, the Netherlands has a variety of regional languages and dia- lects. These are a form of language that people speak in particular parts of the Netherlands and other Standard Dutch-speaking countries. These dialects con- tain some different words and their grammar also varies. Dialects are nowadays mainly used in day-to-day communication between people within a region and are used to express and support regional cultural identity in conversations, films, literature, poetry, etc. Dutch dialects and regional languages are not spoken as often as they once used to be (Driessen 2006). Some researchers consider children who are raised speaking the Dutch standard language as well as a regional language or dialect to be multilingual (Cornips 2012). Cor- nips shows that multilingualism (in her research defined as the combination of learning both the Limburgish regional language and the Dutch Standard Language) helps children master both languages better. An interesting and relatively new phenomenon is Street Language, used by youths who mainly live in the larger Dutch cities. Street Language incorporates elements of, for example, Italian, American, Moroccan (Arabian or Berber), Turkish, Sranatongo (Surinam) and Papiamento (Dutch Antilles). Research on the question of whether the use of Street Language harms or benefits the mastering of Dutch Standard Language is inconclusive (Cornips and de Rooij 2017). An aliterate person is someone who can read but does not do so because of a lack of motivation (Moser and Morrison 1998). Acquiring sufficient ver- bal and reading skills is considered to be of utmost importance to succeed in today’s Dutch society. If families pay little attention to reading and writing, a child’s language development can lag behind, and this poses a fair risk that as an adult, the child will not function on the required Dutch 2F language level 2 European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, https://rm.coe.int/1680695175. 346 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the Netherlands (see section 3 for a definition). In the Netherlands, the motivation to read and the development of reading skills of youngsters and adults is stagnating. Nielen and Bus (2013) claim that a large group of average readers in Dutch elementary school (about 62% of the pupils) have shown a significant decline in reading motivation over the years. According to their research, half of Dutch adolescents consider reading of any kind an obligation only, and not an activity to be enjoyed. In 2019, the triennial Organization for Economic Co-operation and Devel- opment (OECD) PISA study (Program for International Student Assessment) was updated. The figures showed that the reading skills of Dutch 15-year-olds had deteriorated, up to point at which 24% could not read at the required Dutch literacy level (Gubbels et al. 2019). Dutch children and adults increasingly combine (electronic) media use with other activities or use multiple media simultaneously (media multitasking; Foehr 2006). Due to the of diminished ability to switch cognitive tasks, the quality of the reading experience can de- teriorate if reading is interrupted frequently, as other things require immediate attention. Decreased concentration can lead to diminished understanding of a text and subsequently to less enjoyment. The Reading:Time (Lees:Tijd) report published by the Dutch Social and Cultural Planning Bureau (SCP; Wennekers et al. 2018: 85) makes this relationship clear: the more people combine reading with other (general or media) activities, the less absorbed they are in what they read. The report states that the current low level of reading motivation will negatively impact the future reading skills of the whole Dutch population. Currently, around 30% of all Dutch adults do not read at all. Based on the 2013 PIAAC figures (Program for the International Assess- ment of Adult Competencies), the 2018 factsheet on low adult literacy, which was published by the Foundation for Reading and Writing (Stichting Lezen en Schrijven 3), claims that about 2.5 million adults in the Netherlands, of whom 1.8 million are aged between 16 and 65, experience difficulties with reading, writing and/or arithmetic calculations. Often, they also have inadequate digital skills. More specifically, 273 000 people have difficulty understanding spoken and written language, 1.1 million people have difficulties with spoken or writ- 3 Stichting lezen en schijven, https://www.lezenenschrijven.nl/. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 347 Xavier Moonen ten language and arithmetic, and almost half a million people have difficulty with arithmetic only. This concerns women more than men and the issues increase with age. About 55% of the total group are Dutch born; the rest are mainly immigrants. Living with a physical or intellectual disability can be a challenge in the Netherlands. Over two million people in the Netherlands have a disability, including people with limited or no hearing or sight and those with physical or intellectual disabilities. Accessible communication is important for them and they would benefit from accessible language solutions. Due to all these changes in the general population, and for those with dis- abilities, in the Netherlands the need for Plain Language and Easy Language solutions is rising rapidly. 2 Historical Perspectives The official efforts to promote Plain and Easy Language use in the Netherlands are fairly new. Until recently, the Dutch government aimed almost exclusively to reduce low literacy by promoting Dutch Standard Language classes on the required level. In 2011, the Dutch government launched the Action Plan Low Literacy 2012–2015: Literacy in the Netherlands (Actieplan Laaggeletterdheid 2012–2015: Geletterdheid in Nederland) to promote literacy in the Netherlands. This plan describes an adult literate person as someone who can read, write and understand a short, simple statement about matters of everyday life. Generally, ‘literacy’ also encompasses ‘numeracy’; the ability to make simple arithmetic calculations. A person without knowledge of reading, writing and arithmetic whatsoever is termed illiterate. However, most people are not illiterate, but they have not mastered a sufficient level of literacy to function comfortably in society, which leads to major consequences for both the person and society. Youths aged below 16 should not be diagnosed with low literacy, but with ‘lan- guage deficiency’, as they are still in the process of acquiring reading, writing and arithmetic skills. Nevertheless, nearly one in five young people is at risk of becoming ‘illiterate’ according to the 2019 ‘Read!’ (Lees!) report of the Council for Culture and the Education Council. 348 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the Netherlands Subsidized by the Dutch government, in 2012 The Foundation for Reading and Writing developed a five-point action plan to reduce low literacy among Dutch citizens: (1) Low literacy should be placed on the agenda of politicians and the public, inspiring them to stimulate a positive learning culture for adults in which they can continue to develop themselves throughout life. One exam- ple is the Week of Literacy, held every September. During this week, people, companies and organizations are inspired to contribute to a society in which there is room for lifelong development, so that more people have the opportu- nity to learn to read, write, do arithmetic and more effectively use a computer or smartphone. This is important, as society will become stronger if everyone can participate. (2) Municipalities will receive advice to set up and implement a coherent approach to low literacy. Municipalities are in charge and can be supported by the Foundation. Through a ‘Growth Model Approach’ the Foun- dation provides support to municipalities and promotes regional and local policy development. The model helps determine goals and improvement points for a good integral approach. (3) Accessible learning opportunities will be pro- moted for adults in the areas of language, arithmetic and digital skills. Through sufficient formal (at school) and non-formal (e.g., with a friend) learning, the Foundation will try to provide good quality education that meets everyone’s needs. (4) Teaching materials and screening tools will be developed further, to find people with a low level of literacy and training will be provided for professionals and volunteers. This publication’s chapter on the development of Easy Language in Belgium describes several approaches to research on read- ability, which have also been developed or are applicable in the Netherlands. (5) Employers will receive help to address low literacy, so that employees can work on their basic skills in the workplace. Furthermore, a nationwide four-point action plan was developed in 2018 to prevent (functional) illiteracy among Dutch citizens: (1) Extra attention will be paid to (functional) illiteracy and low literacy within the family, by stimulating children to read more and by reaching parents who have language difficulties. (2) An integral family approach will be promoted in municipalities. (3) Investments in language and numeracy education will be promoted, so that the number of children leaving school with low language levels decreases. (4) Parties that play a role in the lives of young families will be connected, to © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 349 Xavier Moonen ensure that the new generation of toddlers begins elementary school at the appropriate language level. Considering all these measures to combat low literacy, it is remarkable that no comprehensive action plan to promote Plain or Easy Language has existed until now. Until recently, only occasionally were texts for the general public adapted into Plain Language. Texts were only sometimes written in Plain or Easy Language for special target groups (e.g., texts about vaccinations or the elections for people with disabilities). These adaptations have no official ground rules as no elaborated communication strategy has been presented. One of the first Dutch attempts to use Easy Language was that by a non-gov- ernmental private partner, as early as in 1994. To reach people with intellectual disabilities in accessible language, the OKEE newspaper (OKEE krant 4), distrib- uted by the publisher Simple Communication (Uitgeverij Eenvoudig Commu- niceren) was introduced. In 2002, the publisher Learn Online by Yourself (Leer Zelf Online 5) developed the Steffie 6 website to serve people with intellectual disabilities or (very) low literacy skills. The website can also be used by other people who benefit from Easy Language. Besides short and simplified texts, Steffie uses graphics and animated films to inform its users. 3 Current Situation Recently, the Dutch government adapted its communication strategies. Besides still promoting activities to reduce low literacy as mentioned, more attention is now paid to government communication in accessible language. These ac- tivities almost entirely aim for Plain Language solutions. 4 Uitgeverij Eenvoudig Communiceren, https://www.eenvoudigcommuniceren.nl/kranten/ okee-krant. 5 Leer Zelf Online, https://www.leerzelfonline.nl/home/. 6 Steffie, https://www.steffie.nl/. 350 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the Netherlands 3.1 Definitions As the Netherlands has carried out no official Plain Language (Dutch equiva- lent terms Direct duidelijk, heldere taal, klinkende taal 7) or Easy Language (no official Dutch equivalent term but sometimes referred to as Begrijpelijke taal 8) activities to date, the concepts have no official Dutch definitions. A scale is used for identifying a person’s level of language proficiency, which varies from 1F to 4F (Meijerink 2008). As the Dutch Government has set a 2F proficiency level as the required minimum level of language use and understanding for Dutch citizens (equivalent to the B1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR 9)), one could assume that this 2F level should be considered the Plain Language level. However, many citizens do not meet the criteria for mastering Plain Language at a 2F level. Unofficial estimates claim that more than 3 million adults, of which 2.5 million are classed as low literate according to the Foundation for Reading and Writing, urgently need language solutions on a more basic level. This means that they meet the criteria of the 1F proficiency level or even the 1F learners’ level. Easy Language could help this group of people better understand messages. The Netherlands has no officially established distinction between Plain Language and Easy Language, as there are no official Dutch ground rules for using these language variations. A communication can be considered to be in Plain Language if its wording, structure and design are so clear that the intended audience can easily find what they need, understand what they find, and use that information. 10 If people can read but cannot fully understand texts in Plain Language, Easy Language could be the solution for them. Easy Language is about making texts and language very easy to understand by, for example, writing short sentences, avoiding foreign words, and structuring con- tent in a meaningful way. This benefits those who encounter language barriers in today’s information society. Writing in Plain Language is growing in the Netherlands, whereas writing in Easy Language is not very common, except 7 Direct duidelijk, heldere taal and klinkende taal could be translated as ‘direct clear’ or ‘clear language’. 8 Begrijpelijke taal could be translated as ‘understandable language’. 9 Council of Europe, https://www.coe.int/en/web/language-policy/cefr. 10 Plain Language Association International, https://plainlanguagenetwork.org/plain-language/ what-is-plain-language/. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 351 Xavier Moonen for special groups such as people with intellectual disabilities. Speaking to listeners in Plain or Easy Language is rare in the Netherlands and to date, no formal training to learn or use it has been available. 3.2 Societal and legal context The Netherlands has so far not set governmental and private organizations any legal obligation to use Plain or Easy Language. At the turn of the millennium, the publishing of materials in Plain Language gradually spread to the internet, but no official guidelines were applied. However, since July 1st 2018, Dutch governmental organizations have been legally obliged to take the necessary measures to make their websites and mobile applications more accessible to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 11. After a long process before ratification in July 2016, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was introduced in the Neth- erlands. The purpose of this treaty is to promote, protect and safeguard the human rights of people with disabilities. The central concepts of the treaty are inclusion, personal autonomy and full participation in society. Accessible communication is one of the key issues of the treaty obligations. To date, the Dutch government has not passed any laws on the use of Plain Language or Easy Language with respect to the obligations of the UN CRPD. Aside from all the activities aiming to reduce illiteracy and low literacy, today the Dutch government and a growing number of private parties are becoming increasingly aware of the obligation to simplify the language level of (official) communication to avoid misunderstandings. 12 Dutch organiza- tions that are members of Plain Language Europe 13, and all public and private endeavours to address direct or clear communication (several words are used in the Netherlands for the same concept 14) aim to communicate at a Plain Language level (the Dutch 2F level (Meijerink 2008), equivalent to the B1 level of the CEFR). 11 Web Accessibility Initiative, https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/. 12 CommunicatieRijk, https://www.communicatierijk.nl/. 13 Plain Language Association International, https://www.plainlanguageeurope.com/nl/. 14 See footnotes 7 and 8. 352 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the Netherlands Despite all the public and private measures to reduce and prevent illiteracy and low literacy, to promote digital skills and to use clear communication at a 2F level, many Dutch people are still unable to understand texts produced by the central government, municipalities, insurance companies, medical doctors, commercial companies, and others. The Dutch Government does not directly financially support Plain or Easy Language publications such as the OKEE paper or the Steffie website on a structural basis. 3.3 Stakeholders Several organizations participate in the initiatives of the Dutch government such as the Immediately Clear project (Direct Duidelijk) and the Count in with Language programme. Several Dutch organizations are members of Plain Language Europe. The Foundation for Reading and Writing is the core Dutch organization that aims to reduce low literacy. The Alliance for Promoting Health Skills (Alliantie Gezondheidsvaardigheden 15), in which many Dutch health organizations work together, promotes accessible language solutions (mostly on a Plain Language level) for low literate citizens. Neither the Dutch Association of Organizations for the Care of People with Disabilities (Vereniging Gehandicaptenzorg Neder- land 16) nor Disability Studies in the Netherlands 17 actively use or promote Easy Language, although their interest is growing and contacts with the Language for All project have been established. Steffie, Readzone and Learn Online by Yourself are private partners that pro- mote accessible language solutions. The Language for All project has a number of associated partners, which can be found on the website. Most Dutch public libraries lend out a reasonable amount of Plain and Easy Language publications. Readzone (Uitgeverij Eenvoudig Communiceren 18) pub- lishes books for young readers and adults in easily accessible Dutch. In terms 15 Pharos, https://www.pharos.nl/factsheets/laaggeletterdheid-en-beperkte- gezondheidsvaardigheden/. 16 VGN, https://www.vgn.nl/. 17 Disability Studies in Nederland, https://disabilitystudies.nl/. 18 Readzone, https://www.readzonebooks.com/. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 353 Xavier Moonen of language difficulty, these vary between Plain Language and Easy Language. More information on both Readzone and Steffie is given in Section 6. Learn Online by Yourself (Leer Zelf Online 19) helps all kinds of vulnerable groups in society understand difficult information. It focuses on, for example, people with intellectual disabilities, seniors, low-literate people, migrants, chil- dren, prisoners, and clients of mental health care organizations. From work- ing with these target groups for years, Learn Online by Yourself has become specialized in explaining difficult subjects in understandable and accessible language and, where possible, using illustrations and animations. To serve people with intellectual disabilities, in 2020, some organizations that promote Easy Language use for people with intellectual disabilities began co-operation. Together they set up the Understandable Communication Net- work (Netwerk Begrijpelijke Communicatie 20). The endeavours of the members sometimes follow guidelines on accessible information (e.g., the Guidelines for Accessible Information (ICT4IAL)) 21. However, often their solutions are prac- tice based and many of the texts produced lack evidence-based solutions. The common elements of their writings are short, simplified texts, accompanied by pictures or drawings. Sometimes the organizations use a panel of self-advo- cates with intellectual disabilities as a sounding board for their text solutions, but state-of-the-art assessments of text comprehension are rarely conducted. 4 Target groups Due to the reasons mentioned in sections 1 and 2, there is an overall, urgent need to address the problems of people who have difficulties learning and using Standard Dutch Language. They form a heterogeneous group of both children and adults, who require various forms of help. People who have poor reading and writing skills, in both the traditional and new (electronic) media, are at risk of missing information that could be important for them, such as 19 Leer Zelf Online, https://www.leerzelfonline.nl/home/. 20 Netwerk Begrijpelijke Communicatie, https://begrijpelijkecommunicatie.nl/. 21 European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, https://www.european-agency. org/resources/publications/guidelines-accessible-information. 354 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the Netherlands drug information or a letter from their municipality or insurance company. Not comprehending the information in these texts and not acting accordingly may have a major impact on their personal lives. Research shows that someone who is not a skilled reader or writer is less likely to find a job, less able to live a healthy life, and less able to adequately control their finances (Pleijers and Hartgers 2019). Multiple target groups can benefit from Plain or Easy Language solutions: first, people who are learning Dutch as a second language. How quickly a person becomes a proficient Dutch language user depends on in-person factors such as language proficiency in the mother tongue, motivation and intelligence. When learning Dutch as a second language under unfavourable circumstances, people often do not speak, write or read Dutch Standard Language sufficiently well. People with a Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), which is a neurocognitive development disorder, make more mistakes while speaking and reading than those without a DLD. (Some) people with dyslexia, a disor- der in which a person has a persistent problem with spelling and reading at the word level, and children and adults with psychiatric classifications may have problems learning and using language, probably due to poor executive functioning. These people are at risk of missing the common thread in stories and their responses in words and in behaviour may be inadequate. Adults with severe psychiatric problems can sometimes become less fluent in language, as their previously undisturbed language comprehension and expression is influenced by the severity of the disorder or by the use of medication. This situation can be either temporary or permanent. Children and adults with hearing and visual impairments often have more difficulty acquiring and using Dutch Standard Language, especially when the special didactics required for their education are not met. If they have no other illnesses or impairments, their understanding of language need not necessarily be weakened. People with visual impairments benefit from clear fonts and large print. Blind people can use Braille. The preferred language of many prelingual deaf people is Dutch Sign Language. They may have difficulties learning, reading and understanding Dutch Standard Language and may thus perform below their chronological age, irrespective of their intelligence. People with motor problems may have difficulties reading and writing, although motor problems do not directly lead © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 355 Xavier Moonen to reduced understanding of a text. People suffering from dementia gradually experience difficulties understanding spoken language and written texts. Even if they have no intellectual problems, people with an autism spectrum disor- der can still experience difficulties with the symbolic aspects of the language and with communication. They can certainly benefit from clear and concrete language. People with intellectual disabilities have more difficulties learning and using, reading, writing and understanding language, although this varies between individuals. With adequate support and education, many people with mild or moderate intellectual disabilities can learn to read, write and perform (rudimentary) arithmetic calculations. However, applying these skills under daily life stress is often difficult 22. 5 Guidelines Dutch organizations using Dutch Standard Language at the 2F level, even those supported by the Dutch government, have no common framework for text and formatting. They rather rely on general (international) recommendations 23 and on their own preferred solutions, which may substantially differ from each oth- er. Most organizations working on language solutions for people who function on low literacy levels do not completely rely on evidence-based solutions. The levels of the texts they present vary in complexity and comprehensibility. Some of the solutions that these organizations use are backed by research evidence, but other solutions lack scientific grounds. The Language for All project builds on the European standards for making information easy to read and understand 24, the results of Dutch and interna- tional research on Plain and Easy Language, and on the research of the German Leichte Sprache (research discussed in the German contribution to this publi- cation). The ambition of the Language for All project is to use evidence-based 22 See also IFLA 2010, https://www.ifla.org/files/assets/hq/publications/professional-report/120. pdf. 23 For instance Plain Language Association International, https://www.plainlanguageeurope.com/ nl/. 24 Easy to read, https://easy-to-read.eu/european-standards/. 356 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the Netherlands solutions with respect to (easy) words, connected words, (the length and struc- ture of) sentences, added pictures, and graphs and layout. Current guidelines can be found on the website 25 and are altered if new research is convincing. For an illustration of the Dutch guidelines, see Appendix 1. In the Language for All project, collaboration with the representatives of the intended target readers or listeners is standard procedure, including the assessment of understanding and appreciation of the proposed texts. 6 Practical outcomes As clear definitions of Plain and Easy Language are missing in the Dutch con- text and neither concept is commonly used, practical outcomes have to be presented as accessible language outcomes on the levels of both Plain language and Easy Language. 6.1 Media, literature, informative texts One of the first Dutch attempts to address people with intellectual disabilities in Easy Language, the OKEE newspaper (OKEE krant by Uitgeverij Eenvoudig Communiceren) still publishes 10 issues annually, which are filled with infor- mation that is of interest for the intended readers with intellectual disabilities on subjects such as the elections, cooking or COVID-19 statistics. The Steffie website is still a very busy platform, used by people with intellectual disabilities or (very) low literacy skills, but also by people who otherwise benefit from Easy Language. In addition to short and simplified texts, graphics and animated films are also used to inform users. The topics presented are, for instance, health-related matters, money matters, ideas for free-time activities, and how to travel safely. Readzone (Uitgeverij Eenvoudig Communiceren) today publishes books for young readers and adults not only in easily accessible Dutch but also 25 Taal voor allemaal, https://www.taalvoorallemaal.com/producten/schrijven-in-taal-voor- allemaal. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 357 Xavier Moonen in German, English and Spanish (e.g., a German newspaper called Klar & Deutlich in Leichte Sprache). It publishes more than 100 books annually and offers publications on both Plain and an Easy Language levels. These books are partly abridged versions of popular novels and novellas and are original publications written to serve readers who appreciate Plain or Easy Language versions. Examples are books about World War II or sports such as soccer, or classic novels such as ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’, ‘Jungle book’, ‘Tom Sawyer’ and ‘The Little Prince’; and novellas such as ‘16 and pregnant’, ‘A dangerous friend’, ‘Top model’ or ‘Snow from Mars’. Dutch political parties are becoming increasingly aware of their low literate voters and are adapting their information to serve these voters, sometimes on a Plain Language level, sometimes using a form of Easy Language. Many good examples of health information in Plain Language, sometimes even in Easy Language, can be found on, for example, the Pharos 26 website (texts, graphs and animated films). Examples are ‘how to communicate with your general practitioner’ ‘how to use your medication’ and ‘working with your physiotherapist’. During the COVID-19 crisis, official government information has been translated into Language for All and made accessible in Easy Language for people with intellectual disabilities. This information can be downloaded for free and can be found on the Language for All website 27. 6.2 Other projects Two projects that promote accessible language for Dutch-speaking citizens have recently been set in motion. Notably, both projects promote the use of Plain Language. The first is the Immediately Clear (Direct Duidelijk 28) project: a (Plain Lan- guage) project that calls on everyone to communicate in such a way that they take their intended readers into account as much as possible. What questions 26 See footnote 15. 27 Coronavirus, https://www.taalvoorallemaal.com/zoekresultaten?e=suggest&q=coronavirus. 28 Direct duidelijk heldere overheidscommunicatie, https://www.directduidelijk.nl/. 358 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the Netherlands do readers have about the subject; what information do they expect to re- ceive, and what do they already know about the subject? Communicators are asked to consider how to best help these readers. Communication should be personal. Texts should be written as clearly as possible, using understandable (although Plain) language (simple sentences and understandable words) and clear structures. Communication should be supported by images whenever possible. In 2018, co-operation was set up between the Dutch Immediately Clear campaign and the equivalent Flemish endeavour under the supervision of the Dutch Language Union. The second programme is the Count in with Language (Tel mee met Taal 29) programme, which carries out measures to improve the digital skills of Dutch citizens. Central government and local municipalities are committed to ex- panding this support network. In March 2019, the Alliance Digital Society (Alliantie Digitaal Samenleven 30) was launched, in which public and private parties, knowledge institutions and experienced experts work together to dig- italize the Netherlands. A solution to promote accessible language among people who both are and are not proficient on the 2F level is the Language for All project (Taal voor allemaal 31). This project was initiated by Professor Xavier Moonen and his team at the University of Amsterdam and the Zuyd University of Applied Sciences Heerlen, in collaboration with Koraal, a Dutch provider of services for people with intellectual disabilities, youth care and education 32. The Language for All project aims to provide tools for creating easily accessible language products (written, online and spoken) for as many people as possible who need these language products. If people with (very) low reading skills and low text com- prehension abilities (i.e., with limited deep reading skills 33) are included in the target reader (or listener) group, the text should be on a level equivalent to the Dutch 1F or CEFR A2. 29 Tel mee met taal, https://www.telmeemettaal.nl/. 30 Alliantie digitaal samenleven, https://digitaalsamenleven.nl/. 31 Taal voor allemaal, www.taalvoorallemaal.com. 32 Koraal, https://www.koraal.nl/. 33 ThoughtCo, https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-deep-reading-1690373. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 359 Xavier Moonen The Language for All method differs from other Dutch language approaches in two ways. First, it does not use Plain Language and favours Easy Language solutions. That is, Language for All texts are on a 1F (A2, CEFR) or even a CEFR A1 level, depending on who the text is targeting. Second, when the language product is meant to be accessible to the general public, no Easy Language solu- tions for special groups are used. For instance, no special texts are provided for people with mild intellectual disabilities who can read or for people who use Dutch as a second language. The founders of Language for All find that these solutions do not promote inclusion, and inclusion is obligated by the ratifica- tion of the UN CRPD. They consider special texts to be essentially exclusive in nature. This insight should be discussed in the future on an international level among scholars who promote Easy Language in their respective countries. However, if special solutions can help people with very low language skills to better understand a message (mostly on an A1 level) and do not intentionally exclude these people, a tailormade solution in Language for All may be pos- sible. As a rule, Language for All tries to cover as many recipients as possible with one solution on an Easy Language level; that is on a CEFR A2 level. In Germany the Leichte Sprache plus is an equivalent solution (see the German contribution to this publication). Language for All was inspired by the negative experiences of Dutch organizations working with Plain Language solutions, such as the City of Amsterdam and several insurance companies. Despite pro- viding information on a CEFR B1 level, many people still did not understand their messages, resulting in a multitude of telephone calls, no-shows and online requests for help. Thus, they adapted The Language for All concept. Many of the available Dutch online tools for indicating the level of difficulty of a text are not based on high quality research, and the algorithms used do not reflect rigorous research. An important Dutch research project on several aspects of accessible language (on a 2F or equivalent B1 CEFR level), was the programme of two scientific research organizations, the Dutch Association for Scientific Research (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) and the Netherland Care and Cure research center (Zorg Onderzoek Nederland: ZonMw): Accessible Language (Begrijpelijke Taal) 2010–2017. Several Dutch 360 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the Netherlands language research groups and private partners participated in the project 34. The research included accessible language in financial communication, voting assistance, promoting health education and low health literacy, and the meas- urement of the comprehensibility of texts. One of the results of the project is the Knowledge Base Comprehensible Text 35, which includes the results of Dutch comprehensible language research and international research on text compre- hension in both Dutch and English. Other interesting state-of-the-art research is that by Suzanne Klein on the use of cloze-testing for assessing text readability and that by Henk Pander-Maat on an evidence-based tool for analysing the level of readability of Dutch texts (Kleijn et al. 2019, Pander Maat et al. 2014). 6.3 Ethical considerations A subject to be researched and discussed on a national and international level concerns the ethical aspects of applying accessible language. Many intended readers are only able to read and process a limited amount of information. The concepts on which this information is based may be very difficult for many of the intended readers to grasp. This implies that using accessible language (on both a Plain and Easy Language level) is not only about finding solutions on a word or sentence level, or through layout and illustration, but also about reflecting on the way in which the information is presented and on the amount of information that the intended readers or listeners can absorb. Not presenting all the information available could be considered a discriminatory act, as it prevents citizens having full access to all information. However, this can also be considered a dilemma. If these citizens had full access to all information, their lacking deep reading skills would prevent them from understanding this (complex) information and they would possibly not read this long, complex text at all. In Germany, legislation prescribes that, if a person so desires, all in- formation should be translated into German Easy Language (Leichte Sprache). However, are the intended readers really able to understand this full and often dense information even if it is in Easy Language? The Language for All Am- 34 NWO, https://www.nwo.nl/onderzoeksprogrammas/begrijpelijke-taal. 35 Knowledge Base Comprehensible Text, http://www.kennisbank-begrijpelijketaal.nl/en/. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 361 Xavier Moonen sterdam project chose another solution. After being tested by the very het- erogeneous group of intended readers (all citizens of Amsterdam), compact information was presented in an attractive format for all citizens. To ensure full access to all the information available, a sentence was added to the compact information: ‘for this subject, many rules and regulations apply and you can find them on the Amsterdam website www…..etc. On this website you also can find more information on the subject’. This website information was on a Plain Language level (that is, on a 2F or equivalent CEFR B1 level). 7 Education and research With two exceptions, no high-quality training is available in the Netherlands on how to learn and how to write Plain or Easy Language on any educational level. Academic training on the aspects of Plain Language or Easy Language is also lacking. Several private companies offer training modules for writing texts in Plain Language, but these differ in quality. The first exception is the Alliance for Promoting Health Skills (Alliantie Gezondheidsvaardigheden), in which the partners share knowledge and solutions (mainly on a Plain Lan- guage level, but sometimes in Easy Language) with people who have trouble reading and understanding written medical and health-related texts, and who are at risk of developing health problems and do not appropriately monitor their own health. The public knowledge base of the Alliance presents several solutions, of which some are based on research results 36. The second exception is the Language for All project, which offers a brief training session on the project’s principles. After this, intensive training is offered for learning to write in Language for All, which includes a supervision programme for becoming a trained Language for All writer. Part of this training is to learn to co-operate with the intended readers and to test both the readability and accessibility of a concept text. This co-operation is seen as necessary and valuable, but the input 36 Alliantie voor gezondheidsvaardigheden, https://www.gezondheidsvaardigheden.nl/ leren-en-inspireren/. 362 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the Netherlands of the test readers should be carefully handled, as although these test readers are experts in their own cases, they are not easy-read research experts. There is a whole body of (inter)national research on the aspects of Plain Language. Some results are presented in the Belgian (Flemish) contribution to this publication and will not be repeated here. Dutch research on Easy Lan- guage on a CEFR A2 level is scarce. Many Dutch research projects on the aspects of Plain Language exclude people on a CEFR level A1 or A2. Thus, applying the research findings to this group should be done with caution. Re- search indicates that the solutions found in Plain Language research do not always apply to Easy Language use among people who have (very) low literacy skills and who suffer from severe text comprehension problems. Karremans and colleagues (2015), for instance, found, in contrast to the findings of other research, that adding pictograms and a motivational agent to a text on Lyme’s disease for low-literate gardeners had no positive effects on their understanding of the text. The concept of acceptability, that is, that all intended readers accept a given text as suitable and acceptable for them, is rarely the subject of Easy Language research. But research on both the readability and accessibility of a text are core activities of the Language for All project. As are finding research-based solutions to compose a message in the public domain in a form that is both understood and accepted by the intended readers or listeners with mixed levels of text understanding. Several multidisciplinary research projects have begun as part of Language for All. A simple tool was designed and is currently being validated, to quickly assess the comfort language level of an interlocutor, in order to improve mutual understanding. Several aspects of how to collaborate with people targeted by the Language for All messages are subjects of research, including how to assess the understanding and appreciation of texts among people with different levels of text comprehension. The results concerning un- derstanding and the acceptability of texts in Language for All will be presented in mid 2021. In one project, aimed at parents of pupils, a letter in Language for All was found to be both more understandable and acceptable than the standard text used until then (Reichrath 2020). As research on adding images to Easy Language texts to improve understanding of the text is not yet conclu- sive, a systematic research project is currently underway. Some international © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 363 Xavier Moonen publications are under preparation, as is international research co-operation. Contacts have been drawn up with the Dutch Language Institute to include Language for All texts in easy-to-read corpora and to perform further research on linguistic properties. Research into automated text simplification, that is, automatically rewriting a (scanned) text in Language for All, is promising in theory, but has not yet been realized due to lack of funding. 8 Future perspectives The need for Plain and Easy Language solutions will emerge in the coming decades in the Netherlands and as promotion of Easy Language is still lacking, this should be a core concern for government and private partners. In the Neth- erlands, high quality training in writing and speaking Easy Language should be established, on both a practical and an academic level. It is important to discuss and research, on a national and international level, the consequences of exclusion through Easy Language solutions for special groups and to study solutions that include as many people as possible with one Easy Language solution. More research is needed on the deep understanding and acceptability of easy-to-read texts by means of cloze reading, for instance. 37 More research is also needed on all the ground rules concerning Easy Language used in coun- tries worldwide. Research on text difficulty has mostly covered Plain Language texts and it is unclear whether the results are applicable to easy-to-read texts. More research is needed on (adding) pictures to easy-to-read texts. Research on whether this really helps all people addressed by Easy Language solutions is still inconclusive. Eye-tracking research could reveal how several targeted groups use photos, pictograms, drawings etc. for understanding texts. The inclusion of all citizens in all aspects of society is obligated by the ratifi- cation of the UN CRPD, and this is followed in almost all European countries. However, special texts are essentially exclusive in nature, and this should be a matter of (inter)national discussion among scholars and practitioners in the 37 Maine DOE News, https://mainedoenews.net/2015/12/17/close-reading-developing-deep- understanding-of-texts/. 364 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the Netherlands field of Easy Language. The dilemma concerning the way in which and how much information should be provided to really help people understand texts in Easy Language should also be discussed, because their information absorption ability is limited, and even providing them with all the information available will not help them understand the matters that concern them. Author Xavier M. H. Moonen is an ortho-pedagogue, psychologist and Professor of knowledge development on mild intellectual disabilities at the University of Amsterdam and Professor of the inclusion of people with intellectual disabil- ities at the Zuyd University of Applied Sciences Heerlen. He is the founder of the Language for All project, and together with his team and his students is currently researching all aspects of Easy Language guidelines and how to best co-operate with potential Language for All users. References Alliantie digitaal samenleven [Alliance for a digital living together]. Web. 11 February 2021. . Alliantie voor gezondheidsvaardigheden [Alliance for promoting health skills]. Web. 11 February 2021. . CommunicatieRijk [CommunicationDutchgovernment]. Web. 11 February 2021. . Cornips, Leonie. Eigen en vreemd. Meertaligheid in Nederland [Domestic and stran- ge. Multilingualism in the Netherlands]. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2012. Print. Cornips, Leonie, and Vincent de Rooij. “Straattaal In Nederland 1997–2017.” [Street language in the Netherlands 1997–2017]. Neerlandistiek. Online tijdschrift voor taal- en letterkundig onderzoek. 10 October 2017. Web. 11 February 2021. . Coronavirus. Web. 11 February 2021. . © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 365 Xavier Moonen Council of Europe. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Lear- ning, teaching, assessment (CEFR). Web. 4 February 2021. . Direct duidelijk heldere overheidscommunicatie [Direct clear clear communication by the government]. Web. 11 February 2021. . Disability Studies in Nederland [Disability studies in the Netherlands]. Web. 11 Febru- ary 2021. . Driessen, Geert. “Ontwikkelingen in het gebruik van streektalen en dialecten in de periode 1995–2003.” [Development and use of regional languages and dialects bet- ween 1995–2003]. Toegepaste Taalwetenschap in Artikelen 75.1 (2006): 103–113. Print. Easy to read. Web. 11 February 2021. . European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education. Web. 11 February 2021. . European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Web. 11 February 2021. . Foehr, Ulla. Media multitasking among American youth. Prevalence, predictors and pairings. Menlo Park (CA): The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 2006. Print. Fouarge, Didier; Houtkoop, Willem, and Rolf van der Velden. Laaggelet- terdheid in Nederland [Low literacy in the Netherlands]. ’s Hertogenbosch: Exper- tisecentrum Beroepsonderwijs, 2011. Print. Gubbels, Joyce; van Langen, Annemarie; Maassen, Nathalie, and Martina Meelissen. Resultaten PISA-2018 in vogelvlucht [Results PISA 2018 in bird flight]. Enschede: Universiteit Twente, 2019. Print. IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions). Guidelines for easy-to-read materials. Revision by Misako Nomura, Gyda Skat Nielsen, and Bror Tronbacke. The Hague: IFLA Headquarters, 2010. Print. IFLA Professional Reports 120. Also available at . Karreman, Joyce; van Norel, Nienke; Uiters, Ellen, and Desirée Beaujean. “Houd het simpel. Schriftelijke informatie over beroepsrisico’s voor laaggeletter- den.” [Keep it simple. Written information about labour risks for people who are low literate]. Infectieziekten Bulletin 26.8 (2015): 180–182. Print. Kleijn, Suzanne; Pander Maat, Henk, and Ted Sanders. “Cloze testing for comprehension assessment – The HyTeC-cloze.” Language Testing 36.4. (2019): 553–572. Print. Knowledge Base Comprehensible Text. Web. 11 February 2021. . Koraal. Web. 11 February 2021. . Leer Zelf Online [Learn by your own online]. Web. 11 February 2021. . 366 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the Netherlands Maine DOE News. Web. 11 February 2021. . Meijerink, Commissie. Expertgroep Doorlopende Leerlijnen Taal en Rekenen. Over de drempels met taal en rekenen [Expert group continuous learning lines language and mathematics. About the thresholds with language and arithmetic]. Enschede: Universiteit Twente, 2008. Print. Moser, Gary, and Timothy Morrison. “Increasing students’ achievement and in- terest in reading.” Reading Horizons 3.8 (1998): 233–245. Print. Netwerk Begrijpelijke Communicatie [Network for Understandable Communicati- on]. Web. 11 February 2021. . Nielen, Thijs, and Adriana Bus. “Ontwikkeling van de leesattitude op de basis- school en de rol van sekse, leesniveau, de leescultuur thuis en kenmerken van de schoolbibliotheek.” [Development of the reading attitude on elementary schools and the role of gender level of reading and reading culture home and the charac- teristics of the school library]. Ed. Dick Schram. De aarzelende lezer over de streep. Delft: Eburon, 2013. 207–226. Print. NOW [Dutch Organization of Scientific Research]. Web. 11 February 2021. . OECD. PISA 2018 Results (Volume I): What Students Know and Can Do. PISA, Paris: OECD Publishing, 2018. Print. Onderwijsraad [Council for Education]. Lees! Een oproep tot een leesoffensief [Read! A call for a reading offensive]. Den Haag: Raad voor Cultuur en de Onderwijsraad, 2019. Web. 11 February 2021. . Pander Maat, Henk; Kraf, Rogier; van den Bosch, Antal; van Gompel, Maarten; Kleijn, Suzanne; Sanders, Ted, and Ko van der Sloot. “T-Scan: a new tool for analyzing Dutch text.” Computational Linguistics in The Netherlands journal 4 (2014): 53–74. Print. Pharos. Laaggeletterdheid en beperkte gezondheidsvaardigheden [Factsheets low liter- acy and health]. Web. 11 February 2021. . Plain Language Association International. Web. 11 February 2021. . Plain Language Association International. Web. 11 February 2021. . Pleijers, Astrid, and Marijke Hartgers. Statistische Trends. De kenmerken van schoolverlaters en hun arbeidspositie vijf jaar later [Statistical trends. The characte- ristics of school leavers and their employment position five years later]. Den Haag: Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, 2019. Print. Readzone. Web. 11 February 2021. . Reichrath, Enid. Schorsingsbrief leerling. Onderzoek naar verschillen tussen originele brief en brief in Taal voor allemaal [A letter about school suspension. Research © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 367 Xavier Moonen into the differences between the original letter and a letter in Language for All]. Valkenburg: toetsen meten & weten, 2020. Print. Steffie. Web. 11 February 2021. . Stichting Lezen en Schrijven. Web. 4 February 2021. . Taalunie [Language Union]. Web. 3 February 2021. . Taal voor allemaal [Language for All]. Web. 11 February 2021. . Tel mee met taal [Count in with language]. Web. 11 February 2021. . ThoughtCo. Web. 11 February 2021. . Uitgeverij Eenvoudig Communiceren [Publisher Simple Communication]. Web. 11 February 2021. . VGN (Vereniging Gehandicapten Zorg Nederland) [Association of Disability Orga- nizations in the Netherlands]. Web. 11 February 20201. . Web Accessibility Initiative. Web. 11 February 2021. . Wennekers, Anemarie; Huysmans, Frank, and Jos de Haan. Lees:Tijd. Lezen in Nederland [Read:Time. Reading in the Netherlands]. Den Haag: Sociaal en Cul- tureel Planbureau, 2018. Print. 368 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the Netherlands Appendix 1. An illustration of guidelines for Easy Dutch. Problemen met omgaan met geld Omgaan met geld is moeilijk. Je moet weten hoeveel geld je hebt. En hoeveel geld je kunt uitgeven. Als je meer geld uitgeeft dan je hebt, dan maak je schulden. Schulden moet je betalen. Je komt in de problemen als je schulden niet betaalt. L* kan je helpen: • als je problemen hebt met omgaan met geld. • om te leren om alleen geld uit te geven dat je echt hebt. L zorgt er samen met jou voor dat: • Je rekeningen betaald worden. • Je weet hoeveel geld je elke week kunt uitgeven. • Je van je schulden afkomt. • Dat je geld over hebt om leuke dingen mee te doen. Je kunt L bellen op telefoonnummer xxxxxx *Naam van de zorgverlener © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 369 Xavier Moonen [Problems dealing with money Dealing with money is difficult. You have to know how much money you have. And how much money you can spend. If you spend more money than you have, you create debts. You have to pay debts. You will get into trouble if you don’t pay debts. L* can help you: • if you have problems handling your money. • Learn to only spend money that you really have. L will work with you to make sure that: • Your bills get paid. • You know how much money you can spend each week. • You pay your debts. • You have money left over to do fun things. You can call L at telephone number xxxxxx *Name of the service provider] 370 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Hanna Bovim Bugge, Gerd Berget, Eivor Vindenes Easy Language in Norway 1 Introduction Norway has a population of 5.3 million (Statistics Norway 2020). Of these people, 11.3% have foreign citizenship, and 18.2% make up the immigrant pop- ulation (Thorsnæs 2020). The administrative language is Norwegian, which has two different language variants in written form, namely bokmål and nynorsk. These language forms are very similar and can therefore be considered to be what Vikør (n.d.: 1) refers to as ‘written dialects’. Which form people prefer is typically related to where in the country they reside. Norwegian is the language spoken by the majority of the population, and exists in a variety of regional and local dialects. In addition, Norway has several official minority languages, such as three different variations of the Sami language, Norwegian sign language, Kven language, and Romani (Jahr 2020). The population of Norway is diverse. Some inhabitants have challenges related to vision, hearing and movement, and others have developmental or psychosocial impairments. No official statistics exist in Norway on these vari- ous groups, and there are discussions on which criteria to apply: for example, medical diagnosis, the need for assistance or self-reporting of illnesses, diagno- ses or functions (Jensen and Strand 2018). Based on unofficial statistics from user organizations, however, it seems that the prevalence of various types of impairment is approximately the same as that in other countries with similar living conditions. According to the OECD (2019), reading is vital for educational success, eco- nomic participation, individual growth, and citizenship. Literature is a natural part of many people’s lives in Norway. A survey conducted by the Norwegian associations for booksellers and publishers revealed that 83% of the population read at least one book a year, whereas 26% read more than 10 books a year © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 371 Hanna Bovim Bugge, Gerd Berget, Eivor Vindenes (Bokhandlerforeningen and Den norske forleggerforening 2020). Women read on average 18.5 books in 2019, compared to the 7.9 books read by men. A total of 46% of households with children below 10 years of age read aloud to their children at least two to three times a week. The same survey found that 13% did not read any books at all, and the majority of these were below 60 years of age (Bokhandlerforeningen and Den norske forleggerforening 2020). According to the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), 20% of Norwegian teenagers have reading skills below level 2, which is the limit for what are regarded as the skills required for further education or participation in work life (Jensen et al. 2019). These figures are, however, above the average OECD figures. Results from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) show that the reading skills of adults in Norway are above the OECD average (see Table 1). These figures, however, are much lower among the immigrant population. The PIAAC liter- acy levels are measurements of the ability to interact with text to, for instance, access, identify or interpret information (OECD 2016). The PIAAC literacy scale (OECD 2016: 40) is divided into five proficiency levels of literacy. Level 1 is related to short texts and locating single pieces of information, while Level 2 demands matches between the text and information. In contrast, at Level 3, the texts become lengthy and dense, and the reader is required to understand both the text and its rhetorical structures. Consequently, literacy levels at Level 3 are required to read and fully enjoy a novel, whereas people with lower reading levels can only access information presented in shorter texts in easier language. Reading level Percentage Not classified 2.2% Below level 1 3.0% Level 1 9.3% Level 2 30.2% Level 3 41.6% Level 4/5 13.7% Table 1: Reading abilities of Norwegian adult population (Statistics Norway ‘Leseferdigheter Og Tallforståelse [Literacy and Numeracy]’) 372 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Norway Although many people in Norway have a high level of literacy, a significant part of the population still has lower reading levels, and may struggle to read various forms of texts, such as news or mainstream books. Awareness is increasing of the fact that although language and communication skills are crucial in our society, these skills vary among the population. A study of people in prison found that about 40% experienced challenges related to reading and 50% had challenges with spelling. However, it has been suggested that this was related not only to conditions such as dyslexia, but also insufficient training and a lack of motivation and education (Jones et al. 2011). There is also the worrying development that young people read less than previous generations, and the comprehensive use of digital devices has caused concern regarding the reading skills of young people (Aamli 2020). This development has implications for the production of public information and communication, news and literature in Easy Language. Knowledge about and the implementation of Easy Language in our society will therefore not only benefit ‘special readers’; it might also play a crucial role in increasing the reading skills of a broader population. People who, for various reasons, do not read books are among those who may typically benefit from increased access to Easy Language material. Typical examples of such target groups are people with reading disabilities, people who are second language learners or simply people who have stressful periods, short- or long-term diseases or for other reasons occasionally prefer texts that are easier to read and comprehend. The production of Easy Language material in Norway is based upon the ideas of inclusion and universal design. The overall aim is to ensure that all inhabitants have access to information, news, culture, and literature. Rather than developing special products for certain users, the purpose is to include a broader variety of people through the combination of Easy Language and high-quality content. In Norway, Easy Language materials are mainly provided by two different organizations that collaborate closely with organizations and institutions in the fields of normal or standard language. These two organizations, Klar Tale and Books for Everyone (BfE), work in different fields – news and literature. Informative texts are mainly written in Plain Language. As it focuses on Easy Language, this chapter will emphasize media (mainly news) and literature. The © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 373 Hanna Bovim Bugge, Gerd Berget, Eivor Vindenes main focus will be on how Easy Language material blends in as a natural part of mainstream news and literature. 2 Historical perspectives In Norway, initiatives to establish organizations that produce Easy Language material have typically come from people and organizations concerned with the rights of people with disabilities or special needs education. These or- ganizations, namely Klar Tale and BfE, are now long established. They have gathered significant experience of producing Easy Language material and a deeper understanding of the extensive amount of people who actually benefit from Easy Language material. The end products have evolved from targeting a specific population to a broader diversity of people, acknowledging that all types of people may benefit from Easy Language materials. Consequently, the end products are no longer limited to people with reading or language chal- lenges. Instead, such materials are aimed at all types of readers, who, for various reasons, require news or literature in Easy Language. The easy-to-read newspaper Klar Tale started out as a test project in 1989, initiated by a special interest organization for people with intellectual impair- ments (Forbund for psykisk utviklingshemmede). The project proved successful, and there was a desire to continue its work. Consequently, the Klar Tale founda- tion was established in 1990. The initiative came from the central government administration in collaboration with the Norwegian press and representatives from different special interest organizations. These parties saw the need for a newspaper aimed at people who, for a variety of reasons, could not access news from the mainstream media. Today, Klar Tale has a broad target group that consists of everyone who requires news in Easy Language either permanently or for a short time period. The BfE organization was established in 2003. The Department of Special Education had expressed concerns about the conditions for the production and dissemination of adapted literature for people with reading difficulties. Consequently, the department asked for a professional evaluation of the cur- rent situation. A committee and working group were established, comprising 374 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Norway members from organizations that promoted the rights of people with special needs education and representatives from the fields of art and literature. The committee completed a strategy document in 2002 (Books for Everyone 2002), which pointed out that the lack of adapted books contradicted the intentions of Norwegian law and the national and international conventions to which Norway was committed. Both the World Program of Action (UN 1982) and The UN’s standard rules for equal opportunities for people with disabilities (UN 1993) emphasized the need for constructive facilitation of the environ- ment and services to ensure the right of people with physical and/or cognitive disabilities to equal participation in society. Norway also looked to Sweden and their Centre for Easy-to-Read (see chapter on Sweden (2.2)) when establishing Books for Everyone. The first easy-to-read books for children were published by the Samlaget publishing house in 1973 (Lande 2018). Since then, Norwegian publishing houses have issued many easy-to-read books for the reading education of chil- dren. BfE paid most attention to books for young people and adults. Due to limited funding, easy-to-read books for children with dyslexia and general reading difficulties, and children with a second language were not prioritized in either the book production or the Boksøk.no database. Boksøk (Book search) is an online service developed by BfE that comprises a large database of books re- garded as accessible for a variety of target groups. The database comprises both books supported by the organization and mainstream books evaluated by BfE advisors. During the first years of BfE, books for children were only produced as ‘specialized books’ with, for instance, tactile illustrations or sign language. In 2010, the Leselykt (Reading torch) project was launched, aiming to in- clude easy-to-read children’s books on Boksøk.no. A thorough search of the existing easy-to-read books revealed that very few of the books defined as easy-to-read were in accordance with the needs of children with reading dif- ficulties. Most of the stories and the language were too complex. The reviews of these books showed a significant lack of accessible books for children with reading difficulties. Consequently, the development of children’s books was added to the work of BfE. This insight also led to an increased awareness that ‘easy to read’ can mean different things, such as easily accessible texts for lan- guage learners without reading difficulties and easy-to-understand or adapted © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 375 Hanna Bovim Bugge, Gerd Berget, Eivor Vindenes texts to meet the needs of people with various forms of reading difficulties. As a consequence, BfE developed a flexible approach towards its target groups. Another example of an overlooked target group was elderly people who needed Easy Language literature. This group has also received attention from BfE in later years. 3 Current situation Since the establishment of Klar Tale and BfE, the main transition has been the new potential target groups. In the beginning, the organizations produced material for quite specific and limited user groups. Over the years, howev- er, attitudes have changed, and the organizations now target much broader user groups. This development may be related to an increased understanding in Norwegian society of universal design, but also the acknowledgement of diversity over deficiencies. Moreover, there is a broader understanding that reading impairments may be situational or contextual. For instance, stressful periods or illness may cause the same reading difficulties as, for instance, those related to dyslexia or impaired vision. People who are in the process of learn- ing Norwegian are also an example of readers with a changing and contextual language challenge. 3.1 Definitions Plain Language has become a relatively common concept in Norway, known by the term klarspråk (clear language). Norway is a member of the Plain Language Association International (PLAIN) and hosted the PLAIN conference in 2019. Plain Language in Norway is mostly related to informative texts, essentially those used by authorities to inform citizens of rights, duties and social sys- tems. The term relates to the international definition of Plain Language and emphasizes the use of clear and direct language that conveys its content as clearly as possible. This principle applies to the use of words, sentences and how information is structured. The goal is to empower a broader part of the 376 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Norway population to understand the society in which they live and to become inde- pendent, responsible citizens. The term Easy Language is not commonly used in Norway, and Norway has no official definition for it. The related term ‘easy to read’, however, has been used in different manners and forms throughout the years, most commonly meaning literature aimed at young language learners. This genre has been a commercial success for publishers, but as previously mentioned, does not nec- essarily meet the needs of young readers with reading difficulties. Over the last two decades, however, two organizations working to promote Easy Language material have especially contributed to the awareness that easy-to-read texts are not convenient for only children learning to read. Such material may be vital for people of all ages, with or without reading difficulties. Whereas Plain Language is used to convey a clear meaning in important informative texts, Easy Language is used in slightly different manners in news and literature. The PISA 2000 framework classifies texts in different ways, for instance, format. The framework distinguishes between continuous, non-continuous and mixed texts. All of these texts require different reading approaches. Easy Language material in Norway is typically concerned with the development of accessible continuous texts, such as newspaper reports, fiction and non-fiction literature. Informative texts typically use Plain Language with an aim to give clear content without room for misunderstanding. In contrast, a high quality easy-to-read fictional book uses Easy Language to create a text of artistic value that is open for co-creation with its reader. These different aspects of language will be discussed later in this chapter. 3.2 Societal and legal context The principle that all citizens have equal rights and should be given the same opportunities to participate on all levels of society is firmly rooted in Norway. The awareness that language, both written and oral, can exclude people and obstruct democracy, however, has received less attention. Although the use of Plain Language to inform citizens has improved the quality of informative texts, the need remains to direct attention towards the fact that many people are excluded from cultural and literary experiences due to language barriers. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 377 Hanna Bovim Bugge, Gerd Berget, Eivor Vindenes In this context, the potential of Easy Language, along with the importance of cultural and literature experiences, is now increasingly being acknowledged. Norway ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) (UN 2006) in 2013. This document has altered the status of people with disabilities in national and international human rights law (Strand 2014). Article 21 states that people with disabilities should have access to seeking, receiving and communicating information and ideas. Moreover, the CRPD requires that information intended for the general public be provided in accessible formats and technologies, facilitates the use of sign language and encourages mass media to make services accessible to people with disabilities (UN 2006). The inclusion of everyone in general, and people with various reading diffi- culties in particular, is not only the ideal of many organizations in Norway. It is also a legal obligation. According to the CRPD (UN 2006), people with disabil- ities have the right to ‘take part on an equal basis with others in cultural life’. The Convention also states that access to places of cultural performance, such as libraries must be ensured (UN 2006). The Public Libraries Act of Norway also emphasizes the need to include all people. According to this law, public libraries should ‘promote the spread of information, education and other cultural activities through active dissemination and by making books and other media available for the free use of all the inhabitants of Norway’ (Folkebibliotekloven 2014). It is not possible to achieve this task without universally designed products and services. Consequently, Easy Language material is an important contribution that enables libraries to comply with legal requirements. An important principle incorporated in many parts of Norwegian society is the principle of universal design. The Equality and Anti-Discrimination Act (Ministry of Culture 2020) defines universal design as ‘designing or accom- modating the main solution with respect to the physical conditions, including information and communications technology (ICT), such that the general func- tions of the undertaking can be used by as many people as possible, regardless of disability.’ It should be noted, however, that universal design also addresses variations in age, gender, sexuality, language, and cultural background (Stein- feld and Maisel 2012). The Equality and Anti-Discrimination Act (Ministry of Culture 2020), last revised in 2020, enforces a special provision on ICT, which 378 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Norway entails that all ICT solutions should be universally designed. Consequently, this law applies to all types of digital services, such as online newspapers, library websites and bibliographic search user interfaces, such as Boksøk. The law does not specifically mention Easy Language but includes culture in the paragraph emphasizing equal opportunities for participation. 3.3 Stakeholders Easy Language material is mostly provided by two organizations in Norway (Klar Tale and BfE), which work in collaboration with stakeholders of stand- ard language material. However, several other stakeholders work with specific target groups. In addition, several stakeholders aim to include a broader group of people by focusing on an inclusive language or language approach. The awareness of clear language was strengthened by the Klart språk i staten (Clear governmental language) project, initiated by the Language Council of Norway (Språkrådet) and Norwegian Digitalization Agency (Direktoratet for forvaltning og IKT) in 2009. The aim of this project was to inspire governmental offices in Norway to use Plain Language when communicating with citizens. Today, the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS) is responsible for educating employers in Norway’s various municipalities on the use of Plain Language. KS offers advice, information films, courses, and seminars. In addition, the Language Council of Norway works on language diversity and language policy under assignment by the Ministry of Culture (The Language Council of Norway 2020). One of their purposes is to promote clear, accessible language that supports learning, a safe and efficient work en- vironment, and participation in society for all citizens of Norway. The national broadcasting channel in Norway, NRK, provides daily news in Norwegian, Sami and Norwegian sign language. The NRK does not focus directly on Easy Language, but is aware of the responsibility related to being the official national broadcasting channel promoting the Norwegian language. The channel has a committee that works specifically with language, which has produced, for example, a dictionary called ‘The NRK language’ (NRK 2020), and a handbook on how to use language in broadcasting (NRK 2010). Exam- ples of the handbook guidelines are avoiding the use of foreign language and © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 379 Hanna Bovim Bugge, Gerd Berget, Eivor Vindenes difficult words, pausing between important words and content to allow the users to process the information, and using natural language. The aim of the NRK is to ensure high quality of the language used on TV and radio, and to use words and phrases that all people in Norway will understand (NRK 2010). The NRK also provides a news programme for children, called Supernytt (Super News). News on Supernytt is adapted to accommodate children, in terms of both language and content. The news aspect of Easy Language in Norway is mainly provided by the Klar Tale (Clear Speech) foundation. The purpose of the foundation is to produce an easy-to-read newspaper that serves as an equivalent news channel to the mainstream media for people with language and reading difficulties. The Klar Tale foundation provides the overall framework for printing and distribution, such as announcing tenders and choosing who will publish the newspaper on their behalf. Its office is situated in Oslo, but its subscribers are from all over Norway, comprising individuals, organizations, group homes, and various types of offices. Aftenposten, one of Norway’s biggest newspapers, produces a weekly chil- dren’s version of their newspaper, Aftenposten Junior. This has easy-to-read articles aimed at children, written and presented in a way that allows school- children to read the newspaper by themselves. Two specialized TV producers, namely TV BRA and Empo TV produce content made by people with developmental impairments. TV BRA is an in- dependent TV channel that produces weekly programmes, whereas Empo TV broadcasts monthly programmes on national TV channels. The features cover themes such as news, politics and culture. The Norwegian Library of Talking Books and Braille (Norsk lyd- og blindeskriftbibliotek, NLB) produces and lends out braille books and audio books, directed at children, youth and adults. Their overall goal is to ensure that everyone has access to information and literature. The NLB was established in 1989, is organized under the Ministry of Culture, and is a national service. It does not produce content but makes existing books accessible through braille or audio, including fiction for the general population and textbooks for stu- dents. The library holds about 5500 titles in braille and 21 000 audiobooks 380 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Norway (Norwegian Library of Talking Books and Braille 2020). The NLB has approx- imately 90 000 registered members. Norway has no specific publishing houses that work exclusively with Easy Language. Instead, the responsibility for Easy Language literature is shared by all publishing houses, authors, illustrators and graphic novel artists in collab- oration with the BfE organization. The Norwegian name for BfE is Leser søker bok (Reader seeks book). Its main purpose is to produce books that can be read by people with different reading abilities, and to provide enjoyable fictional and non-fictional reading experiences for everyone. BfE develops books in co-operation with authors, illustrators, cartoonists, and publishing houses by providing financial support and editorial advice. Books developed in collabora- tion with BfE are closely followed by a BfE literary adviser, and only books that are supervised and approved by the organization can carry the BfE label (the organization’s logo) as a sign of approval. BfE employees mainly provide con- sultancy for book development and information about Easy Language books for professionals and semi-professionals who convey literature, and develop and disseminate knowledge through organized feedback, seminars, courses, and handbooks. To comply with the Public Libraries Act, all libraries must make literature accessible to all inhabitants of Norway (Folkebibliotekloven 2014). BfE collab- orates with 370 public libraries all over Norway through the BfE network. The libraries in this network receive packages containing all new books with the BfE label free of charge. These book packages contain a newsletter with information and suggestions on how to facilitate the promotion of suitable target groups. BfE also inspires and teaches how to organize reading groups (leseombudsord- ningen) and language cafés through local reading representatives. Due to their different areas of commitment, there is little collaboration between the different organizations promoting Easy Language in Norway. In- formation is exchanged, but there are only few discussions on the main aspects of Easy Language or how to increase the knowledge and status of Easy Lan- guage in Norway. Collaboration among the education, research, culture, and information departments is also scarce. These institutions are run by different administrations and hold different places in the state budget. The potential readers of Easy Language material, however, are not necessarily found in the © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 381 Hanna Bovim Bugge, Gerd Berget, Eivor Vindenes organizations responsible for it. A person with reading difficulties, for instance, will not necessarily go to a library or bookshop. Consequently, much work still remains to be done to reach all potential target groups, also non-readers. Even though Easy Language books are not made for educational purposes, every school student should still have the right to access such literature. Schools might be the only place where a child or young person meets literature. This issue needs to be addressed by making more types of books accessible in Nor- wegian schools, not only mainstream fictional literature. 3.4 Funding Despite an increased awareness that language plays a major role in creating an inclusive society, the development and distribution of Easy Language mate- rial is not guaranteed permanent financial support. The Klar Tale foundation must annually apply for funding from the Norwegian Directorate for Chil- dren, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufdir). The newspaper is financed through a separate grant under funding for organizations for people with disabilities. During its very first years, BfE received funding from the Ministry of Culture, but for the last 15 years, it has had to annually apply for funding from the Arts Council Norway. This, in addition to possible political changes and different budget priorities, has made BfE funding vulnerable. The lack of stability and underfunding indicates that Easy Language still has a low status. It also shows that awareness of the importance of access to news and literature in Easy Lan- guage is lacking. Increased, stable funding, as well as up-to-date material, is essential to develop the concept of Easy Language. In the state budget for 2021, BfE was moved back under the Ministry of Culture. BfE must still apply for funding annually, but the process is now less complicated, and the organization is ensured steady funding from one year to another. 4 Target groups Reading difficulties may have several causes, such as illiteracy, reading im- pairments, ADHD, impaired vision, deafness, or illness. Moreover, the need 382 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Norway for Easy Language material may not necessarily be related to reading or de- velopmental impairments; potential users may also be people learning a new language, people who are unwell, stressed, or tired. Reading difficulties can be situational and contextual, and people have several different needs and moti- vations for requiring Easy Language material. As a result of this awareness, the focus is not directed towards particular end users, but towards the qualities of the material. Examples of Easy Language measures are using easier words, avoiding long sentences, applying a well-organized dramaturgy, and using a clear layout. Klar Tale emphasizes that the target group for the newspaper is people with reading and writing challenges. The target group is therefore not restricted to a specific reader, but to any reader who regards news as meaningful. These read- ers comprise people with reading difficulties such as dyslexia, but also people with general reading difficulties, people with aphasia, people who are learning Norwegian, and people who for other reasons need adapted news to compre- hend the content. People with cognitive challenges are therefore also part of the broad target group. A podcast and an audio CD alternative have been devel- oped for readers who prefer audio format or a combination of oral and written language. Klar Tale also offers automatic reading of digital texts on its website. The BfE organization focuses on user needs rather than deficiencies, for instance, individuals who require large letters or less dense text segments rather than those who have impaired vision or dyslexia. Broadly speaking, everyone who finds reading mainstream books challenging belong to BfE’s target group. The main goal is literary democracy: all people should have access to fictional books. Consequently, the type of books that the organization supports change and expand as new knowledge is gained on user needs. This knowledge acqui- sition also affects the way in which the books are presented by the official BfE website and the Boksøk online database. The different categories of books devel- oped in collaboration with BfE are based on the format or form of adaptation of the books rather than their target groups. For example, the category of books for people with impaired vision is called ‘Braille / Tactile pictures’ instead of ‘Books for people with visual impairments’. This is a deliberate strategy to avoid stigmatization and is in line with universal design thinking. The books in the different categories have a far wider range than only the primary target group, © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 383 Hanna Bovim Bugge, Gerd Berget, Eivor Vindenes and this broad secondary target group is vital for how BfE communicates in- formation about literature. It should also be emphasized that most authors, illustrators and graphic novel artists who make adapted books in collaboration with BfE are not specialized artists working in the field of Easy Language. They are simply artists making books, who are willing to deepen their understanding of how a book can reach a broader or different target group. Both Klar Tale and BfE constantly work with feedback from different read- ers. Some books are systematically tested on specific target groups, either after the book is finished or during the writing process. Methods that have been used are letting the author meet their readers, reading out loud from the text- in-making and asking for immediate feedback, or sending the entire text or parts of the text to specific readers. This method of gathering feedback before the text is finished is fairly new, and still under development. It does, however, comply well with the principles of participatory design, which has a strong foundation in Norway. Target group feedback has proven to be very impor- tant. The resources and time limits available affect how frequently target group feedback can be used. Nevertheless, the methods for such user testing could be systematized and developed further. 5 Guidelines The two main Easy Language stakeholders in Norway, Klar Tale and BfE are similar, but still have notable differences, in how they approach Easy Lan- guage, due to the differences in the types of texts they provide. Both news and literature in Easy Language are developed by practitioners with extensive ex- perience. Specialized journalists use their knowledge about different language challenges when developing the newspaper, and literature advisors collaborate with authors, illustrators and graphic novel artists when developing books. Klar Tale provides news texts that aim to give clear, direct information and at the same time invite the reader to make individual decisions and reflections based on the information. Fictional literature supported by BfE should be open for interpretation and co-creation with the reader. It is essential that the quali- ties of different genres are also retained in Easy Language texts. 384 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Norway Klar Tale has developed guidelines for easy-to-read language, communi- cated through the publishers. These guidelines are an extraction of common European rules for Easy Language text, for example those by Karde (2014). From the start, the editors have written regular news language in the same way as the Norwegian News Agency, adjusted on the basis of advice from representatives of the newspaper’s different reading groups and special edu- cation teachers. In addition, Klar Tale journalists follow advice from language competition rules developed by Vinje (2009). The overall purpose is to write texts that are easy to read, but that provide content for adults. The guidelines and practical adjustments applied by Klar Tale can be summarized as follows: the main rule for every journalist is to write simply and precisely. The purpose is to help the reader understand the context. For an illustration of these guide- lines, see Appendix 1. The goal of Klar Tale is to illuminate events rather than to explain or teach. To reach this goal, the journalists refrain from colouring the language with fixed expressions, pictorial expressions and difficult foreign words. Neverthe- less, they do introduce common, complex words so that readers are constantly challenged. Active language (sentences that make clear who does what) is re- quired. The tone of the language is close to oral language, and the texts should mainly contain short sentences. They use both direct and indirect speech. The journalist also intentionally drops stop points into the text, such as sub-head- ings, to improve the reading flow. They also use the Liks (Lesbarhetsindeks in Norwegian) readability index. The language is close to everyday language. The news articles are structured so that they are also meaningful for people who do not read the entire text. Captions with introductory words, as well as the title and introduction, provide the reader with a quick overview. In addi- tion, the most important content is summarized in a separate column entitled ‘Short and clear’. All the articles in the printed newspaper are shorter than mainstream newspaper articles. Klartale.no also provides shorter texts as an alternative to the main article. The Klar Tale foundation frequently asks profes- sionals to evaluate the newspaper, to ensure that the product is suitable for the end user. Constant feedback is given by immigrant groups and others who use Klar Tale in teaching, and the newspaper co-operates with user organizations in connection with, for instance, projects or redesign. Klar Tale continues to © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 385 Hanna Bovim Bugge, Gerd Berget, Eivor Vindenes improve their guidelines to ensure that the newspaper is perceived as a relevant Easy Language news alternative in Norway. BfE co-operates closely with its readers to make sure that Easy Language books are regarded as useful. Books suitable for people with reading difficulties should find a balance between being easy to read and being stimulating, and should not come across as being below the reader’s current level of cogni- tive, intellectual and artistic abilities (Berget and Fagernes 2018). Experiences gained from producing and testing books, feedback from target groups, and dialogue with readers, authors, librarians, and teachers have resulted in a set of advice and criteria. These criteria are related to language, typography, dram- aturgy, illustrations, and layout. Linguistic considerations include using easy words instead of complex words, and avoiding foreign words and consonant accumulation. At the same time, BfE considers recognizability of common words to support reading, even if these words are long or compound. Thus BfE does not recommend splitting long words or using hyphens. It also aims to find a balance between short, easy sentences and reading flow. Too many short sentences create a staccato text and should be avoided (Berget and Fagernes 2018). This is an experience shared by Dysleksi Norge (Dyslexia Norway), an organization that frequently claims that a text without variation will become less engaging, which in turn does not support reading. Like Klar Tale, BfE advisors advocate the use of ac- tive constructions of sentences. BfE also encourages writers to use descriptive language, creating opportunities for the reader to fully engage in the story from the characters’ perspectives. Dramaturgical considerations include developing credible characters, us- ing a clear voice and applying a reliable perspective. The use of retrospective style and flashbacks should be limited, and transitions between scenes must be clear. Typographical considerations typically include font type and size, spaces between letters, lines and paragraphs, line length, and the position of a line break in a sentence. Readability is also be supported by frequent use of sections and shorter chapters. BfE recommends not dividing words over line breaks and not letting a sentence run from one page to the next. In books with illustrations, other issues are considered, such as the relation- ship between the illustrations and the text, the type and style of the illustra- 386 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Norway tions (for example, whether they appear childish to the intended reader) and placement. In graphic novels, the ‘reading direction’ of illustrations, accuracy of expressions, and font type are important. Many graphic artists use hand- written letters in which the words are often placed very close to each other, and this may have a negative impact on readability. The tradition of comics is to use upper case letters, but the use of lower-case letters makes the text more accessible for readers with dyslexia. BfE discusses all the above-mentioned cri- teria with authors and editors. BfE books have not been researched, except for their line length (Berget and Fagernes 2018), but they are constantly adjusted based on feedback. The author, illustrator or graphic novel designer is informed of the impor- tant considerations when creating books for readers of Easy Language. At the same time, these considerations must be seen in the context of well-written and well-crafted literature. Instead of making ‘special books’ for certain read- ers, the authors, illustrators, graphic novel artists and publishing houses aim to reach a broader diversity of readers. By making adjustments for certain readers, however, experience has shown that the books also become more us- able for other readers. For example, a more readable font in graphic novels makes the text easier to read not only for people with reading difficulties and visual impairments, but also for all other readers. This is in accordance with the principles of universal design. Several books supported by BfE have won prizes in competitions with mainstream books, which shows that people with reading difficulties can enjoy the same books as readers who do not have such challenges. 6 Practical outcomes Easy Language material in Norway is typically concerned with the develop- ment of accessible continuous texts, such as newspaper reports, fiction and non-fiction literature. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 387 Hanna Bovim Bugge, Gerd Berget, Eivor Vindenes 6.1 Media The easy-to-read newspaper Klar Tale has digital and analogue versions. The digital paper is updated daily, whereas the printed version is distributed once a week. The weekly newspaper is also available as an e-newspaper and an audio alternative. Klar Tale has subscribers all over Norway. It is also available in most libraries, elderly homes and group homes, and is often used in educational situations and language cafés. 6.2 Literature By September 2020, BfE had supported the production of 232 books, on aver- age 10–15 books a year. These books can be divided into six categories: Easy to Read, Easy to Understand, Braille/Tactile Pictures, Big Letters, Sign Lan- guage/Sign Support, and Alternative Communication Signs (see Figure 1). Every category aims to offer a variety of genres and styles, comprising novels, picture books, graphic novels, poetry collections, short-story collections, or subject-oriented prose. Figure 1: Production of books by BfE, according to publication year and category. The two largest categories of books, ‘Easy to Read’ and ‘Easy to Understand’, both relate to Easy Language. ‘Easy to Read’ (Litt å lese in Norwegian) is the 388 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Norway most voluminous category with a huge variation of books for all ages. Books belonging to this category can be characterized as high-content/low-skills book or high-interest, low-level books, often referred to as HiLo books (Spadorcia 2005). The reading levels of these books are lower than the age of the reader but their topics and styles that match the age of the reader. The potential target groups of these books are people with dyslexia or general reading difficulties, second language learners, deaf people, people with concentration difficulties, elderly people without cognitive challenges, or readers for whom illness or fatigue temporarily makes it difficult to read. The second largest category, ‘Easy to Understand’ (Enkelt innhold in Norwegian), is characterized by being both easy to read and easy to understand. It contains books adapted for people with cognitive impairments as well as reading difficulties. The typical readers are divided into three main target groups: people with disabilities, people with dementia, and people with aphasia. One common challenge is to ensure that Easy Language material reaches non-readers, i.e., readers who are not used to walking into a bookstore or a library and easily finding accessible books or news. Thus, it is important to address how adapted books or news are promoted. The main category, Litt å lese (A little bit to read), is also referred to as Enkel tekst (Easy to read). BfE uses the name Litt å lese more often for three reasons. First, to avoid confusion with books labelled ‘easy to read’ by publishing houses. Second, the label ‘easy’ may affect both the sense of accomplishment of finishing a book or the feeling of failure if you cannot manage to read an ‘easy’ book. Reading is not easy for people with reading difficulties. Adaptation makes literature accessible and possible to enjoy, but not effortless, which the term ‘easy’ might imply. Third, there might be a stigma related to the label ‘easy’. Gambrell (2011) claims that many people with reading impairments select books that are too difficult be- cause they do not want to be seen reading ‘easy’ books. Thus, the use of labels such as ‘easy’ might negatively affect the choice of books. Another important element related to the promotion of books is motivation to read. Ross (2000) claimed that people often select books based on their life events and moods. Readers who are busy or under stress typically read short books, easy-reads or old favourites. Ross (2000) also presented several categories that affect the choice of books, such as reading experience, content © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 389 Hanna Bovim Bugge, Gerd Berget, Eivor Vindenes and intellectual effort. All these are typically included in the development and promotion of adapted books in Norway. Examples could be including people with cognitive impairments as the main characters in books directed at this target group, and producing books at different reading levels for young adults who may have varying reading experiences. Representation in literature is an important aspect on many levels. In Norway, awareness that readers with mi- nority backgrounds should also find themselves represented in literature is increased. This issue should be reflected on further: Who writes books and who communicates the books? Who are the editors and the critics? To truly create a literate society that includes everyone, this perspective should be reflected on not only in the literature itself, but also in the structures surrounding the literature. Rather than addressing potential target groups, BfE’s categorizing system focuses on the way in which the books are organized. There are several reasons for this. As mentioned above, one important aspect is that it reduces stigma and probably increases the motivation of a person with reading difficulties to read the book. Furthermore, it does not limit end users to merely those with reading difficulties. These books are equally relevant for people learning a new language, or who are ill or stressed. Another issue is to avoid making the books ‘look adapted’. When the books are published in mainstream publishing houses with regular book designs, the books are not perceived as different, which is also in accordance with the principle of universal design. One of BfE’s goals is that every reader, regardless of their reading ability, should be offered high-quality books in terms of both content and design. BfE develops fictional books and factual prose and does not focus on mate- rial such as schoolbooks or news. Moreover, it only supports new books. The main reason for this is to offer new, interesting books to people who require literature in Easy Language rather than publishing adapted versions of old books. This means no division between the ‘real book’ and the ‘adapted version’, which is also in line with the idea of universal design. An exception to this rule is adaptations in which the book changes form. One example is the adaptation of Eric Carle’s story about the hungry caterpillar into a tactile book printed in Braille (Carle 2006). Another example is the adaptation of the classic novel Sult (Hunger) by Knut Hamsun into a highly artistic graphic novel aimed at 390 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Norway adults (Hamsun and Erntsen 2019). This adaptation gives people with reading difficulties the chance to read old classics with a new artistic take; books which would be more complicated in the original version for many types of readers. Bias is often best met by experience, and such attitudes have become less of a challenge over the years. An increasing number of people and publishing hous- es have come to see that there is no reason to consider Easy Language books less artistic than mainstream books. Easy-to-read books are well received by their audience, obtain good reviews and have been translated into different languages. As mentioned, several books have also won prizes in competitions with high-quality mainstream books. In addition to adapted books, several mainstream books might also be ac- cessible for people with reading difficulties. These books can be found on the previously mentioned Boksøk.no. This bibliographic database is developed by BfE, which uses a carefully selected set of criteria when evaluating and choosing which books to include in Boksøk and applies one or several of their catego- ries. Very few books fulfil the criteria. On average, about 3000 fictional books are published in Norway every year (Statistics Norway 2019). BfE evaluates approximately 500 of these books and incorporates 80–100 new books into Boksøk.no. In addition, BfE compiles the 100-lista (translates ‘The list of 100’), which is a list of the 100 best Easy Language books on the market. This list is published annually, and is used by readers, teachers and librarians to find suitable, enjoyable books. 6.3 Informative texts Informative texts in Easy Language are not very common in Norway. However, focus is increasing on the Plain Language (klarspråk in Norwegian) used by authorities to help Norwegian citizens understand their rights and obligations in society. An example of an authority that aims to change their information into Plain Language is the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV). This administration provides crucial information on every citizen’s rights and obligations concerning employment, sick leave, childcare, etc. The goal of using Plain Language on websites and other information platforms is to increase the opportunities for equality and independent living in the Nor- © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 391 Hanna Bovim Bugge, Gerd Berget, Eivor Vindenes wegian population. Nevertheless, informative texts in both Plain Language and Easy Language are still required, and Norway could benefit from making such texts more accessible. 6.4 Other projects In recent years, the importance of language cafés in the context of inclusion has been acknowledged. Although many language cafés are held in libraries and by librarians, very few language café organizers use literature to facilitate con- versation. BfE works to raise awareness of how rewarding the use of literature can be, even in language cafés with participants who are new to the Norwegian language. BfE has produced handbooks to increase knowledge on how to read aloud and how to organize language cafés using literature (Salinas 2018, 2019). In 2018, BfE initiated a bilingual book project, the aim of which is to in- crease the knowledge and production of bilingual books in Norway. The project also aims to raise awareness of language, culture and dialogue by including second language writers, translators and readers in the development of books. Bilingual books for children are promoted in kindergartens and schools. Po- etry collections for adults are simultaneously developed in two languages, in dialogue-based collaboration between the second language writer, a transla- tor, an editor and a BfE literacy advisor. These books are promoted directly to language cafés, secondary language schools, high schools and youth clubs, libraries, and book shops. 7 Education and research No formal education on Easy Language is available in Norway. In the field of media, training in easy-to-read language involves working at Klar Tale, reading examples of editorial work, and following the editor’s rules and guidelines for easy-to-read language. All journalists working for Klar Tale are qualified and have experience of different kinds of newspapers. Education in Easy Language literature takes place in a similar way. BfE employees are typically librarians, 392 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Norway book sellers, literature experts, or authors. Training takes place through learn- ing from others, working with texts, and examining examples of best practice. Many potential readers of Easy Language literature have faced defeat and prejudice, leading to negative emotions being associated with reading (Re- telsdorf et al. 2014). In order to reach out to every possible reader, it is crucial that librarians, teachers and other relevant actors are highly skilled in Easy Language literature and understand how to promote literature without making people feel stigmatized. BfE offers courses in the promotion of Easy Language literature all over the country. Student librarians can study on an elective course in universal design at the Department of Archivistics, Library and Information Science at Oslo Metro- politan University. The course provides future librarians with knowledge about user diversity, ethical and legal requirements, and various forms of adapted literature. The overall purpose is to prepare library students for encountering a huge diversity of users, and to teach them how to promote Easy Language books to people. One of the main messages to the students is that adapted literature is relevant for all people: those with reading impairments, people learning a new language, and people who are ill, stressed or have difficulties concentrating. Everybody can benefit from Easy Language. In Norway, reading in a variety of contexts has been focused on for many years. Learning to read is one of the main purposes of every child’s education, and a great deal of resources is used for gaining more knowledge about reading. Lesesenteret (The reading center), located in the University of Stavanger, has the main national responsibility for researching, developing, educating, and sharing knowledge about reading. Despite this, very little research has been conducted on Easy Language in Norway. Overall, research on Easy Language is scarce on a global level, especially in terms of fictional literature. Printed books have received less attention, and more research is needed in this area (Berget and Fagernes 2018). One study of Norwegian adults with dyslexia revealed that it was important that such books do not look or feel adapted, because this may make the end users ‘feel stupid’ (Berget and Fagernes 2018). The findings of this study also indicate a need for more research on this type of printed, Easy Language literature in general. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 393 Hanna Bovim Bugge, Gerd Berget, Eivor Vindenes Based on the experiences in Norway, it might be useful to conduct research projects in which organizations working with Easy Language collaborate with researchers. The study by Berget and Fagernes (2018) is an example of such collaboration. BfE participated in designing the reading experiment in this study and contributed books for user testing. Hopefully, such collaborations will inspire a stronger focus on Easy Language among researchers in the future. 8 Future perspectives The principle behind universal design outlines a future goal, namely that peo- ple with reading difficulties are part of the news and literary cycle, without hierarchical placement. A real cultural democracy invites readers with diverse reading skills into an equal informational and literary space, where everyone is able to participate. To reach this goal, systematic, broad and effective collaboration is needed between the different parts of Easy Language production. Practitioners, re- searchers, politicians, readers, target groups organizations, and the educational and cultural system must all acknowledge the need for Easy Language. They must work together towards a better understanding of Easy Language and how it can be used. Ideally, all types of readers should be involved in the develop- ment of Easy Language material. Language, and its products, should not only be for everyone, but also by everyone. Dialogue is dependent on communication. Communication is de- pendent on language. As the overall aim of inclusion extends back to the or- igin and making of the product, including different kinds of readers in the development of Easy Language material further develops the concept of Easy Language. 394 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Norway Authors Hanna Bovim Bugge has worked as an editorial advisor in Books for Everyone (Leser søker bok) since 2008, co-operating with writers, illustrators, graphic novel designers, and publishers in developing Easy Language books. She has a master’s degree in literature from the University of Oslo, where she also studied philosophy. She worked with sign language, deafness and people with hearing-impairments for many years and has been leading BfE’s bilingual book project since 2018. Contact: hbb@lesersokerbok.no Gerd Berget is an associate professor in library and information science at Oslo Metropolitan University. Her research interests comprise interactive informa- tion retrieval, universal design, adapted literature, and user diversity. Among other topics, she has studied how people with dyslexia read printed books and utilize online information systems. She has also explored the access to informa- tion of people with intellectual impairments. Contact: gerd.berget@oslomet.no Eivor Vindenes has worked as an editorial advisor in Books for Everyone (Leser søker bok) since 2015, co-operating with writers, illustrators, graphic novel designers, and publishers in developing Easy Language books. She has a background as an author and editor and has had various roles in the Cul- tural Council. Vindenes has special expertise in books with illustrations and cartoons. She also won the Guro Sandsdalens literature prize for her debut in 2010. Contact: ev@lesersokerbok.no Acknowledgements A special thanks goes to Gøril Huse (Chief Editor and Manager of Klar Tale), Rune Hagerup, (Manager at Empo TV) and Camilla Kvalheim (Manager at TV BRA) for their contribution of valuable information. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 395 Hanna Bovim Bugge, Gerd Berget, Eivor Vindenes References Aamli, Kari. Å Lese Litteratur Krev Trening [Reading literature requires practice]. 2020. Web. 8 February 2021. . Berget, Gerd, and Siri Fagernes. “I’m Not Stupid ‒ Attitudes Towards Adaptation among People with Dyslexia.” Ed. Masaaki Kurosu. Human-Computer Interaction. Theories, Methods, and Human Issues. Cham: Springer, 2018. 237‒247. Print. Bokhandlerforeningen, and Den norske forleggerforening. Leserundersøkelsen 2020: Lesing, kjøp og handelskanaler [The reading survey 2020: reading, purchase and channels of purchase]. Oslo: Ipsos MMI, 2020. Print. Carle, Eric. Den Lille Larven Aldrimett [The very hungry caterpillar]. 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Act Relating to Equality and a Prohibition against Discrimination (Equa- lity and Anti-Discrimination Act). 2020. Web. 8 February 2021. . Norwegian Library of Talking Books and Braille. Facts About NLB. 2020. Web. 8 Feb- ruary 2021. . NRK. Språkhåndbok for Nrk: En Hjelp for Redaktørene Til Å Håndheve Språkreglene I Nrk [Language manual for Nrk: a support for editors to enforce the language rules in Nrk]. Oslo: NRK, 2010. Print. NRK. Nrk-Språket [The Nrk-Language]. 2020. Web. 8 February 2021. . OECD. Skills Matter: Further Results from the Survey of Adult Skills. Paris: OECD Pu- blishing, 2016. Print. OECD. Pisa 2018 Assessment and Analytical Framework. Paris: OECD Publishing, 2019. Print. Retelsdorf, Jan; Köller, Olaf, and Jens Möller. “Reading Achievement and Reading Self-Concept: Testing the Reciprocal Effects Model.” Learning and Inst- ruction 29 (2014): 21–30. Print. Ross, Catherine Sheldrick. “Making Choices.” The Acquisitions Librarian 13.25 (2000): 5–21. Print. Salinas, Veronica. Å Lese for Andre: En Håndbok I Formidling [To read for others: a handbook in promotion]. Oslo: Leser søker bok, 2018. Print. Salinas, Veronica. Å Møtes Gjennom Litteraturen: Håndbok Om Språkkafeer [To meet through literature: a handbook on language cafees]. Oslo: Leser søker bok, 2019. Print. Spadorcia, Stephanie A. “Examining the Text Demands of High-Interest, Low-Le- vel Bhighooks.” Reading & Writing Quarterly 21.1 (2005): 33–59. Print. Statistics Norway. Leseferdigheter Og Tallforståelse [Literacy and numeracy]. 2013. Web. 8 February 2021. . Statistics Norway. Flere Utgitte Boktitler, Men Færre Solgte Bøker [More published ti- tles, but less books sold]. 2019. Web. 8 February 2021. . Statistics Norway. Key Figures for the Population. 2020. Web. 8 February 2021. . Steinfeld, Edward, and Jordana L. Maisel. Universal Design: Creating Inclusive Environments. New Jersey: Wiley, 2012. Print. Strand, Vibeke Blaker. “Norway’s Ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Highlighting Current Discourses in the Field of Human Rights in Norway.” Nordic Journal of Human Rights 32.1 (2014): 75–83. Print. Thorsnæs, Geir. Norges Befolkning [The population of Norway]. 2020. Web. 8 Feb- ruary 2021. . © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 397 Hanna Bovim Bugge, Gerd Berget, Eivor Vindenes UN. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 2006. Web. 8 February 2021. . Vikør, Lars S. Norwegian: Bokmål Vs. Nynorsk. Oslo: The Language Council, n.d. Print. Vinje, Finn-Erik. Skriveregler [Writing rules]. Oslo: Aschehoug, 2009. Print. 398 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Norway Appendix 1. An illustration of Easy Language news and Easy Language liter- ature in Norway. – Jeg er øyjente, fra Senja. Og tok utgangspunkt i det. Det er mange aspekter i dette med øyliv. Det kan være det fysiske, der du bor. Det kan være noe mentalt. Det var så mye jeg kunne skrive rundt det. Både billedlig og konkret, sier hun til nyhetsbyrået NTB. Og legger til: – Og nå bor jeg jo ved øyene i Oslofjorden! For familien Haukaas Mittet bor ved en halvøy ved Mosseveien. Det var da de flyttet dit at hun innså hvor mye hun hadde savnet utsikten over havet. Example of Easy Language news from Klar Tale, published 21 February 2021 on klartale.no [– I am an island girl from Senja. I began there. Life on an island has many as- pects. Like the physical conditions where you live. Or something mental. I could have written about so many things. Using images or being specific, she tells the news agency NTB. She adds: – And now I live by the islands in the Oslo fjord! The Haukaas Mittet family lives by a peninsula near the Moss road. When they moved here, she realized how much she missed seeing the sea.] – Tenk på hvordan dere lærte morsmålet, sier læreren. Vi hermer etter lydene rundt oss. – Fokuser på uttalen først, sier hun. Jeg gjentar alle lydene jeg hører. Jeg gjentar ordene inne i meg. Om igjen og om igjen. Example of Easy Language literature, OG (novel) by Veronica Salinas, Cappelen Damm 2018. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 399 Hanna Bovim Bugge, Gerd Berget, Eivor Vindenes [– Think about how you learned your mother tongue, says the teacher. We imitate the sounds around us. – Focus on pronunciation first. I repeat all the sounds I hear. I repeat the words inside myself. Again and again.] Det jeg fryktet var å skrive om deg ikke til deg. Example of Easy Language literature, Vuggesang for liten kriger (poetry) by Selma M. Yonus, Aschehoug 2021. [What worried me was to write on you not to you.] 400 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Agnieszka Przybyła-Wilkin Easy Language in Poland 1 Introduction Poland is a country in central Europe, bordering Germany in the west, Czechia and Slovakia in the south, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, and the Russian Kalin- ingrad Region in the east, and the Baltic Sea in the north. It is a parliamentary republic, with two parliament houses (lower: Sejm and higher: Senat) form- ing its legislative. The executive consists of the president, chosen in a general election as the official head of state; and the government, headed by the prime minister. Poland is divided into 16 administrative regions (voivodeships). The administration of a voivodeship consists of a regional assembly (sejmik), elect- ed every five years in local elections and headed by a marshal, and a govern- mental representative (voivode), appointed by the prime minister. The official language in Poland is Polish, indicated as a mother tongue by 98% of citizens. In the Opolskie voivodeship, German is an official auxiliary language. In the 2011 national census (Gudaszewski 2015: 69–70), less than 180 000 (almost 0.5%) citizens claimed not to use Polish in their communica- tion at home. Languages other than Polish that are most commonly spoken at home are Silesian (whose status as a separate language, rather than a dialect, is disputed), Kaszubian (whose status as regional language allows it to be se- lected as a subject in the secondary school final examination and to be used in official communication in some municipalities of the Pomorskie voivodeship), English, and German. Outside of Poland, the overall size of Polish-speaking communities is estimated to be between 10.5 million and 21 million (Sękowska 2010: 20). Polish belongs to the West Slavic language family, along with Czech and Slovak. Its inflection system is complex, with seven nominal cases, three gen- ders and three verb tenses. Inflection allows a relatively free word order, with © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 401 Agnieszka Przybyła-Wilkin semantic roles depending on word forms rather than their positioning in a sentence. Although not the only option, the subject-verb-object word order is the most common. Most common base words are up to three syllables long – hence readability formulae for Polish regard words of four syllables or more as long (Seretny 2006: 92, Piekot et al. 2015: 111, Gruszczyński and Ogrodniczuk 2015: 62). In 2019, Poland had about 38 380 000 inhabitants. The median age was 41. Eighteen per cent of the population were over 65 years of age, and 4% (1.7 million) were over 80 years of age (Cierniak-Piotrowska et al. 2020). The greatest national minorities included Germans (about 140 000), Belarussians (over 40 000), and Ukrainians (almost 40 000). According to estimates based on the 2002 national census, about 130 thousand citizens over 16 years of age are people with intellectual disabilities (Kijak 2013: 38). In the 2011–2012 PIAAC (Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies) test, 19% of Poles aged between 16 and 65 achieved Level 1 or below in text comprehension. This result places low literacy in Po- land four percentage points above the OECD average. Almost a third of the low-literacy respondents (32%) belonged to the oldest age group of 55–65 years (Burski 2013: 53, 63). This indicates a sizeable group potentially requiring Easy Language. The Easy Language initiatives in Poland mostly focus on its written form (teksty łatwe do czytania (i rozumienia), ‘easy-to-read (and understand)’). In oral communication, the approach seems to be more individualized, with no universal guidelines. 2 Historical perspectives The first Polish Easy Language texts were published in 2002 in the Społeczeńst- wo dla wszystkich (Society for Everyone) magazine, issued by the former Polish Society for People with Mental Impairment (Polskie Stowarzyszenie na rzecz Osób z Upośledzeniem Umysłowym, PSOUU, now the Polish Society for People with Intellectual Disability, Polskie Stowarzyszenie na rzecz Osób z Niepełnos- prawnością Intelektualną, PSONI). 402 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Poland In 2010, the PSOUU, which is a member of the Inclusion Europe network, published a Polish version of the Information for All guidelines (cf. Abramows- ka 2015). PSONI remains an active advocate of Easy Language and a prolific publisher of Easy Language materials. The publication of the guidelines also marked the beginning of systemic consultation of target group readers when writing Easy Language texts. Poland ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabil- ities (CRPD) on 6th September 2012. For years after this, Easy Language still seemed to be underrepresented in various forms of accessible information (subtitles, sign language translation, audio description). Two reports on the implementation of the CRPD in Poland (Zadrożny 2015, Tomczyk 2017) have stressed the need for more Easy Language materials. The areas that especially need Easy Language texts are legal procedures, health, voting, culture, and recreation (Tomczyk 2017). The lack of Easy Language information may also lead to underreporting breaches of human rights among people with disabil- ities (Zadrożny 2015: 30). Easy Language was first mentioned in the national law in the Ensuring Accessibility to People with Special Needs Act, passed on 19th July 2019 (Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej 2019). The Act requires all public entities to publish ‘easy-to-read information’ on the scope of their activities on their websites (Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej 2019: Art. 6 point 3c). However, despite using the term, the Act does not in any way define ‘easy-to-read’. 3 Current situation The creation of the Plain Polish Laboratory at the University of Wrocław in 2010 marked the beginning of the Polish Plain Language standard (prosta polszczyzna). As it was beneficial for a greater portion of society, it gained wide recognition in both public and private institutions more rapidly than Easy Language (teksty łatwe do czytania (i rozumienia)). Although often confused as the same thing in public reception, the two standards function independently of each other. The Polish Plain Language guidelines involve less limitations to the language and form of a text than the Polish Easy Language guidelines. The © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 403 Agnieszka Przybyła-Wilkin main difference between Polish Plain Language and Polish Easy Language is that the latter also simplifies content. Until the Accessibility Act was passed in 2019, Easy Language had little recognition among the general public. In general reception, it is still frequently confused with Plain Language. The most active promoter of Polish Easy Language has been the Polish Society for People with Intellectual Disability (PSONI). PSONI is a non-gov- ernmental organization with branches all across Poland. It supports people with intellectual disabilities and their families and promotes the rights and self-advocacy of people with intellectual disabilities (PSONI 2016a). It also runs numerous occupational therapy workshops and other therapeutic and training facilities across the country. PSONI publishes Easy Language texts (see Section 6) and advises authors from other institutions on Easy Language issues. Easy Language texts have also been commissioned by local administra- tions and other public entities and prepared by other non-governmental or- ganizations, mostly ones whose main focus is on other forms of accessibility such as subtitling or audio description. A small number of organizations (both non-governmental and commercial) offer translations into the Easy Language format. 4 Target groups Most Polish Easy Language texts are directed at people with intellectual disa- bilities. Easy Language information has also been prepared for low-functioning people with autism spectrum disorders. Some Easy Language brochures cover topics that are of interest to other potential target groups, such as the brochure on the rights of elderly and disabled voters, which was published before the 2014 European Parliament election. The need for Easy Language has also been mentioned in personal discussions by professionals working with deaf people. The discussion on the potential usefulness of Easy Language for other groups, in line with the universal design approach, has only recently transpired in the general public, following the legal requirement of publishing Easy Language texts. 404 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Poland Consulting representatives of the target group when creating Easy Lan- guage texts has been a part of the publishing process since the publication of the Inclusion Europe guidelines (2010). Organizations who author the Easy Language texts recruit consultants, usually people with intellectual disabilities. PSONI often consults members of their therapeutic facilities when publishing these texts, and the consultation is part of the therapeutic activities. The con- sultants’ remarks are prepared by the consultants themselves or with help of their therapists and are sent to the authors in written form. In projects com- missioned by external organizations, both authors and consultants are paid. In many cases, however, Easy Language texts are created on a non-profit basis. Many of the brochures bearing Inclusion Europe’s Easy-To-Read logo do not acknowledge the names of the consultants, despite publication of the names being one of the organization’s requirements. 5 Guidelines There is currently no official set of Easy Language guidelines for Polish. The most popular guidelines are those prepared by Inclusion Europe (2010). Even though they include an ‘Easy-to-read standards for the Polish language’ section, they do not take the many specific features of Polish into account. PSONI’s Easy Language authors also use a translated version of universal guidelines devel- oped by Mencap (2000). No expert linguistic knowledge has been employed to develop the currently used guidelines. Practitioners have expressed a need for more extensive Easy Language textbooks and workbooks. For an illustration of the Polish guidelines, see Appendix 1. As a result of several workshops with consultants with intellectual disa- bilities, PSONI has adjusted the publishing standards for its brochures. The adjustments include using a larger font (16 pt, as opposed to the 14 pt suggested in the Inclusion Europe (2010) guidelines) as well as less text and pictures per page (two paragraphs and illustration on a horizontal page). Authors of Easy Language texts rely on their experience as well as the feed- back provided by consultants with intellectual disabilities (see Section 4). No general standards have been developed for working with the consultants. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 405 Agnieszka Przybyła-Wilkin 6 Practical outcomes Easy Language has been most actively supported by PSONI, most notably in the Easy Language version of the Polish National Bank’s website (NBP, Naro- dowy Bank Polski 2016, the site is no longer available). PSONI regularly pub- lishes brochures on various aspects of daily life (such as health, work, relation- ships, rights of people with disabilities) in the series Biblioteka self-adwokata (Self-Advocate’s Library). Its quarterly magazine Społeczeństwo dla wszystkich (Society for All), published in both paper and electronic form, contains both standard language and Easy Language versions of some articles (cf. PSONI 2016b). Easy Language texts are also published by local PSONI branches. Not much other activity was noted until the 2019 Ensuring Accessibility Act, which came into full effect in September 2020. As a result of the new legal requirements, an increasing number of public entities now commission or create Easy Language information for their websites. Due to the lack of of- ficial guidelines or requirements for Easy Language texts, the produced texts vary considerably in terms of quality, and the accessibility of some of them is dubious. The Easy Language texts on websites are usually published as down- loadable pdf files rather than directly. An exemplary implementation of the Act can be observed in the city of Warsaw: a series of informative texts about all the administrative departments is being prepared, preceded by workshops for clerks. The workshops concern the needs of the target group(s) as well as the preparation of texts for translation into Easy Language. The authorities of Warsaw are also working on internal standards for both Plain Language and Easy Language information. 7 Education and research There are currently no widely available regular training programmes or univer- sity courses for Easy Language authors. In 2017, PSONI held a series of open one-time workshops popularizing the idea of Easy Language in several cities in co-operation with the German organization Netzwerk Leichte Sprache (Easy Language Network). Since 2019, PSONI has held several workshops (onsite 406 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Poland and, during the 2020 COVID pandemic, online) both for its own employees and other authors interested in the Easy Language standard. As part of a project funded by the Polish Ministry of Education, it has also carried out workshops for teachers of all levels of education, who are subsequently preparing a series of educational materials (to be published in 2021). In 2020–2022, the city of War- saw is organizing a series of workshops under the name Warsaw Academy of Accessibility (Warszawska Akademia Dostępności), open and dedicated to city clerks, on various forms of accessible information, including Easy Language. Research interest in Easy Language has so far been scarce in Poland. How- ever, in 2021, two isolated projects were running. The first is a doctoral thesis project at the University of Warsaw, entitled Wytyczne dla polskiego modelu tekstu łatwego do czytania (Guidelines for the Polish Easy-to-read model), launched in 2014 and funded by the Polish Ministry of Science. The other, Opracowanie i wdrożenie sposobu i standardu obsługi klienta z zakresu przygot- owywania dokumentów w sposób dostępny (Development and implementation of a method and standard of customer service – document preparation in an accessible way), started in 2019 and is conducted for the cities of Warsaw and Sopot by the certification company QS Zürich and the Spanish Easy Language organization Associació Lectura Facil. It is co-financed by the European Social Fund and involves research carried out by linguists of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The projects aim to adapt the guidelines of the German Leichte Sprache and the Spanish Lectura Facil to the features of the Polish language. 8 Future perspectives The 2019 legislation is a milestone and opens new perspectives for Easy Lan- guage in Poland. The number of available Easy Language texts has already started to increase rapidly and will likely continue to do so. We can expect this to trigger more recognition of the format in society. Such wider practice may provide materials and incentives for further research. Despite this rapid development, the provision of accessible information is still unknown territory to many. Without clear, precise language-specific stand- ards, the implementation of the new legal requirements will vary in quality. The © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 407 Agnieszka Przybyła-Wilkin use of Easy Language can achieve the best effects by combining expert knowl- edge with practical insights into the needs of the target groups. This requires a multidisciplinary and inclusive approach in both research and practice. We hope that, following the legal changes, initiatives representing such approach- es will find both interest and institutional support, which will lead to further development of best Easy Language practices. Author Agnieszka Przybyła-Wilkin is a graduate of the Institute of Applied Linguis- tics, University of Warsaw, and is currently a PhD candidate at the same insti- tute. She learned the principles of Easy Language at the Forschungsstelle Leichte Sprache in Hildesheim, Germany. Her research focuses on the empirically based optimization of Polish Easy Language guidelines. Her ‘Guidelines for a Polish Easy-to-read text’ project is funded by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education. Contact: aprzybyla@uw.edu.pl Acknowledgements I thank Barbara Ewa Abramowska and Katarzyna Świeczkowska of the Pol- ish Society for People with Intellectual Disability (PSONI) for their extensive remarks on the practical and institutional reality of Easy Language in Poland. Thank you also to Aleksandra Sztajerwald of the SYNAPSIS Foundation for her comments on autism spectrum disorders and to Monika Szczygielska of Dostepni.eu for her invaluable remarks and corrections. My research on Easy Polish is part of the project “Diamentowy Grant” 0173/DIA/2014/43, financed by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education. 408 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Poland References Abramowska, Barbara Ewa. “Tekst łatwy do czytania i zrozumienia.” [An easy to read and understand text]. Ed. Monika Zima-Parjaszewska. Osoba z niepełno- sprawnością intelektualną w postępowaniach sądowych i przed innymi organami. Poradnik praktyczny. Warszawa: PSONI, 2015. 159–164. Web. 12 January 2021. . Burski, Jan; Chłoń-Domińczak, Agnieszka; Palczyńska, Marta; Rynko, Maja, and Piotr Śpiewanowski. Umiejętności Polaków–wyniki Międzynarodo- wego badania kompetencji osób dorosłych (PIAAC) [Abilities of the Poles – results of the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC)]. Warszawa: Ins- tytut Badań Edukacyjnych, 2013. Print. Cierniak-Piotrowska, Małgorzata; Dąbrowska, Agata, and Karina Stel- mach. Population. Size and structure and vital statistics in Poland by territorial divi- sion in 2019. As of 31st December. Warszawa: Główny Urząd Statystyczny, 2020. Web. 12 January 2021. . Gruszczyński, Włodzimierz, and Maciej Ogrodniczuk. Eds. JASNOPIS czyli mierzenie zrozumiałości polskich tekstów użytkowych. Warszawa: SWPS Uniwersy- tet Humanistycznospołeczny, 2015. Print. Gudaszewski, Grzegorz. Struktura narodowo-etniczna, językowa i wyznaniowa ludności Polski – NSP 2011 [National, ethnic, linguistic and religious structure of the population of Poland – national census 2011]. Warszawa: Główny Urząd Sta- tystyczny, 2015. Web. 12 January 2021. . Inclusion Europe. Informacja dla wszystkich. Europejskie standardy przygotowania tekstu łatwego do czytania i zrozumienia [Information for all. European standards for making information easy to read and understand]. Translated by Magdalena Boruc. Warszawa: Biuro Pełnomocnika Rządu do Spraw Osób Niepełnospraw- nych, 2010. Web. 17 February 2021. Kijak, Remigiusz J. Niepełnosprawność intelektualna: między diagnozą a działaniem [Intellectual disability: between diagnosis and action]. Warszawa: Centrum Roz- woju Zasobów Ludzkich, 2013. Print. MENCAP. “Czy wyrażam się jasno?” – Jak uprzystępnić słowo pisane – wytyczne organi- zacji Mencap [“Am I making myself clear?” Mencap’s guidelines for accessible wri- ting]. Warszawa: PSOUU. Original English edition: 2000. Web. 17 February 2021. . NBP, Narodowy Bank Polski. NBP nie wyklucza – tekst łatwy do czytania [NBP does not exclude – Easy-to-read]. 2016. Web. 22 February 2021. . © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 409 Agnieszka Przybyła-Wilkin Piekot, Tomasz; Zarzeczny, Grzegorz, and Ewelina Moroń. “Upraszczanie tekstu użytkowego jako (współ) działanie. Perspektywa prostej polszczyzny.” [Sim- plifying the practical-purpose texts as (co-)operation. The perspective of Plain Polish]. Eds. S. Niebrzegowska-Bartmińska, M. Nowosad-Bakalarczyk, and T. Piekot. Działa- nia na tekście. Przekład – redagowanie – ilustrowanie. Lublin: Wydawnictwo UMCS, 2015. 99–116. Web. 6 March 2021. . PSONI. Misja stowarzyszenia [The society’s mission]. 2016a. Polskie Stowarzyszenie na rzecz Osób z Niepełnosprawnością Intelektualną. Web. 15 February 2021. . PSONI. Nasze publikacje [Our publications]. 2016b. Stowarzyszenie na rzecz Osób z Niepełnosprawnością Intelektualną. Web. 15 February 2021. . Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej. Ustawa z dnia 19 lipca 2019 r. o zapewnianiu dostępności osobom ze szczególnymi potrzebami [Ensuring accessibility to people with special needs act of 19th July 2019]. Web. 22 February 2021. . Sękowska, Elżbieta. Język emigracji polskiej w świecie: Bilans i perspektywy badawc- ze [The language of the Polish emigration in the world. State of affairs and research perspectives]. Kraków: Wydawnictwo UJ, 2010. Print. Seretny, Anna. “Wskaźnik czytelności tekstu jako pomoc w określaniu stopnia jego trudności.” [Text readability index as aid in determining its difficulty level]. Ling- Varia 2 (2006): 87–98. Web. 6 March 2021. . Tomczyk, Urszula. Ed. Bariery prawne, administracyjne i organizacyjne wdrażania konwencji o prawach osób niepełnosprawnych oraz kierunki działań dotyczące prze- zwyciężania tych barier – raport syntetyczny [Legal, administrative and organisa- tional barriers to the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and directions of actions to overcome these barriers – a synthetic report]. Warszawa: n.p., 2017. Web. 12 January 2021. Zadrożny, Jacek. Ed. Społeczny Raport Alternatywny z realizacji Konwencji o prawach osób z niepełnosprawnościami w Polsce [Social alternative report on the fulfilment of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities]. Warszawa: Fundacja KSK, 2015. Web. 6 March 2021. . 410 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Poland Appendix 1. An illustration of guidelines for Easy Polish. Standard Polish Easy Polish W ciągu ostatnich czterech lat Pol- Co chce robić Zarząd Główny? skie Stowarzyszenie na rzecz Osób z Niepełnosprawnością Intelektualną Zarząd Główny pracuje dla Sto- przeobraziło się (…). warzyszenia. W Zarządzie Głównym są ludzie z różnych miast w Polsce. Będą Po pierwsze, w każdym Kole PSONI razem pracować przez 4 lata. unoszą się słowa o „niezależnym życiu osób z niepełnosprawnością intelektu- W naszym Stowarzyszeniu najważnie- alną”, „samostanowieniu” i „podmiot- jsze są osoby z niepełnosprawnością owości”. intelektualną. Zarząd Główny chce, żeby każda osoba z niepełnosprawn- Po drugie, w każdym Kole PSONI ością intelektualną mogła niezależnie działa grupa self-adwokatów i self-ad- żyć. To znaczy mieć mieszkanie, pracę i wokatek, wspierająca Zarządy Kół znajomych, decydować o sobie. w działaniach, reprezentująca swoje stanowisko w każdej sprawie dotyczącej Osoby z niepełnosprawnością osób z niepełnosprawnością intelektual- intelektualną mogą decydować o Sto- ną. (…) warzyszeniu. Na przykład brać udział w ważnych spotkaniach, mówić co Tak powinno brzmieć podsumowanie dla nich jest ważne. Mówić czego im kadencji Zarządu Głównego PSONI najbardziej potrzeba. 2020−2024 (…). Source: Zima-Parjaszewska, Monika. “Jak działać ‘na rzecz’? Co chce robić Zarząd Główny?” [‘How to work “for” [people with intellectual disabilities]? What does the National Board want to do?’]. Społeczeństwo dla wszystkich [So- ciety for all] September 2020: 2. Web. 22 February 2021. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 411 Agnieszka Przybyła-Wilkin Standard Polish Easy Polish [Over the last four years, the Polish Soci- [What does the National Board want ety for People with Intellectual Disability to do? (PSONI) has been transformed (…). The National Board works for the First, every PSONI branch has the terms Society. In the National Board there are ‘independent life of people with intellec- people from different cities in Poland. tual disabilities’, ‘self-determination’ and They will work together for 4 years. ‘subjectivity’. In our Society, people with intellectual Second, in every PSONI branch, a group disabilities are the most important. The of self-advocates is at work, supporting National Board wants every person the Branch Boards in their actions, with intellectual disabilities to be able presenting their position on every matter to live independently. This means: to concerning people with intellectual have a home, a job and friends, and to disability. (…) decide for themselves. This is what the summary of the PSO- People with intellectual disabilities can NI National Board term 2020–2024 make decisions about the Society. For should sound like (…).] example [they can] take part in impor- tant meetings, say what is important to them. [They can] say what they need most.] 412 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Sandra Marques Easy Language in Portugal 1 Introduction Portugal is a European country located in the south-west, with two archi- pelagos in the North Atlantic. The Portuguese territory has a total area of 92 090 km², bordered on the north and east by Spain and on the south and west by the Atlantic Ocean. It comprises a continental part and two autonomous regions: the Azores and the Madeira archipelagos. Portugal is the westernmost nation on the European continent. Its capital is Lisbon, a city with more than 2 800 000 inhabitants in its metropolitan area. The official language in Portugal is Portuguese, one of Europe’s first cul- tured languages of medieval times. As far as phonology, morphology, lexicon, and syntax are concerned, Portuguese emerged in the evolution from vulgar Latin (brought by the Romans in the third century BC) with some influences from other languages and a strong Celtic substrate. European Portuguese has 26 alphabet letters, 7 lexical notations and 11 punctuation marks, comprising a total of 44 graphemes, and a total of 35 sounds: 23 consonant phonemes, 14 vowels (oral and nasal), 12 diphthongs (oral and nasal), and 2 semivowels (Ortografia e Oralidade 2011). According to Fernandes (2008), although ‘Portuguese does not have a spelling system that can be considered one of the most opaque, it presents non-biunivocal relations between sounds and the graphemes that represent them, which contributes to a certain complexity. There are situations in which the same spelling may represent more than one sound, and other situations in which the same sound may be represented by more than one grapheme’ 1. The grapheme ‘c’, for instance, can have the sound [k] or [s], and the grapheme ‘s’ 1 Translated from Portuguese by the author. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 413 Sandra Marques can have the sound [s], [z], [∫] or [ʒ]. On the other hand, the sound [z], for instance, can correspond to different graphemes, such as ‘z’, ‘s’ or ‘x’. In the fifth century AD, a dialect called galaico-português (Galician-Portu- guese) developed, which was different from other Iberian Roman languages. In the 16th century modern Portuguese began to emerge, and the first grammars were created in 1536, by Fernão de Oliveira and João de Barros. Some people still speak a language derived from an ancient kingdom, the Kingdom of Leon, called Mirandês (Mirandese). This language has less than 15 000 speakers and is only spoken in villages – almost 100% of the inhabitants of the village of Picote (Picuote in Mirandese), for example, speak only Mirandese. The spelling of Mirandese is naturally influenced by Portuguese, but it is a different language with a different development, structure and history. This minority language was granted official status in the region by the end of the 20th century. As far as we know, there are no Easy Language materials in Mirandese, or any discussion on the accessibility level of this language. Portuguese sign language is also considered an official language. Along with Portuguese, Mirandese and Portuguese sign language, Portugal also has other languages, among them Minderico, spoken throughout the region of Minde; Barraquenho (or Barranquenho), a dialect close to Spanish, spoken in the municipality of Barrancos, Alentejo; and the Portuguese Calló, the language spoken by the large Roma community in Portugal. Other languages are also spoken by immigrant communities, such as Cape Verdean Creole (Kabuverdianu). Portuguese is the official language in ten countries (Brazil, Angola, Mo- zambique, Portugal, Guinea-Bissau, East Timor, Guinea-Equatorial, Macau, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe) which together total more than 280 million people. However, not all of those people speak Portuguese. This is relevant because the large community of people from the PALOPs (African countries with Portuguese as their official language) living in Portugal may not be proficient in Portuguese. For them it may be a second language, not spoken within the community. 414 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Portugal The 1990 Orthographic agreement aimed to unify the spelling of Portu- guese. This agreement was signed by seven countries 2 for which Portuguese is the official language and entered into force in Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe in 2009. From our perspective, the agreement did not fulfil its aim. Portugal and Brazil still have different spellings and accentuations, and some of the changes can make the understanding of written information more challenging. The fact that the way in which people pronounce words is so close to the way in which they spell them results in some peculiarities, like the word Egito (Egypt), for example. Prior to the orthographic agreement it was written with a ‘p’, Egipto. All words derived from Egipto should be written with a ‘p’, like Egip- cíos (Egyptians). Today, because of the new agreement, we write Egito (Egypt) – because we do not articulate the ‘p’ when speaking the word, but Egipcíos (Egyptians) – because we still pronounce the ‘p’ when saying the word. It can also be confusing that some words allow double spelling according to whether or not you pronounce a certain letter (e.g., espectador/espetador). Some words are no longer accentuated, like the word para (stop), which is written in the same way as para (to). Previously, pára was ‘stop’ and para was ‘to’. Now the difference in meaning comes from the sentence context, and this can make it more difficult to understand when people have a low level of literacy or intel- lectual and developmental disabilities. One of the largest Portuguese language dictionaries is the Houaiss. Ac- cording to Correia (2007), this dictionary has around 228 550 entries. Today, the Portuguese language has terms that come from different languages such as Tupi, Quicongo, Quimbundo, Umbundo, Calló, Provençal, Dutch, Hebrew, Persian, Quechua, Chinese, Turkish, Japanese, German, Russian, English, French, and Italian (Cardoso and Cunha 2007, Piel 1989). Figures from the last census (2011) tell us that Portugal has more than 10 million inhabitants. Of these, more than 500 000 were born in another country. For some of them, Portuguese is not their mother tongue. More than 277 000 are from countries in which Portuguese is the official language, but in actuality, varying creoles and local languages are used in everyday, less formal contexts. 2 Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and São Tomé and Príncipe. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 415 Sandra Marques This is the case for all the former Portuguese Overseas’ Territories in Africa and Asia. Portuguese, or a Creole variant, is also used informally, especially by the older generations, in Asia (India and Malaysia) because these territories (Goa, Malacca, etc.) were once part of the Portuguese Empire. According to the contemporary Portugal database (PORDATA), in 2019, 21.6% of the population were at risk of poverty 3 and 4.7% of residents were foreigners 4. According to the CIA World Factbook 5, in 2020, 4% of the Portuguese population (aged 15 or over) could not read or write. This is one of the highest percentages of illiteracy in Europe. In 2018, the reading performance of more than 21% of 15-year-old students was poor (level 1 or below) in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA assessment) 6. Numbers from the 2011 census tell us that 3.8% of the population had difficulties or could not remember or concentrate on tasks, while 6.2% had difficulties or could not, using normal language, understand or be understood by others. The PIAAC (Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies) has no data for Portugal, as we will only be joining this assessment in 2023. 2 Historical perspectives In Portugal, the first Easy Language steps were taken in 1998, by FENACERCI, a Portuguese non-governmental umbrella organization working in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities. At that time, it was called easy-to- 3 PORDATA, População em risco de pobreza ou exclusão social: total e por grupo etário (%), https://www.pordata.pt/Europa/Popula%C3%A7%C3%A3o+em+risco+de+pobreza+total+ e+por+grupo+et%C3%A1rio+(percentagem)-2331. 4 PORDATA, População residente, estimativas a 1 de Janeiro: total, nacionais e estrangeiros https://www.pordata.pt/Europa/Popula%c3%a7%c3%a3o+residente++estimativas+a+1+de+ Janeiro+total++nacionais+e+estrangeiros-1815-314045. 5 CIA World Factbook, https://www.indexmundi.com/map/?v=39&r=eu&l=en 6 PISA Assessment, http://iave.pt/images/FicheirosPDF/Estudos_Internacionais/PISA/ resultados2018/RELATORIO_NACIONAL_PISA2018_IAVE.pdf. 416 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Portugal read 7 language (ETR) and was based on the International Federation of Library Association Guidelines for Easy-to-Read Materials (IFLA 1997). Between 1998 and 2009, FENACERCI translated several easy-to-read In- clusion Europe brochures into Portuguese, without any involvement of the target groups. The understanding was that important information should be accessible to all and that the accessibility concept should also include cognitive accessibility. However, only people working in the field of intellectual disability understood that this was important, and it did not affect policies or laws on accessibility and inclusion. In 2009, the Pathways II project gave easy-to-read a different dimension, with the setting of European Guidelines 8 and specificities for different lan- guages, and the involvement of the target groups as proofreaders, who thus contributed to the final documents produced. As well as FENACERCI, other organizations such as CANTIC 9 (a resource centre to support students with special needs) or CERCIOEIRAS 10 (a social co-operative providing services for people with intellectual disabilities) have also produced some materials using the European Guidelines as a compass for their work. The concept of Plain Portuguese was introduced in 2007, when a private company ‘claro.pt’ 11 was founded. Claro.pt works closely with governmental bodies and institutes, as we can see if we look at their list of clients 12 (e.g., the Agency for Administrative Modernisation, the Portuguese Government, Social Security, the European Commission, and the Health Regulation Authority). After 2009, FENACERCI started to disseminate the Easy Language concept and the need to ensure cognitive accessibility. Several easy-to-read documents and training materials targeting people with intellectual and developmental disability were produced. Easy-to-read is not just about simplifying content; it may also involve a different way to present the content, especially if we are talk- 7 We use the term ‘easy-to-read’ for materials produced before 2021, every time we refer to written materials. 8 Inclusion Europe, https://www.fenacerci.pt/web/LF/docs/7.pdf. 9 CANTIC reference to easy-to-read Inclusion Europe Guidelines, https://cantic.org.pt/cantic/ tag/leitura-facil/. 10 CERCIOEIRAS, http://www.cercioeiras.pt/a-voz-da-diferenca/trabalhos-realizados. 11 Claro.pt, https://claro.pt/. 12 Claro clientes, https://claro.pt/work/#clientes-todos. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 417 Sandra Marques ing about laws and policy papers. FENACERCI has also provided easy-to-read training for professionals such as teachers, trainers, copywriters, and media professionals. However, the interest of public bodies and the Government in the need to ensure cognitive accessibility has only grown in the last few years. In 2014, the first attempt was made to set up a publishing house dedicated to Easy Language. LusoReads started with great expectations, but unfortu- nately did not get very far. In 2014, the National Institute for Rehabilitation (Instituto Nacional para a Reabilitação, I.P.) 13 set up a working group for ac- cessible elections, inviting representatives of all kinds of disabilities and the National Elections Commission (CNE) to join. The objective was to produce information about elections and the electoral process that would be accessible to all citizens. This group is still working, but on an intermittent basis, and unfortunately it has failed to involve political parties and produce the results that were initially expected. The information is first adapted to Easy Language and then to Portuguese sign language and Braille. In 2017, the Portuguese government launched the National Plan for Read- ing 2017–2027 (Plano Nacional de Leitura n.d. a), which had several aims, namely, to implement a set of measures to strengthen reading and writing skills and promote the inclusion of people with specific needs. The strategic framework of the plan recognizes the need to increase the number ‘of actions aimed at people with special needs, in compliance with the principles of inclu- sion and accessibility to literary adapted contents’ 14 (Plano Nacional de Leitura n.d. b). However, we were unable to find any reference to Easy Language or cognitive accessibility in this policy document. This shows that there is still a lack of interest in and understanding of the need for Easy Language, and its importance in providing access to culture and information for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. 13 INR, I.P., https://www.inr.pt/noticias/-/journal_content/56/11309/238133. 14 Translated from Portuguese by the author. 418 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Portugal 3 Current situation Although the government and other stakeholders (e.g., professionals working in the disability field, politicians, academics…) now recognize the importance of the awareness of cognitive accessibility and the need to ensure access to relevant information for all people, a legal framework or recommendations that specifically address the need to produce information and culture in Easy Language and of scientific research on the topic are still lacking. The private company Claro.pt works closely with public administration and other governmental bodies, but does not produce Easy Language materials. Again, it is important to stress that Plain Language is not the same as Easy Language, since Easy Language needs to consider the specific needs of people with disabilities, namely, intellectual and developmental disabilities. 3.1 Definitions Portuguese has no official definition of Easy Language, but a common under- standing of it exists among professionals working on cognitive accessibility issues, mainly based on the IFLA (2010) and Inclusion Europe 15 definitions. Issues such as the use of short sentences, avoiding technical words or jargon and the use of the active voice, are just a few examples of what is accepted by all. Inclusion Europe developed a concrete set of rules that aims to make written information accessible to people with intellectual and developmen- tal disabilities. In Portugal, FENACERCI uses and disseminates these rules, namely by providing training or producing Easy Language versions of relevant documents, targeted at people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Português claro (Plain Portuguese) is a concept based on the right to un- derstand information and connects with several of the Easy Language theo- retical concepts and practical guidelines. There is no official definition of Plain Language in Portuguese. As mentioned above, one company advertises itself as being the ‘clarity agency’ – agência da clareza. This company works with 15 Inclusion Europe Checklist on easy-to-read, https://www.inclusion-europe.eu/easy-to-read/. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 419 Sandra Marques several public and private organizations and also promotes training on how to produce information that is clear to all. Portugal seems to have a mixed understanding of Easy Language and Plain Language. Português claro (Plain Portuguese) should be separated from Leitura Fácil (Easy Language), as they are not the same. Easy Language targets people with more severe limitations in reading and understanding written material, whereas Plain Language is mainly a way to ensure that most people can un- derstand the information; it does not specifically target people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (Center for Inclusive Design 2020). If infor- mation is provided in Easy Language, almost everyone can understand and access it, but this is not necessarily true about information in Plain Language. In fact, some of the information that we found online about easy-to-read Portuguese confuse the two concepts, and even confuse the target groups. Although some claim to have followed easy-to-read guidelines and use the easy-to-read logo, an analysis of the information produced revealed that it is not accessible to those targeted by the Easy Language approach – people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and with more complex needs of support to understand written texts. This is the case with, for instance, Acces- sible Portugal 16, which refers to Plain Portuguese and indirectly to the private company Claro.pt (by referring to one of its founders) and at the same time to the Easy-to-Read logo of Inclusion Europe. The same thing emerged from the analysis of a text that had received the ‘Culture Access Award – Linguagem Clara 2019’: it does not comply with the easy-to-read guidelines and is even written in a way that actually makes it more difficult to understand the message (Acesso Cultura Award 2019). As already mentioned, official entities and private service companies seem to understand Plain Portuguese as an important tool, but Easy Language is mostly used by NGOs and service providers working in the intellectual disa- bility field. Easy Language advocates have not consistently been able to show the need to regularly use this tool in all communication and training materials. In Portugal, Easy Language seems to be closer to what we call Easy-to-Read 16 Accessible Portugal is a service of inclusive and accessible tourism. 420 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Portugal (ETR). Material that is written in Easy Language is accessible to the vast major- ity of people, including those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. 3.2 Societal and legal context In Portugal, Easy Language is seen as something that is only needed by a small number of people, at least from the government perspective. The only gov- ernmental body that addresses this topic is related to disability, namely the National Institute for Rehabilitation (Instituto Nacional para a Reabilitação). However, even this body does not push for legislation on the topic or even ensure that the information it produces is accessible to people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, and so Easy Language remains a minor concern when inclusion and participation are discussed. Since the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2009, de- cision-makers made some inconsistent attempts to address the issue of the right to information and cognitive accessibility, but these were scarce and not included in the wider political understanding of the need to enable exercising of this right. In 2020, the Commission to Promote Accessibility (Comissão para a Pro- moção das Acessibilidades) issued a report 17 that made the political under- standing of accessibility clear –its 51 pages do not contain a single reference to cognitive accessibility and it focuses mainly on physical accessibility. People with a low level of literacy and/or intellectual disabilities are still not able to access culture, political and social information, or even just information in general, and are thus being pushed out of the information circle. Although Easy Language has been around for some time now, its advo- cates have not been able to show its importance to the wider public and, most importantly, to policymakers and governmental bodies in general. However, some political parties have started to recognize the importance of ensuring that the information they produce is accessible to people with disabilities, and have made Easy Language versions of their manifestos or political programmes. 17 Report from the Commission to Promote Accessibility, https://www.inr.pt/documents/ 11309/285392/Relatorio+FINAL+-+ComissaoPromocaoAcessibilidades.pdf/0800afb7-8e09- 44eb-9110-44e9082678e1. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 421 Sandra Marques Since 2020, the interest of decision-makers in Easy Language has begun to grow, slowly and gradually; but only in specific sectors, namely, those related to disability. The National Institute for Rehabilitation attempted to disseminate some Easy Language information about the Sars-CoV-2 virus 18, but neither the Institute nor the Government committed to doing this themselves. Press conferences about COVID-19, for instance, are required to have sign language interpretation, but no attempt has been made to make them easy to understand for people with intellectual disabilities. Again, these people fall out of the in- formation loop, disregarded by public authorities. Regardless of this, the last decade was quite ‘productive’ in the sense that interest in Easy Language grew, mostly from outside the disability field. This is described in more detail in the practical outcomes section. 3.3 Stakeholders In terms of accessing information or knowledge, everyone should be able to be a stakeholder. However, some groups may benefit more if information and training are accessible. Those who are usually left out of the information loop are the ones on whom we should focus. FENACERCI, a Portuguese non-governmental (NGO) umbrella organi- zation working in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities, has produced several documents and information in Easy Language for the last 12 years, using groups of people with intellectual disabilities to evaluate its accessibility level and propose changes, if needed. Members of FENACERCI provide services for more than 25 000 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, from birth to death. FENAC- ERCI has community-based structures (co-operatives), with members strongly involved with the families of their clients (people with intellectual and devel- opmental disabilities). FENACERCI itself is a member of several important organizations in the disability field, such as the National Monitoring Mecha- nism for the Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Mecanismo Nacional para a Monitorização da Implementação da 18 The National Institute for Rehabilitation, https://www.inr.pt/covid-19-leitura-facil. 422 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Portugal Convenção sobre os Direitos das Pessoas com Deficiência) or the Disability and Human Rights Observatory (Observatório da Deficiência e Direitos Humanos). Official entities, non-governmental organizations, service providers, and political parties are some of the most relevant stakeholders. Among the differ- ent easy-to-read documents produced by FENACERCI are training materials for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, political manifestos (namely for Bloco de Esquerda, a political party), a vocational training curric- ulum in gardening (for CERCICA, a service provider), summaries of annual reports (for the annual reports of the Disability and Human Rights Observato- ry), and other publications on request (one example is the document on ethics in sport, from Plano Nacional de Ética no Desporto, a governmental initiative hosted by the Instituto Portugês do Desporto e Juventude). Claro.pt is an agency that works with Plain Portuguese. It engages with ma- jor media and communication companies, the government, insurance compa- nies, banks, and so on. Although it produces simplified material and informa- tion, it does not target people with intellectual disabilities and the information it produces is not accessible to people in this group. We found no other public or private company or organization that worked with Plain Portuguese. From time to time, interest awakens among public authorities/official enti- ties, political parties and service providers, but not regularly. From our perspec- tive, the most relevant stakeholders are the people who will benefit from the information themselves. They must be involved in the process of producing the written information. Only in this way will the specific aspects that ensure the accessibility of these target groups be addressed. Writing and producing information in Easy Language requires training and practice. In order to make sure that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities can contrib- ute to producing accessible materials, they need to be trained. Only then will they gain the required skills to work side by side with the professionals who produce these materials. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 423 Sandra Marques 4 Target groups In general, Plain Language targets all people, as it is easier to understand in- formation that is written in everyday language, regardless of your reading and comprehension level or your economic or social status. Easy language, in turn, targets people with more severe needs for support to understand written in- formation, who do not understand information written in Plain Language and need a different level of simplified information and a specific layout. Among these (but not exclusively) are people with a low level of functional literacy, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, deaf people, migrants, people with dementia, and people with psychosocial impairments. Easy Language is a tool that promotes inclusion and exercises the rights of groups that are usually left out of the information circle. By accessing rele- vant information, people are more capable of making decisions, claiming their rights, being involved and having a real say in their life plans. One example is political participation. Political parties’ communication is not usually accessi- ble for people with low literacy or poor reading skills. Practical issues related to how to exercise one’s right to vote can also be difficult to understand. In order to reach all citizens, the National Elections Commission (Comissão Nacional de Eleições) has produced several easy-to-read documents that explain election procedures 19. 5 Guidelines In Portugal, the guidelines/standards for Plain Language and Easy Language follow the IFLA Easy Language Guidelines and Inclusion Europe Guidelines for materials that are easy to read and understand. The Inclusion Europe guide- lines refer to some specific rules for Portuguese. The guidelines for Portuguese are almost the same as those for any other language, and relate to content, format and design. Content is closely related 19 Comissão Nacional de Eleições – accessible information, http://www.cne.pt/content/ eleicoes-acessiveis. 424 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Portugal to the target group, and it is crucial to define this prior to starting to produce the information. When writing, one should use short sentences and examples to illustrate ideas/concepts, avoid the use of percentages or large numbers, write sentences using the active rather than the passive voice, use everyday words, and put the most important information at the beginning and the end of the text. Roman numerals should not be used, the use of pronouns as direct and indirect objects should be avoided, and colloquial verb tenses should be preferred. The font should be large (e.g., Arial 14) and non-serif. The guidelines also give instructions about spaces between letters, words and sentences, and the use of visual effects (e.g., italic, underlining, shadows, etc.). The use of diffi- cult words is not recommended, but if this is necessary, an explanation must be given. One important rule is to always start a new sentence on a new line, and to split sentences where you normally would when reading out loud. The guidelines also have recommendations regarding background, the type of im- ages used and the layout itself. For an illustration of the Portuguese guidelines, see Appendix 1. Although these guidelines were mainly designed for written information, they also include rules for electronic information, videos, and audio. In total, they contain 44 rules for written information, 29 for electronic information, 22 for video, and 17 for audio. Both European and national projects have developed training materials 20 in Easy Language. Political parties have begun to ask for versions of their pro- grammes and manifestos in Easy Language, to reach people with intellectual disabilities. At the European level, the MINCE project (Model for Inclusive Community Education) has developed a number of easy-to-read products, such as a curriculum and a guide for peer mediators (2017), and the COE- SI project (Change Organisations to Enable Social Inclusion) has developed counsellor training for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities 20 Training materials in easy-to-read from the MINCE project, http://en.lebenshilfe-guv.at/ english/mince_project/project_products; Training materials from the COESI project, http://en.lebenshilfe-guv.at/english/coesi_project/ products_produkte; Training materials from the Capacitar para a Cidadania project, http://plataforma- autorrepresentantes.pt/?page_id=890. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 425 Sandra Marques to acquire the necessary competences to act as inclusion counsellors (2019). At the national level, the Capacitar para a Cidadania (Empowering for citi- zenship) has developed a training curriculum to promote full citizenship and self-advocacy (2014). The fact that no studies have examined Easy Language from a Portuguese linguistic perspective makes it harder to determine the specific issues that may need to be tackled. No papers or scientific articles related to Portuguese from Portugal seem to exist. Brazil has a vast collection of research on Easy Lan- guage, but Brazilian Portuguese is not exactly like the Portuguese in Portugal. Easy Language is handled by professionals who work in the disability field directly with the target groups, most of whom have no linguistic background. 6 Practical outcomes Easy Language materials are mainly produced by the one umbrella organiza- tion working in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities, FEN- ACERCI. One example is the Easy Language version of the CRPD, published in 2010. FENACERCI’s 21 version seems to be the only one in which the informa- tion is organized in a specific way to make it more accessible and usable by the target group, which was involved from the beginning every step of the way. The information is clustered according to the CRPD principles, and colour coded. This makes it easier to understand specific rights, such as the right not to be discriminated against, which is related to several articles of the CRPD. People can find all of these grouped. In 2019, for the first time, a political party published their electoral manifes- to for the European elections in easy-to-read language and for the Legislative elections 22. In 2004, the Ministry of Culture, together with the Portuguese Institute of Museums (Instituto Português dos Museus), published a guide to accessibility in museums, which mentions the need to have accessible information for people 21 FENACERCI 2010, https://www.fenacerci.pt/convencao_flip/. 22 Bloco de Esquerda, https://www.bloco.org/media/ManifestoEuropeias2019LeituraFacil.pdf. 426 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Portugal with low levels of literacy (Temas de Museologia, Museus e Acessibilidade 2004). The guide proposes three accessibility levels, Level 1 being the most complex and Level 3 the easiest to understand 23. However, none of these levels complies with existing recommendations, such as those of IFLA or Inclusion Europe: for example, the way in which sentences should be divided or font size. In 2014, LusoReads published an easy-to-read novel, O fastasma de Canter- ville, by Oscar Wilde. The novel was adapted to Spanish by Eugènia Salvador and translated into Portuguese by Ana da Cruz. The book reached the list of books in the National Plan for Reading. However, today, the LusoReads website no longer exists: and the last activity on the Facebook page 24 was in October 2019. The Inclusive Shared Reading Project 25 (Projeto de Leitura Inclusiva Par- tilhada, PLIP) emerged in 2011 from the personal project of some researchers of the Inclusion and Accessibility in Action Research Unit (Unidade de Inves- tigação, Inclusão e Acessibilidade em Ação) of the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria (Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, IPL). It adapts original or already published works so that people with specific needs can access them through versions in new formats: books in Braille and in high-relief (for blind or poor-vision people); audio books (for those who prefer to listen); video books in Portu- guese Sign Language (for the deaf) and in adapted formats such as pictograms and simplified versions (for people with intellectual and developmental dis- abilities or other limitations). The project is co-ordinated by Célia Sousa and access to the materials is only possible by online registration. Although some of the materials are labelled easy-to-read they do not comply with some of the most important guidelines for writing easy-to-read information, such as always starting a new sentence on a new line or cutting sentences where people would pause if reading out loud. Before 2020, Easy Language was not used very much in informative texts. Some information about elections was produced by a working group led by the 23 Guide for accessible museums, http://www.patrimoniocultural.gov.pt/static/data/publicacoes/ acessibilidades/ipm_2004_museus_e_acessibilidade.pdf. 24 LUSOREADS, https://www.facebook.com/LusoReads. 25 PLIP, https://plip.ipleiria.pt/apresentacao/. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 427 Sandra Marques National Secretariat for Rehabilitation, but most of the materials produced in Easy Language are training materials. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some information was produced in Easy Language, mainly about safety measures, social distancing 26, the use of masks 27, and COVID-19 symptoms. Some adaptations of informative docu- ments from the World Health Organization addressed the situation of people with disabilities, for example, the ‘Disability considerations during the COV- ID-19 outbreak’ 28 and a document about domestic violence in the pandemic situation 29. 7 Education and research Since 2010, some training has been provided to professionals in different fields on how to make information accessible to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Most of this was offered by FENACERCI, which either organized it or invited trainers from other organizations and services. These training sessions were mainly for professionals working with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities or other type of disabilities and members of the police force and other law enforcement officials responsible for communication and public relations. There seems to be a lack of higher education curricula that addresses the topic of Easy Language or any research on these fields of knowledge. Research on the field of Easy Language and/or cognitive accessibility is scarce in Portu- gal. In fact, desk research was unable to identify any papers on Easy Language. One paper from 2013 indirectly addresses the topic of Easy Language, by men- tioning it as a tool to ensure cognitive accessibility (Cruz and Monteiro 2013), 26 FENACERCI, Distanciamento Social, https://www.fenacerci.pt/docs/LF-distanciamento- social.pdf. 27 FENACERCI, Como usar máscaras e luvas, https://www.fenacerci.pt/docs/LF-uso-mascaras- luvas.pdf. 28 FENACERCI, Considerações sobre a Deficiência durante o surto da COVID-19, https://www. fenacerci.pt/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Consideracoes-sobre-a-Deficiencia-durante-o- surto-da-COVID.pdf. 29 FENACERCI, Violência Doméstica, https://www.fenacerci.pt/docs/LF-ViolenciaDomestica_ COVID-19.pdf. 428 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Portugal but does not investigate the topic itself. Academics have not yet understood that this is a new area of research that requires scientific findings to support what those working in the field with no linguistic background believe to be the road to follow. The National Plan for Reading 2027 (Plano Nacional de Leitura 2027), the Linguistics Center of Universidade Nova de Lisboa (CLUNL) and the Institute of Systems and Computers Engineering, Research and Development in Lisbon (INESC-ID) decided to join together to create the Ler + Fácil (‘Reading + Easy’) 30 project. The project Ler + Fácil, aims to combat poor reading skills and practices among adults through an integrated digital solution with tools and automatic tests for European Portuguese that ensure the analysis, classification and conversion of literary works and more scientific and informative texts that are complex and formal for + Easy (A1-A2) and + Clear (B1) levels. This shows the ongoing lack of understanding of the need for a sustainable body of evidence to demonstrate that Easy Language a) facilitates the under- standing of complex information and b) potentiates participation and inclusion of otherwise discriminated groups. 8 Future perspectives At the moment, most of the work on Easy Language is carried out by one non-governmental organization, as ‘side’ work, with very little funding (most often, the products are project outputs). As a result, Easy Language is not as widespread as it should be, and the training provided is not regular. We need to bring academia into the field of cognitive accessibility and Easy Language. Without a proper scientific background to support the claim that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities benefit from Easy Lan- guage and that this is a powerful tool for inclusion, some sectors of society and politicians and decision-makers will continue to ignore the need to ensure ac- cess to information, education and culture for all people. This chapter mentions the lack of research several times, and this is in fact one of the major challenges 30 Ler+Fácil, http://www.pnl2027.gov.pt/np4/lermaisfacil.html. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 429 Sandra Marques in bringing academia to this side, to work together with professionals and with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We need to build a body of knowledge that will demonstrate why and how Easy Language can empower people with disabilities and promote social inclusion. We also need to regulate the need to provide access information and ways to ensure that laws are respected. One other important aspect is to raise awareness of the topic and to train the different stakeholders in how to produce Easy Lan- guage materials. University courses related to the media must include the topic of cognitive accessibility and how to provide it in their curriculum. Guide- lines should be adjusted to Portuguese on the basis of research by linguists, by professionals working with people with disabilities, and most importantly, by people with disabilities themselves. People with intellectual and develop- mental disabilities should receive proper certified training on how to evaluate and proofread Easy Language information. After all, they are the real experts. Author Sandra Marques has a degree in special education and rehabilitation and works in Lisbon, Portugal. Her main topics of interest are the exercising of rights by people with intellectual disabilities and cognitive accessibility. She also works with self-advocacy groups at both national and European level. Contact: slgsousa@gmail.com References Accessible Portugal. 2018. Web. 9 February 2021. . Acesso Cultura Award. 2019. Web. 15 February 2021. . Bloco de Esquerda [Left block]. Web. 13 February 2021. . CANTIC reference to easy-to-read Inclusion Europe Guidelines. Web. 31 December 2020. . 430 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Portugal Cardoso, Wilton, and Celso Ferreira da Cunha. Aspectos da construção do léxico português [Aspects of the construction of the Portuguese lexicon]. 2007. Web. 18 February 2021. . CENSUS. 2011. Web. 18 February 2021. . Center for Inclusive Design. Easy English vs Plain English. 2020. Web. 18 February 2021. . CERCIOEIRAS. Web. 31 November 2020. . CIA World Factbook. Web. 31 November 2020. . Claro.pt. Agência da Clareza. Web. 31 December 2020. . Claro clientes [Clients of Claro]. Web. 31 December 2020. . Comissão Nacional de Eleições – accessible information. Web. 15 February 2021. . Correia, Margarita. “Versão portuguesa Dicionário Houaiss da Língua Portugue- sa: um dicionário do português europeu?” [Portuguese version of the Houaiss dic- tionary of the Portuguese language: a dictionary of European Portuguese?]. Actas – X Simpósio Internacional de Comunicación Social. Santiago de Cuba, 22–26 January 2007. Web. 16 February 2021. . Cruz, Mara M., and Angélica Monteiro. “Acessibilidade cognitiva para o letra- mento de jovens com deficiência intelectual.” [Cognitive accessibility for the liter- acy of young people with intellectual disabilities]. Arquivos Analíticos de Políticas Educativas 21.74 (2013): 1–33. Web. 31 November 2020. . FENACERCI. Convenção das Nações Unidas sobre os Direitos das Pessoas com Defi- ciência. Agora Fácil de ler e de entender! [United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Now easy to read and understand!]. 2010. Web. 29 December 2020. . FENACERCI. Considerações sobre a Deficiência durante o surto da COVID-19 [Disa- bility considerations during the COVID-19 outbreak]. 2020. Web. 11 March 2021. . FENACERCI. Como usar máscaras e luvas [How to use masks and gloves]. 2020. Web. 15 February 2021. . FENACERCI. Distanciamento Social [Social distancing]. 2020. Web. February 2021. . FENACERCI. O que é importante fazer para ajudar as pessoas com deficiência durante o surto da COVID-19 [What is important to do to help people with disabilities © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 431 Sandra Marques during the outbreak of COVID-19]. 2020. Web. 20 December 2020. . FENACERCI. Violência Doméstica [Domestic violence and COVID-19]. 2020. Web. 15 February 2021. . Fernandes, Verónica Helena Pinto Marques. Os erros ortográficos em língua materna dos alunos do ensino básico na perspetiva do trabalho curricular dos pro- fessores [Primary school students’ mother tongue spelling errors from the perspec- tive of teachers’ curriculum work]. PhD Thesis. Porto: Universidade Portucalense Infante D. Henrique, 2008. Web. 15 February 2021. . Guide for accessible museums. Web. 11 March 2021. . IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions). Guidelines for Easy-to-Read Materials. Ed. Bror Tronbacke. The Hague: IFLA Headquarters, 1997. Print. IFLA Professional Reports 54. IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions). Guidelines for easy-to-read materials. Revision by Misako Nomura, Gyda Skat Nielsen, and Bror Tronbacke. The Hague: IFLA Headquarters, 2010. Print. IFLA Professional Reports 120. Also available at . Inclusion Europe. Informação para todos! Regras Europeias para fazer informação fácil de ler e de perceber [Information for all! European Standards for making informa- tion easy to read and understand]. 2009. Web. 15 December 2020. . Inclusion Europe Checklist on easy-to-read. Web. 16 February 2021. . INR, I.P. Web. 12 February 2021. . Temas de Museologia, Museus e Acessibilidade [Issues in Museology, Museums and Accessibility]. Lisbon: Instituto Português de Museus, 2004. Print. Ler+Fácil [Read+Easy]. Web. 12 February 2021. . LUSOREADS. Web. 12 February 2021. . The National Institute for Rehabilitation. COVID-19: Informação de leitura fácil sobre o coronavírus em várias línguas [COVID-19: Easy-to-read information on coron- avirus in several languages]. 2020. Web. 29 December 2020. . Ortografia e Oralidade [Spelling and Orality]. Relações entre grafia e oralidade no por- tuguês [Relations between spelling and orality in Portuguese]. FCSH. 2011. Web. 30 432 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Portugal November 2020. . Pessoas com Deficiência em Portugal – Indicadores de Direitos Humanos 2017 [Persons with Disabilities in Portugal – Human Rights Indicators 2017]. Observatório dos Di- reitos Humanos e da Deficiência (ODDH). 2017. Web. 13 December 2020. . Piel, Joseph-Maria. Origens e estruturação histórica do léxico português [Origins and historical structure of the Portuguese lexicon]. 1989. Web. 18 February 2021. . PISA Assessment. Web. 16 February 2021. . Plano Nacional de Leitura [National Reading Plan]. n.d. a. Web. 13 February 2021. . Plano Nacional de Leitura. National Reading Plan 2027. n.d. b. Web. 13 February 2021. . PLIP (Projeto de Leitura Inclusiva Partilhada) [Inclusive Shared Reading Project]. Web. 18 February 2021. . PORDATA. População em risco de pobreza ou exclusão social: total e por grupo etário (%) [Population at risk of poverty or social exclusion]. 2020a. Web. 26 November 2020. . PORDATA. População residente, estimativas a 1 de Janeiro: total, nacionais e estrangeiros [Resident population, estimates as of January 1: total, national and foreign]. 2020b. Web. 26 November 2020. . Report from the Commission to Promote Accessibility. Relatório da Comissão para a Promoção das Acessibilidades. 2017. Web. 16 February 2021. . Training materials from the Capacitar para a Cidadania project. 2014. Web. 16 Febru- ary 2021. . Training materials from the COESI project. 2019. Web. 15 February 2021. . Training materials in easy-to-read from the MINCE project. 2017. Web. 13 February 2021. . © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 433 Sandra Marques Appendix 1. An illustration of guidelines for Easy Portuguese. Standard Portuguese Easy Portuguese ESCOLHAS FORTES PARA RE- ESCOLHAS FORTES PARA RE- SPONDER ÀS CRISES SPONDER ÀS CRISES Vivemos tempos de grandes incertezas Vivemos tempos de grandes incertezas. e sob permanente ameaça de novas cri- A qualquer altura podemos ter novas ses. O mundo não se recompôs da crise crises. financeira internacional de 2007/2008, O mundo ainda está a sofrer por causa a instabilidade e os conflitos inter- da crise financeira internacional de nacionais multiplicam-se e ninguém 2007/2008. sabe que União Europeia resultará do Além disso, Brexit e da reconfiguração política dos cada vez temos mais conflitos internac- últimos anos. A estabilidade vivida ionais e em Portugal não apaga o sentimento ainda não sabemos como vai ficar a de insegurança que aumenta com a União Europeia depois da saída do precariedade como horizonte (recibos Reino Unido – Brexit. verdes, estágios, temporários, outsourc- A estabilidade que vivemos em Portu- ing, uberização) e o desemprego como gal não apaga ameaça. Os salários baixos tornam-se o sentimento de insegurança que ainda mais curtos com a explosão do aumenta custo da habitação e não faltam as com a precaridade como horizonte projeções sobre a queda demográfica (recibos verdes, estágios, temporários, e a insustentabilidade da Segurança outsourcing, uberização) e o desem- Social. A todas estas crises e ameaças prego como ameaça. junta-se a maior de todas: a emergência Os salários baixos tornam-se ainda climática. O aquecimento global está a mais curtos acelerar e se nada for feito em 2030 ter- com o aumento do custo da habitação. emos ultrapassado o aumento de 2º C Cada vez nascem menos crianças e na temperatura global, barreira a partir a Segurança Social tem menos dinheiro. da qual se desencadeiam fenómenos A todas estas crises e ameaças junta-se a irreversíveis de caos climático. No maior de todas: a emergência climática. nosso país, os efeitos das alterações No nosso país, climáticas já fazem vítimas: fenómenos já sentimos os efeitos das alterações extremos, como osincêndios de 2017, climáticas. são o exemplo mais trágico. Os incêndios de 2017, são um exemplo destas alterações. Com o clima não se negoceia. 434 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Portugal Com o clima não se negoceia. Faliu É urgente uma nova estratégia. a política dos pequenos passos, da Não podemos esperar mais. consciencialização individual e do As várias crises que vivemos têm um capitalismo verde. Taxar o gasóleo de nome: quem não tem transportes públicos capitalismo. aprofundou clivagens sociais. Apelar à responsabilidade da reciclagem não Source: Bloco de Esquerda Political travou o aumento do plástico em manifesto, https://programa2019.bloco. circulação. O comércio das licenças org/images/programa-leitura-facil.pdf de emissões de carbono consolidou o modelo energético. A emissão de gases com efeito de estufa acelerou na última década. É urgente uma nova estratégia. Não podemos esperar mais. A mobi- lização extraordinária das mais jovens gerações em torno da crise climática não é um simples grito de desespero. É a força para uma transformação radical em nome das nossas vidas. As várias crises que vivemos têm um nome: capitalismo. Source: Bloco de Esquerda political manifesto, https://programa2019.bloco. org/images/programa-com-fotos.pdf [STRONG CHOICES TO RESPOND [STRONG CHOICES TO RESPOND TO CRISES TO CRISES We live in times of great uncertainty We live in times of great uncertainty. and under permanent threat of new We could have new crises at any time. crises. The world has not recovered The world is still suffering from from the international financial crisis the international financial crisis of of 2007/2008, instability and interna- 2007/2008. tional conflicts are multiplying and In addition, nobody knows how the European we have more and more international Union will be affected by Brexit and conflicts and the political reconfiguration of recent we still don’t know what the European years. Union will look like after the © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 435 Sandra Marques The stability experienced in Portugal United Kingdom leaves - Brexit. does not erase the feeling of insecurity The stability that we have in Portugal that increases with precariousness as does not erase a horizon (green receipts, internships, the feeling of insecurity that increases temporary, outsourcing, uberization) with precariousness as a horizon and unemployment as a threat. Low (green receipts, internships, temporary wages become even lower with the ex- work, outsourcing, uberization) and plosion in the cost of housing and there unemployment as a threat. is no shortage of projections about de- Low wages become even lower mographic decline and the unsustain- with the rising cost of housing. ability of Social Security. To all these Fewer and fewer children are being crises and threats is added the greatest born and of all: the climate emergency. Global Social Security has less money. warming is accelerating and if nothing To all these crises and threats is added is done, by 2030 we will have exceeded the greatest of all: the climate emer- the 2 ºC increase in global temperature, gency. a threshold beyond which the irrevers- In our country, ible phenomena of climate chaos will we are already feeling the effects of be triggered. In our country, the effects climate change. of climate change are already claiming The fires of 2017 victims: extreme phenomena, such as are an example of these changes. the fires of 2017, are the most tragic We cannot negotiate with the climate. example. There is no negotiating with A new strategy is urgently needed. the climate. The policy of small steps, We cannot wait any longer. individual awareness and green capital- The various crises we are experiencing ism has failed. Taxing diesel for those have a name: Capitalism.] without access to public transport has deepened social divisions. Appealing to the responsibility for recycling has not stopped the increase of plastic in cir- culation. The trade in carbon emission licences has consolidated the energy model. The emission of greenhouse gases has accelerated in the last decade. A new strategy is urgently needed. We can wait no longer. 436 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Portugal The extraordinary mobilization of the younger generations around the climate crisis is not a simple cry of despair. It is the force for a radical transformation for the sake of our lives. The various crises we are experiencing have a name: capitalism.] © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 437 Arto Mustajoki, Zhanna Mihienko, Natalia Nechaeva, Emma Kairova, Anna Dmitrieva Easy Language in Russia 1 Introduction Russia is the largest country in the world in terms of area, with a population of 142 million people. Russia has always been a multilingual and multi-ethnic state. According to the latest population census (Statistics 2010), Russia has representatives of 193 ethnic groups and 277 languages. About 90% of Russia’s citizens speak Russian as their native tongue, whereas 80% are ethnic Russians; although the notion of a native speaker is often unclear because of the great number of bilingual people in the country. Bilingualism in Russia is often asymmetric: Russians do not speak minor- ity languages, but representatives of other languages speak Russian. Among the most spoken languages are several Turkic languages (e.g., Tatar, Chuvash, Bashkir). Ukrainian (East-Slavic language) and Chechen (North-Caucasian language) also have more than one million speakers. The status and position of minority languages have gone through various phases. On the one hand, russification has frequently been both a state action and families’ own decision (Pavlenko 2011). On the other hand, during the Soviet time, the state, with the help of an army of linguists, standardized dozens of languages (Comrie 1981, Alpatov 1997). The general language policy supported bilingualism: Russian was one official language, being the lingua franca of the whole state, and the major language (titulny yazyk ‘title language’) of each Soviet republic was their second official language (Mustajoki 2019). The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 meant a decline in the status of Russian in the former Soviet republics. Russian only has the status of a state language in Belarus and is regarded as an official language in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Russian still serves as the lingua franca in many regions of con- © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 439 Arto Mustajoki, Zhanna Mihienko, Natalia Nechaeva, Emma Kairova, Anna Dmitrieva temporary Russia, for example, in Tatarstan and Dagestan. In recent decades, increasing numbers of Russians have emigrated to Western countries (Comrie et al. 1996, Vakhtin et al. 2010, Ryazanova-Clarke 2014, Mustajoki et al. 2019). This new situation has introduced varieties of Russian. According to the tra- ditional view, there is only one standard variety of the language. However, it is obvious that the Russian used in official documents in, for example, Kazakh- stan, or as the lingua franca in Dagestan, has gradually diverged from what is known as ‘Moscow Russian’ (Mustajoki 2013, 2016, Moser 2020). In order to understand the present state and future of Easy Language in Russia, some special features of the country have to be taken into consideration. First, in Russia gramotnost, the ability to write correctly according to the norms of the codified standard language, has always had and continues to have a very high status, being one of the most significant characteristics of a cultivated person (Mustajoki 2019). An interesting manifestation of this attitude is the huge popularity of a competition called totalny diktant (total dictate) which is an open test for everyone who wants to determine whether they know the subtleties of the orthographic and linguistic norm of the Russian language. The same attitude is shown in the enormous concern over the degeneration of the Russian language. As a rule, the main objects of concern are the unnecessary usage of foreign (usually English) loanwords and the usage of vulgar language. This issue is frequently discussed on TV and radio, as well in social media. The issue of ‘bad language’ is rooted in the Russian tradition of differentiating two categories of native speakers: those who are able to speak the normative standard language (nositel literaturnogo yazyka) and those who are not (nositel prostorechiya, ‘vernacular speakers’). In this context, a pedantic attitude toward normative rules, including punctuation, overrules the readability of texts and if the issue of clarity and readability of texts arises, people with higher education are used as a benchmark. Problems in understanding texts by other people are passed over by arguing that it is merely the result of poor learning and can be repaired by improving teacher education. Another possible obstacle to launching the idea of Easy Russian is linked to notions of ‘Russian mentality’ or the ‘national spirit’ of Russians. Social-cul- tural studies tend to deny the existence of country-specific differences, but on the other hand, a great deal of research evidence confirms diversity in certain 440 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Russia features between people from different cultures. The phenomena cannot be applied to individuals; it is only true on a certain probability level. In practice, all studies of Russians claim that the Russian culture differs from most Western cultures in its priority of the collective or individualistic orientation of people’s thoughts and behaviour (see, e.g., Larina et al. 2017). This may affect people’s attitudes towards the need for simplified text for certain target groups. The gen- eral opinion may reflect the collectivistic world view in assuming that people with problems comprehending official texts always have someone nearby who is able to explain the main information to them. In a country with an individu- alistic orientation, people tend to think that every single citizen should be able to comprehend all information distributed by authorities. This is seen as one of the bedrocks of equality among people. In a collectivistic country, people rely more on assistance from their social network. This, however, is merely a hypothesis and should be verified by research. However, if it is true, it could explain many aspects in the development of Easy Language in Russia. A further issue that may influence the development of simplified language forms derives from the specific features of Russian. Russian grammar is rather complex with a rich morphology. Nominal declension involves six cases and verbs have a special aspect category. Standard written Russian traditionally prefers rather complicated syntactic structures. This is a complicated starting point for the simplification of language. Moreover, although Russian has been used as a lingua franca for centuries, scientific or practical interest in ‘lingua franca Russian’ is much lower than that in English as a lingua franca. Only few studies have researched this issue; for example, works on Dagestan Russian (Daniel and Dobrushina 2013, Daniel el al. 2011), but the overall attitude to non-standard language varieties is disregarding or negative. 2 Historical perspectives The history of Easy Language in Russia (and other countries) has two different lines: the history of the ‘Easy Language’ concept and the history of the idea of compiling simplified texts for special audiences. The former is only beginning to find ground in Russia, while the latter has a longer tradition. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 441 Arto Mustajoki, Zhanna Mihienko, Natalia Nechaeva, Emma Kairova, Anna Dmitrieva The Encyclopedia of the Russian language has a chapter called Prostoy yazyk (Simple language), written by V.M. Zhivov (Encyclopedia 2020). In fact, it does not really resemble the contemporary notion of simple language. In the historical context, ‘simple language’ has meant attempts to write in a language of the people, which was Russian, as opposed to Church Slavonic, which was widely used in written texts. Elena Vähäkuopus (2020) described the history of simple language in Russia in her presentation in an online Conference on ‘Education for children and adults with special education needs: methodology, theory’ organized by Belorussian specialists in this field. She referred to famous Russian writers as advocators of a ‘simple language’. Leo Tolstoy (1937: 286) wanted to describe life to non-educated people in a simple folkish (protonarod- nyi) language, and Anton Chekhov (1889) was of the opinion that the language of literature ‘should be simple and graceful’. The other line of history of Easy Language follows languages created for a certain group of people who are unable to use standard verbal language. In Russian, as in many other countries, Sign Language has been one of the earliest forms of this. Russian Sign Language was created already in the 19th century. Today, Russian Sign Language has an official status and is regulated by a norm. It has its own morphology, syntax and vocabulary. About 121 000 people know Russian Sign Language (Statistics 2010). It is used in both personal interaction and official settings. The Law on the Protection of Persons with Disabilities in the Russian Federation (1955) obliges state offices to also provide information in Russian Sign Language (Law on Invalids). Training in the use of sign language is provided to teachers, social workers, doctors, i.e., those who may work with deaf people (both children and adults). The specialist profession of surdopere- votšik (surdotranslators) translate from Russian to Russian Sign Language and vice versa. They receive their education in universities and on special courses. Some TV programmes and films have subtitles or sign translations. The Law on the Protection of Persons with Disabilities in the Russian Feder- ation covers also blind people and people with impaired sight. Several forms of protection and help are provided for them: books in Braille, audio texts, special libraries. Since 2016, the Law has obliged state offices to ensure that all the information on their websites is also accessible to people with impaired sight. The state standard dictates that all illustrations should be accompanied 442 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Russia by descriptions, and should apply a simplified design, large-scale script and modest line width. Today, for example, most university websites also have such a version, denoted by the symbol. 3 Current situation The concept of Easy Language is still rather unknown in Russia, in terms of both research and practical solutions. General traditional words describing eas- ily readable text are dostupny (accessible) and ponyatny yazyk (understandable language). For Plain Language, the most used expression is prostoy (russki) ya- zyk whereas for Easy Language, two terms are used: ljogkyi and yasny (russkii) yazyk. Ljogky literally means ‘easy’ and yasny ‘clear’. However, this terminology is still unstable. Various activities that aim to distribute Easy Language do not necessarily use these terms. This description of the current situation of the Easy Language concept in Russia begins at the highest level. Although the main aim of authorities is to improve people’s ability to speak and write according to the norms of the cod- ified standard language, there is also a clear tendency towards measures that will lead administrative language closer to the ideal of Plain Russian. 3.1 Plain Russian at the highest administrative and legal level Although the Easy Language ideology has gained little attention until now, Plain Russian has obtained resonance and strong support at the highest ad- ministrative and legal level. The Presidential Council on the Russian Language, chaired by Vladimir Tolstoy, advisor to President Putin and the President of the International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature (MAPRYAL), has an authoritative position in Russian language policy, and thus plays a decisive role in the development of Plain Russian at the system level. Below is the statement on this issue given by Sergey Kuznetsov, a member of the Council and Vice President of MAPRYAL. It has been shortened and adapted to the goals of the present publication. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 443 Arto Mustajoki, Zhanna Mihienko, Natalia Nechaeva, Emma Kairova, Anna Dmitrieva Photo 1: Meeting of the Presidential Council on the Russian language (Kremlin.ru, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International). ‘Consolidation and development of the social status of the Russian language stands at the very centre of attention of the Russian state policy (Law on Lan- guages, Law on Education). The object of the policy is the part of the common national language which is manifested as its fullest in official, administrative, educational, scientific and media texts. At the same time, the Russian language unites Russian society and lays the foundation for Russian culture and state- hood. For the outside world, the Russian language is also a symbol of Russia, alongside the coat of arms, flag and anthem. This variety of Russian can be characterized as a state makrostil (macro style or variety) of the Russian language, which builds, together with the language of belles-lettres and the spoken language, the codified nationwide standard language. Dialects, jargons, vernacular and some others are non-codified va- rieties of the Russian language. A specific characteristic of the state macro style is its simplicity, which en- ables its readability among maximally broad layers of the population, and sty- listic neutrality. According to the Law on Languages, this variety of the Russian language should be exploited in all relevant spheres of social and administrative life, including education, legislation, the economy, healthcare, culture, sports, and mass communication. It aims to create a joint platform for interaction 444 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Russia between politicians and the public, teachers and students, doctors and patients, and administrators and representatives of civil society. The research literature has identified some features of this macro style. Texts written in this style should be clear, correct, concrete, precise, and logically structured (Kropatsev et al. 2019). These characteristics make the macro style a ‘simple (or plain) Russian language’ in the same spirit as in President Barack Obama’s Plain English initiative in 2010. The advantages of such a language are obvious. It is understandable to a maximally broad circle of people and reduces the number of communicative failures. In addition to this, it increases the effi- ciency of social interaction and reduces the expenses of the state to interaction with citizens in such a multinational and multicultural country. In the age of rapidly increasing digital information, it is more important than ever before that all people are able to collect necessary information and utilize it to solve practical problems. The state level macro style is generally more concrete and exact as a variety of the language of belles-lettres and does not include such associative and personal elements as the codified spoken language. Until now, research on the Russian language has concentrated on varieties other than the national macro style. More attention should be paid to the wide usage of the national macro style, including interaction with immigrants and the citizens of multilingual Russia. This objective is widely supported in the Council. Tests should be created for assessing the readability of various types of text. The characteristic features of any texts should be: (1) correctness; (2) logical course; (3) exact use of terms; (4) use of unambiguous structures; (5) avoidance of unnecessary words and pleonasms. These qualities prevent comprehension discrepancies. The ability of the author to take into consideration the future readers of texts plays a crucial role in interaction. Therefore, much attention should be paid to education and training. To write in a simple understandable language is a demanding task because “simple” does not mean “primitive”. The author should master all the norms and rules of the national macro style and be able, within that context, to create texts that fulfil the demands of the particular interactional setting. The texts should be so informative that their readers are able to comprehend them without external assistance.’ © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 445 Arto Mustajoki, Zhanna Mihienko, Natalia Nechaeva, Emma Kairova, Anna Dmitrieva As the statement shows, the Council outlines the principles that should be applied when simplifying the language used in the Russian administration. It does not take a concrete stand on the differentiation between Plain Language and Easy Language but refers mainly to Plain Language. A practical realization of the Plain Russian ideology is the portal of state services 1. For the purposes of the website, certain rules have been set for the simplification of texts: specific terms and abbreviations, bureaucratic language, complex syntactic constructions, and complicated contents should be avoided. Wordings should be only as complex as is necessary for the solution of the problem at hand. The development of the site is an attempt to solve the reada- bility problem citizens have when they read official information. The outcome is something that could be regarded as a guidebook for Plain Russian. The idea of a more understandable administrative language has also gained resonance through the systematic work of RANEPA 2 (The Russian Presiden- tial Academy of National Economy and Public Administration). This huge state-owned institution organizes courses and compiles tutorial videos for civil servants to train them to be more customer-oriented when dealing with citi- zens. Among the active users of these services are young governors, who have experience in communicating on social media. A further aspect of national macro style comes from the Law on Languages of nations in the Russian Federation of 1991. According to this Law, national republics have the right to use their own main languages besides Russian in education and administration. Later Laws have somewhat narrowed the role of local languages (Oding et al. 2019, Law on Education), but on the whole, the republics themselves can decide to develop their languages towards an Easy or Plain Language variety if they consider it useful. 3.2 Societal and legal context State-level legislation is a central tool in governing Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, thousands of laws were enacted. From a 1 Gosuslugi, gosuslugi.ru 2 RANEPA, https://www.ranepa.ru/eng/ 446 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Russia Western perspective, many of them are very modern, reflecting a neoliberal, market-oriented society. This suggests a good legal foundation for the develop- ment of language formats for special groups. The Law on education, the Law of invalids and the Law of languages outline the legal basis for practical solutions for these activities. In addition, in April 2020, the national standard (GOSTR 52872-2019) came into force, which maintains that information available in electronic and digital form should be accessible to users with disabilities as part of the general public. The standard also sets a level of comprehensibility for texts: the ‘level of basic general education’ (nine grades of secondary school) and takes into account a wide range of disorders and related disabilities, in- cluding mental illnesses. When understanding a text requires a higher level of education, according to the GOSTR, ‘additional explanatory content or a text version accessible to users with disabilities must be provided’ (GOST 2019). However, two things should be borne in mind. First, a new law or order does not change the administrative habits and mindsets of state officials over- night. This is true everywhere, but in a country the size of Russia, it is even more of a cold reality. Second, in comparison to, for example, Scandinavian countries, Russian laws are often very detailed and exact. Russian and Finnish enterprises’ reports on their financial status differ greatly. The Russian reports are usually very long and detailed, and finding the main information in them is difficult, whereas the Finnish ones are short but more reader friendly. This is due not only to differences in traditions but also to differences in the demands of legislation. 3.3 Stakeholders Many government agencies in the Russian Federation (educational institu- tions, healthcare institutions, etc.) use various sets of guidelines and instruc- tions for creating an accessible environment (see e.g., Medvedeva et al. 2017, Methodical guide 2016, Zhavoronkov et al. 2015, Checklist 2018). Translation into Easy Language (i.e., the easy-to-read format) is also mentioned in the Bank of Russia’s working group’s road map for improving access to financial services among people with disabilities, people with impaired mobility, and the elderly (Action plan 2020). © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 447 Arto Mustajoki, Zhanna Mihienko, Natalia Nechaeva, Emma Kairova, Anna Dmitrieva Today the question of accessibility, both for visitors with intellectual de- velopment issues and people with sensory and motor disorders, is a matter of concern for some Russian cultural organizations. Several of the largest Russian museums have cultural programmes that make special provisions for these groups, the most important element of accessibility being texts written in simple or Easy Language. These organizations also lean on experience and approaches from abroad. Some organizations have concrete plans to provide easy-to-read texts. The Association of Translation Teachers is actively co-operating with various part- ners in order to boost knowledge on this issue. The field of teaching Russian as a foreign language has rich experience in determining the linguistic units that should be acquired at different levels of learning. The ideology behind this procedure is rather similar to that of Easy Language. 4 Target groups More than ten million near-native Russian-speakers live permanently in Rus- sia. Official and other information is seldom available on a large scale in their native languages. The situation is even worse in terms of the almost equally high number of immigrants, legal and illegal. The number of people at both ends of the age scale, youths and elderly people, is tens of million. There are no official figures on the number of people with intellectual or cognitive disabilities, but it is clear that it reaches tens of thousands. Each of these target groups has its own reading problem profile. In addition, there are also always substantial individual differences. In such a situation, the creators and standardization workers have to content themselves with a certain average reader or a small set of readers. 5 Guidelines The country does have instructions and guidelines. However, currently it has no generally accepted standards for writing this type of texts, nor compe- 448 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Russia tent specialists who are able to accomplish this task. A number of individual non-profit organizations that specialize in working with people with mental disabilities are basically forced to take action and adapt materials independent- ly, based on personal experience and vision, or on guidelines developed for other languages. For an illustration of the Russian guidelines, see Appendix 1. From the theoretical point of view, a valuable example of a systematized approach to simplifying language is given in the minimizatsiya (theory of min- imums) of linguistic units. It was already very popular in Russia (or the Soviet Union) in the 1970s, especially in the sphere of teaching Russian as a foreign language. The general idea of the concept was to determine a certain minimum level of Russian which would provide elementary communicational skills. As pointed out by (Lukasik 2017), the most typical target of learning goals is vo- cabulary. Russian is no exception. Many lists such as ‘the 1000 most important words in Russian’ are available. However, the principle of minimizatsiya can be also applied to other units of language (Mustajoki 1980). Thus, morphological, derivational, syntactical, phonetical, and even cultural minimums are formed. The main selection criterion is naturally the frequency of a certain phenome- non in speech, but another central notion is significance for communication (kommunikativnaya znatšimost). Another criterion that could also be consid- ered is the ease of the word or other linguistic unit in terms of learning. In grammar, this could mean a preference for productive and systematic features. In vocabulary, a possible application of this principle is learning a loanword known to the student instead of the original Russian word, for example, week- end is in Russian vyhodnye, but it would be much easier to learn the English loanword which is used in colloquial Russian (with various ways of writing uik-end, uikend, vikend). Any tailoring of texts is a tool that reflects a general principle of human communication (Pierce-Grove 2016). Several terms are used to refer to this phenomenon, for example, recipient design (Newman-Norlund et al. 2009, Blokpoel et al. 2012, Mustajoki 2012), audience design (Sacks and Schegloff 1979, Bell 1984) or merely accommodation (Dragojevic and Giles 2014, Pal- omares et al. 2016). In practice, tailoring means instinctive translation from one language variety to another. If not concretely, at least in our imagination, we take a certain original as a starting point, to be adapted to the readership. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 449 Arto Mustajoki, Zhanna Mihienko, Natalia Nechaeva, Emma Kairova, Anna Dmitrieva When writing for children, as a rule, the author translates from the standard language into ‘children’s language’, whereas when writing for the public, a re- searcher translates from scientific language into standard language. 6 Practical outcomes This section considers various practical outcomes related to the idea of simpli- fied language forms. Texts for educational purposes will be followed by some examples of informative texts. At the end, readability programmes and other technical solutions will be presented. 6.1 Literature for educational purposes Simplified texts for children and foreigners learning Russian have a long tra- dition. In this context, the term adaptatsiya (adaptation) and adaptirovanny tekst (adapted text) are used. An adapted text is an authentic or new text that has been adjusted to the language proficiency level of the readership. Adapted texts are regarded as an element of primary education. The idea of adapted texts rests on the assumption that after this phase, children and foreigners acquire standard literary language skills that will free them from the need to read and listen to adapted texts. The main sphere of adaptation has been books by famous Russian writers (Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev, Anton Chekhov, and others). A work of art (a novel or a story) is shortened, some storylines are cut, clarifications and com- ments are added to the text and, in the case of foreign students, translations of difficult words are provided. In this process of adaptation, the naturalness and authenticity of the Russian language, as well as the style of the author, should be maximally preserved. Russian publishing houses also publish adapted books for personal use outside classroom work. In addition to literary works, other types of simplified educational texts are also compiled for teaching Russian as a foreign language. They comprise themat- ic texts or adapted excerpts from newspapers and periodicals compiled especial- ly for this purpose. These texts are read and discussed with the teacher during 450 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Russia classes. They are often classified according to language proficiency level А1 to С2. Adapted texts familiarize students with written Russian and at the same time, offer them some knowledge of Russian society. Some simple texts (short notes, instructions and pieces of news) can also be provided without adaptation. A further example of simplified language is demonstrated in books that are targeted at a certain age group but are not directly connected to schoolwork. There is a strong tradition in Russia, left over from the Soviet times, to publish well-written and -illustrated books, both fiction and non-fiction, for children and adolescents. A noteworthy example of this is the Detskaya entsiklopediya (Encyclopaedia for children) series, the volumes of which cover various fields of science and are often written by famous researchers. The positive attitude to this kind of dissemination of scientific knowledge has encouraged academic people to pay intensive attention to such kind of publishing. The rich tradition of compiling texts and books for educational purposes in Russia should be utilized in the theory and practice of Easy Language in the future. Although the readership is different, the general idea of the adaptation of language is very similar: the authors of the texts have to think carefully about the needs of people who have problems with texts written in normal standard language. 6.2 Informative texts The battle against COVID-19 has been a real test for societies; not only of their capabilities to exercise quick measures but also their dissemination of reliable information. Because the virus only spreads through people, it is extremely important that people correctly understand the authorities’ recommendations and restrictions. Information comes to people through many channels: official documents, mass media, social media, friends, etc. However, the most reliable source of topical information in each country is the website of the Ministry of Health, also in Russia. A quick look at the website gives a positive impression of the accessibility of the required information. The texts on the website 3 are written in fairly simple language and illustrations are used effectively. 3 Ministry of Health, https://covid19.rosminzdrav.ru/ © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 451 Arto Mustajoki, Zhanna Mihienko, Natalia Nechaeva, Emma Kairova, Anna Dmitrieva Another example of an Easy Language text is the educational programme on the Pushkin Museum art collection for children living in orphanages and students of correctional and boarding schools. 4 Informative texts clearly demonstrate the significance of illustrations. Be- cause the aim of Easy Language is to guarantee the transfer of information to all people, pictures are often a relevant option for reaching a maximum number of readers. Therefore, besides the notion of Easy Language, we should consider the notion of easy accessibility of information, which includes all forms of multimodal communication. 6.3 Other projects Russia has several organizations that perform active social work among people with special needs. One of these, the St. Petersburg Association of Parents of Children with Disabilities (GAOORDI), has been among the first in Russia to adapt their texts to the needs of people with intellectual disabilities. Working jointly with international and foreign organizations and supported by foreign grants, the Association has carried out several short-term Easy Language pro- jects, such as the Independent Living manual, intended for people with special developmental needs who are planning to move to an assisted living residence (GAOORDI 2018). The National Research University ‘Higher School of Economics’ in Mos- cow promotes an interesting line of research. It aims to create automated programmes for the simplification of texts for Russian language teaching and learning. One of the projects is linked to an electronic ‘Russian as a foreign language’ textbook (Sibirtseva and Karpov 2014). The authors of the teaching package used materials presented in the National Corpus of the Russian lan- guage in order to keep the topic of the texts as authentic as possible. The authors realized that the texts as such were too complicated for learning purposes, but their simplification by hand was too time-consuming a task. Consequently, the solution was to create an automated device for adapting the texts (Karpov 4 Pushkin Museum, https://www.pushkinmuseum.art/visitors/accessible_museum/access/ index.php 452 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Russia and Sibirtseva 2014). During the process of creating the programme, the au- thors compared authentic texts with texts simplified by specialists who teach Russian as a foreign language. All the methods of adaptation were systemized and, on this basis, a list of ways to characterize morphological adaptation was established. After this, another list was compiled for forbidden grammatical constructions, which should be adapted or cut. A special device was created for the adaptation of lexical units. In the selection of permitted lexical units, in addition to the frequency criterion, other factors were also used, such as the semantic closeness of the new word with the compensated word. The results of the project have been utilized to compile the Leksikator web application. It is a resource for teachers and students involved in teaching and learning Russian as a foreign language. It enables finding the syntactic con- structions that are too complicated for learners, and words that they may not recognize. The selection of the words is based on the lists of lexemes provided for various levels of learning. In addition to this, the programme analyses the text from the perspective of readability indexes. The aim of the programme is to give an objective estimation of the complexity of texts (Baranova and Elipasheva 2014). A similar project is underway in the Pushkin Institute of the Russian lan- guage (Laposhina et al. 2018, Laposhina et al. 2019, Lebedeva et al. 2020), where a research group has produced an internet application called Teksto- metr 5, which measures various features of text complexity. The programme has two options: one for learning Russian as a native language, and the other for learning Russian as a foreign language. The application can also be used for measuring the readability of any text. According to Tekstometr, the ex- amples given in the Appendix below have the following levels of readability: the original text can be understood by school children aged 13–15, whereas the simplified text can be understood by children aged 9–10. For the sake of comparison, Tekstometr was used to analyse a response to a reader’s question on coronavirus on the website of the Ministry of Health. The result was that a master’s level degree was needed to understand it. 5 Tekstometr, https://textometr.ru/ © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 453 Arto Mustajoki, Zhanna Mihienko, Natalia Nechaeva, Emma Kairova, Anna Dmitrieva 7 Education and research As mentioned above, the concept of Easy Language is in its early stages in Rus- sia. A natural consequence of this is a lack of systemic education in the field. The first research projects are only beginning to emerge. The database of disser- tations accepted in Russia does not have a single item on this topic (Committee on Higher Education 2021). The first scientific seminars and conferences on this topic have only recently been held. This is especially significant considering that the Russian language, with all its varieties, is one of the most researched languages in the world. However, some initiatives and aspiring research ideas in line with the Easy Language ideology are beginning to emerge. Many of them are oriented towards also solving practical problems. Below are some examples. In 2018, an interdisciplinary and international research and practice project named ‘Translation into Easy and Plain Languages in Russia’ 6 was launched under the auspices of the Association of Translation Teachers. Its goal is to consolidate and organize the experience, processes, and procedures of writing in and translating into both Easy Language (yasny yazyk) and Plain Language (prostoy yazyk) (see Nechaeva in press). The project team comprises both as- sociation members and external participants, including experts in Easy and Plain Language from Germany Krishna-Sara Helmle (the founder and own- er of Textöffner® – Translation Company and Consultancy for Easy-to-Read and Plain Language) and Professor Andreas Baumert (Hochschule Hannover, working group on developing the DIN Standard for Plain Language). The team has developed and refined a set of basic rules for translating into Easy and Plain Russian, and the results of their work have been evaluated by partner organi- zations, published as scholarly articles, and presented at thematic conventions such as the Inclusive Dialogue conference in January 2020. On October 13th, 2020, the International Plain Language Day, the ATT pro- ject group organized the first International Round Table entitled ‘Translation into Clear and Simple Languages: Foreign Experience and Prospects in Russia’. The event was attended by representatives of the German Institute for Stand- 6 The Translation into Easy and Plain Languages in Russia project, http://translation-teachers. ru/ourprojects/plainrussian/ 454 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Russia ardization (DIN), in particular, the new working group on the development of the Einfache Sprache (Plain Language) standard, as well as the CEO of the Textöffner® translation agency, experts in Easy Language from the University of Hildesheim, and representatives of Russian government agencies and the press. Speakers from non-profit organizations specializing in assisting people with disabilities shared their experiences and perspectives on the topic. The round table discussion provided new impetus for further developing the project. Knutov and his colleagues (2020) from the Higher School of Economics studied the complexity of legislative texts from the last 30 years. It appeared that general complexity, for example, the length of sentences and paragraphs, had grown over the course of time. A characteristic feature of legal texts is an exceptionally low number of verbs: only 6.7% of words are verbs (Knutov et al. 2020). In an interview in the Kommersant newspaper, one of the authors, Sergey Plaksin, expressed his concern over the complexity of legal texts that should be understandable to people. He said that the language of many laws is more complex than Kant’s philosophical texts. He claimed that legal texts are not accessible for ordinary citizens and may even be too difficult for many lawyers (Kommersant 2020). When investigating the accessibility of Russian texts, it is important to bear in mind the richness of the Russian morphology. This raises the question of whether some morphological forms are more difficult than others for people with an incomplete command of the language. A further question is whether the answer is related to the minimization of linguistic materials used in teach- ing materials. As regards vocabulary, the frequency of words based on standard texts is a good estimate of their easiness on a large scale. In fact, people’s knowl- edge of words varies greatly depending on their different life experiences. If researchers try to approach this question by referring to their own knowledge, they easily fall into the trap of a cognitive bias called common ground fallacy, which makes us to think that other people know the same things as we do (Mustajoki 2012). Therefore, it is important to carry out research on which lexical and grammatical features slow down or hinder people’s comprehension. In 2019, a survey at the Altay State Pedagogical Institute made some in- teresting findings. The aim of the study was to research the extent to which foreign students comprehend university sites that are addressed to them. First, © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 455 Arto Mustajoki, Zhanna Mihienko, Natalia Nechaeva, Emma Kairova, Anna Dmitrieva native speakers assessed the text from the perspective of potential comprehen- sion problems. According to them, more than 43% of the words belonged to a group of words potentially difficult for foreign students. Next, the foreign students themselves read the texts and assessed their difficulty. It appeared that the most difficult expressions belonged to administrative jargon, a typical feature of such texts. An essential general question is whether problems in comprehension are caused by an unknown word or an unfamiliar concept. A master’s dissertation at Helsinki University (Sammalkorpi 2006) suggested that the misunderstand- ings that arose between foreign customers and clerks in an employment office, as a rule, derive from an unknown concept connected with the Finnish ad- ministration rather than from language proficiency problems. The interaction was between a Finnish clerk and a Russian customer, in Russian. Such results can also be relevant in a Russian environment when a Russian administrator meets a client with non-perfect language proficiency. 8 Future perspectives As has been shown, the concept of Easy Language is not very customary in Rus- sia, but interest in the phenomenon is increasing at the level of decision-makers and among researchers. Russia is a huge country, and it is quite possible that the authors of this chapter are not aware of all the initiatives in the field. The following challenges may hinder the further development of Easy Russian. First, according to the Russian linguistic tradition, the Russian language has five ‘functional styles’, to use the Russian term. The spheres of usage are science, administration and business, media, oral interaction, and literature. They differ from each other considerably in their usage of vocabulary and syn- tactic structures. As noted in Kropatsev et al. (2019), the formal style, (oficial- no-delovoi, language of administration and business) constitutes the core of the literary (standard) language as a language of the state. It is used in diplomacy, legislation, instructions and other official documents. It should be maximally understandable and neutral. 456 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Russia However, from the point of view of Easy or Plain Language, it is problematic that the norm of the Russian formal style is structurally extremely complex. It is replete with participial and gerund constructions, the passive voice, nouns derived from verbs, clichés, special terminology, and abbreviations. Texts writ- ten in such a language often need clarification and comments from experts. The problems in the style of Russian discourse are often brushed over by using the term kantselarizm (or kantselarit), i.e., ‘bad formal style’. However, the features of the formal style mentioned above are an essential part of it: they derive from the objective to be as unambiguous as possible. At the same time, this results in very complicated language which is far from people’s normal everyday lan- guage and therefore inaccessible to those who do not meet such language in their everyday working lives. As early as 1972, Nora Gal published a book called Slovo zhivoe i mjortvoe (Living and dead word), which became a bestseller. She wrote that, in most cases, it is better to replace an official word by a colloquial word, a long word by a short word, a complex word by a simple word, and an abstract word by a concrete word (Gal 1972). The book is still relevant today. Second, an obvious challenge in the development of Easy Language in Rus- sia, as in most countries, is the lack of readability research using experiments with informants of various types. Research conducted in different countries suggests, for example, that active constructions are more understandable than passive ones and short sentences are easier to comprehend than long ones. However, many questions remain unanswered, some of which are universal, others language-related, as discussed earlier in this chapter. Third, a challenge for Easy Language (and Plain Language) work in every country is the heterogeneity of the target group. This is especially true in Russia, as described earlier in this chapter. To conclude, the general impression is that a great deal of different activities are in progress in many organizations in different parts of the country. This became clear while compiling this chapter. Because a centralized body for the development of simplified languages is lacking, information on the issue has to be collected from different sources. In fact, many of the people and projects mentioned in this chapter were found accidentally through personal networks. In addition, the list of authors shows that they come from five different organ- izations and have very diverse scientific and practical backgrounds. It is more © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 457 Arto Mustajoki, Zhanna Mihienko, Natalia Nechaeva, Emma Kairova, Anna Dmitrieva than likely that many others exist but were not found by the authors of this chapter. Thus, the situation in Russia is very similar to that in other countries: the future of the development of simplified languages depends on both the enthusiasm of individuals and administrative decisions. A recent example of the constantly emerging new initiatives around lin- guistic simplification: 12 research groups took part in a competition for the best programme for syntactic simplification of Russian texts, which was held at the computational linguistics conference Dialog in June 2021. On the whole, automated translations to Plain and Easy Language is a field in which Russia has potential. Authors Arto Mustajoki is Professor Emeritus at the University of Helsinki (Finland). He also works as a leading research fellow in the ‘Higher School of Economics’ National Research University (Moscow). Mustajoki has wide-ranging experi- ence of academic administration in the University of Helsinki and the Academy of Finland. Besides the Russian language, he has recently studied the causes and consequences of miscommunication. Mustajoki has also published various teaching materials for learning Russian and popularized books for the public. He has taken part in activities related to the theory and practice of Easy Lan- guage in Finland. Zhanna Mihienko is a Russian journalist, copywriter and content manager. She is currently the editor-in-chief of the journal Avtograf, published in Barnaul (Altai Krai region). In 1995, she was awarded a bachelor’s degree at the Altai State University (Faculty of Journalism) and in 2020 a master’s degree at the Altai Pedagogical State University (main subject Russian as a foreign language). Mihienko’s main research interest is Easy Russian. Natalia Nechaeva is Associate Professor at the Herzen State Pedagogical Uni- versity of Russia. She also serves as President of the Association of Translation Teachers (ATT) and is a member of the Union of Translators of Russia. Natalia 458 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Russia is a member of the working group developing the DIN Standard for Plain Lan- guage, a member of the Plain Language Association International (PLAIN), head of the ‘Translation into Easy and Plain Languages in Russia’ project of the Association of Translation Teachers, and has authored articles and reports on the subject. Emma Kairova is founder and CEO of PROtranslation, an LSP and transla- tion mentorship project, a Steering Committee member of the Association of Translation Teachers (ATT), a member of the Union of Translators of Russia, a member of the working group developing the DIN Standard for Plain Lan- guage, a member of Plain Language Association International (PLAIN), a pro- fessional translator and linguist educator, an advocate for the rights of people with disabilities, an accessibility promoter, a participant of the ‘Translation into Easy and Plain Languages in Russia’ project of the Association of Translation Teachers, and has authored articles and reports on the subject. Anna Dmitrieva was awarded a master’s degree in Computational Linguistics at the HSE University in Moscow. She is interested in everything related to NLP (natural language processing), but her main research topics include academic Russian language and automatic text adaptation. 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Лапошина. “Лексический состав учебников по русскому языку для носителей и инофонов: сопоставительный корпусный анализ.” [Lexical profiles of Russian textbooks for L1 and L2 learners: comparative corpus study]. Компьютерная лингвистика и интеллектуальные технологии: по материалам международной конференции «Диалог 2020». Moscow 2020. Available also at . 462 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Russia Lukasik, Marek. “Lexical Minimum (Re)Defined.” Lingwistyka Stosowana 23.3 (2017): 47–63. Print. Medvedeva, I.A. et al. Медведева, И.А.; Фахретдинова, Г.Г; Мельник Е.В. & С.И. Филатов. Организация обучения (инструктирования) сотрудников организаций социального обслуживания по вопросам обеспечения доступности для инвалидов услуг и объектов, на которых они предоставляются, оказания при этом необходимой помощи [Organisation of employee training in social service agencies on ensuring accessibility to persons with disabilities of services and facilities while providing the necessary assistance: a training guide]. Surgut, Russia: Khanty-Mansi AO – Yugra Methodical Center for Development of Social Services Publishing, 2017. Print. Methodical guide. Методическое пособие по обеспечению доступности для инвалидов объектов и услуг. Часть 1. Организация обеспечения доступности для инвалидов объектов и услуг в учреждениях социальной защиты и организациях обслуживания населения [A guide for ensuring accessibility of fa- cilities and services to the disabled. Part 1. 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Продвижение нового портала госуслуг [Redesign of the state. Development of the new portal of state services]. Web. 1 March 2021. . Ryazanova-Clarke, Lara. Ed. The Russian language outside the nation. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014. Print. Sacks, Harwey, and Emanuel A. Schegloff. “Two preferences in the organiz- ation of reference to persons in conversation and their interaction.” Ed. George Psathas. Everyday language. New York: Irvington, 1979. 15–21. Print. 464 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Russia Sammalkorpi, Ilona. Анализ институционального общения в случае коммуникативной неудачи [An analysis of institutional interaction in a case of communicative failure]. Master’s thesis. Slavonic and Baltic Dept., University of Helsinki. Print (Manuscript). Published as Web Reports 14, 2006. Siirtolaisinsti- tuutti. Sibirtseva, V.G., and N.V. Karpov. Сибирцева В.Г. & Н.В. Карпов. “Автоматическая адаптация текстов для электронных учебников. 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Presenta- tion in the international scientific-practical conference Education for children and adults with special education needs: methodology, theory, practice. 19 November 2020. Slides of a presentation. Vakhtin, N.B.; Mustajoki, A., and E. Protasova. “Русские языки.” [Russian lan- guages]. Eds. A. Mustajoki, E. Protassova, and N.B. Vakhtin. Instrumentarium of linguistics: sociolinguistic approaches to non-standard Russian. Helsinki: University of Helsinki 2010. 5-16. Print. Slavica Helsingiensia 40. Also available at . Zhavoronkov, R.N. et al. Жаворонков, Р.Н.; Путило, Н.В. Владимирова, О.Н. и др. Методическое пособие для обучения (инструктирования) сотрудников учреждений МСЭ и других организаций по вопросам обеспечения доступности для инвалидов услуг и объектов, на которых они предоставляются, оказания при этом необходимой помощи [A Guide for employee training in medical and social assessment institutions and other organizations on ensuring accessibility of services and facilities to the disabled, providing necessary assistance]. Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation, 2015. Print. Also availab- le at . © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 465 Arto Mustajoki, Zhanna Mihienko, Natalia Nechaeva, Emma Kairova, Anna Dmitrieva Appendix 1. An illustration of guidelines for Easy Russian. Standard Russian Easy Russian Банковская карта Банковская карта Специальный банковский Банковская карта это пластиковая инструмент в виде пластиковой карточка, карты с нанесенными на нее которую может сделать для Вас банк. идентификационными данными, Банк может сделать для Вас который позволяет распоряжаться банковскую карту, если Вы откроете деньгами со своего банковского в банке счет. счета. Вы сможете оплатить банковской картой покупку в магазине или аптеке. Это значит, что Вам не понадобятся бумажные деньги или монеты. Специальный аппарат на кассе магазина возьмет деньги прямо с Вашего счета в банке через банковскую карту. [Bank card [Bank card A special banking instrument in the A bankcard is a plastic card, which a form of a plastic card with personal bank can make for you, if you open an identification data printed on it, which account at the bank. allows you to take money from your bank account.] You can use your bank card to pay for a purchase at a shop or drugstore. This means you do not need paper money or coins. A special machine at the counter takes the money directly from your bank account through your bank card.] 466 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Tatjana Knapp, Dragica Haramija Easy Language in Slovenia 1 Introduction The Republic of Slovenia is a European country located along the Adriatic Sea. It borders Austria, Italy, Hungary, and Croatia. Throughout history, the country has received important influences from Central European and Apennine cul- tures. With an area of 2 0 271 km², Slovenia is ranked a medium-sized European country. Its capital is Ljubljana, which is the country’s economic, cultural, and political centre. Slovenia is a parliamentary democracy. It was established on 25th June 1991 and has been a member of the European Union since 2004. The average monthly gross salary in the country is EUR 1812.66 (SURS 2020). According to the latest data from August 2020, the country has 2.1 million inhabitants (SURS 2020). In the 2002 census, 83.06% of the population of the Republic of Slovenia declared themselves Slovenes. More than 1% of the other ethnic groups declared themselves Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks. For 8.9% of the population this data were unknown, or people did not want to answer (SURS 2002). The largest national official minorities are Hungarians (0.32%), Italians (0.11%) and Roma (0.17%). Almost 8% of the population are foreigners (SURS 2020). People with disabilities represent approximately 12–13% of the to- tal population. Since there is no official register containing data on peo- ple with disabilities, this estimation is based on the number of peo- ple with disability decrees and disability organization assessments. Most people with disabilities who do not live at home live in institutions or re- ceive institutional care services. Among these are many people with intellectual disabilities, who still live in segregated institutions, which often provide inad- equate community support and services. Studies in this area of research have reported that traditional disability organizations generally focus on biomedical © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 467 Tatjana Knapp, Dragica Haramija classifications of the users of their services and not on the individual needs of the person with a disability (Zaviršek et al. 2015). Recent developments in deinstitutionalization, together with increasing human rights awareness and advocacy as well as the ageing of society have, however, increased the need for accessible information and Easy Slovene. The official and state language in Slovenia is Slovene, but in areas densely populated by Italian and Hungarian national minorities, Italian or Hungari- an are also official languages. Slovene, a Slavic language, is spoken by about 2 500 000 people, most of whom live in Slovenia. Some Slovene minorities live in Italy, Austria, Croatia, and Hungary, and emigrants mainly live in Germany, the US and Canada. In addition to literary language, Slovene also has eight dialect groups, which in turn consist of about 50 local dialects. The Slovene language has 25 letters for 29 sounds. The alphabet is gajica (belonging to the Latin script). It has three grammatical numbers (singularity, duality, plu- rality), six declensions, three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter) and four tenses (past, present, future, and the pre-past tense, which is rarely used). Perhaps the most interesting aspects of Slovene are the use of duality and the letters č, š, ž. For people who learn Slovene as a foreign language, these letters are particularly hard to pronounce. They sound very similar and readers and speakers of (Easy) Slovene need to pay special attention to them. Duality, in turn, gives the language a certain aspect of intimacy, especially when discussing interpersonal relationships. This is also a challenging feature for foreigners. 2 Historical perspectives Before 2011, few publications in Easy Language existed. The pioneer in pub- lication was Varstveno delovni center Tončke Hočevar (Tončka Hočevar Care and Work Centre). In 2001, they received the Fund for Innovations Award for their magazine Hanca 1. One of the earliest publications in Easy Slovene was the booklet Preprosto Evro (Simply Euro), which was published by Sožitje, the Slovenian association for people with intellectual disabilities and their families 1 Hanca is a female name. 468 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Slovenia (Zveza Sožitje, Zveza društev za pomoč osebam z motnjami v duševnem razvoju Slovenije, from here on referred to as Sožitje) during the Euro Introduction Campaign in 2005–2007. The booklet is all text and contains no pictures. In 2007, the YHD association (Društvo YHD) and the Modra publishing house published a book in Easy Language with pictures – Šolanje in zaposlovan- je otrok in odraslih, ki se težko učijo (Education and employment of children and adults with learning difficulties) by Darja Zaviršek and Katarina Gorenc. In 2008, the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs, and Equal Opportunities published an Easy Language guide to the UN’s Convention on the Rights of Per- sons with Disabilities (CRPD, Konvencija o pravicah invalidov – Mednarodni sporazum o pravicah invalidov). Apart from one or two centres for people with intellectual disabilities, before 2011 no data can be found on the production of Easy Language in organizations for users who need accessible information (Haramija and Knapp 2019). At the beginning of 2011, a non-governmental organization, the RISA in- stitute, Centre for general, functional and cultural literacy (Zavod RISA, Center za splošno, funkcionalno in kulturno opismenjevanje from here on referred to as the RISA Institute 2), was established by Tatjana Knapp and Saša Lesjak. Thus, Slovenia’s very first organization with a structured and systematic approach to accessible communication and information in Easy Slovene was established. From the beginning, the RISA Institute has published a free newspaper in Easy Language called 20 Minut (20 Minutes) 3. That same year, at the Črna na Koroškem training, work and care centre (Center za usposabljanje, delo in varstvo Črna na Koroškem), an institution for people with intellectual disa- bilities, the first groups of Easy Language users were formed. Several of these groups would grow to later become groups of Easy Language text validators and self-advocates. In 2012, in the European Capital of Culture, Maribor, the RISA Institute published the first adaptations of literature into Easy Slovene. In 2012, with the 2 General page for RISA Institute, http://www.risa.si/. 3 RISA Institute, 20 Minut, www.risa.si/Domov/Knji%C5%BEnica/%C4%8Casopis-20-minut. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 469 Tatjana Knapp, Dragica Haramija help of the Ministry of Health, the RISA Institute launched the first Slovenian website in Easy Language, which provides health-related information 4. Between 2011 and 2013, the Pathways to Adult Education for People with Intellectual Disabilities II project, led by Inclusion Europe and co-financed by the EU, brought the European guidelines for Easy Language to Slovenia. The European standards were translated and adapted into Slovene by Sožitje. A unique feature of these early guidelines for Easy Slovene was that they sug- gested that Easy Slovene be written in upper case only. As part of this same project, Sožitje prepared the very first training for instructors of Easy Language text writers in Slovenia. The first National Conference on Easy Language was held in 2013 in the Črna na Koroškem training, work and care centre. In 2014, the RISA Institute and partners submitted successful proposals for amendments to the Resolution on the National Programme for Language Policy 2014–2018. The Resolution now lists people with intellectual disabilities among their speakers with special needs, and suggests Easy Language among its other concepts and tools. On this basis, the Ministry of Culture launched the very first public tender for Easy Language texts in Slovenia. As the beneficiary of the tender, the RISA Institute received permission from the copyright holders to publish an adaptation of another well-known Slovene novel Pod svobodnim soncem (Under the free sun) by Fran Saleški Finžgar. In 2015, the RISA Institute initiated the establishment of the Council for Monitoring and Development of Guidelines for Easy-to-read in Slovene Language, which was officially formed at the second National Conference on Easy-to-read language in Ravne na Koroškem. The Association for Adapted Communication, LABRA (Društvo za prilagojeno obliko komunikacij LABRA, from here on referred to as the LABRA Association) was also established. The founding LABRA Association members were users and experts in various fields that concern information and reading (special pedagogues, a social pedagogue, professors of the Slovene Language, academics, social workers, an anthropol- ogist, an economist, speech therapists, end users, and others). 4 Ministry of Health, www.ostanizdrav.com. 470 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Slovenia At the end of 2016, the first original novel in Easy Slovene was published. In 2017, the Student Innovative Project for Social Benefit, called simply Lahko branje (Easy-to-read) was launched at the Faculty of Education, University of Maribor. The students prepared various texts on different Slovenian towns, specifically 60 Slovenian towns with organizations for people with intellectual disabilities, such as sheltered workshops. The Occupational Safety document was also prepared. All texts are available on the website of the Faculty of Edu- cation University of Maribor 5. The year 2018 was important for Easy Slovene projects. One such project was ‘Easy to read: the development of basic guidelines, methods, didactic mate- rials and accompanying tools for Easy-to-read in Slovenia’ (LAHKO JE BRATI: Razvoj temeljnih usmeritev, metod, didaktičnih gradiv in spremljajočih orodij za lahko branje v Sloveniji), which resulted in a manual and a guidebook in two volumes, a dictionary of synonyms, an archive of free pictures, a training curriculum, and a model of systematization for Easy Language in Slovenia. The project was financed by the European Social Fund and the Republic of Slovenia. That same year, the LABRA Association developed an advocacy plan to directly insert the concept of Easy Language into Slovene legislation. Also in 2018, the ‘Adaptation of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia project of the Student Section of the Association of Special and Rehabilitation Educators of Slovenia’ was launched. Sožitje, together with Inclusion Czech Republic, carried out a project called ‘Partnership for a more active life of young people with intellectual disabilities’ (PAL4youth). This project resulted in, for example, seven Easy Language booklets on gender and sexuality. It was co-financed by the EU’s Erasmus + programme. In the academic year 2019/2020, the Faculty of Education, University of Maribor introduced an elective course on Easy Language as part of their In- clusion in Education studies. In 2020, the first three adaptations of acts into Easy Language were published in Slovenia: the Personal Assistance Act, the Social Inclusion of Disabled Persons Act, and the Placement of Children with Special Needs Act. 5 University of Maribor, http://pef.um.si/raziskovanje-in-umetnost/zakljuceni-projekti/sipk- lahko-branje/. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 471 Tatjana Knapp, Dragica Haramija 3 Current situation Though lahko branje (easy-to-read) may not share the long tradition of Easy Languages in some other European countries, thanks to various stakeholders it has significantly expanded and become recognized in Slovenia during the last decade. 3.1 Definitions According to the academic perspective, Easy Language is a process and meth- od of communication that promotes the development of literacy and social and psychological integration of people with reading and writing difficulties. Communication is adapted in a way that the content is made readable and understandable. Texts are prepared in a series of procedures according to spe- cific technical/substantive and formal guidelines and criteria. These aimed to communicate information to people who are disadvantaged in terms of literacy in a readable, legible, and understandable way. The goal of the method and the process is to make information easy to read and understand, as well as accessi- ble and useful. Easy Language can be applied to original or adapted texts and recordings, such as words, symbols, illustrations, and audio or video record- ings. Easy Language depends on several factors and should not be regarded as merely an adaptation of pre-existing information, but also the creation of in- formation in an easier-to-read and understandable form (Haramija and Knapp 2019). The simpler definition, aimed towards the general public and end users, states that Easy Language is information that is easy to find, easy to read and easy to understand (Knapp et al. 2019). In this chapter, with the exception of the literal translations of names and titles, we use the terms Easy Slovene or Easy Language to refer to the concept of lahko branje, of which the literal translation would be ‘easy to read’. For now, the national term has not been changed, though the Slovene concept follows what would be a modern definition of Easy Language. The main reasons for this are the recognition and use of the old term among the end users, comparability of the concept with the original definitions of the international easy-to-read concept and the stance that a proper definition depends more on the charac- 472 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Slovenia teristics of the definition than on the name, which can rarely include every desired aspect of the definition (Haramija and Knapp 2019). Slovenia still has no definition of Plain Language. Furthermore, Plain Lan- guage is not used nor has it been researched. In 2018, the RISA Institute and the LABRA Association proposed that, as a standard for communication in the field of public services, authorities should use Plain Language (Knapp and Usenik 2019). The initiative was made during the final stage of drafting the Res- olution on the National Programme for Language Policy 2019–2023. The one paper on the distinction between Easy Language and Plain Language focuses on developing reading literacy among children – immigrant pupils. Haramija recognizes that upon moving to their destination country, immigrant pupils whose mother tongue is not the local language find themselves at a disadvan- tage. Previous research had shown that the command of language is an im- portant area for a child’s general integration into their new environment. The School Curriculums for Teaching Elementary Level Slovene Language (2020) enable the models of Easy Language and Plain Language to be implemented. Both models must consider the child’s chronological age and age-appropriate content which, due to limited command of the language, need morphological, lexicological, and syntactic adjustments, in both literary and informative texts (Haramija, 2021). 3.2 Societal and legal context On the international level, the right to communicate or exchange information in an accessible manner is grounded in several laws, strategies, and policies. The Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia (from here on referred to as the Constitution) stipulates in Paragraph 1 of Article 14 that human rights and fundamental freedoms are exercised directly on the basis of the Constitution and may be limited only by the rights of others and in cases determined by the Constitution. Thus, these rights are equal for everyone, regardless of their personal circumstances (Ustava Republike Slovenije 1991). Furthermore, the Slovene Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities Act (Zakon o izenačevanju možnosti invalidov 2010) states in Article 3 that the provision of equal opportunities is ‘planned activities en- © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 473 Tatjana Knapp, Dragica Haramija abling the accessibility of different spheres of society and the environment, such as public services, the built environment, goods and services provided to the public, information, communication etc., to everyone, and particularly to persons with disabilities’. Article 8 addresses access to goods and services: ‘the accessibility of information, communication and other services and assistance in cases of emergency’. Article 7 is incomplete, as it mentions only people with sensory disabilities and adaptations for them, but does not mention, for exam- ple, people with head injuries or intellectual disabilities, nor does it mention Easy Language. Article 14 is important, as it clearly states that inaccessibility to information is a form of discrimination (Zakon o izenačevanju možnosti invalidov 2010). The Slovene Protection Against Discrimination Act (Zakon o varstvu pred diskriminacijo 2016) states in Article 7 that any discrimination in accessing goods or services on the grounds of disability is prohibited, emphasizing dis- crimination in terms of access to goods and services available to the general public and refusal of goods and services that are available to the general public to a person with disabilities, or their provision under different and inferior con- ditions. Measures to remove barriers to accessing goods and services available to the general public are directed at access to information, communication and other services and emergency assistance, and assurance that public and private entities offering goods and services to the general public also consider all aspects of their accessibility to people with disabilities. According to this Act (Zakon o varstvu pred diskriminacijo 2016), when offering goods and services available to the general public, appropriate necessary support must be provid- ed, in particular the support of another person (readers, Slovene Sign Language interpreters, deafblind interpreters), Braille markings, and information in an easily readable and comprehensible form. The Slovene Resolution on the National Program for Language Policy 2014–2018 states that people with special needs must fulfil their communica- tion needs in alternative ways. The programme acknowledges that the Repub- lic of Slovenia is committed to ensuring equal opportunities to all people in various legal documents (Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia, the Equal Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities Act, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Optional Protocol to this Convention, the 474 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Slovenia Declaration on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Standard Rules for Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, Resolution on Sign Language for the deaf, etc.), but an analysis of the actual situation shows that implementation often remains in the domain of NGOs and volunteers. The Resolution on the National Program for Language Policy 2020–2024 reit- erates the current Resolution on the National Program for Language Policy (Resolucija o Nacionalnem programu za jezikovno politiko 2013, 2020). 3.3 Stakeholders Since 2011, the most active organization in the field of Easy Language has been the RISA Institute, which leads and takes part in research projects, production, publishing and training in the field of Easy Slovene. It continues to work with volunteers and readers/end users, produces publications in Easy Language, and advises individuals and organizations. Easy Language is by default a part of all their projects related to human rights and similar issues. In 2020, the Risa Institute joined two interesting European (Erasmus+) projects, Promoting Easy-to-read Language for Social Inclusion (PERLSI) and Professional training for Easy-to-read facilitators and validators (TRAIN2VALIDATE). Other stakeholders broadly active in the field, are Sožitje (the Slovenian Association for people with intellectual disabilities and their families), the LABRA Association and Public Service Broadcaster RTV Slovenia. RTV Slovenia and the RISA Institute also participate in the European (Erasmus+) project ‘Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training’ (EASIT), which focuses on audiovisual content and explores the possibilities of interweaving Easy Lan- guage and Plain Language with services or accessibility techniques, such as audio description and subtitling. As already discussed in Section 2, the Tončka Hočevar care and work centre was among the first to publish texts in Easy Slovene in their magazine, Hanca (2001). They were followed by Sožitje, the YHD Association and publishing house Modra. According to an assessment by the LABRA Association, accessible infor- mation and Easy Language fall under the domain of the following ministries and other public bodies: the Ministry of Culture; the Ministry of Work, Family, Social Affairs, and Equal Opportunities; the Ministry of Education, Science, © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 475 Tatjana Knapp, Dragica Haramija and Sports; the Ministry of Internal Affairs; the Book Agency of the Republic of Slovenia, and universities. From the above list, the Faculty of Education, University of Maribor is the most active among academic actors. As for the ministries, mainly the Ministry of Culture, and to some extent the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports; and the Ministry of Work, Family, Social Affairs, and Equal opportunities have so far shown support for Easy Slovene in the form of public calls or limited initiatives. Libraries are also significant Easy Language stakeholders. The ten central regional libraries in Slovenia prepare joint projects for all other libraries. The Koroška osrednja knjižnica dr. Franca Sušnika Ravne na Koroškem library (Ca- rinthian Central Library dr. Franc Sušnik Ravne na Koroškem) has accepted the task to develop a central ‘physical place’ for knowledge and literature in Easy Language in Slovenia. It is thus also the co-ordinator of all other Slovenian libraries. It expands knowledge on and the list of Easy Language literature for adults, children, and youths, as well as expert literature on Easy Language, into the network of all the other central regional libraries. Criteria for and indicators of the accessibility of libraries have also been created, co-operation has been established with various organizations in the community that work with people who need Easy Language, and efforts are being made to promote the Easy Language concept. Based on these starting points, an implementation model for activities, services and co-operation with various organizations in the community has been developed. This model of local co-operation with the library as the central point can be adapted to all public libraries in Slovenia (Haramija and Knapp 2019). The stakeholders are diverse. In addition to different organizations (includ- ing non-governmental organizations) and professionals who work with the end users (e.g., sheltered workshops, libraries, etc.), research and/or project groups; families, relatives, and friends of the end users; the media; the general public; ambassadors of Easy Language, and decision-makers all play their part. 476 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Slovenia 4 Target groups It is estimated that approximately 500 000 people in Slovenia need or would benefit from Easy Language (Knapp and Usenik 2018, PIAAC 2012–2015). End users of Easy Slovene include people with intellectual disabilities, people with dementia, people who have suffered a stroke, people with head injuries, people with hearing problems (deaf and hard of hearing), people with vision problems (visually impaired and blind), deafblind people, people with specif- ic learning difficulties, people with autism spectrum disorders, people with speech and language disabilities, people with psychosocial disorders, the el- derly, immigrants, Romani people, and people with poor reading skills (Har- amija and Knapp 2019). The common characteristics of this diverse group are poor literacy, stigmatization, obstructed access to information, barriers to communication, absence of voice, unawareness of their right to information in accessible form and Easy Language. Thus, the common needs of the end users are awareness of their right to information in an accessible form/Easy Language, production of and access to information in an accessible form/Easy Language, effective communication, and social inclusion. 5 Guidelines We can identify several types of Easy Language material, depending on the criterion we take as a starting point: adjustments according to individual needs, to the medium, or to the type of text or other information. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) proposes two categories of Easy Language texts. The first group in- cludes texts that are only graphically adapted (non-glossy paper, each sentence of the text written on a new line, font type and size, etc.). The second group of texts includes those that can be easily read by people with special needs. In this second group, the accommodations are not only graphical; they also apply to words, morphology, syntax, and layout. All the adaptations relate to the characteristics of the Slovene Language. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 477 Tatjana Knapp, Dragica Haramija The current guidelines on Easy Slovene have been complied into a guide- book: Lahko je brati: Pravila 2 (It is easy to read: Guidelines 2, Knapp et al. 2019). Some authors also use guidelines based on the European standards of Inclusion Europe (Information for all) and adapted to Slovene Language. The Slovene guidelines, which were developed and tested in several reading groups with members with different reading and comprehension abilities, dif- fer from the European standards in some details. Whereas the European Stand- ards, for example, suggest using positive instead of negative sentences wher- ever possible (Information for all 2009), the Slovene guidelines suggest using negative sentences in cases where the negative form is more commonly used in everyday conversation (Knapp et al. 2019). However, the most prominent characteristic of the Slovene guidelines is their Easy Language level system. The Easy Slovene levels are based on the analysis and testing of different texts and pictures in different media. For adults, four levels of Easy Language are suggested. Each level must address the reader/end user in an adult manner, and have a name and specific indicators. The indicators suggest the level of a document. The readers/end users can choose from these levels according to their interest, reading ability and com- plexity of the document. For easier recognition, each level is assigned a colour and a symbol. Each symbol consists of four books, as shown in Table 1. Easy Language for children follows a similar level logic. However, instead of a book, the symbol is a candy. Level Symbol Level description, indicators Level 1 • no written words, spoken words are used in storytelling • pictures are allowed (occasional use) • use of real-life objects • multisensory stimulations 478 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Slovenia Level Symbol Level description, indicators Level 2 • none or very little text • upper case or lower case (A, a) • single sentences (clauses) • each sentence is written on a sepa- rate line • up to 5 words in a sentence (line) • numerous pictures • very simplified content • very easy to understand Level 3 • very simple text • upper or lower case (A, a) • sentences can consist of clauses, but each clause is written on a separate line • from 5 to 7 words in a clause • relevant punctuation is used: full stops, exclamation marks, question marks, commas; the preferred mark is a full stop, other marks are to be avoided • dialogue can be used Level 4 • lower case as a rule (a) • longer but clear and understandable sentences are allowed (more than 1 clause) • clauses can have 10 or more words • sentences have up to 20 words • several other punctuation marks are used, e.g., colons Table 1: Levels of Easy Slovene (Haramija and Knapp 2019) © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 479 Tatjana Knapp, Dragica Haramija The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages 6 was used as a basis for identifying and suggesting these levels, and the lowest or basic level of language proficiency according to the European Reference Framework was equated with the highest, i.e. the 4th Easy Language level in the Slovene system. 6 Practical outcomes Easy Slovene adopts various media to best suit a particular reader; for example, audio books and recordings for people who have vision problems. Accessible materials on computers and USB sticks are sometimes available so that the user can determine the colour of the screen, size and type of letters. Although early publications, such as the Hanca magazine and the first issues of 20 Min- utes, were mainly in printed form, current publications strive to be available in different formats; the newest issues of 20 Minutes are featured online, and handbooks, such as It is easy to read: Guidelines 2, are now in printed and digital form, as well as in the form of an audio book. 6.1 Media Since 2020, the national broadcaster RTV Slovenia had been publishing shorter articles and news in easier language on their website. 7 At the beginning of 2021, they launched a web portal called Enostavno (Simple) 8, featuring daily global news, news from Slovenia, sports news, trivia, and practical texts. 6 The frame of reference identifies three activities: comprehension (auditory, reading), speaking (spoken communication, spoken communication), and writing. The lowest levels of knowledge – A1 and A2 – represent the basic user. For people with disabilities, in many cases this repre- sents the highest level of their reading development, some reach level B1, which suggests an independent user; level A is also the initial level for children and adults (immigrants) who are learning the language and progressing; levels A2 or B1 also cover inexperienced adult readers. 7 Dostopno, www.dostopno.si. 8 Enostavno, www.rtvslo.si/enostavno. 480 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Slovenia 6.2 Literature So far, seven original literary works have been published in Easy Slovene. The first original novel was published in 2016. Cvetje in ogenj (Flowers and Fire) is a love story, the first book from the Julija and Peter collection, co-written by Aksinja Kermauner and readers with disabilities. The collection is aimed at adult readers. In 2018, another writer, Karolina Kolmanič worked together with readers with disabilities. The result was the Tu je doma ljubezen story (Here is love at home). In 2019, the Center Polž Maribor care and work organization published Prepovedana ljubezen (The forbidden love). In 2020, the Velenje cen- tre for education and training (Center za vzgojo, izobraževanje in usposabljanje Velenje) published an e-book called Puran Peter (Peter the turkey), written and illustrated by Sabina Breznik. This was the first original story in Easy Slovene Language at Level 3. The Dobrna training, work and care centre (Center za usposabljanje, delo in varstvo Dobrna) also published Fagurjeva zgodba (Fagur’s story). In the beginning of 2021, two more original stories for adult readers of Easy Language were published: Moda in neroda (Fashion and clumsiness) by Aksinja Kermauner et. al and Dom je tam, kjer je srce (Home is where the heart is) by students of the Velenje centre for education and training. So far, four works of literature have been adapted to Easy Slovene, all of them listed at Level 4: Visoška kronika (The Visoko Chronicles), a historical novel and a love story by Ivan Tavčar, adapted by Saša Fužir (2012); Romeo in Julija (Romeo and Juliet), a famous play by William Shakespeare, adapted by Tatjana Knapp (2012); seven stories from different novels about special people by Slovene authors Naše zgodbe (Our stories), adapted by Saša Fužir and Tatjana Knapp (2013); and Pod svobodnim soncem (Under the free sun), a historical fiction book by Fran Saleški Finžgar, adapted by Tatjana Knapp (2015). All of the books except for Naše zgodbe are also available on the RISA Institute’s website 9 (pdf, free of charge). The Easy Language version of Romeo in Julija was also adapted to Braille by Urška Lah. Adapted literature is occasionally produced in the context of higher ed- ucation studies of various orientations. One such example is Zdravljica (The 9 RISA Institute, Romani, www.risa.si/Domov/Knji%C5%BEnica/Romani. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 481 Tatjana Knapp, Dragica Haramija Toast) by France Prešeren, adapted by Lucija Matos at the Faculty of Education, University of Koper (2019) to Easy Language and Braille. 6.3 Informative texts Informative material in printed or electronic form is extremely important, as it can, for example, explain the needs and rights of people with disabilities. Example of such publications are the adaptation of the CRPD or the guide to the rights of people with disabilities in Slovenia. This group of texts and other information also includes practical guides and manuals, etc. The reader/end user must understand the content to be able to function in society. As previ- ously mentioned, in 2020, the three national legislation acts were adapted to Easy Slovene for the first time. 6.4 Other projects To enhance public awareness and knowledge, the idea of the Ambassadors of Easy Language emerged in 2018, as it was understood that the visibility of selected individuals may reach wider audiences. National and local ambassa- dors are motivated individuals or organizations that want to ‘give back’ to the community. The national ambassadors are well-known public persons who are connected in different ways to language, culture, or human rights, some of them even having experienced trouble reading standard information at some point themselves. As of 2018, former Ombudsman and current President’s Advisor Vlasta Nussdorfer; actors Jernej Kuntner, Saša Pavček and Gojmir Lešnjak-Gojc; academics Milena Ivanuš Grmek and Boštjan Žekš; and self-ad- vocate and poet Nevenka Kos are some of the names that represent and present Slovene Easy Language. Furthermore, local ambassadors promote the idea of local co-operation and connection. As explained earlier in this text, whereas the model of local co-operation with a library as the central physical point for accessible literature and information puts the library in the role of the carrier of the related activities and services, these local ambassadors are the faces of this integration. National and local ambassadors of Easy Language hold this honorary and voluntary title and perform activities such as spreading the Easy 482 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Slovenia Language concept on social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, etc.) and other media. They participate in conferences, me- dia conferences and other events (on agreement, according to time availability). The goal of the embassy is therefore to gain the attention of the targeted public. Some initial attempts to develop software for machine simplification of texts or for assessing the levels of texts’ difficulty have been made at the Uni- versity of Maribor, the University of Ljubljana and the Jožef Štefan Institute (Institut Jožef Stefan, IJS). Recently, one such project 10 produced the first ap- plication for assessing Slovene texts’ level of difficulty. The developed tool for readability analysis is freely available on the server of the Centre for Language Resources and Technologies of the University of Ljubljana. 11 Texts in Easy Slovene were used in the development of the application. 7 Education and research A few tools for practical training of different target groups already exist. In the context of lifelong learning, a curriculum of training for end users with intellectual disabilities and their support persons was developed. It covers six topics, five obligatory and one elective: Conversation without words; Con- versation with words; Slovene Language and Easy-to-read; Think and create; The right to information (all obligatory); and Teaching others (elective). The curriculum for the workshops is available on the website 12. Workshops for professionals (e.g., andragogues, special pedagogues, etc.) are held at the Faculty of Education, University of Maribor. The aim of the training is to recognize reading habits among Easy Language users; to identify high quality literature and other texts in Easy Language; to strengthen com- munication skills; to select an appropriate approach, methods and medium; and to learn to prepare basic texts in Easy Language. 10 Project Za kakovost slovenskih učbenikov (KaUč), www.kauc.splet.arnes.si/. 11 Centre for Language Resources and Technologies of the University of Ljubljana, www.orodja. cjvt.si/berljivost. 12 RISA Institute, Curriculum for workshops, www.lahkojebrati.si/Portals/1/Knjige/Učni%20 načrt%20usposabljanja%20LAHKO%20JE%20BRATI_april%202019.pdf © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 483 Tatjana Knapp, Dragica Haramija The RISA Institute offers seminars and workshops for professionals and end users. A course on Easy Language is offered to students of the Faculty of Pedagogics, University of Maribor. 13 Easy Language topics are also partially covered on the Family literacy course (Preschool education studies). A few authors have conducted research on the topic quite recently. In 2016, Haramija and Batić introduced three aspects of reading material, which is also suitable for people who have difficulty reading and understanding content due to intellectual disabilities: an individualized approach to the selection of reading material, considering the characteristics of the reader’s (dis)ability, chronological age, related diverse needs, prior knowledge based on experi- ence, and the right to read according to the abilities and competencies of the individual. These authors present picture books that are suitable for children and adults with or without disabilities. The model of holistic picture book reading is related to the principles of Easy Language; such a model can also be used to ensure quality reading among adults with intellectual disabilities in other genres, not only literary picture books. In 2017, Haramija wrote one of the first scientific papers on Easy Slovene, which covered the basic principles of adapting information. In 2018, Volčanjk researched learning speech and language among students with intellectual disabilities, providing a case study using texts in Easy Lan- guage. The results showed that the students with mild intellectual disabilities in the experimental group better understood texts in Easy Language than those in the control group, which used standard texts. The results also showed that speech, language and communication competencies were statistically signif- icantly higher among the students who read or listened to the texts in Easy Language. Kuplen (2018) argues in her thesis that lifelong learning is a crucial pro- cess in the education of adults with intellectual disabilities. In the empirical part of the study, she reviewed the learning abilities of adults with intellectual disabilities using texts in Easy Language. The result showed a positive effect on the cognitive process, particularly on memory and information retention. 13 University of Maribor, Faculty of Education, https://pef.um.si/wp-content/ uploads/2020/10/%C5%A0tudijski-program-Inkluzija-2020-21.pdf. 484 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Slovenia In 2019, Gašper conducted a four-week sex education course for students with intellectual disabilities using texts in Easy Language from four booklets: Life of a Woman; Life of a Man; Love, Sex and Me; and Sexual Violence. Slovene and English versions of the publications are available on the website. 14 She compared the level of the students’ knowledge before and after the education process, which used the Easy Language method. During the process she ob- served and analysed the reading motivation of the readers at various reading levels, some non-readers, and determined whether the Easy Language method increased their knowledge and whether the students remembered the contents of the selected topic. The results of the research show that learning using the Easy Language method is effective, and that the adolescents’ knowledge about sexuality has increased. Together, these results provide some crucial early in- sights into the practical use and usability of Easy Slovene. In 2019, Haramija and Knapp, together with colleagues, wrote a manual for professionals that sheds light on the different aspects of Easy Slovene and sums up past research in the field. At the university level, within the framework of undergraduates’, masters’ (and recently also doctoral) works, Easy Language is mainly researched by students. The topics are various and cover, for example, the use of Easy Language in institutions for people with intellectual disabilities (e.g., Perko 2020); working with people with intellectual disabilities in prepar- ing practical information in Easy Languages, such as tourist information (e.g., Ferš 2019); and the preparation of texts in Easy Language (e.g., Šinkovec 2013). There is abundant space for further progress at the academic level. 8 Future perspectives In Slovenia, an integrated approach to regulating the field of accessible infor- mation and communication for people who need adaptations should be devel- oped. Appropriate tools to guarantee the population the right to literacy and the right to information in an appropriate form are also needed. Both the active contribution of the individuals (readers/end users training) and the active con- 14 Sožitje, www.zveza-sozitje.si/pal4youth-2018-2020.html. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 485 Tatjana Knapp, Dragica Haramija tribution of society (ensuring the right to accessible information and training of stakeholders) is essential. As the systematic provision of rights to only certain groups of people cannot be an effective inclusive solution, the systematization model should include diverse techniques for personalized communication, not just Easy Language, and diverse target populations, not just groups of people who need Easy Language. This kind of strategy goes beyond dividing people according to cognitive, sensory, and other barriers; it focuses on common or cross-cutting needs. Easy Language is a good example of this concept as it is needed and useful not only for isolated groups of people but covers the need for information and communication of a significant part of the population. The long-term strategic goals should be to make information and literature accessible to all people, regardless of their type of disability (if any); to raise awareness of the importance of information and reading for the development of both the individual and society; to contribute to the creation of conditions for publishing and distributing literature, newspapers, legislation, and policies in an accessible/customized format; to contribute to the development of the accessible media; to research and raise awareness of the barriers to reading; to develop educational programmes, training programmes and licences; to ed- ucate and train in the field of accessing information and literature; to provide and stabilize funding; and to develop stable and sustainable services that in the long run can be implemented as a transfer of powers from the public to the non-governmental sector (e.g., an agency). Regardless of the progress in this area, major problems persist. Currently, the Republic of Slovenia does not guarantee the right to be informed and to communicate to all groups in society, although this warranty is one of the essential elements of the rule of law. As for the development and use of acces- sible, adapted ways of communication, Slovenia lags behind some northern and western European countries. It lacks systematic regulation of the field. The challenge concerns all levels: local, regional and national. In the European context, the field of access to information is developing rapidly at present and Slovenia could keep pace with this development if a thoughtful and intensive approach was adopted. For this to happen, systemic changes are needed. This speculation concludes by highlighting and exposing some concrete challenges on the national level: Easy Language research at the academic level is lacking; 486 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Slovenia Plain Language is not researched or promoted; funding is painfully lacking. All the activity is in the domain of NGOs and depends on their resources and resourcefulness. Slovenia lacks organizers, authors, and mentors/facilitators of validators. To date, there is no consensus on the national level on how to address the challenges outlined above. Furthermore, decision-makers are yet to address them at all. However, the most recent research of the PERLSI and TRAIN- 2VALIDATE projects has shown that Easy Slovene is rapidly gaining recogni- tion among the general public and end users, specifically people with cognitive disabilities, such as intellectual disabilities. Moreover, many governmental and non-governmental organizations for people with cognitive or sensory disabil- ities have started to adopt Easy Language as one of the more important, if not crucial, standards in service provision. Authors Tatjana Knapp is director and project co-ordinator at the RISA Institute, Cen- tre for General, Functional, and Cultural Literacy, and researcher and PhD candidate at the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Ljubljana. She was the first president of the Association for Adapted Communication LABRA. Her main fields of work and interest are Easy Language, disability research from the point of view of anthropology and social work, and advocacy of disability rights. Contact: tatjana@risa.si Dragica Haramija, PhD, is a professor of children’s and youth literature at the University of Maribor. She lectures at the Faculty of Education (Departments of Elementary Education, Preschool Education and Inclusion in Education) and the Faculty of Arts (Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures). Her basic field of work is children’s literature (theories of genre and Slovene children’s literature history) and reading literacy (including easy-to-read texts). Contact: dragica.haramija@um.si © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 487 Tatjana Knapp, Dragica Haramija References Centre for Language Resources and Technologies of the University of Ljubljana. Web. 15 March 2021. . Dostopno [Accessible]. Web. 15 March 2021. . Enostavno [Simple]. Web. 15 March 2021. . Ferš, Daša. Priprava turističnega vodnika za mesto Maribor v lahko berljivi obliki v sodelovanju z osebami in za osebe z motnjami v duševnem razvoju: magistrsko delo [Preparation of a tourist guide for the city of Maribor in an easy-to-read form in cooperation with people and for people with intellectual disabilities: master’s the- sis]. Ljubljana: Pedagoška fakulteta, 2019. Print. Also available at . Gašper, Janja. Izobraževanje o spolnosti v lahkem branju za mladostnike z zmerno motnjo v duševnem razvoju: magistrsko delo [Easy-to-read sexuality education for adolescents with moderate intellectual disabilities: master’s thesis]. Ljublja- na: Pedagoška fakulteta, 2019. Print. Also available at . Haramija, Dragica. “Lahko branje.” [Easy-to-read material]. Ed. Marko Jesenšek. Med didaktiko slovenskega jezika in poezijo: ob 80-letnici Jožeta Lipnika. Maribor: Univerzitetna založba Univerze v Mariboru, 2017. 296–314. Print. Mednarodna knjižna zbirka Zora 119. Haramija, Dragica. “Razvoj bralne pismenosti pri učencih priseljencih z mode- lom lahkega branja in/ali preprostega jezika.” [Developing reading literacy in im- migrant pupils with an easy-to-read and/or plain language model]. 2021, in print. Haramija, Dragica, and Janja Batić. “Celostno branje slikanic kot izhodišče za branje odraslih z motnjo v duševnem razvoju.” [Integrated picture book reading as a starting point for reading by mentally challenged adults]. Jezik in slovstvo 61.1 (2016): 35–46. Print. Also available at . Haramija, Dragica, and Tatjana Knapp. Lahko je brati: lahko branje za stro- kovnjake [Easy-to- read: easy to read for professionals]. Podgorje pri Slovenj Gradcu: Zavod RISA, 2019. Print. Also available at . Haramija, Dragica; Knapp, Tatjana, and Saša Fužir. Lahko je brati: Pravila 2 [It is easy to read: Guidelines 2]. Podgorje pri Slovenj Gradcu: Zavod RISA, 2019. Print. Also available at . Information for all. European standards for making information easy to read and under- stand. Brussels: Inclusion Europe, 2009. Print. Knapp, Tatjana. Predlog sistematizacije dostopnih informacij in lahkega branja v Re- publiki Sloveniji [Proposal for systematization of accessible information and easy reading in the Republic of Slovenia]. Podgorje pri Slovenj Gradcu: Zavod RISA (Project Lahko je brati), 2019. Print. Also available at . Knapp, Tatjana, and Dragica Haramija. Lahko je brati: Uvod 1 [Easy-to-read: introduction 1]. Podgorje pri Slovenj Gradcu: Zavod RISA, 2019. Print. Also avai- lable at . Knapp, Tatjana, and Rok Usenik. “Resolucija o nacionalnem programu za jezi- kovno politiko 2019–2023 je lahko priložnost za ustrezen celosten pristop k ure- janju področja sporazumevanja oseb s posebnimi potrebami.” [Resolution on the National Program for Language Policy 2019‒2023 may be an opportunity for an appropriate integrated approach to regulating the field communication of peop- le with special needs]. Ed. Ministry of Culture. Javni posvet o novem Nacional- nem programu za jezikovno politiko – Prispevki. Ljubljana: Ministrstvo za kulturo, 2019. 49–51. Print. Also available at . Kuplen, Simona. Učenje učenja odraslih z motnjo v duševnem razvoju s pomočjo lah- kega branja: magistrsko delo [Teaching adults with intellectual disabilities to le- arn through Easy Language: master’s thesis]. Maribor: Pedagoška fakulteta, 2018. Print. Ministry of Health. Web. 15 March 2021. . Naše zgodbe [Our stories]. Adapted by Saša Fužir, and Tatjana Knapp. 2013. Web. 19 February 2021. . Perko, Urška. Lahko branje v CUDV Dobrna: magistrsko delo [Easy Reading in CUDV Dobrna: master’s thesis]. Ljubljana: Filozofska fakulteta, 2020. Print. Also available at . Project Za kakovost slovenskih učbenikov (KaUč) [For the quality of the Slovene text- books]. Web. 15 March 2021. . Resolucija o nacionalnem programu za jezikovno politico [Resolution on the National Program for Language Policy]. Uradni list Republike Slovenije, 2013. Print. Also available at . RISA Institute. 20 minut [20 Minutes]. Web. 19 February 2021. . RISA Institute. Curriculum for workshops. Web. 19 February 2021. . RISA Institute. Romani [Novels]. Web. 19 February 2021. . Saleški Finžgar, Fran. Pod svobodnim soncem [Under the free sun]. Adapted by Tat- jana Knapp. 2015. Web. 19 February 2021. . © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 489 Tatjana Knapp, Dragica Haramija Shakespeare, William. Romeo in Julija [Romeo and Juliet]. Adapted by Tatjana Knapp. 2012. Web. 19 February 2021. . Šinkovec, Lina. Priredba romana Deseti brat v lahko berljivo in razumljivo obliko: diplomsko delo [Adaptation of the novel The tenth brother in an easy-to-read and understandable form: diploma thesis]. Ljubljana: Filozofska fakulteta, 2013. Print. Also available at . Sožitje. Web. 19 February 2021. . SURS. Statistični podatki o Sloveniji in prebivalstvu [Statistical data on Slovenia and population]. Statistični urad Republike Slovenije, 2020. Web. 16 October 2020. . Tavčar, Ivan. Visoška kronika [The Visoko chronicles]. Adapted by Saša Fužir. 2012. Web. 19 February 2021. . University of Maribor, Faculty of Education. Web. 15 March 2021. . University of Maribor. ŠIPK - lahko branje. Web. 15 March 2021. . Ustava Republike Slovenije [Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia]. Uradni list Republi- ke Slovenije, 1991. Print. Also available at . Volčanjk, Nina. Učenje učenja govora in jezika pri učencih z motnjo v duševnem ra- zvoju na primeru knjige v lahkem branju: magistrsko delo [Learning to learn speech and language for students with mental disability, case study with a book in easy-to- read text: master’s thesis]. Maribor: Pedagoška fakulteta, 2018. Print. Also available at . Zakon o izenačevanju možnosti invalidov [Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities Act]. Uradni list Republike Slovenije, 2010. Print. Also available at . Zakon o varstvu pred diskriminacijo [The Slovene Protection Against Discrimination Act]. Uradni list Republike Slovenije, 2016. Print. Also available at . Zaviršek, Darja; Krstulović, Gašper; Leskošek, Vesna; Videmšek, Petra; Bohinec, Monika; Pečarič, Elena; Jeseničnik, Natalija, and Klaudija Poropatet. Analiza sistema institucionalnega varstva in možnosti nevladnih or- ganizacij zagotavljati storitve v skupnosti za uresničevanje deinstitucionalizacije v Sloveniji. Raziskovalna analiza [Analysis of the system of institutional care and the possibilities of non-governmental organizations to provide services in the commu- nity for the implementation of deinstitutionalization in Slovenia. Research analy- sis]. Ljubljana: YHD ‒ Društvo za teorijo in kulturo hendikepa, 2015. Print. Also available at . 490 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Slovenia Appendix 1. Standard Slovenian Easy Slovenian (level 4) ZAKON O OSEBNI ASISTENCI Uporabnik je lahko senzorno oviran. (8. člen) To pomeni, da je na primer: • gluh, Ne glede na pogoj iz pete alineje dru- • slep ali gega odstavka 6. člena tega zakona, se • gluhoslep. lahko gluhemu, slepemu ali gluhos- Mogoče potrebuje samo spremstvo in lepemu uporabniku, ki potrebuje izmed pomoč pri sporazumevanju. storitev osebne asistence iz prejšnjega Tak uporabnik dobi pravico do osebne člena samo pomoč pri komunikaciji in asistence spremstvu, tudi če ne izpolnjuje pogoja 30 ur na mesec. najvišje starostne meje iz tretje alineje Namesto teh 30 ur na mesec lahko drugega odstavka 6. člena tega zakona, izbere denar. odobri osebna asistenca v obsegu 30 ur Temu denarju rečemo komunikacijski na mesec. Uporabnik lahko namesto dodatek. osebne asistence izbere denarno nado- Uporabnik se mora odločiti. mestilo… Ima 2 možnosti: • dobi osebno asistenco 30 ur na mesec ali • dobi komunikacijski dodatek (de- nar)… © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 491 Tatjana Knapp, Dragica Haramija [PERSONAL ASSISTENCE ACT [The user can have a sensory disability. (Article 8) This means that he or she is: • deaf, Notwithstanding the condition from • blind or the fifth indent of the second paragraph • deafblind. of Article 6 of this Act, a deaf, blind or Maybe he or she only needs an escort deafblind user who needs assistance in and communication only and escort from help in communication. the personal assistance services from Such a user can get personal assistance the previous article, even if he does not for 30 hours a month. meet the condition of the maximum Instead of 30 hours a month, age from the third indents of the sec- he or she can choose money. ond paragraph of Article 6 of this Act, We call this money communication shall be granted personal assistance payment. in the amount of 30 hours per month. The user must decide. Instead of personal assistance, the user He or she has 2 options: can choose a cash benefit…] • to get personal assistance for 30 hours a month or • to get the communication payment (money)…] 492 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Óscar García Muñoz, Anna Matamala Easy Language in Spain 1 1 Introduction Spain has a population of 47.3 million inhabitants. The country is divided into 17 autonomous regions (constitutionally denominated comunidades autóno- mas) and 2 autonomous cities. Spanish is the official language of the country, although there are co-official languages in some autonomous regions. Basque is co-official in the Basque Country and Navarre. Galician is co-official in Galicia. Catalan is co-official in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, and Valencian is co-official in the Valencian Community. Catalan and Valencian are different denominations of different geographical variations of the same language. Final- ly, Aranese is also co-official in Catalonia. Spanish and Catalan Sign Languages reached official status by law in 2007. Spanish is also official in 19 American countries and in Equatorial Guinea in Africa. With the exception of the Basque language, the origin of which is still under discussion, the other languages in Spain have evolved from Latin. The main characteristics of Spanish are two genders (masculine and feminine); a wide range of verbal inflections, with three modes (indicative, subjunctive and im- perative), 17 tenses (ten for the indicative, six for the subjunctive and one for the imperative) – ten of which are simple and seven of which are compound forms; no cases; and a high correlation between writing and phonetics, with some exceptions such as the h, which is silent, and the variety c/s. In most parts of Spain, the soft c is similar to the soft /th/ sound in English (/θ/), while in 1 The term Easy Language is used here for consistency with the rest of the chapters in this volume as a synonym for Easy-to-Read/Easy Read (Lectura fácil in Spanish). However, in trans- lations of bibliographical references, when referring to the name of certain organizations, and when referring to the Spanish standard, we have kept Easy Read as a translation of the Spanish Lectura fácil to make the authors’ terminological choices visible. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 493 Óscar García Muñoz, Anna Matamala Andalusia, the Canary Islands, and America it is pronounced /s/. This causes confusion in the transcription of many words. Apart from the official languages, some other languages are spoken in Spain, such as Arabic, Romanian, English, German, the Amazigh languages, and Italian. In the first semester of 2020, the highest numbers of foreign resi- dents in Spain were for citizens from Morocco, Rumania, the UK, Colombia, Italy, Venezuela, China, Germany, Ecuador, Bulgaria, Honduras, France, Peru, Ukraine, and Portugal. Officially, the illiterate population of Spain is near to zero, but official figures reported 13 000 people in 2018 2. However, the results of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 3 showed that the mean literacy score in Spain was 14 points below the OECD average (252 vs 266). The difference was higher with older age. For instance, Spain was 19 points below the OECD average for people aged between 55 and 65. In addition, 27.5% of the Spanish PIAAC participants scored low in literacy. 2 Historical perspectives The beginnings of Easy Language in Spain can be traced back to a report by Mayol and Salvador (1999) on Easy Language materials, which analysed the situation in Catalonia and Europe and made some recommendations on how to implement Easy Language in Catalonia. The report includes a translation into Catalan of the guidelines for Easy Language materials by the Interna- tional Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). This report preceded the creation of the Easy Read Association (Associació Lectura Fàcil, ALF). In 2001, a group of professionals linked to the fields of education and libraries created an Easy Language committee as part of the Official College of Librarians and Documentalists of Catalonia (Col·legi Oficial de Bibliote- caris-Documentalistes de Catalunya, COBDC). The Easy Read Association was 2 UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), http://data.uis.unesco.org/ 3 OECD Education GPS, https://gpseducation.oecd.org/ (Explore Data, PIAAC) 494 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Spain legally founded in 2003, and in 2005 it organized the first international meeting on Easy Language in Spain 4. Since its beginnings, this association has focused on the adaptation of literary works – reaching over 300 books 5– as well as informative, administrative and legal content, and has promoted Easy Read Clubs around the country (see Section 6 for further details). The Easy Read Association has been actively involved in training public ad- ministrations, organizations and individuals interested in making information accessible to everyone through Easy Language. Some course participants who share the Easy Read Association’s vision have replicated its model and created associations in other areas. In 2012, the Easy Read Basque Country (Lectura Fácil Euskadi) was born in the Basque Country, and six more associations were created between 2013 and 2017 in Castile and Leon, Madrid, Aragon, Castile La Mancha, the Balearic Islands, and Extremadura. In 2016, these regional as- sociations created the Easy Read Network (Red de Lectura Fácil), which incor- porated one association from Colombia and another from Argentina in 2019. In 2005, the Discourse and Spanish Language Research Group (Discurso y Lengua Española, DILE) at the Autonomous University of Madrid adapted Don Quixote of La Mancha into Easy Language. The group also published a paper on the procedures and methodology that had been followed for the adaptation (Anula et al. 2006). They not only took into account the writing guidelines, but also checked the comprehensibility of the final document with people with reading difficulties. The project produced some Easy Language criteria on the basis of linguistic and psychological aspects. The history of Easy Language in Spain is also strongly linked to associa- tions that work with people with intellectual disabilities. The Full Inclusion association (Plena Inclusión, known as FEAPS until 2015), the main Spanish organization that supports the rights of this group, released its first publication in Easy Language in 2007 6, namely, its Code of Ethics 7. In 2010, Full Inclusion attended a training course taught by the Easy Read Association to learn how 4 Cronologia, https://www.lecturafacil.net/info/1-cronologia/ 5 Llibres de lectura fàcil, http://www.lecturafacil.net/media/Cat%C3%A0leg_llibresLF_2020_ web.pdf 6 Cronología histórica de lectura fácil, https://www.plenainclusion.org/sites/default/files/ cronologia_historica_de_la_lectura_facil.pdf 7 FEAPS (2007), https://www.plenainclusion.org/sites/default/files/codigo_etico_lf_0.pdf © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 495 Óscar García Muñoz, Anna Matamala to create its own group of adaptors and trainers, so as to disseminate the use of Easy Language in all organizations federated to Full Inclusion. In 2013, Full Inclusion launched the first company to function as a co-operative dedicated solely to Easy Language and cognitive accessibility in Spain, the Altavoz Coop- erative 8. It was led by people with intellectual disabilities and provided services related to Easy Language publications. In terms of guidelines and recommendations, the Spanish milestones are the translation of the second edition of the Guidelines for Easy-to-Read Mate- rials in 2012 (Directrices para materiales de lectura fácil) 9, the translation of the Inclusion Europe guidelines Information for All in 2013 10, and the publication of the handbook Easy Read: Writing and Assessment Methods (Lectura fácil: métodos de redacción y evaluación, García 2012), which contains references on Easy Language up to 2013. More recently, Full Inclusion Madrid (Plena Inclusión Madrid) published a handbook on how to evaluate Easy Language using people with reading difficulties (Grupo de Expertos de Lectura Fácil de Plena Inclusión Madrid 2019). Both the Easy Read Network and Full Inclusion have organized many Easy Language events. Since 2010, the Easy Read Network has held seven confer- ences which have attracted speakers from different countries 11. Full Inclusion ‘Literacy for all’ (Letras para todos) meetings took place between 2014 and 2016, and in 2017, Full Inclusion held a conference on cognitive accessibility in Cáceres, Spain 12. In terms of professional practice, Full Inclusion regional federations have promoted the creation of business services around Easy Language. The first one was Adapta, by Full Inclusion Madrid, founded in 2016 (García 2018). This service began with seven associations that offer full Easy Language publication services and training, in which people with intellectual disabilities actively take 8 Altavoz was closed as a company. Its website does not work anymore. 9 Nomura et al. (2012), https://www.ifla.org/files/assets/hq/publications/professional-report/ 120-es.pdf 10 Inclusion Europe, https://www.plenainclusion.org/sites/default/files/informacion_todos.pdf 11 7º Encuentro Lectura Fácil: una mirada internacional, http://www.lecturafacil.net/es/info/ jornadas/ 12 Informe de resultados, Congreso estatal de accesibilidad cognitiva, https://www. plenainclusion.org/sites/default/files/informe_congreso_ac-dif.pdf 496 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Spain part. This service was composed of 13 entities in 2020. Private initiatives are currently very limited. In the field of institutionalization, the region of Extremadura was the first to create a public department specialized in Easy Language and cognitive acces- sibility in 2017. The Office for Cognitive Accessibility of Extremadura (Oficina de Accesibilidad Cognitiva de Extremadura, OACEX) 13 is part of the regional administration, but is managed by Full Inclusion Extremadura (Plena Inclusión Extremadura). It employs workers both with and without intellectual disabil- ities and produces a wide array of Easy Language publications for the region. It also has a committee that supervises private companies and associations providing these services in order to deliver a quality seal acknowledging that their Easy Language productions meet the standard 14. Finally, the main milestone in Spain was the approval and publication of the first Easy Read standard in the world: UNE 153101:2018 EX (Delgado and Rodríguez 2018). UNE is the name of the Spanish Association for Standard- isation, 153101 refers to the number of the standard, and 2018 indicates the year in which it was published. EX indicates that it is an experimental stand- ard, because it was the first time Easy Read was addressed in standardization. This standard was developed by a task force that brought together producers, universities, and user associations, led by the ONCE Foundation (a found- ation that aims, among other endeavours, to promote accessibility projects) and the National Reference Centre for Personal Autonomy and Technical As- sistance (Centro de Referencia Estatal de Autonomía Personal y Ayudas Técnicas, C EAPAT, a state-owned centre for accessible solutions for the elderly and peo- ple with disabilities). This standard, which addresses the creation, adaptation and validation of Easy Read documents, was launched in April 2018. 13 OACEX (2019), https://plenainclusionextremadura.org/plenainclusion/que-ofrecemos/ accesibilidad/oacex#:~:text=La%20OACEX%20es%20la%20Oficina,este%20tipo%20en%20 nuestro%20pa%C3%ADs.&text=Se%20present%C3%B3%20oficialmente%20el%2011,de%20 la%20Junta%20de%20Extremadura. 14 Reconocimiento de entidades de lectura fácil, https://www.plenainclusionextremadura.org/ plenainclusion/reconocimiento-de-entidades-de-lectura-facil © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 497 Óscar García Muñoz, Anna Matamala 3 Current situation This section describes how Easy Language is understood in Spain, its societal and legal context, and its main stakeholders. 3.1 Definitions In Spain, the ‘Easy Language’ concept is broadly known as lectura fácil, a direct translation of the English term ‘Easy Read’. Before the Spanish standard was published, the term was defined on the basis of external sources such as the second edition of the IFLA guidelines, published in Spanish in 2012. However, the Education and Diversity (Educación y Diversidad, EDI) research group from the University of Zaragoza developed a more specific definition for Easy Read, which they translated as both fácil lectura – a term no longer used – and lectura fácil. Their definition established a direct relationship between Easy Read, accessibility and target groups: La fácil lectura (o lectura fácil) es un planteamiento general sobre la accesibilidad a la información y a la comprensión de los mensajes escritos de las personas con diversidades intelectuales y de aprendizaje. También la podemos considerar como un método para hacer entornos psicológicamente comprensibles para todos, eliminando las barreras para la comprensión, el aprendizaje y la participación. (Grupo Educación y Diversidad 2009: 4) [Easy Read is a general approach to accessibility to information and to the understanding of written content by people with intel- lectual or learning disabilities. We can also consider it a method for creating psychologically understandable environments for all, removing barriers to understanding, learning and participation.] 15 15 Translated by the authors. 498 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Spain These definitions were taken into account when the Spanish standardization body (UNE, formerly AENOR) began working on the first Easy Language standard. The approved standard (UNE 153101 EX) defines lectura fácil (liter- ally, ‘Easy Read’) as a ‘method that collects a set of guidelines and recommen- dations related to text composition, design and layout of documents and the assessment of their understandability, targeted to make information accessible for people with reading difficulties’ (UNE 2018: 7). This definition also views it as a cognitive accessibility tool and considers the final materials to be technical support for people with reading difficulties. The definition lies on three main pillars. First of all, the consideration of Easy Read as a method for publishing documents, in both writing and design aspects. Secondly, the need for the target group to be involved in the process in order to ensure that the final product caters to their needs. Finally, the inclusion of Easy Read as a specific tool for people with reading difficulties, rather than for all citizens. The Easy Read Association explains that Easy Language publications are generally classified into three levels of difficulty, with most published books being of the highest level. The criteria for assigning levels are mainly based on the relationship between images and text, and on their syntactical and lexical complexity (Salvador 2009: 14). The Spanish standard does not include a pro- posal on how to create a scale of comprehension levels for Easy Language texts. Other types of easy-to-understand languages, such as lenguaje llano (Plain Language), lenguaje claro (clear language), comunicación clara (clear commu- nication) or lenguaje ciudadano (citizen language) have also been researched and practised (Cassany 2005, Gelpí 2006, Montolío and Tascón 2017, Carretero 2019), with special focus on legal and administrative texts. However, these are beyond the scope of this article. 3.2 Societal and legal context Spain has a complex legal structure in terms of accessibility, because although each region has competences, the central government also promotes some reg- © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 499 Óscar García Muñoz, Anna Matamala ulations. The Royal Decree 366/2007 16 included the prescription of ‘simple and direct language’ for printed administrative documents. A subsequent ministe- rial order in 2008 17 added some specifications about the size of the typography, line spacing or writing style, although the text did not mention Easy Language at all. Currently, a bill has been proposed to the Spanish Parliament to revise the existing Act on the Rights of Persons with Disability that includes Easy Language as a solution for cognitive accessibility. It specifies the scope of appli- cability as including, for instance, the communication and information society, public administration, justice, culture, and employment. It adds a specific pro- vision that sets deadlines for implementation and another provision to create a National Reference Centre for Cognitive Accessibility, with competences in research, training, dissemination, and promotion in the field 18. As regards regional legislation, Catalonia was the first region to include Easy Language in its Accessibility Act in 2014, and requires it in public ad- ministration, education and companies that offer accessible public services (e.g., transport, energy, or telecommunications) 19. This law adopts a universal design approach: it considers that Easy Language materials follow the IFLA and Inclusion Europe guidelines but aims to make texts accessible to all citizens, which broadens the field to also include Plain Language approaches. Other regions that also mention Easy Language are the Balearic Islands, Navarre, Andalusia, Murcia, and Galicia. However, although legislation exists and ef- forts are being made to produce more Easy Language content 20, publications are still limited and public documents in Easy Language remain an exception. 3.3 Stakeholders Spain has no national structure that currently promotes Easy Language. How- ever, the above-mentioned proposed bill includes the creation of a special- 16 BOE (2007), https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-2007-6239 17 BOE (2008), https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-2008-3528 18 BOCG (2020), http://www.congreso.es/public_oficiales/L14/CONG/BOCG/B/BOCG- 14-B-93-1.PDF 19 BOE (2014), https://www.boe.es/buscar/pdf/2014/BOE-A-2014-11992-consolidado.pdf 20 Recursos, https://repositori.lecturafacil.net/ 500 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Spain ized centre for cognitive accessibility. This centre would also promote Easy Language. However, future development will depend on the regulations that implement the content of the bill and the budget. Only the Office for Cognitive Accessibility of Extremadura has what could be considered an official structure, although it is managed by a non-profit organization. The main producers of Easy Language in Spain today are non-profit organ- izations and associations. The two main stakeholders are Full Inclusion (Plena Inclusión), a social movement that supports people with intellectual disabilities, and the Easy Read Network (Red de Lectura Fácil 21), a network of associations working on Easy Language led by the Catalan organization, the Easy Read Association (Associació Lectura Fàcil, ALF) 22 (ILUNION 2019: 8–9). The main financial resources come from public administrations, and publications depend greatly on tenders or specific projects. The private sector has no industry related to the production of Easy Lan- guage, although a few individual freelance initiatives and a few publishing houses are interested in Easy Language literature. Three publishing houses have long-term Easy Language literary collections: Castellnou/Almadraba groups them under the brand Kalafate; La Mar de Fàcil is specialized in this type of book; and Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat has a specific collection in Easy Language in Catalan. Other companies have funded Easy Language pub- lications through foundations or corporate social responsibility actions. For instance, the pharma company Sandoz promotes the use of Easy Language in patient information leaflets in Spanish. When it comes to funding Easy Language work, members of both Full Inclusion and the Easy Read Network offer Easy Language professional ser- vices. They also take part in the few tenders on Easy Language run by local or regional administrations. Full Inclusion obtains public resources from the annual national and regional budgets through a specific grant programme. In recent years this programme has funded several social services offered by Full Inclusion, including Easy Language productions. In addition, some founda- tions from private companies publish public grant tenders for which non-profit 21 Red Lectura Fácil, https://www.lecturafacil.net/es/info/red-lectura-facil 22 Associació Lectura Fàcil, https://www.lecturafacil.net/eng © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 501 Óscar García Muñoz, Anna Matamala organizations can apply and obtain resources for their Easy Language services. This was, for instance, the origin of Adapta, a professional Easy Language service launched by Full Inclusion Madrid in 2016 23. The funds obtained by a grant from a banking foundation (Montemadrid Foundation) were also in- vested in this production line. 4 Target groups The national Easy Language standard mentioned above (UNE 153101:2018 EX, 2018: 7–8) indicates a list of target groups that benefit from Easy Language. It points out that they are all people with reading difficulties related to intellectual disabilities, mental illness, language disorders, brain damage, learning disa- bilities, autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit disorder (with or without hyperactivity), deafness, deafblindness, ageing, low literacy and non-native language. People with disabilities make up around 9% (IMSERSO 2020) of the Span- ish population, and the elderly aged over 65 account for more than 18% of the total population. The country also has 1.6 million immigrants from non-na- tive Spanish countries and around 700 000 functional illiterate people. If the figures related to these groups are summed up, the potential population that could benefit from Easy Language and accessible communication is a third of the whole country. Although demand for Easy Language has increased in the last ten years, the general perception is that it is a specific solution for cognitive accessibility. This is because the presence of Full Inclusion at national and regional levels is strong. However, in Catalonia and the Basque Country, where the Easy Read Network is stronger, the perception is that the target is more wide-ranging. They adopt a universal design approach which also includes recent immigrants or the elderly. 23 Nace Adapta Plena Inclusión Madrid, que ofrece el servicio de lectura fácil como solución accesible, https://plenainclusionmadrid.org/noticias/nace-adapta-plena-inclusion-madrid- que-ofrece-el-servicio-de-lectura-facil-como-solucion-accesible/ 502 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Spain 5 Guidelines As mentioned before, Spain had the first Easy Read standard in the world: UNE 153101:2018 EX. It comprises three parts: steps to produce documents (whether originals or adaptations), guidelines for writing and designing doc- uments, and guidelines for checking comprehensibility with groups of people with reading difficulties. The main recommendations, obtained through consensus, take into ac- count the customary international guidelines (logical structure, short sentenc- es, common words), but they include some specificities related to Spanish as a language. For example, the standard proposes avoiding commas, except for certain uses, and avoiding periods, preferring paragraphs. Quotation marks should also be avoided, and an indirect style should be prioritized. Concerning vocabulary, it recommends a clear contextualization of homophone or hom- ograph words, avoiding certain adverbs (with the suffix -mente, equal to the English adverbial suffix ‘-ly’), and superlative forms for adjectives. Nominali- zation is not recommended. Seven of the guidelines are related to numbers. For instance, the use of figures rather than words is recommended for writing numbers, and avoiding ordinal numbers, percentages, and fractions. This in- formation should be provided by alternative texts. Times should avoid the 24-hour format and Roman numerals are also not recommended. Concerning grammar rules, the standard recommends avoiding the least used tenses, the subjunctive and a specific variation of the passive voice in Spanish called the re- flexive passive (pasiva refleja). The imperative should be used in clear contexts. The preferred tense is the present indicative. Modal verbs (perífrasis verbales) are considered acceptable with certain verbs (must, want, can). Spanish can omit the subject in verbal structures, but in Easy Language it is recommended to always use it. The production process includes a flowchart which indicates that end-user validation should be repeated until users confirm that the content is under- standable. It should be highlighted that the standard includes this validation test as a compulsory step in order to consider the result Easy Read. The stand- ard has an annex with strategies on how to develop and facilitate group sessions © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 503 Óscar García Muñoz, Anna Matamala and obtain relevant comments that allow authors to improve the texts and check their comprehensibility. Before April 2018, when the standard was published, the guidelines fol- lowed in Spain were from two traditional sources: the IFLA (Guidelines for Easy-to-read Materials) and Inclusion Europe (Information for all). Further- more, in 2013, the handbook Easy Read: Writing and Assessment Methods (Lectura fácil: métodos de redacción y evaluación) proposed a collection of guidelines from several sources to develop Easy Language content. Another publication to take into account in the development of Easy Lan- guage is the Easy Read texts assessment: methodological, social and labour aspects (Validación de textos en lectura fácil: aspectos metodológicos y sociolab- orales), by Full Inclusion Madrid (Grupo de Expertos de Lectura Fácil de Plena Inclusión Madrid 2019). This book displays a list of definitions, procedures, and strategies to develop Easy Language assessment with groups from a prac- tical point of view, because the authors are all experienced facilitators of Easy Language validation groups. 6 Practical outcomes All the official languages in Spain have Easy Language outcomes. The majority of these are in Spanish and Catalan, but some are also in Basque, Galician and Valencian. The first Easy Language book in Aranese was also published in 2020 24. The following paragraphs focus on media, literature, information texts, and other projects, to provide a global overview of Easy Language in Spain. 6.1 Media Easy Language in the media is extremely limited in Spain and mainly arises from initiatives put forward by associations of people with disabilities. For example, Easy News (Noticias Fácil) 25 was the first website devoted to news in 24 Presentació novetats Lectura Fàcil, https://www.lecturafacil.net/news/presentacio-novetats- lectura-facil/ 25 Noticias Fácil, http://www.noticiasfacil.es/ES/Paginas/index.aspx 504 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Spain Easy Language as a result of research developed by the University of Valencia. Recently, Full Inclusion created a website called Easy Planet (Planeta Fácil) 26, a news bulletin and internet portal in Easy Language. One of the members of staff has an intellectual disability and often writes news in Easy Language. News releases in Easy Language have been a regular practice of Full Inclusion Madrid since 2015. Regarding corporate media, El País 27 published a symbolic report on Easy Language in 2019 and El Periódico de Aragón 28, a regional newspaper, has reg- ularly included a page with Easy Language news since 2017. The most recent project is GN News, which has also offered news in Easy Language since its beginning 29. Some local journals in Catalan also have Easy Language content, such as Pallars Digital 30. In the field of audiovisual access services, easy subtitles are generally lim- ited to research environments (Bernabé Caro and Orero 2019, Oncins et al. 2020) and pose some challenges, as the requirements of existing subtitling standards (AENOR 2012) may clash with research results and the needs of users with reading difficulties. The Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training (EASIT) project (Matamala and Orero 2018) has also discussed easy audio descriptions (Bernabé Caro and Orero forthcoming). This is covered in the section on research. 6.2 Literature Publishing houses have led limited initiatives to develop a product line in Easy Language. The most relevant is Almadraba (Castellnou for the Catalan mar- ket), which has a collection of around 30 titles called Kalafate 31, all of which 26 Planeta Fácil, http://planetafacil.plenainclusion.org/ 27 Barrios & Hinojosa (2019), https://elpais.com/politica/2019/03/28/actualidad/ 1553771166_007481.html 28 Periodistas Aragón (2017), https://periodistasdearagon.org/2017/06/26/el-periodico-de- aragon-lanza-la-primera-seccion-de-noticias-en-lectura-facil-para-personas-con- discapacidad-intelectual/ 29 Navas (2020), https://www.gndiario.com/gndiario-noticias-accesibles 30 Les notícies més importants de l’1 al 15 de gener en Lectura Fàcil, https://www.naciodigital.cat/ pallarsdigital/femhofacil 31 Kalafate, https://www.almadrabaeditorial.com/kalafate-68-es © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 505 Óscar García Muñoz, Anna Matamala are classical titles from both Spanish and international literature, available in Catalan and Spanish. Another relevant publishing house, Santillana, launched the Loqueleo 32 collection in 2018, addressed to children and teenagers, and has already featured two comic books in an Easy Language format. Other small publishing houses have also published Easy Language literature: La Mar de Fàcil 33, the only publishing house specializing in Easy Language originals, has published around 45 works and has specialized in disseminating contemporary writers since 2008. The main promoter in this field is the Easy Read Network, with a book catalogue including both literary works adapted into Easy Lan- guage and new works created using Easy Language guidelines. Full Inclusion has also presented some adapted novels and stories in a project that linked literature and technology. The result was Read it Easy (Léelo Fácil) 34 in 2016, a website containing seven novels with texts in Easy Language and digital effects. Although production is limited, more than 500 clubs (ILUNION 2019: 8) of people with reading difficulties meet to read Easy Language books in libraries, schools, and other locations (for instance, hospitals or nursing homes). These are co-ordinated by a facilitator and their aim is that participants not only enjoy literature and reading but that also their vocabulary improves and they have the opportunity to socialize (Salvador et al. 2019). An interactive map of all Easy Read Clubs linked to the Easy Read Association is available online 35. 6.3 Informative texts The majority of Easy Language publications are informative and legal docu- ments, generally commissioned by public authorities. The Constitution 36 has two versions, as do several of the highest regional laws (estatutos de autonomía). An Act into Easy Language law has also been published in an official journal. 32 Loqueleo, https://www.loqueleo.com/es/ 33 La Mar de Fàcil, https://lamardefacil.com/index.php/es/ 34 Léelofácil, http://www.leelofacil.org/es/ 35 Mapa de la lectura fácil, http://mapalf.lecturafacil.net/index.php 36 La Constitución española version fácil de leer, https://www.plenainclusion.org/sites/default/ files/la_constitucion_espanola_en_lectura_facil.pdf, http://www.lecturafacil.net/media/re- sources/CONSTITUCION_ESPA%C3%91OLA_LECTURA_FACIL.pdf 506 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Spain Both producers (Full Inclusion and the Easy Read Network) have edited a large collection of documents on public services. Court verdicts and summonses involving people with disabilities have also been adapted into Easy Language. In 2018, Full Inclusion Asturias won a Zero Project Award for its task in this field (Zero Project 2018: 141). The Zero Project is an initiative promoted by the Austrian Essl Foundation, which supports the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and awards innovative practices and policies related to accessibility, inclusive education, inclusive employment, and independent living 37. Full Inclusion Madrid and Full Inclusion Asturias have also published some guides on the legal system 38 and prisons 39, respectively. Easy Language publications on rights also represent a wide field. The Gen- eral Act of Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adapted in 2015 40, and many guides and leaflets are available on gender violence prevention, the le- gal protection of people with disabilities, or the right to vote. More than 80 political programmes for different elections in Spain 41 have been published in Easy Language. Finally, the Spanish Association of Tutelary Foundations (Asociación Española de Fundaciones Tutelares, an association that federates foundations that legally protect people with disabilities), has created a whole website exclusively in Easy Language to explain its purpose and services, and to publish documents 42. Other relevant publications are related to health, such as the guides on general illnesses or sexual health published by Full Inclusion. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an increase in the number of Easy Language publications: 37 Zero Project, https://zeroproject.org/about-us/ 38 Guía de acceso a la justicia, https://plenainclusionmadrid.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/ Guia-de-acceso-a-la-justicia-en-lectura-facil.pdf 39 Primeros pasos en prisión, https://www.plenainclusionasturias.org/wp-content/up- loads/2016/11/Descargar-documento.pdf 40 García (2015), https://www.plenainclusion.org/sites/default/files/ley_general_de_derechos.pdf 41 Mi voto cuenta, http://mivotocuenta.es/ 42 Asociación Española de Fundaciones Tutelares, https://fundacionestutelares.org/accesible/ © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 507 Óscar García Muñoz, Anna Matamala from legal aspects to health issues, behaviour recommendations, or protection in workplaces, both in Spanish 43 and in other languages 44. 6.4 Other projects In recent years, some civil service examinations have been offered to people with intellectual disabilities, as by law a certain percentage of public employ- ment posts are reserved for them 45. The subjects included in the examinations have been adapted into Easy Language. The first took place in 2016 46, but be- tween 2019 and 2020 at least five examinations were held, with subjects adapted into Easy Language 47. Culture is another area in which the presence of Easy Language is in- creasing, especially in museums. Museums such as the National Museums 48 (Museos Estatales), the Prado Museum 49, and the Thyssen Museum 50 already have Easy Language leaflets on their masterpieces. In the case of the National Museums and the Prado Museum, these leaflets are complemented by an easy- to-follow map that locates each one of the masterpieces. Some local museums offer Easy Language guides, also available in other languages 51. For instance, the Provincial Museum Network of Lugo, in the north-west of Spain, has Easy Language leaflets in Galician for each room of the museums as well as for 43 Coronavirus, http://planetafacil.plenainclusion.org/coronavirus/ 44 Informació accessible sobre la Covid-19 i el desconfinament, https://www.lecturafacil.net/ news/informacio-accessible-sobre-la-covid-19-i-el-desco/ 45 Plena Inclusión Extremadura, https://plenainclusionextremadura.org/plenainclusion/ actualidad/noticias/2020/temario-lectura-f%C3%A1cil 46 Ministerio de Política Territorial y Función Pública, https://www.mptfp.gob.es/portal/ funcionpublica/funcion-publica/ep-pp/empleo_publico/procesos-selectivos/laboral_fijo/ Discapacidad_Intelectual_2016_2017.html 47 Oposiciones para auxiliar de información y control, https://plenainclusionmadrid.org/ convocatorias/oposiciones-auxiliar-control-informacion-com-madrid/ 48 Guías y planos, https://www.culturaydeporte.gob.es/cultura/areas/museos/mc/nuestros- museos/guias.html 49 Guía accesible, 10 obras maestras, https://content3.cdnprado.net/doclinks/pdf/visita/plano/ accesible/Guia_accesible_MNP.pdf 50 Qurtuba, https://imagenes.educathyssen.org/sites/default/files/document/2019-06/ MUSEO%20F%C3%81CIL.pdf 51 La lectura fàcil als museus, https://www.lecturafacil.net/news/la-lectura-facil-als-museus/ 508 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Spain certain pieces 52, and different museums in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencia (the Empordà Museum, the Majorca Maritime Museum, the Maricel Museum, the Manacor History Museum, the Ceramics Museum) offer infor- mation in Catalan Easy Language. In the scenic arts, since 2015, the Liceu opera house in Barcelona has published Easy Language synopses of the operas 53 it hosts, within the framework of a wider accessibility plan. The field of work and training has many publications on health and safety at work 54, as well as adaptations of training handbooks for specific positions, such as conference assistant or office assistant. Finally, in 2017, Full Inclusion Madrid launched the first Easy Language Dictionary 55. It already has 3 000 entries and receives millions of visits, mainly from Latin America 56. The publication of the dictionary was made possible thanks to the co-operation of Easy Language writers, validation from groups of people with intellectual disabilities, and linguists who checked the accuracy of the definitions (Gallardo and García 2018, García 2019: 337–338). Educational content for schools is still lacking. A postgraduate course in Navarre usually includes a practical activity on Easy Language for future teachers 57, but the production of handbooks by publishing houses is currently non-existent. 7 Education and research The Easy Read Network and the organizations associated with Full Inclusion regularly offer training courses on Easy Language. These mainly focus on writ- ing at different levels (basic or advanced) and Easy Language promotion in 52 Rede Museística Provincial de Lugo, http://redemuseisticalugo.org/documentos.asp?mat=186 53 Liceu de Barcelona, https://www.liceubarcelona.cat/es/lectura-facil 54 La Fundación ONCE crea unas guías sobre seguridad en el trabajo, http://planetafacil. plenainclusion.org/la-fundacion-once-crea-unas-guias-sobre-seguridad-en-el-trabajo/ 55 Diccionario Fácil, http://diccionariofacil.org/ 56 El Diccionari Fácil alcanza las 3000 palabras publicadas, https://plenainclusionmadrid.org/ noticias/el-diccionario-facil-alcanza-las-3-000-palabras-publicadas/ 57 Alumnos del Máster en Intervención Educativa y Psicológica (2015), https://creena.educacion. navarra.es/web/bvirtual/2018/06/08/el-antiguo-egipto/#more-469 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 509 Óscar García Muñoz, Anna Matamala reading clubs. Full Inclusion has also developed specific training for validators, meaning people with intellectual disabilities who check the comprehensibility of the texts adapted into Easy Language and their compliance with existing guidelines. Full Inclusion and the Easy Read Association also offer a few cours- es for designers, teachers, supporters of Easy Read Clubs, and facilitators of Easy Language validation groups. People interested in deepening their knowledge of Easy Language at the higher education level have few options. Spain used to have a face-to-face post- graduate degree on accessibility at a private university in Madrid that included a session on Easy Language in its last four versions (from 2012 to 2016). Later, an online postgraduate course promoted by the University of Jaen, which is still ongoing, included a lesson on Easy Language in a subject on Culture and Ac- cessibility. In 2018, the private school High Institute of Linguistic Studies and Translation (Instituto Superior de Estudios Lingüísticos y Traducción, ISTRAD) in Seville began offering a postgraduate course in accessible communication that includes a specific course on Easy Language. More recently, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) has included the concept of easy-to-understand language as part of a course on Audiovisual Translation Theory in its MA in Audiovisual Translation. It is also developing a 12-week online specialization course on accessible communication, which includes Easy Language. Several research projects have focused on technology and on the reception of Easy Language texts by end users. Regarding technological development, Simplext 58 (Bott et al. 2012a, Drndarević and Saggion 2012) was a large re- search project that aimed to develop an Easy Language automated translator. The project, led by Horacio Saggion from the Pompeu Fabra University, pro- duced a translation engine that applies Easy Language guidelines 59 (Saggion et al. 2015, Bott et al. 2012b, Saggion et al. 2011). The project attempted to combine natural language processing and linguistic research in text simplifi- cation. It was followed by Able to Include 60, in which Spanish technological 58 Proyecto Simplext, https://www.fundacionprodis.org/catedra-de-patrocinio/investigacion/id/ proyecto-simplext/ 59 Simplext, http://simplext.taln.upf.edu/ 60 Able to Include, http://able-to-include.com/ 510 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Spain companies took part, and the aim of which was to produce a text simplifier, a text-to-pictogram translator, and a text-to-speech programme. Another similar research project was the Flexible Interactive Reading Sup- port Tool (FIRST) 61, funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, with the Spanish University of Jaen and the University of Alicante as partners. In this case, the result was an Open Book tool (Barbu et al. 2015), a similar tool to that produced by Simplext. Finally, the University of Alicante ran another research project linked to text simplification and technology, although their main interest was deaf people. The system recognizes named entities and links them to a definition from Sim- ple Wikipedia and to three images from Google Images. It also automatically detects time expressions and converts them into a specific date or time period (Saquete et al. 2013). Regarding research that includes end users, the already mentioned Dis- course and Spanish Language Research Group (Discurso y Lengua Española, DILE) at the Autonomous University of Madrid, with a focus on linguistic ac- cessibility, involved readers with intellectual disabilities in an adaptation of Don Quixote of La Mancha, which allowed them to publish not only the adaptation of this literary work but also a report with readability parameters to accurately analyse the Easy Language content (Anula et al. 2006). More recently, Vived and Molina (2012), from the University of Zaragoza, researched the application of Easy Language content with people with Down’s syndrome. In addition to this, the Interdisciplinary Research Structure for Reading (ERI-Reading) research group from the University of Valencia also worked on the adaptation of texts into Easy Language and the results from readers with intellectual dis- abilities (Fajardo et al. 2014, Fajardo et al. 2015). Their conclusions were based on news published by Easy News (Noticias Fácil). One of the first investigations to include end users was led by secondary school teacher Jaume Serra Milà (2008a, 2008b), who adapted a novel and some communications from the school into Easy Language and tested them with 61 First project, http://www.first-asd.eu/ © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 511 Óscar García Muñoz, Anna Matamala Chinese and Moroccan students. This research allowed Serra Milà to propose some improvements to the existing guidelines. Between 2017 and 2019, a large research project with users led by José Anto- nio León (León et al. 2017, 2019) from the Autonomous University of Madrid, studied how people with intellectual disabilities understand what they read and the impact of Easy Language texts. The test materials for this project were organized in adherence with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Finally, at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, the Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training (EASIT) project (Matamala and Orero 2018), a European Commission-funded Erasmus + Strategic partnership, is researching whether easy-to-understand language in a broad sense, including both Easy Language and Plain Language, could be transferred to audiovisual media. The focus is on access services such as subtitles and audio description, and on audiovisual content such as online news, moving away from printed written text. The pro- ject has mapped out the practice and training of easy-to-understand language in Europe through a survey with 128 participants (Perego 2020). It has also organized 3 focus groups and 23 interviews to discuss how easy-to-understand language could be transferred into the audiovisual world. The project has also discussed how to train new professionals in the fields, and has produced skills cards and two curriculum proposals, one for a vocational course and one for an academic course. The EASIT project is currently creating open access ed- ucational materials to train experts in easy-to-understand subtitles, experts in easy-to-understand audio description, and experts in easy-to-understand audiovisual journalism. Bernabé Caro and Orero (2019) have also discussed Easy Language as a multimode accessibility service and the concept of easier audio descriptions (Bernabé Caro and Orero forthcoming), and Bernabé Caro and García (2020) and Bernabé et al. (2020) have researched the validation of easy subtitles. Prior to the Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training project, Bernabé Caro (2017) developed a methodological proposal for a user-centric design of Easy Language. 512 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Spain 8 Future perspectives The establishment of the Spanish standard was a seminal moment for Easy Language in Spain. The market can now benchmark its performance against a methodology and a series of guidelines which have been developed through the consensus of all the interested stakeholders (ILUNION 2019: 33). However, several issues remain unresolved. First of all, research on the actual reception of the different parameters established in the standard is lacking. Some guide- lines have been drafted through a process of reader observation, but scientific investigations that follow established research methodologies are much need- ed. Special emphasis should be placed on analysing how validation sessions involving end users are performed and how these sessions could be improved in order to obtain more effective results. Another critical issue concerns certification. The Easy Read Association uses a logo in its adaptations which guarantees that the international Easy Language guidelines of IFLA and Inclusion Europe have been followed. Inclusion Europe also has a copyrighted logo which anyone fulfilling a series of pre-established conditions can use. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no clear external procedure to ensure that the guidelines have actually been followed. Training is another relevant subject in which further work is needed. Al- though some non-formal training courses are on offer, currently no formal or certified ones exist. As already mentioned, the EASIT project is working on defining a curriculum that can be applied in both vocational and academic en- vironments. The current Erasmus project, Professional Training for Easy Read Facilitators and Validators (TRAIN2VALIDATE) will also provide a similar solution for validators and facilitators. Another training gap that must be cov- ered concerns designers and illustrators. A multimedia perspective would also be welcome, as this is not included in the Spanish Easy Read standard. Creating new business models, attracting new audiences, avoiding stig- matization, and increasing awareness of easy content are essential in order to increase the demand for and supply of accessible content for all. Although the potential market is wide, Easy Language in Spain is highly dependent on public administrations and the demand from private companies is scarce. An economy (market, demand, offer) around Easy Language, similar to that devel- © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 513 Óscar García Muñoz, Anna Matamala oping in the field of physical, visual, or hearing accessibility, would be needed to spread this service. Finally, there is also a need to move beyond the written word and start researching and offering other services in a multimodal context. Previous expe- riences such as simultaneous simplification at the 2019 Eurovision song contest in Israel (Nahón Guillén 2020), the audiofáciles (easy audios) offered in some theatre plays in Spanish cultural venues 62, or Eugeni’s (2020) simplified live subtitles could pave the way towards innovation in this field. Authors Óscar García Muñoz is the accessibility project manager at Plena Inclusión Madrid, an NGO that supports the rights of people with intellectual disabil- ities. He has a degree in journalism and a postgraduate degree in Design for All. Author of handbooks on Easy Read, he is a trainer and external lecturer in postgraduate programmes on Accessibility. He has extensive experience of adapting documents, for example, the Spanish Constitution. He was also part of the committee that discussed the Spanish Easy Read standard and he leads the European project TRAIN2VALIDATE. Anna Matamala, BA in Translation and PhD in Applied Linguistics, is an as- sociate professor at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She currently leads Transmedia Catalonia, a research group on media accessibility. Anna Matama- la is the main researcher of the European EASIT project and is co-leader of the RAD project. She has participated in many projects on audiovisual translation and media accessibility and is also involved in standardization work. 62 Grupo Amás (2017), https://www.grupoamas.org/amas-facil-adapta-los-audios-explicativos- de-la-obra-la-autora-de-las-meninas-que-teatro-accesible-pone-en-escena-el-14-de-mayo-en- barcelona/ 514 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Spain Acknowledgements Óscar García co-authored this article as part of his work in the TRAIN2VAL- IDATE project (2020-1-ES01-KA203-082068). Anna Matamala is a member of TransMedia Catalonia, a research group funded by the Catalan Government (2017SGR113). She co-authored this article as part of the work of the EASIT project (2018-1-ES01-KA203-05275). Both authors thank Elisabet Serra, Pro- ject Manager at Associació Lectura Fàcil (ALF), for her useful comments on this article. References 7º Encuentro Lectura Fácil: una mirada internacional [7th Easy Read Conference: an international view]. 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Así verás a los vehículos venir de frente. En las carreteras sin arcén, colócate lo más cerca del borde de la carretera. Los grupos de personas deben ir en fila india, es decir, uno detrás de otro sin formar grupos. Ten cuidado cuando cruces una carretera. Cruza siempre por un lugar sin curvas y sin cuestas. Cruza por un lugar donde los conductores te puedan ver bien, por ejemplo, una carretera llana y recta. Source: Plena Inclusión Madrid. Guía básica de educación vial. Madrid: Alsa Grupo, 2017. Web. < https://plenainclusionmadrid.org/wp-content/ uploads/2018/02/Guia-Educacion-Vial.pdf> [How to walk down a road in a safe way? You must walk on the left-hand side when you walk down a road. This way, you can see cars coming towards you. On roads without a pavement, walk as close as you can to the edge of the road. Groups of people must go in single file, that is, one after another without forming groups. Be careful when you cross a road. Always cross at a place without curves and without slopes. Cross at a place where drivers can see you, for example, a flat and straight road.] © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 525 Ulla Bohman Easy Language in Sweden 1 Introduction Sweden is the largest of the five Nordic countries, in both area and population. It has 10.3 million inhabitants. About 25% of these have foreign backgrounds and the majority of them have a first language other than Swedish. For a long time, the largest immigrant group was from Finland, but today the top five countries in this respect, in order, are Syria, Iraq, Finland, Poland, and Iran. The official language is Swedish, a North Germanic Indo-European lan- guage closely related to Danish and Norwegian. Neighbouring country Fin- land is partly Swedish speaking, as the two countries have a long joint history. Sweden has also recognized five national minority languages: Finnish, Yiddish, Meänkieli, Romani Chib, and Sami. In the areas of Sweden with a significant minority language-speaking group, the public authorities must provide infor- mation and communication in that language. Swedish Sign Language also has an official status. This means that if your first language is Sign Language, you have the right to communicate with public authorities in this language and the right to an interpreter. This has also had a positive impact on the news and var- ious other programmes on TV, which today are interpreted into Sign Language. In Sweden, the Easy Language movement started more than 50 years ago. Through various political initiatives, legislation, awareness of Human Rights (Kultur åt alla 1964), and significant lobbying work by different non-govern- mental organizations, Easy Language and the need for it have been accepted by society. The development of Easy Language in Sweden has been a process of learning-by-doing and trial and error, in close contact with the readers (Bror Tronbacke, personal communication September 2020). Easy Language is called lättläst (easy-to-read) in Sweden, abbreviated as LL. Throughout the years, the lättläst concept has been understood as both © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 527 Ulla Bohman easy to read and easy to understand. Since the early 2000s, the Centre for Easy-to-Read’s slogan has been Lätt att läsa, lätt att förstå (Easy to read, easy to understand). In this sense, it has also included spoken language, even if the word itself refers to text. The Easy Language Service (Lättläst-tjänsten) of the Centre for Easy-to-Read has been involved in projects to train and coach politicians to speak Easy to Understand 1. In Sweden today, there is a general awareness and respect for literature, news and information in Easy Language. In recent years, however, major or- ganizational changes in the field of accessibility have had paradoxical effects on the development of Easy Language in Sweden. 2 Historical perspectives Easy Language has a long history in Sweden. It started already almost six dec- ades ago in the form of several different initiatives and actions, on the levels of both national authority and different stakeholders. 2.1 Early development Easy Language has been promoted in Sweden since the late 1960s and has been closely linked to the Plain Language Movement. The development of Easy Swedish has been promoted and successfully implemented by a number of legislative initiatives over the years, but also by important lobbying work by non-governmental organizations such as the Swedish National Association for People with Intellectual Disability (FUB). But, the interest from the academic world in researching Easy Language has been limited. The 1960s was in many ways a radical time of change, especially in the western world, where the solidarity movement grew strong. People protested against hierarchies and fought for equal rights and women’s liberation. The United Nations’ work on human rights started after the Second World War 1 Information about one of the projects Mitt val (My choice) can be found on the Studieförbun- det Vuxenskolan website (Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan 2020). 528 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Sweden with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. In 1966, the contin- uous work resulted in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It was in reflection of this era that the development of Plain Language and Easy Language began in Sweden. In 1967, the Swedish government produced guidelines for legal/judicial lan- guage. This was the first step towards a less bureaucratic language in communi- cation between the authorities and the population. It was a step to strengthen democracy (Riktlinjer för lagspråk 1967). At the same time, a campaign was in motion to promote the use of the word ‘du’ (you), a direct form of address, instead of the Swedish words for Ms, Mrs or Mr. Using, for instance, German as an example, this would mean addressing a person with ‘Du’ instead of ‘Sie’. At this time, Sweden was also undergoing a transition into a more classless society. All this began with a speech made by the Director General of the Royal Med- ical Board in 1967, in which he encouraged his staff to address him ‘du’. More information about this can be found on the website of the Swedish Language Council (Språkrådet 2021a). Sweden’s early participation in the work on Hu- man Rights and the ratification of the two UN Covenants in 1967 also reflects this development. These were all logical steps for Sweden during this period, as it was a society strongly influenced by democratic values and solidarity. The development of Easy Language also started during this period. In the later part of the 1960s, the Swedish government started a Culture Political Initiative called Kultur åt alla (Culture for everyone). It was in this setting that the first disability initiatives on participation were taken and the first Easy Language books were published. About 10 years later, the Easy Language news- paper was introduced. The target group for Easy Language material was people with intellectual disabilities. At the very beginning, it was stated that: ‘It is of great importance not to underestimate the readers or believe that they are that different from other readers except for their reading ability’ (Johannesson and Qvarsell 1995: 68, Hedin 1989). Easy Language developed through ‘learning-by-doing’. The Centre for Easy- to-Read had contacts with professionals working with the target group, such as teachers and staff in assisted housing. In the early years, there was also some resistance to close contact with the readers: it was not considered to be of any © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 529 Ulla Bohman value, as people did not believe that the target group would be capable of giving constructive feedback. The development started with literature at the end of the 1960s. During the 1970s, the Easy Language Newspaper project led to the launching of the weekly Easy Language newspaper 8 Sidor (8 Pages). Already in the 1970s, the first in- formative Easy Language texts were produced by the adult study organization Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan (SV), mainly the formal proceedings for board meetings and annual meetings in non-governmental organizations, but also some material about peace. In 1981, Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan produced information in Easy Language about the upcoming referendum on wheth- er Sweden should continue having nuclear power (Kitte Arvidsson, personal communication September 2020). Easy Language information became very popular, and its reception revealed a great need for accessible information on current and urgent matters. However, informative Easy Language texts were not produced more widely until the late 1990s and early 2000s. 2.2 Centre for Easy-to-Read The initiative to form an organization dedicated to Easy Language in Sweden came from the Swedish National Association for People with Intellectual Dis- ability (FUB). The government commissioned the National Committee for Talking Newspapers to examine the possibility of an Easy Language organ- ization (DsU 1985:7). The Committee had been running the Easy Language Newspaper project for a few years at this time. In 1985, the Ministry of Culture and Education appointed a Committee to start working on a proposal for a national Easy Language organization. The secretary of the Committee was Bror Tronbacke, who later became the Centre for Easy-to-Read’s first Director. In 1987, the Swedish Government presented a proposal to Parliament to establish a foundation that would be responsible for the ongoing development of Easy Language in Sweden. The Parliament’s decision was unanimous, and the Foundation for Easy-to-Read (LL-stiftelsen) was formed (Proposition 1985/86:175). The name was changed to Centre for Easy-to-Read (Centrum för lättläst, CfLL) in 1997. The mission of the Foundation was to publish the 8 Sidor newspaper and from 1988, to 530 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Sweden publish literature in Easy Language. The Foundation for Easy-to-Read had no profit motive and was financed partly by government grants and partly from revenues from books and subscriptions. The government funding was allocated via the Swedish Ministry of Culture. The establishment of the Foundation for Easy-to-Read enabled positive synergies between the publishing of literature and the publishing of news. The development of Easy Language intensified and awareness of the need for litera- ture and news in an easier language increased. With Easy Language production in Sweden under one roof, joint marketing and lobbying work could start in a more organized and strategic form. The Centre for Easy-to-Read increasingly became a centre of excellence to which people from all sectors turned for advice on accessible language. It became clear to the Centre for Easy-to-Read that more people than the original target group needed and could benefit from Easy Language. People from different fields and backgrounds were approaching the Centre with re- quests for help. Therefore, the Centre for Easy-to-Read started to reach out to schools and professionals working with, for example, immigrants and elderly people. Co-operation with libraries and non-governmental organizations such as FUB and the adult study organization Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan was vital. The Centre for Easy-to-Read set the Easy Language standard for Sweden. The organization was respected for its competence, excellence and ability to conduct successful lobbying nationally. During the Centre for Easy-to-Read era, Sweden was also an Easy Language role model for many other countries. The Centre was highly respected in Finland and Norway (see chapters on Fin- land and Norway). The Easy-to-Read Association in Spain (Lectura Fácil) repli- cated the Swedish idea of Reading Ambassadors as promoters of Easy Language Literature, providing challenged groups with the opportunity to gain reading experiences. Sweden played a leading role in the global development of Easy Language in many ways. The Centre for Easy-to-Read brought Easy Language to the agenda of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) through the Swedish Easy Language Director Emeritus Bror Tronbacke. He was the initiator of the Easy-to-Read Network, which for several years was an active platform for international Easy Language discussions. This network was dissolved after the closing of the Centre for Easy-to-Read. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 531 Ulla Bohman 2.3 Transition from Centre for Easy-to-Read to the Swedish Agency for Accessible Media In the fall of 2012, the Swedish Minister of Culture, Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth appointed a committee to review the Centre for Easy-to-Read. A final report from the Committee was published in August 2013 (SoU 2013), and was open for comments until the end of 2013. Some of the comments on the report and its conclusions claimed unfair competition between the Easy Language pub- lishing house LL-förlaget and commercial publishing houses for government grants. Other comments were that the Centre for Easy-to-Read focused too much on written text, needed to increase its technical focus, and concentrate more on readers with intellectual disabilities. In March 2014, the Government handed over its proposal to the Parliament. In June 2014, the Swedish Parliament decided to close down the Centre for Easy-to-Read and move the responsibility for Easy Language to the Swed- ish Agency for Accessible Media, MTM (Lättare att läsa, prop. 2013/14:134). MTM has a long tradition of finding technical solutions to make literature and newspapers accessible for people with visual impairments and reading diffi- culties. Several arguments supported the handing over of the Easy Language responsibility to MTM. One was that MTM already worked with accessible reading, which is a related area. It also had technical expertise that could have positive synergies with Easy Language. One proposal was to have one Centre of Excellence that covered all aspects of accessible reading, as having only one administration instead of two would save money. Another opinion was that the country should not have foundations funded by federal grants (Lättare att läsa, prop. 2013/14:134). It was decided that all Centre for Easy-to-Read employees would auto- matically become part of MTM. In January 2018, the Swedish Government announced that MTM would relocate from Stockholm to Malmö. The move was completed by the end of 2019. From the perspective of Easy Language, the closing down of the Centre for Easy-to-Read caused a number of challenges. For example, successfully com- bining decades of Easy Language expertise with the new technical approaches practised in MTM still today requires a great deal of work. 532 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Sweden 1968 First book in Easy Language is published 1970s Easy Language Newspaper project First study materials and information in Easy Language 1984 Weekly Easy Language newspaper 8 Sidor is launched 1987 Easy Language Foundation begins, later named Centre for Easy-to-Read (Centrum för lättläst, CfLL) 1988 Centre for Easy-to-Read takes over responsibility for Easy Language literature 1991 Easy Language Publishing House (LL-förlaget) begins as part of Centre for Easy-to-Read 1992 Reading Ambassadors project begins 1994 Reading Ambassadors become a regular Centre for Easy-to-Read service 1997 Centre for Easy-to-Read produces first informative Easy Language texts 2001 Easy Language Service (LL-tjänsten) begins at the Centre for Easy-to-Read 2014 Centre for Easy-to-Read closes down at the end of the year 2015 Swedish Agency for Accessible Media (MTM) takes over Table 1: Summary of Easy Language timeline in Sweden. 3 Current situation From the early 1960s to date, different components have had an impact on both the legal and societal status of Easy Language in Sweden. Development has been gradual, parallel to the acceptance of equal rights for people with disabilities. This is also reflected by who the main stakeholders are. But first, it is important to examine the definitions of Easy Language used in Sweden. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 533 Ulla Bohman 3.1 Definitions The Centre for Easy-to-Read developed and used this definition for lättläst: ‘Lättläst, Easy Language is a language for a reader who has challenges with reading and understanding Swedish text. In Easy Language, content, language and layout are easy to read and un- derstand, and focus on the challenged reader and their difficulties.’ (Bror Tronbacke, personal communication September 2020) This definition focuses on reading texts, but today the Easy Language con- cept also includes spoken language. The key words are easy to understand and a challenged target group. The Centre for Easy-to-Read described producing something in lättläst as follows: ‘The process of adapting language, pictures and presentation for one or several target groups, making use of what the writer knows about the target group’s disability, reading difficulties or other challenges’. (Kursmaterial – Att skriva lättläst svenska 2011) Sweden’s National Term Bank (Rikstermbanken) is a dictionary of definitions for Swedish concepts in a number of different fields and subjects. It is a Swed- ish version of the Interactive Terminology for Europe (IATE), which is run by the EU. Sweden’s national term bank is free of charge, and many journalists, interpreters and national agencies use it. Today the Swedish Language Council is responsible for the term bank. In 2017, MTM worked together with the Swedish Centre of Terminology (TNC) to find a definition for lättläst, Easy Language. The Swedish Centre of Terminology has since been terminated, but the result of this work are the definitions below. The definition of a text in lättläst is: ‘A text that is adapted to a person with reading difficulties. Comments: The text can be adapted or written in different ways depending on 534 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Sweden who the reader is. A person who is new to the Swedish language needs a different type of easy text to, for example, a person with an intellectual disability. In a “lättläst text” the language is adapted to the reader’s vocabu- lary and level of language skills. The content is chosen according to the reader’s previous knowledge of the subject and their needs. A “lättläst text” also has an adapted structure and layout’ 2. (Rikstermbanken 2021a) How well this definition is known, agreed upon or used by other parties is not clear. As mentioned earlier, many professionals in various fields turn to Sweden’s National Term Bank when definitions are needed. MTM explains lättläst in their FAQ as follows: ‘A lättläst text is a text that is adapted to target groups with special reading difficulties due to, for example, intellectual or cognitive disability or dementia. The target group may also be untrained readers or readers who are in the process of learning Swedish. The characteristics of books in Easy Language are, for example, that they are written with common, easy words, with short sentences and a simple and chronological narrative. There are only a few lines on each page and the text is often backed up with pictures’ 3. (Myndigheten för tillgängliga medier 2021a) Although the lättläst concept has been widely used in Sweden, it has not always been explicitly defined. In 2008, for example, the National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools (SPSM) published a book called Vad är lättläst? ‘What is Easy-to-Read?’ (Lundberg and Reichenberg 2008). The authors fo- cused on children and books used in the school system. They provide a broad background of the different aspects of facilitating accessible reading for pupils. 2 Please note that Sweden’s National Term Bank has these definitions in Swedish – here they have been translated by the author of this chapter and not by Sweden’s national term bank. 3 Please note that this definition has been translated by the author of this chapter and not the MTM. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 535 Ulla Bohman Although some of their recommendations are valid for Easy Language, they do not offer a definition of the Easy Language concept. Since Plain Language (klarspråk) and Easy Language (lättläst) are so closely linked in Sweden, the definition of Plain Language should also be addressed here. The Swedish Language Council’s definition of Plain Language is: ‘Plain Language is language without bureaucratic words, with simple but correct construction of sentences, but it does not focus specifically on a challenged target group’. (Språkrådet 2021b) Sweden’s National Term Bank’s definition of Plain Language from 2013 is: ‘A language that is clear and comprehensible for the intended reader. Comments: Plain language is to be interpreted as the opposite of unnecessarily complicated language, in which sentence structure is very compli- cated, the words are old-fashioned, and the conjunctions between the sentences are unclear. // The meaning of “plain” does not depend on the reader. // Plain Language has been developed within and by national agencies as a step to making communication between agencies and citizens more democratic. But Plain Language is not only for this kind of communication. It can also be used by other types of organizations’ 4. (Rikstermbanken 2021b) Easy Language should, according to the Centre for Easy-to-Read and the Swedish Language Council, be seen as a complement to Plain Language. Easy Language focuses on a reader with difficulties, whereas Plain Language does 4 Please note that Sweden’s National Term Bank has these definitions in Swedish and that this translation is by the author. 536 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Sweden not. It is impossible to say exactly where the line between the two lies. This is something that has been discussed for years in Sweden. Very often these discus- sions end with the conclusion that the label we place on either is not important. The most important thing is that the text is functional for its intended reader. One way to describe the relation between Easy Language and Plain Language is to use the picture developed by the Centre for Easy-to-Read in 2010, which is now often used by the Swedish Language Council (e.g., Sandström 2021): Picture 1: This picture has helped many writers of information realize that there is no conflict between Plain Language and Easy Language – both are needed. When the international work in this field began in Sweden more than 30 years ago, the terminological equivalent for lättläst in English was Easy-to-Read. Now various alternative terms are used. It is important that the international stakeholders agree to use the same English word and have the same interpre- tation of the term and the concept. 3.2 Societal and legal context As discussed earlier, the political movements and the United Nations Cove- nants on Human Rights during the 1960s created an important platform for the development of Easy Language in Sweden. This was followed by different initiatives that led to the start of the Centre for Easy-to-Read (Centrum för lättläst). In recent years, several Government Official Reports, political initi- atives and new laws have strengthened the right to and the necessity for Easy © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 537 Ulla Bohman Language. The Swedish Government’s Official Report Kultur åt alla (1964) highlighted the situation of people with handicaps 5, as did the Official Report on literature (Boken 1974:5). These two official reports had a major impact on the start of Easy Language in Sweden. Many other significant documents have also affected the development of Easy Language in Sweden. One of great importance is the Standard Rules of the United Nations (1993), which states everyone’s right to participate in all aspects of society. This document had a big impact on the Accessibility Movement and on the Centre for Easy-to-Read. Accessibility for all – From patient to citizen was adopted as a National Action Plan in Sweden in 2000 after a proposal from the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs (Proposition 1999/2000:79). The proposal also addressed accessible information and the need for Easy Language. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) (2006) was ratified in Sweden in 2008 and implemented in 2009. It was a milestone in stating everyone’s right to information in a format that is accessible for the individual. The Centre for Easy-to-Read made Easy Language versions of these important documents: FN:s standardregler 2017 and Konventionen om rättigheter för personer med funktionsnedsättning 2020. Sweden renewed its Discrimination Act in 2008. The Act states that inade- quate accessibility is discrimination. In 2017, an amendment clarified that it is discrimination if information is not accessible to the individual. A citizen who needs information in Easy Language or Braille for example, has the right to obtain it. Information on the Discrimination Act is available in Easy Language (Diskrimineringslagen 2020). Sweden’s first Language Act entered into force in 2009. Paragraph 11 of the Act is called the Plain Language Paragraph. It states that all authorities are obliged to use Plain Language (klarspråk) in their communication with the public and in all informative texts. It clarifies that the authorities are responsible for making information as comprehensible as possible for citizens. The Swedish Language Council has produced a book on how to interpret and implement the Language Act (Språklagen 2009, Språkrådet 2021c). It is an important guideline for public authorities. The Language Act does not mention Easy Language, but 5 the term used at that time 538 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Sweden it emphasizes everyone’s right to communication/information in comprehen- sible language. The Swedish Language Council, which is the national authority responsible for the control of the Language Act, recognizes that Plain Language is not comprehensible enough for all citizens, and that there is also a need for Easy Language. To summarize, all these documents together are important arguments for Easy Language in Sweden. To be a citizen with the same and equal rights, lit- erature, news and information should be available in Easy Language. To have access to all of these is essential to be able to be part of the society, to be an advocate for one’s own life and to make one’s own decisions. Easy Language started as the right of people with intellectual disabilities to have access to culture and news, and has developed into everyone’s right to participate in all aspects of society and created respect for fundamental Human Rights. In the early 2000s, Easy Language had rather a low status in Sweden. The target group for Easy Language was people with intellectual disabilities, who, within the ‘disability world’ were the ones with the lowest status. This might also be one of the reasons for so little interest in the academic world to research Easy Language. Easy Language was seen as something for ‘only’ this marginalized group. This view has changed as more people have experienced the benefit of Easy Language books, news and informative texts. School children and adults with Swedish as their second language now appreciate Easy Language material. When these other groups started to benefit from using Easy Language books and news in the early 2000s, the Centre for Easy-to-Read carried out more stra- tegic marketing and lobbying. It led campaigns, such as a short informative film on national television about Easy Language. Meetings were held with different political officials. Information on how to use Easy Language books and 8 Sidor in the classroom was developed for teachers. Some teachers initially reacted negatively to Easy Language books. Many considered Easy Language material ‘second class’ copies/versions of originals. Negative arguments claimed that it limited the vocabulary of pupils and that Easy Language books were not good literature (Bror Tronbacke, personal communication 2020). As more teachers gained first-hand experience of Easy Language books and 8 Sidor, Easy Language was accepted and the need for and use of it increased. Today, the majority of Swedish elementary schools use Easy Language books © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 539 Ulla Bohman and have 8 Sidor subscriptions. Easy Language material is also frequently used in adult education and in the education of Swedish as a Second Language. The FUB and the Centre for Easy-to-Read’s joint project in late 1992 to place Reading Ambassadors for Easy Language in assistive living and later elderly care, also showed the great benefit of Easy Language literature, news and in- formation. Different political and judicial initiatives have made Easy Language ac- cepted as an alternative format, alongside sign language, Braille, and audio versions. Today many people with good reading skills also enjoy a summary in Easy Language as a quick way to get the overall content of a report, for ex- ample. The Easy Language Service has received feedback several times from the Government on how appreciated the Easy Language versions of proposals to the Parliament are among the parliamentarians. Another example is the Guide in Easy Language to the Exhibitions at the Army Museum (Armemuse- um), which the Easy Language Service produced for the museum in 2007. The original target group for the guide was people with intellectual disabilities, but it was so popular among all visitors that the museum had to print more copies. 3.3 Stakeholders Until December 2014, the Centre for Easy-to-Read was the main actor pro- moting and developing Easy Language in Sweden. It was a centre of excellence, to which people turned whenever they had an Easy Language-related question. Today, MTM is the official stakeholder (see text on the side). The Swedish National Association for People with Intellectual Disability (FUB), is an advocacy organization working to enable children, young people and adults with intellectual disabilities to live a good life. The vision of the FUB is a society and a world in which people with intellectual disabilities can live their life to the fullest. The FUB has played an important role in Easy Language in Sweden since the very beginning. It has been highly successful in putting Easy Language on the national agenda and has put pressure on the authorities to answer to the need for Easy Language. As a member of the User Advisory Committee of MTM, FUB is crucial for advocating the ongoing work with Easy Language within the Agency (FUB 2021). 540 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Sweden Sweden has a long tradition of adult education in the form of study cir- cles, often carried out in the evenings, organized by a study organizations/ associations. One of the largest of these is the Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan. As its key target group is people with intellectual disabilities, Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan has taken a very active role in promoting and also producing Easy Language information and Easy Language learning material. It has also co-operated with the Centre for Easy-to-Read in, for example, training Reading Ambassadors. MTM continues to co-operate to some extent with Studieför- bundet Vuxenskolan in this specific training. Swedish libraries have also played an important role in Easy Language. One of their missions is to promote access to literature and information and to stimulate reading, specifically targeting people with reading challenges due to disability or Swedish as a second language. Librarians are responsible for ac- cessibility and alternative formats. Therefore, knowledge about Easy Language publications and Easy Language in libraries is quite good in general. Norway has also been successful in developing good co-operation with libraries on literature in Easy Language (see chapter on Norway). The Centre for Easy-to- Read organized seminars for librarians on Easy Language. MTM also has a tradition of organizing seminars for librarians, and since 2015, has included a presentation on Easy Language in the programmes of these seminars. Some other actors also promote the use of Easy Language and the pro- duction of Easy Language materials. Klartext (Sveriges Radio 2021) is Easy Language news broadcasted every weekday on the Swedish National Radio (SR). Its reporters have been trained in Easy Language by the Centre for Easy- to-Read. Swedish Television (SVT) also broadcasts five minutes of news in Easy Swedish every weekday (Sveriges television 2021). The Ministry of Culture allocates funding every year for LL-förlaget, 8 Sidor and for some additional Easy Language work for MTM. The Swedish Language Council (Språkrådet) promotes Plain Language (klarspråk), but also recognizes the need for Easy Language as a complement to Plain Language. One example is how they include Easy Language in their presentations on Plain Language (Språkrådet 2021d). The Swedish Agency for Participation (Myndigheten för delaktighet, MFD) is an expert agency that addresses disability issues. The tasks of the agency © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 541 Ulla Bohman are to monitor and analyse development; propose methods, guidelines and guidance; disseminate knowledge; initiate research and other development work; provide support; and propose measures to the Government. It promotes Easy Language as an accessible format along with Sign Language, Braille and audio, but has no expertise in hands-on work with Easy Language. The Swedish Agency for Participation has played an important role in ensuring that other agencies follow accessibility standards, including the implementation of dif- ferent accessible formats (Myndigheten för delaktighet 2021). In recent years, non-governmental organizations have played a more ac- tive role in the development of Easy Language. For example, from 2016 to 2019, a three-year project called Begriplig text (Comprehensible text) was run by non-governmental organizations together with the private enterprise Be- gripsam (Begriplig text 2021, Begripsam 2021). The collaborating organizations were the FUB, the Aphasia Association (Afasiförbundet), the Dyslexia Asso- ciation (Dyslexiförbundet) and the Autism and Asperger Association (Autism & Aspergerförbundet), representing intellectual disabilities, aphasia, dyslexia, and autism spectrum disorders. The project was financed by the Swedish In- heritance Fund (Allmänna arvsfonden). The aim was to identify factors that make a text (information or news) easy to read and easy to understand. The project resulted in 19 recommendations, the majority of which are related to layout and structure but not to the language itself. The project highlighted the need for comprehensive content several times, but did not describe in much detail how to do this. When the project ended, the private company Begripsam continued the work in terms of spreading the conclusions of the project and offering various consultancy services. A handful of commercial publishing houses and private consultancy companies offer adaptation into and the production of Easy Language texts. The extent to which they promote Easy Language is difficult to say. When a consultant receives an assignment to make an organization’s communication more accessible, some of them also advocate the need for Easy Language. Some of these private companies are specialized in web accessibility. Sweden adopted a new law regarding digital accessibility in September 2019, called DOS-lagen (DOS-lagen 2018). In September 2020, the new Web Accessibility Directive (WCAG 2.0), entered into force. DOS-lagen and WCAG2.0 will 542 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Sweden have an impact on accessible content and accessible language on websites, including Easy Language. 4 Target groups When the first Easy Language initiatives were taken, the target group was peo- ple with intellectual disabilities. During the existence of the Centre for Easy- to-Read, the target group became much wider and remains so today: people with reading or language difficulties due to dyslexia, ADHD, aphasia, dementia; readers with intellectual or cognitive difficulties; and people with Swedish as a second language (Bror Tronbacke, personal communication September 2020). It is important to note that many immigrants never acquire enough language skills to read ordinary Swedish texts, and may have a lifelong need for Easy Lan- guage. The target group also includes untrained readers, both young and old. The exact percentage of the population in Sweden that needs Easy Language is difficult to estimate. Taking into account the high number of immigrants in the country today and the results of the OECD Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies Survey (PIAAC) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) surveys, the estimate is at least 20% of the population, but the actual percentage might be much higher. The PIAAC 2012 result for Sweden was as follows: 13% of adults can only read very simple text, 40% of adults do not reach the ‘good reader’ level, and 25% of adults cannot use the internet to find information. The definition of adult in this survey is a person aged 16–65. It should be noted that the life expectancy in Sweden today is 81 years for men and 85 years for women, and although the need for Easy Language increases with age in many cases, citizens older than 65 were not included in the survey. The next PIAAC has just been initiated and will be reported in 2022. The PIAAC result indicates that at least 13% of the population needs Easy Language. Many of the 40% not at ‘good reader’ level need Easy Language when the information is about a subject unknown to them (Statistiska Centralbyrån 2012). The most recent PISA survey was in 2018. It showed that 18% of Swedish 15-year-olds had low reading skills – they do not reach Level 2. The corresponding percentage for © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 543 Ulla Bohman only boys was 23%. These youths will grow up to become adults needing Easy Language (Skolverket 2018). 5 Guidelines The first guidelines on how to write Easy Language were developed for the adult study organization Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan (Arvidsson 1991). In 1994, the Centre for Easy-to-Read put together a package called Detta är lättläst (This is Easy to Read) (Kitte Arvidsson, personal communication September 2020), which contained several parts about what Easy Language is, how to read Easy Language books, and how to read 8 Sidor. The International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) guidelines for Easy-to-Read Material (IFLA 1997) were based on the experience and hands- on practical work carried out by the Centre for Easy-to-Read in Sweden. These guidelines had three main purposes: to describe the nature of and the need for easy-to-read publications, to identify the main target groups for these publica- tions, and to offer suggestions to publishers regarding easy-to-read materials and the organizations and agencies that serve people with reading disabilities. The IFLA Guidelines were revised in 2010 (IFLA 2010). Over the years, the Centre for Easy-to-Read produced several guidelines on how to write and read Easy Language material for people with intellectual disabilities. They all had the same basics as reported in the International Fed- eration of Library Associations Guidelines (IFLA 1997). For an illustration of the Swedish guidelines, see Appendix 1. Skriv lättläst! (Write easy-to-read!) is one example of these guidelines. It is a more ‘popular’ version written by Björn Wiman at the Centre for Easy- to-Read, and focuses on texts in literature (Wiman 2005). Other guidelines were later developed for the different texts produced by the three different units at the Centre for Easy-to-Read. LL-förlaget had guidelines for authors of Easy Language literature. A shorter version of these can still be found on the LL-förlaget website (LL-förlaget 2021). The 8 Sidor newspaper has guidelines for journalistic texts (Bengt Fredriksson, personal communication September 2020). In 2011, the Easy Language Service produced material on how to write 544 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Sweden Easy Language, which can be seen as guidelines for informative texts (Kurs- material – Att skriva lättläst svenska 2011). The three sets of guidelines are slightly different to each other, since the texts they refer to are different. The kind of Easy Language of a novel is different to that in an informative text. One example is that metaphorical descriptions can be used in an Easy Language novel, like ‘her face was white as snow’, which is not the case in news or informative texts. In informative texts on how to apply for childcare, for example, it is crucial that the reader understands every single word in order to fill out the application form correctly. When reading a novel, on the other hand, it may be enough to understand the general idea and not the precise word. All guidelines stress that Easy Language is not just a language, not merely words and sentences. The writer must also take into consideration content, structure and presentation, including illustrations, and always have the in- tended challenged reader in mind. This is a perspective that both Finland and Norway also emphasize (see chapters on Finland and Norway). When working with content, the writer should ask the following questions: What? Why? Who? What is the reader’s interest and previous knowledge of the subject? The language should use common, simple words, be concrete and avoid expressions or metaphors. The subject should be placed before the verb in a sentence and preferably be written in the active voice with a clear sender and receiver (we – you). The sentences should not have interposed attachments or abbreviations. Compound words are acceptable if they are common words and hyphens are to be used only if the word is generally written with a hyphen. The text should have a clear, simple structure with informative headlines. It should be presented with space between paragraphs, manual line breaks, and familiar typography. The illustrations should help the reader understand the text, support the text and be easy to interpret. When information began to be published (only) on websites, the guidelines of the Centre for Easy-to- Read started to use the keywords ‘Find! Read! Understand!’ for Easy Language informative texts. MTM is presently involved in an international standardization Easy Language project (ISO/IEC WD 23859), together with representatives from China, Japan, Ireland, and Spain (Maria O’Donnell, personal communication September 2020). © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 545 Ulla Bohman Some guidelines can also be found on the websites of non-governmental organizations and language consultants’ companies. Two examples are How to write easy-to-read (FUB 2021) and 7 steps to make a text easy-to-read (Språk- konsulterna 2019). These guidelines are in line with those produced by the Centre for Easy-to-Read in 2005–2011. Easy Language can be more easy or less easy, depending on the targeted reader. In guidelines for informative texts, this is only specified as the writer needing to have knowledge about the reader and their reading difficulties and to adapt the text accordingly. Some publishers of Easy Language literature use different levels of Easy Language. The Easy Language publishing house Vilja offers books at five different levels, from X-Small to X-Large. Each higher level offers a greater challenge for the reader (Vilja förlag 2021a). LL-förlaget uses three different levels of Easy Language in its publications. Their website has information on the different levels of Easy Language they use in their books. LL-förlaget’s three levels are as follows 6: Level 3 – Lätt – Easy: The novels have more pages, use some more un- common words and the sentences may be longer than those at Levels 1 and 2. Subordinate clauses and metaphorical language may also be used. The nar- rative does not always follow a chronology in terms of time and place. There may be several characters in the story. Non-fiction books at Level 3 are always illustrated to support the text. Level 2 – Lättare – Easier: The narrative is simple, well-structured and chronological. The words and expressions used are well-known. There may be some subordinate clauses, but the text is mainly written with principal clauses. The story has fewer characters and not as many descriptions of people and the environment as stories at Level 3. Each chapter is short, often between three and eight pages in the printed book. The books are often illustrated, but do not always have as many pictures as in Level 1 books, and the pictures are not as illustrative. Paperback books and short novels at Level 2 usually have no illustrations. 6 Please note that these definitions have been translated by the author of this chapter and not by the Easy Language publishing house LL-förlaget. 546 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Sweden Level 1 – Lättast – Easiest: These books have very little text, often just a few sentences on each page. The vocabulary is simple and the sentences are short. The sentences are also always complete but pronouns and auxiliary verbs are avoided. The novels usually only have one or two main characters. Non-fiction books cover only one specific, concrete topic. The books have many illustra- tions and/or photos that support and help carry the story. Very often they picture everyday situations that the readers easily recognize. Only two books have been written about Easy Language in Sweden. Vad är lättläst? ‘What is Easy-to-Read?’ (Lundberg and Reichenberg 2008) is a discussion on the concept of Easy Language, the mechanisms of reading, and reading difficulties. Its primary focus is educational books for children. The second book is Lättläst – så funkar det by Maria Sundin (2007) 7 – ‘This is how easy language works’, a hands-on guide to Easy Language. It gives detailed guidelines and recommendations of the Centre for Easy-to-Read from over the years. Experts from the Centre for Easy-to-Read were involved in its production. 6 Practical outcomes As already mentioned, the emergence and the development of Easy Language in Sweden has been linked to the Human Rights movement and the general development of a society that is equal and accessible to all citizens. These core values have had an impact on literature, news and informative texts. 6.1 Literature The initiative to start making literature in Easy Language came from the Na- tional School Board (NSB) and aimed, by using the vocabulary of that era, towards ‘giving some culture to people with handicaps’ (Kultur åt alla 1964). The original target group was people with intellectual disabilities. The NSB 7 The author Maria Sundin is a professional language consultant who was trained in Easy Lan- guage by the Easy Language Service. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 547 Ulla Bohman formed the Easy Language group (LL-gruppen), with about ten members from the culture and educational sector. The Easy Language group was in charge of publishing Easy Language books throughout the 1970s and most of the 1980s. This is how awareness of the need for Easy Language and the work with Easy Language began in Sweden. The political initiative aimed to enable more cit- izens to have access to their literary heritage. The Easy Language group had many, quite vivid discussions on what should be published or not, and how to reach the intended readers. The first Easy Language books were published by different publishing houses on commission from the NSB. The Easy Language group gave financial and editorial support to production. The books were ad- aptations of novels for adult readers considered to be ‘classic literature’ or very popular books of that time. Picture 2: Cover of first book adapted to Easy Swedish, Sommaren med Monika (Summer with Monika). The original book was written by the Swedish author Per Anders Fogelström (1951), and the adaptation was published 1968. The very first Easy Language book was the 1968 adaptation of Sommaren med Monika (Summer with Monika), by the Swedish author Per Anders Fogelström. The original version of the book was published in 1951. Two years later, in 1953, 548 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Sweden the Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman turned the book into a controversial movie. The film portrays love between a young couple. The teenage girl is rather sexually liberated, and the film had, for that time period, some shocking nude scenes. It is said that this is the movie that started the international rumours about the ‘Swedish Sin’. It is quite interesting that this was chosen as the very first Easy Language book in Sweden. In many ways, it is a reflection of the spirit of the 1960s (Bohman 2017). In 1988, the year after the Foundation for Easy-to-Read began operations, the Easy Language group left the NSB and became a part of the Foundation. Three years later, in 1991, LL-förlaget also joined the Foundation. Books in Easy Language were now published by LL-förlaget and not on commission by other publishing houses. During the first years at NSB, the Easy Language group monitored the publishing of a few Easy Language books per year. The number of Easy Language books increased gradually to about 15–20 per year. The majority of were adaptations of already published books. Since its beginnings, the Easy Language group (LL-gruppen) and later LL-förlaget has published more than 1000 titles in Easy Language. Gradually, the number of books originally written in Easy Language increased. The first Easy Language books were novels, fiction. Throughout the years, LL-förlaget has also published a great number of non-fiction books, on a great variety of subjects such as cooking, space, World Wars, sports, knitting, laws, and sex. The target group has also changed from only adults with intellectual disabilities to also include adults with cognitive and other difficulties, untrained/unexperi- enced readers, young readers, and people with Swedish as a second language. For decades, LL-förlaget had the leading role in publishing literature for adults in Easy Language in Sweden. After the transfer of the responsibility for Easy Language from the Centre for Easy-to-Read to MTM, LL-förlaget’s mission was to be a complement to the commercial publishing houses and focus on the target groups they did not address, mainly those with the greatest difficulties. Therefore, the target group for Easy Language literature produced by LL-förlaget has somewhat narrowed since MTM took over. According to LL-förlaget, their target groups are people with intellectual disabilities, older people with dementia, people with neuropsychiatric disabilities, people with dyslexia, and adults learning Swedish. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 549 Ulla Bohman During the 2000s, some new Easy Language publishing houses have emerged in Sweden. In 2012, the Vilja publishing house, a private-owned Easy Language publishing house targeting adult readers, was established. Vilja fo- cuses mainly on people with Swedish as a second language. Today Vilja has around 450 different Easy Language titles in its catalogue (Vilja förlag 2021b). Approximately 20% of these are offered in different formats such as hardcovers, paperbacks, and audiobooks. Vilja has a sister publishing house called Nypon which produces Easy Language literature for children. Nypon began operations in 2010. Some other private Easy Language publishing houses have also earlier targeted children or teenagers: Hegas started in 1983 and Argasso in 2002. In early 2020, the largest publishing house in Sweden, Bonnier, launched a brand- new publishing house called Hedvig for literature in Easy Language 8. Hedvig’s target group is both children and adults. Over the years, the private publishing houses have criticized LL-förlaget for creating unfair competition as it receives financial support from the Government. None of the commercial publishing houses have produced literature for the target group of people with intellectual disabilities. As the production of litera- ture for this target group is expensive and the volume of each title is small, this leads to no profitability. For this group to have access to a variety of literature, the publishing must be financially supported by government grants. In the case of LL-förlaget, the titles produced for a wider target group have helped finance a larger production of literature on the easiest language level. Recently, LL-förlaget has published fewer original titles each year. An orig- inal title means a book written in Easy Language as opposed to an adaptation of an already published book. These original titles are written by experienced Easy Language authors or by ‘regular authors’ who receive thorough editing assistance from LL-förlaget. The focus of the publications also seems to be re- turning to the original target group – the most challenged people. Six titles were published in 2020, all on the easiest level. Of the 241 titles listed on LL-förlaget’s website, 41 original titles have been listed since 2016. In 2019 only six original titles were produced. 8 The publisher in chief is the former publisher of the Easy Language publishing house LL-förlaget. 550 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Sweden Over the years, plans have been made for more systematic and organized sharing of Easy Language books between countries. Spain, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Japan, and the Netherlands were very interested in co-operation. Ja- pan and the Netherlands showed great interest in buying the easiest Swedish Easy Language books, for a target group with intellectual disabilities. But this co-operation did not develop any further after the Centre for Easy-to-Read closed. 6.2 Media Parallel to the development of Easy Language books, news in Easy Language has been lobbied. The FUB has played an important role in this. An Easy Lan- guage newspaper project was initiated in 1976. In 1982, the National Commit- tee for Talking Newspapers, which provided audio newspapers to people with vision impairment, received an assignment from the government which led to the start of the 8 Sidor newspaper in 1984 (Taltidningskommitténs tilläggsup- pdrag 1982). The original target group for 8 Sidor was people with intellectual disabilities. Picture 3: Cover page of the first issue of the 8 Sidor newspaper. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 551 Ulla Bohman In 1986, the Swedish Parliament decided to fund a national newspaper in Easy Language (DsU1985:7). When the Foundation for Easy-to-Read started in 1987, 8 Sidor was no longer run by the Committee for Talking Newspapers. This was an important decision as it guaranteed long-term sustainability for the newspaper. The 8 Sidor newspaper, together with the publishing of Easy Language books, became the responsibility of the Foundation. The 8 Sidor newspaper was, and still is, a weekly newspaper with eight pages of news in Easy Language. Since 1997, it also has an online version in which news is updated every weekday (8 Sidor 2021). It contains a great deal of background information regarding current events. In addition since 2010, the newspaper has run a special website called Alla väljare (All voters). The website provides in-depth information about elections, political issues and how the democracy in Sweden is organized. At election time it also has a chat function via which readers can ask political parties questions. The month before the last general election in Sweden, the website had about 10 000 visitors every day (Bengt Fredriksson, personal communication September 2020). When the website started, it was financed by the Centre for Easy-to-Read. But in 2014, it received special funding from the Government. Now, Alla väljare is a permanent site run by 8 Sidor with funding from the Government. The funding is channelled via MTM, but the agency has no influence over the website or 8 Sidor. Both are run as independent media in accordance with the press ethics of integrity. Like that of Easy Language books, the target group of 8 Sidor has slightly changed. The original target group was people with intellectual disabilities. This group is still important, but today the Easy Language newspaper is used in a large number of elementary schools and in Swedish classes for immigrants. It started as a weekly Easy Language newspaper in 1984, with eight pages of national news. Today, it is one of the most accessible newspapers in the world. It can be read as a traditional newspaper on paper, or in PDF or digital ver- sion. It has a listening function on its website and the news are recorded in a human voice. There is also a CD audio version, a talking newspaper, and a Braille version. The paper version of 8 Sidor has about 5 000 subscribers, and each copy is often read by more than one reader. The website has about 40 000 visitors every week. 552 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Sweden Two other Easy Language newspaper initiatives have been taken in Swe- den. Invandrartidningen På lätt svenska (shorter name På lätt Svenska, The Immigrant Newspaper in Easy Swedish) was a weekly newspaper published from 1971 to 1998. The specific target group was immigrants, which had an impact on the content and language of the newspaper. In 1998, the editor in chief of På lätt svenska started the Easy Language newspaper Sesam, originally named Invandrartidningen. The target group was the same – immigrants learn- ing Swedish as a Second Language or people who had not yet mastered the Swedish language. Sesam was discontinued in 2017 due to financial problems, i.e., too few subscribers. Both På lätt svenska and Sesam explained the difficult words of the text in a glossary. The glossary was presented in a separate column in the margin of the page. This can be functional for a reader who has problems with the Swedish language but who is a good reader in his native tongue. For a person with reading difficulties, however, it can be hard to leave the body of text to look up the explanation of a difficult word in a separate column. During the first decade of 2000, some of the regional magazines published by regional authorities had summaries of articles in Easy Language. The ma- jority of these magazines have now closed down and been replaced by online publications. Both Swedish Television (SVT) and Swedish National Radio (SR) broad- cast news in Easy Language. The radio news is called Klartext. It is easy to understand, reported at a slower pace, and uses commonly known words. Ac- cording to Klartext’s website, more than 300 000 people listen to it regularly. In general, the language used in the media has become easier to understand, partly due to the influence of the Plain Language movement in Sweden and the Language Act (Arponen 2016). The rapid development of the quantity of information might also have had an impact on how the language has become somewhat easier in general. People need to process more information today than before. Regular news broadcasts also use some Easy Language techniques today, such as adding an explanatory word in front of something that might be unknown to a large number of the viewers/listeners: in the African country Burkina Faso, the Russian president Putin. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 553 Ulla Bohman 6.3 Informative texts and the role of Easy Language Service In 1997, the Centre for Easy-to-Read started the service of rewriting inform- ative texts in Easy Language on commission. Earlier productions had been ad hoc, but when people increasingly started turning to the Centre for Easy-to- Read asking for help with information in Easy Language, the Centre decided it was time to start offering this service. One of the first assignments was to make the information on rules for holding a library card easy to understand for people with reading challenges. During these first years, the Centre for Easy-to-Read also produced Easy Language summaries of public inquires and proposals to the Swedish Parliament. In 1998, the Centre for Easy-to-Read ran its first workshop on how to write informative texts in Easy Language. The workshop was very popular and was the beginning of a 16-year long period of training producers of information from all sectors of society in how to write Easy Language. One-day workshops were offered twice a year for as long as the Centre for Easy-to-Read existed. During the 2000s, the Easy Language Service tailor-made workshops for in- dividual organizations by commission, held many seminars and gave keynote speeches at several national and international conferences. The commissions increased and the Centre for Easy-to-Read decided to form a special unit for the Commission Service in 2001, called the Easy Lan- guage Service (Lättläst-tjänsten). Initially, two people worked at the unit and two other people were assigned on a freelance basis. Three out of four had journalist backgrounds. This turned out to be significant throughout the years. The majority of the Easy Language writers at the Easy Language Service were journalists, also the freelancers. Only a handful were language consultants or linguists. The Easy Language Service became the expert in Easy Language informative texts and Easy Language training in Sweden. The majority of the professionals writing Easy Language today or offering training in Easy Language have been trained by the Easy Language Service. The service adapted and produced in- formative texts in Easy Language, addressed authorities regarding the need for 554 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Sweden accessible information, and for a number of years had Framework Agreements 9 with not only the Swedish Government and Parliament, but also with several Regional Authorities. Assignments also came from national agencies, munic- ipalities, museums, national organizations such as the Red Cross, and from a handful of private companies. The texts were, for example, political platforms at election time or summaries of government proposals to parliament and UN Covenants. They could also be information on websites, traffic rules, reports on xenophobia and intolerance, protocols, and minutes from municipal board meetings, and emergency info. The Easy Language Service reacted quickly to information from the au- thorities, advocated the need of Easy Language versions, and kept an eye on the quality of the Easy Language information being published. For example, it regularly checked how many of the municipalities and the national agencies offered Easy Language information on their websites and published the results. It always created quite widespread interest in both the national as well as the local media. The Centre for Easy-to-Read and the Easy Language Service in- creased awareness of the need for Easy Language and played an important part in making the Easy Language information standard. The internet boomed in early 2000 in Sweden. Public authorities created websites and started to put their information on the internet for the public. Al- though information on the internet is open to everyone, it is not automatically accessible to everyone. Thorough lobbying work began, to increase awareness of the fact that finding and reading information on the internet actually re- quires better reading skills than reading well-structured information on paper. The keywords in this lobbying were Find! Read! Understand! Web information must also be easy to find for a challenged reader. Once found, the layout and structure must be easy to read. And when reading it, it must be easy to un- derstand. The Easy Language Service played a leading role in the development of Easy Language information on internet. The first step was to create a separate Easy Language webroom on websites with a Lättläst link on the site’s first page. By 9 A Framework Agreement was a contract to provide Easy Language services whenever there was a call for it. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 555 Ulla Bohman 2010, the majority of all public entities had information in Easy Language on their websites. The first public website with information in Easy Language in Sweden was Stockholm City’s website (Stockholm 2021), which was developed by the Centre for Easy-to-Read’s Commission Service in 2000. When the Centre for Easy-to-Read closed down, the Easy Language Service was the only part of the Centre that did not merge into MTM. The argument was that a national agency could not offer commission services (SoU 2013). It would be unfair competition with the private business sector. The consequence of this decision was that no official entity offered training in Easy Language. This risked different interpretations of Easy Language. Today, some private companies offer training in Easy Language. Throughout the years, a handful of private businesses have started offering Easy Language services, many of them small with just one freelance consult- ant. Some of the larger translation companies also offer ‘translations into Easy Language’. However, these enterprises do not actively advocate or market Easy Language. Another problem is that the agency in charge of Easy Language in Sweden does not control quality. Some public institutions have inhouse competence in producing Easy Language informative texts, as many of their employees have been trained by the Easy Language Service. Two examples are the Haninge municipality (Haninge kommun 2021), which offers an Easy Language alternative on their website, and the Swedish Board of Student Fi- nance, which offers various printed information in Easy Language (CSN 2021). The number of informative texts in Easy Language seems to have decreased in recent years. Fewer government proposals have summaries in Easy Lan- guage. Some of the websites that used to have Easy Language informative texts no longer have them. One example is the website of the City of Stockholm. In early 2000, it offered various information in Easy Language and had a link on the first page to the information. Today a search for ‘Lättläst’ shows a few PDF-documents in Easy Language but no web texts (Stockholm 2021). Al- though, in general, the language in public information, both in print and on websites, has become easier to understand, a large group remains that cannot access this information and needs Easy Language. Their needs are not fully looked after. 556 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Sweden 6.4 Other projects Easy Language literature and the newspaper started as projects in Sweden about 50 years ago. Easy Language Reading Ambassadors also began as projects. All of these have now been permanent activities for many years. A Reading Ambassador is a person who reads to and reads together with people who have reading difficulties. The first Reading Ambassadors project was carried out in 1992. The intention was to reach people with intellectual disabilities. Earlier, the Centre for Easy-to-Read tried, not so succesfully, to target more traditional marketing towards this group. One reason for this failure was that neither the professionals working with the target group nor the families of the target group believed there was a need for or any meaning in Easy Language literature or news. The project represented co-operation between the Centre for Easy-to-Read and the Swedish National Association for People with Intellectually Disability, and the working model was creat- ed by Centre for Easy-to-Read employee Lotta Rosenström. The model was based on training staff in assistive homes or group housing in how to use Easy Language material and how to read it to and together with the target group. The model also included how to organize these reading sessions as part of regular activities. In 1994, it was decided that the Centre for Easy-to-Read, in co-operation with the Swedish National Association for People with Intellectually Disabil- ity, the adult study organization Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan, and regional libraries should try to implement this model in all parts of Sweden. Projects began, one region at a time. Project managers were recruited locally and the projects were financed by regional funds. About the same time, the Centre for Easy-to-Read decided to try to use the same model for elderly people living in nursing homes. It was successful in only a few regions and did not spread as well as the Reading Ambassadors for people with intellectual disabilities. The reason for this was that the staff did not have enough time to become involved in reading activities. So, in 2010 the Centre for Easy-to-Read started a project involving volunteer readers, called Högläsare (Narrators). These are people who come to the nursing home and conduct reading sessions. This revised model was much more successful and is still running for this target group. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 557 Ulla Bohman During the Centre for Easy-to-Read era there were several other projects, many of them linked to informative texts and the Easy Language Service. One example is Comprehensible Medical Journals – how the patient can understand the result of x-rays, a project run together with Stockholm University and the medical university Karolinska Institutet. The language used by medical profes- sionals was sometimes contradictory to the concepts that the general public understood. For example, how ‘the result of the test is negative’ is to be under- stood in most cases as something positive. Another project was Comprehensible Court Rulings. In a report and a proposal, the Government highlighted that the majority of people involved in a court case did not fully understand the process nor the ruling (Project Begripliga domar 2020). A project began within the Swedish Courts and specifically the Court of Appeal in western Sweden. It became clear that the majority of difficult words used in the ruling documents were just old-fashioned or bureaucratic, and not even judicial words (Bohman 2013). Thus, they could easily be changed. Over the years, interesting co-operation and exchanges on Easy language issues within the European and the Nordic countries took place. One example was the Grundtvig 2-project European Learning Partnership on Easy-to-read and Plain Language financed by the EU’s Sokrates Program in early 2000 (Bengt Fredriksson, personal communication October 2020). The aim was to increase European co-operation regarding Easy Language news and to see whether it was possible to develop a European Easy Language newspaper with news about Europe and the EU. The participants were the Plain English Campaign (United Kingdom), Pa let dansk (Denmark), 8 Sidor (Sweden), Klartale (Nor- way), Wablieft (Belgium), Selkosanomat/LL-bladet (Finland) and Eenvoudig communiceren (the Netherlands). Five to six meetings were held with fruit- ful exchanges of experiences and ideas, but the project was cancelled when Sokrates did not grant funding for a second phase. The Nordic Culture Point (Nordisk kulturkontakt) funded a programme for Easy Language networking in the Nordic countries in 2013. The programme was called Lättläst – ett nordiskt nätverk (Easy-to-Read – a Nordic Network). Organizations who work with easy-to-read in Finland, Norway and Sweden wanted to exchange knowhow with each other and bring this expertise to the general public in the different countries. Via the Nordic Culture Point, the 558 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Sweden Finnish Centre for Easy Language (Selkokeskus), the Swedish-speaking Centre for Easy to Read in Finland (LL-Center), Books for everyone (Leser søker bok) in Norway, and the Centre for Easy-to-Read (Sweden) received funding for three meetings to increase co-operation between the countries and to exchange experiences regarding Easy Language. Meetings were held in Stockholm and Helsinki in 2014, and in Oslo in early 2015. These meetings were supposed to be the first steps to much closer Nordic Easy Language co-operation (Nordisk kulturkontakt 2021), but with the closedown of the Centre for Easy-to-Read, the initiative was put on hold. When the Centre for Easy-to-Read was merged with MTM, an Erasmus+ project called Puzzle was just about to start. The aim of the project was to use Easy Language in different ways to increase knowledge about Human Rights for people with intellectual disabilities in European countries. Sweden’s role in the project was Easy Language expert. The project ran from 2015 to 2017. One of the former Centre for Easy-to-Read employees worked with the project at MTM (Puzzle Project 2021). 7 Education and research As mentioned above, the development of Easy Language in Sweden has been a process of learning-by-doing. Since the Swedish National Association for People with Intellectual Disability in so many ways initiated the need for Easy Language in Sweden, it has been natural to have a dialogue with representatives of the challenged readers since the very beginning. As already mentioned, the Centre for Easy-to-Read ran regular training on how to write Easy Language and many of today’s Easy Language writers were trained there. The training available today is offered by a few private businesses that also offer Easy Language adaptation services. The adult study organization Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan runs training for their study circle leaders. The Centre for Easy-to-Read and Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan co-operated for a long time on various areas of Easy Language. A handful of Studieförbun- det Vuxenskolan employees have been trained as Easy Language trainers. Of © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 559 Ulla Bohman course, some informal training takes place between colleagues in organizations with in-house Easy Language competence and experience. There is no higher education in Easy Language in Sweden. The Universities of Gothenburg, Lund, Stockholm and Umeå offer a Program for Professional Language Consultants (språkkonsulter), but this focuses on Plain Language and does not cover Easy Language. For a number of years, the Mälardalen Univer- sity in Eskilstuna/Västerås has offered a 7.5-point course on Comprehensible Information which allocates Easy Language a thematic day. The course is of- fered as part of the University’s Information Design programme (Mälardalens högskola 2021). As already mentioned, for many years, Easy Language had a low status in Sweden. It was seen as concerning a very marginalized group, and working with this target group was not considered to require special skills. This may be the main reason for the lack of interest from the academic world in researching this topic. During its last years, the Centre for Easy-to-Read had a Scientific Advisory Committee, the mission of which was to create a closer connection between the Centre and the academies and to inspire research to back up ‘learning-by-doing’ practice with scientifically proven arguments and further develop Easy Language. However, very little research was conducted as a result. The studies that have been conducted over the years have mainly been papers produced at bachelor’s or master’s level. Some have been written by students at the Program for Professional Language Consultants, but linguistic students and students studying information techniques have also produced pa- pers. A list of some of the more recent ones can be found on the MTM website (Myndigheten för tillgängliga medier 2021c). No in-depth research has been carried out on Easy Language, and no Easy Language projects are currently un- derway, besides the international standardization project mentioned in Section 5 (Maria O’Donnell, personal communication September 2020). The Begriplig text project mentioned in Section 3 focused mainly on the presentation aspect of information in Easy Language rather than concept as a whole. 560 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Sweden 8 Future perspectives As described earlier in this chapter, the development of Easy Language in Swe- den has faced multiple challenges over the last five years. The Government’s decision to relocate MTM from Stockholm to Malmö led to a major decline in Easy Language competence within the agency. Regaining this competence and putting Easy Language back on the agenda will be a great challenge in the years to come. Although one of the practical consequences of the recent changes may be variation in the quality of Easy Language informative texts and literature, some experienced trainers and writers of Easy Language are successfully providing the service on a freelance basis. In addition, several national agencies, local municipalities and organizations have staff that produce in-house Easy Lan- guage information. The challenge is to keep up a consensus on the need for Easy Language, on the definition of Easy Language and to maintain the good quality of Easy Language productions. Challenged readers know what is functional and ac- cessible for them. Therefore, the focus should be much more on the readers themselves. Continuous, close co-operation between the producers and the readers is crucial for the development of Easy Language. It is also important to continue the discussion on the relation between Plain Language and Easy Language in a constructive way, and to accept that both are needed. The impact of active advocates for Easy Language should not be underestimated, and Easy Language should be developed by working closely with the academic world. Sweden has decided that society must be accessible to all citizens. The coun- try has ratified UN Covenants and implemented laws on this. Accessibility also means Easy Language. A fairly large percentage of the population needs Easy Language to be able to read literature, news and informative texts. The mission of MTM is to become a centre of excellence for accessible reading, which includes Easy Language. To move forward, we all need to learn from history. We have taken many positive steps forward in Sweden and continue to do so, to make our society a society for all. Now we all need to keep walking in the same direction regarding Easy Language. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 561 Ulla Bohman Author Ulla Bohman was the director of the Easy Language Service from 2001 to 2014 and an employee of the Swedish Agency for Accessible Media (MTM) from 2015 to 2018. Since 2018 she has run her own business offering training, lectures and editing services in Easy Language, accessibility and human rights. She has expertise in intercultural and accessible communication and has been invited to present keynote addresses and workshops at several international conferences. Contact: ulla@boarve.se Acknowledgements The following people have contributed valuable information to this chapter: Bror Tronbacke (Director Emeritus of the Centre for Easy-to-Read), Bengt Fredriksson (editor at the weekly Easy Language newspaper 8 Sidor), former employees of the Centre for Easy-to-Read Kitte Arvidsson (Easy Language Ser- vice), Maria O’Donnell (Easy Language Service and today the Swedish Agency for Accessible Media) and Tom Weegar (administrator for Reading Ambas- sadors). Leealaura Leskelä of Finland and Hanna Bovim Bugge from Norway have both provided valuable input for this chapter. This shows how beneficial continuous Nordic Easy Language co-operation is and how together we can move forward in a positive direction. Once again, thank you! References 8 Sidor [8 pages]. Web. 1 February 2021. . Arponen, Chanel. Utvecklingen av tidningsspråk det senaste århundradet. En analys av språket i VLT:s nyhetsartiklar 1915–2015 [Development of language in newspa- pers during the last century]. Eskilstuna: Mälardalens högskola, 2016. Print. Arvidsson, Kitte. Att skriva lättläst [How to write easy-to-read]. Stockholm: Stu- dieförbundet Vuxenskolan, 1991. Print. Arvidsson, Kitte. Personal communication. September 2020. Begriplig text [Comprehensive text]. Web. 1 February 2021. . Begripsam [Understandable]. Web. 1 February 2021. . 562 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Sweden Bohman, Ulla. Begripliga domar Hovrätten för Västra Sverige Göteborg [Compre- hensive court rulings]. Stockholm: Centrum för lättläst, 2013. Print. Bohman, Ulla. “Lättläst-boken.” [The easy-to-read book]. Eds. Bettina M. Bock, Ulla Fix, and Daisy Lange. “Leichte Sprache” im Spiegel theoretischer und ange- wandter Forschung. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2017. 447–455. Print. Boken. Statens offentliga utredningar [The book. Official report on literature in 1968]. 1974:5. Stockholm: Göteborgs Offsettryckeri AB, 1974. Print. CSN (Centrala studiestödsnämnden) [Swedish board of student finance]. Web. 1 Feb- ruary 2021. . Diskrimineringslagen [Discrimination act]. 2020. Web. 1 February 2021. . DOS-lagen, Lag om tillgänglighet till offentlig digital service 2018:1937 [Web accessibili- ty act 2018:1937]. Web. 1 February 2021. . DsU 1985:7. Nyhetsförmedling till begåvningshandikappade [Directive and proposal from government – news for people with intellectual disabilities]. Stockholm. Print. FN:s standardregler i lättläst version [UN’s standard rules in Easy Language]. 7 Febru- ary 2017. Funktionsrätt Sverige. Web. 1 February 2021. . Fogelström, Per Anders. Sommaren med Monika [Summer with Monika]. Stock- holm: Läromedelsförlagen & Svenska Bokförlaget, 1968. Print. Fredriksson, Bengt. Personal communication. September 2020. FUB (Föreningen för utvecklingsstörda barn, unga och vuxna). Skriv lättläst [How to write easy-to-read]. Web. 1 February 2021. . Haninge kommun. Web. 1 February 2021. . Hedin, Benkt-Erik. Det enkla och det svåra [The easy and the difficult]. Stockholm: Skolöverstyrelsen, 1989. Print. SÖ 6. IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions). Guidelines for Easy-to-Read Materials. Ed. Bror Tronbacke. The Hague: IFLA Headquarters, 1997. Print. IFLA Professional Reports 54. IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions). Guidelines for easy-to-read materials. Revision by Misako Nomura, Gyda Skat Nielsen, and Bror Tronbacke. The Hague: IFLA Headquarters, 2010. Print. IFLA Professional Reports 120. Also available at . Johannesson, Lena, and Birgitta Qvarsell. Den olydiga boken [The naughty book]. Linköping: Linköpings universitet SIC37. 1995. Print. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 563 Ulla Bohman Konventionen om rättigheter för personer med funktionsnedsättning – Lättläst version [UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – Easy Language version]. Stockholm: Regeringskansliet, 2020. Print. Also available at . Kultur åt alla [Culture for all]. Statens offentliga utredningar [Offical government re- port]. 1964:43. Stockholm: Regeringskansliet. Print. Kursmaterial – Att skriva lättläst svenska [Study material – how to write easy-to-read]. Nossebro: Centrum för lättläst and Lättläst-tjänsten, 2011. Print. LL-förlaget. Att skriva lättläst [To write easy-to-read]. Web. 1 January 2021. . Lundberg, Ingvar, and Monica Reichenberg. Vad är lättläst? [What is easy-to- read?]. Härnösand: Specialpedagogiska skolmyndigheten, 2008. Print. Lättare att läsa, prop. 2013/14:134 [Government proposal to parliament]. Stockholm: Regeringskansliet, 2013. Print. Mälardalens högskola. Begripliga texter [Comprehensible texts]. Web. 1 February 2021. . Myndigheten för delaktighet, MFD [The Swedish Agency for Participation]. Web. 1 Fe- bruary 2021. . Myndigheten för tillgängliga medier, MTM. Vad är lättlästa texter? [What are Easy Language texts]. Web. 1 February 2021a. . Myndigheten för tillgängliga medier, MTM. Vetenskapligt råd [Scientific advisory board]. Web. 1 February 2021b. . Myndigheten för tillgängliga medier, MTM. Uppsatser och examensarbeten [Study projects and thesis]. Web. 1 February 2021c. . Nordisk kulturkontakt [Nordic Culture Point]. Web. 1 February 2021. . O’Donnell, Maria. Personal communication. September 2020. Project Begripliga domar [Project comprehensive rulings]. Stockholm: Sveriges dom- stolar, 2020. Print. Also available at . Proposition 1985/86:175. Nyhetsförmedling till begåvningshandikappade [Government proposal News to people with intellectual disability]. Stockholm: Regeringskansliet, 1986. Print. Proposition 1999/2000:79. Från patient till medborgare – en nationell handlingsplan för handikappolitiken [From patient to citizen – a national plan of action for the disability policy]. Stockholm: Regeringskansliet. Print. The Puzzle Project. Web. 1 February 2021. . 564 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Sweden Rikstermbanken. Lättläst text [Easy Language]. Web. 1 February 2021a. . Rikstermbanken. Klarspråk [Plain Language]. Web. 1 February 2021b. . Riktlinjer för lagspråk [Judicial language guidelines]. Stockholm: Statsrådsberednin- gen, 1967. Print. Sandström, Gabriella. “Vad är lättläst och vad är klarspråk? Och vem behöver vad?” [What is easy-to-read and what is Plain Language? And who needs what?]. 19 June 2019. Conference presentation. Web. 17 March 2021. . Skolverket [The Swedish National Agency for Education]. PISA-survey. 2018. Web. 1 February 2021. . SoU, Statens offentliga utredningar 2013:58. Lättläst. [Official government report. Easy Language]. Stockholm: Regeringskansliet. Print. Språkkonsulterna. 7 steg till en lättläst text [7 steps to make a text easy-to-read]. Au- gust 2019. Web. 1 February 2021. . Språklagen [Swedish language act]. 2009:600. Web. 1 February 2021. Språkrådet. Du [You]. Web. 1 February 2021a. . Språkrådet. What is Plain Language. Web. 1 February 2021b. . Språkrådet. Språklagen i praktiken – riktlinjer för tillämpning av språklagen [The Lan- guage act in practice – guidelines for the application of the language act]. Web. 1 February 2021c. . Språkrådet. Två föreläsningar om klarspråk [Two lectures on Plain Language]. Web. 1 February 2021d. . Statistiska Centralbyrån, SCB [Statistics Sweden]. PIAAC-survey. 2012. Web. 1 Feb- ruary 2021. . Stockholm. Web. 1 February 2021. . Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan, SV. Mitt val [My choice]. 2020. Web. 15 February 2021. . © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 565 Ulla Bohman Sundin, Maria. Lättläst – så funkar det [Easy-to-read – this is how it works]. Stock- holm: Jure förlag, 2007. Print. Sveriges Radio. Klartext [Easy Language news]. Web. 1 February 2021. . Sveriges television. Nyheter på lätt svenska [News in Easy Swedish]. 2020. Web. 15 February 2021. . Taltidningskommitténs tilläggsuppdrag [Directive from government to Talking News- paper Committee]. U1982:5. Stockholm: Regeringskansliet. Print. Tronbacke, Bror. Personal communication. September 2020. Vilja förlag. Lättlästnivåer [Levels of Easy Language]. Web. 15 February 2021a. . Vilja förlag. Lättläst på svenska [Easy-to-read in Swedish]. Web. 15 February 2021b. . Wiman, Björn. Skriv lättläst! [Write easy-to-read!]. Stockholm: Centrum för lättläst, 2005. Print. 566 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Sweden Appendix 1. An illustration of guidelines for Easy Swedish. Vad är en demokrati? Sverige är en demokrati. Demokrati är ett grekiskt ord som betyder att folket bestämmer. Vi som bor i Sverige får vara med och välja vilka som ska bestämma i vårt land. Vi får rösta på det parti och de politiker som vi tycker har den klokaste politiken. Vi väljer representanter, politiker, som sedan får bestämma. Det kallas för representativ demokrati. I Sverige har vi allmän och lika rösträtt. Det betyder att alla vuxna får rösta och att varje röst är lika mycket värd. Source: Study material Mitt val produced by Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan by Ulla Bohman. Targeted for persons with intellectual disability. [What is a democracy? Sweden is a democracy. The word democracy is a Greek word which means people make the decisions. All adults who live in Sweden can participate and elect who should make decisions for our country. We can vote for parties and politicians that we think have the best ideas. We elect representatives, politicians, who then make decisions for the country. This is called representative democracy. We have a universal and equal right to vote in Sweden. It means that all adults have the right to vote and that all votes are counted equally.] © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 567 Addition to Easy Language in Sweden Maria O’Donnell, Maria Ramdén (from the Swedish Agency for Accessible Media, MTM) Addition to Easy Language in Sweden Overview of the Easy Language work at the Swedish Agency for Accessible Media (MTM) Since 2015, the Swedish Agency for Accessible Media (Myndigheten för till- gängliga medier, MTM) has been instructed by the Government to serve as a national knowledge centre for accessible media. MTM should strive to ensure that everyone in Sweden has access to literature and to information about society on their own terms, regardless of their reading skills or any disabilities they may have. To this end, MTM produces and distributes talking newspa- pers, talking books, Braille books, Easy Language literature and Easy Language news. Its tasks include publishing and distributing Easy Language literature where commercial players do not. MTM also publishes the independent Easy Language newspaper 8 Sidor. Further, it has been given a special task to support Swedish schools in the field of Easy Language. MTM focuses on the needs of readers. Having competence in Braille, talk- ing books and Easy Language in a single government agency creates unique opportunities to meet each reader’s needs. For example, readers who prefer to alternate between reading Easy Language texts and listening to talking books should be given the opportunity to do so. MTM is also involved in the imple- mentation of the European Accessibility Act, which aims to make it even easier for readers to read on their own terms. MTM strives not only to promote reading but also to boost the Easy Lan- guage literature market. More Easy Language books are being published in Sweden today than ever before. Over 200 new titles from several publishers are expected in 2021. MTM’s publishing house LL-förlaget, is meant to com- plement commercial publishers. For this reason, it no longer publishes adap- © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 569 Maria O’Donnell, Maria Ramdén tations, only original works in Easy Swedish. Its output matches its specific target groups: readers with intellectual or neuropsychiatric disabilities, elderly people with dementia, and learners of Swedish. LL-förlaget’s website provides not only information on its output but also general information on Easy Lan- guage. 8 Sidor is Sweden’s only newspaper in Easy Swedish. It is published in printed form once a week and updated online every day. In 2020, the number of visits to its website increased by 50% to 1.2 million. The news published in 8 Sidor is also available in spoken form, as a talking newspaper, and in Braille. Swedish publishing houses, libraries, writers, and language consultants all possess solid, in-depth practical knowledge about Easy Language texts, which has been tried and tested. However, as there has been relatively little research on Easy Language, evidence-based knowledge is limited. One way to enhance our understanding of Easy Language texts is to highlight the work processes of the authors and their editors. To this end, Åsa Wengelin, Professor of Swedish at the University of Gothenburg, will study how an Easy Language novel comes into being by interviewing and following the work of its author and editor. In addition, LL-förlaget has launched a reader survey to establish which groups find that having line breaks at the end of phrases makes reading easier for them. MTM also has a scientific advisory board (Myndigheten för tillgängliga medier 2021). Its duties are to ensure that MTM monitors and disseminates relevant findings from any of the scarce studies of Easy Language literature and news as well as other accessible media and their target groups. Under a collaboration agreement, MTM works with Mälardalen University to promote research in the field of Easy Language information on society. MTM also works on a regular basis with bachelor’s and master’s programme students from oth- er universities who study topics related to MTM agency’s work and mission. Alongside Ireland, Spain, Japan, and China, MTM is part of an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Easy Language project 1. The standard is expected to be ready in a year. Recommendations and writing advice for Easy Swedish can be found on the websites of both MTM and LL-förlaget. MTM participated in a multi-annual project called Understandable Text (Begriplig 1 ISO/IEC WD 23859-1. Information technology – User interfaces – Part 1: Guidance on mak- ing written text easy to read and easy to understand. 570 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Addition to Easy Language in Sweden text). The aim was to work with users to determine what an understandable text might look like. At the request of MTM, Stefan Johansson, PhD at the Royal Institute of Technology, wrote a scientific article on the results of the project (forthcoming). The project also yielded a manual entitled 19 Tips for Writing Understandably (Begriplig text 2020). One important aspect of MTM’s work is to provide information on Easy Language and to promote its use. To this end, it publishes two magazines. One of these, Läsombudet, targets ‘Reading Ambassadors’ (care workers who provide reading support) and ‘Readers-aloud’ (volunteers who visit residential institutions, adult daycare centres, etc., to read aloud to residents and users). The other magazine, Läsliv, is intended for all those who make accessible litera- ture available in one way or another, such as staff at schools and libraries. Both magazines contain information on Easy Language books, lectures, webinars and new research findings in the field of Easy Language. To support the 4000 Reading Ambassadors in elderly care and care for people with intellectual dis- abilities, MTM provides information on its website, in newsletters and in one of its magazines, and also organizes whole-day inspirational sessions, training courses, workshops, and webinars. As part of its reading-promotion activities aimed at schools, MTM develops study and guidance material for most of the books published by LL-förlaget. Easy Language work is constantly under development. At present, about twenty members of MTM’s staff take active part in Easy Language efforts. To ensure further development in the field, MTM also studies the different types of support required by readers with different needs. For example, it recent- ly carried out a comprehensive reader survey to find out how readers with different needs understand and perceive accessible crisis information during the COVID-19 pandemic when Easy Language is one of the various formats available (Begripsam 2020). Such user surveys provide those of us who work on Easy Language with invaluable information that will help us even better provide our readers with what they need. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 571 References Begriplig text. 19 råd för att skriva begripligt [19 tips for writing understandably]. Sol- na: Dyslexiförbundet, 2020. Print. Begripsam. Hur har samhällsinformationen om covid-19 fungerat för personer med funktionsnedsättning? [How has societal information about Covid-19 worked for people with disabilities?]. 2020. Web. 17 March 2021. . Johansson, Stefan. Readable and understandable: 19 requirements identified by peo- ple with reading impairments. Begripsam, forthcoming. Myndigheten för tillgängliga medier, MTM. Vetenskapligt råd [Scientific advisory board]. Web. 1 February 2021. . 572 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Switzerland Anne Parpan-Blaser, Simone Girard-Groeber, Gabriela Antener, Christina Arn, Rita Baumann, Alexandra Caplazi, Luisa Carrer, Cindy Diacquenod, Annette Lichtenauer, Andrea Sterchi 1 Easy Language in Switzerland 1 Introduction Since the Middle Ages, Switzerland has developed from a network of alli- ances of towns and regions into a federal state of 26 cantons. The foundation stone of modern Switzerland is the 1848 constitution, which emphasizes the country’s immutable diversity and reflects it in a political system in which federal authorities (based in the capital Bern), cantons and municipalities work together. Among other things, this arrangement determines the finan- cial flow in the public sector. The federal system also results in differences and peculiarities among municipalities, regions and cantons in many fields such as education, social services, and administration. Another special feature of the Swiss political system is its direct democracy, which enables people to express their opinions on federal government decisions and to propose constitution- al amendments. The principle of concordance also shapes Swiss politics, as it involves a great number of actors (parties, associations, minorities, social groups) in the political process and leads to slow, consensus-oriented processes to find compromises among actors and different linguistic, social and political- cultural groups. Although the basic infrastructure and public services should in principle be available to all population groups and regions, there are gaps 1 Until now, the topic of Easy Language in Switzerland has been dealt with in a fragmentary fashion in both theory and practice, in different language regions, and in attitudes and guidelines. In order to obtain the most complete picture possible and to do justice to the Swiss multilingual and federal systems, we decided to form a collective of authors which represented all language regions, practitioners and researchers. The research and writing process was thus also a process of networking and understanding. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 573 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. in supply in urban centres, rural areas and mountain valleys, some of which are very remote. Switzerland (surface of 41 285 km²) is bordered by Italy to the south, Ger- many to the north, Austria and Liechtenstein to the east, and France to the west. Although this puts the country at the heart of Europe, it is a member of neither the EU nor the European Monetary Union. In 2019, the total population of Switzerland was estimated to be 8.5 million. Over two million are foreign nationals. Besides the four national languages, the most widely spoken languages are English and Portuguese. Spanish, Serbian, Croatian, and Albanian are also common (Swiss Confederation 2020). Like many European countries, Switzerland has an ageing population: life expec- tancy is currently 85.4 years for women and 81.7 years for men and rising. Approximately 1.7 million people with disabilities2 (physical, mental or sensory impairments, or other) live in Switzerland. Switzerland is a multilingual country. The language(s) spoken in the can- tons varies/vary according to geographical position and proximity to adjacent linguistic regions (see Figure 1). In German-speaking Switzerland, people speak one of the many Alemannic dialects collectively called Swiss German. Standard German (Standarddeutsch, Schriftdeutsch) is mainly used for written and official communication. Standard German and the Swiss German dialects differ on all linguistic levels, and generally, young children only learn Stand- ard German when they start school. French is spoken in the western part of Switzerland (Romandie), and Italian in Ticino and the southern valleys of Graubünden. The written forms of these languages are mostly the same as the French and Italian used in the neighbouring countries, but the spo- ken forms have some specific variations (mainly lexical and phonological). Finally, Romansh, a Rhaeto-Romanic language is spoken widely in the canton of Graubünden. Only German, French and Italian are official languages of the Swiss Confederation, and all official federal documents (legislation, re- ports, websites, brochures and building signage) must be trilingual. Federal authorities only use Romansh when communicating with Romansh speakers. 2 The FSO defines ‘persons with disabilities as under the Disability Discrimination Act’ as people with a long-standing health problem whose participation in common activities is limited (se- verely or not). Thus the FSO uses the WHO definition of disability rather than a medical one. 574 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Switzerland ‘English, though not an official language, is often used to bridge the divides, and a significant proportion of official documentation is available in English’ (Swissinfo 2019). More than a third of the population uses only one language, while another third uses two languages at least once a week, and a quarter regularly uses three or more languages (FSO 2014). Figure 1: Distribution of national languages in Switzerland (Federal Chancellery 2021: 9) 2 Historical perspectives Easy Language has only recently found some degree of recognition in public, professional and academic discourse in Switzerland. The most significant mile- stones in its development are listed in Table 1. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 575 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. 2004 Federal Act on the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (Disability Discrimination Act, cf. DDA 2002) came into force 2006 A cohort of Swiss advocacy associations and professionals formed the ‘Easy Language Network’ (Netzwerk Leichte Sprache) 3 together with members from Germany, Austria, Italy (South Tyrol), Luxembourg and Holland 2014 Switzerland ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities First translation agency and training initiative in German-speaking Swit- zerland, ‘Bureau for Easy Language’ (Büro Leichte Sprache, WohnWerk Basel) 4 2015 Federal Council’s Action Plan on e-Accessibility (IDA BF 2015) First research project on Easy Language (Antener et al. 2015) 2016 First conference on Easy Language (Tagung Leichte Sprache) 5 First training initiative in French-speaking Switzerland (textoh!) 6 2017 First translation agency in French-speaking Switzerland, ‘Bureau for Easy Language’ (Bureau langage simplifié Pro Infirmis Fribourg) 7 First book in Easy German (Krapf 2017) First version of an Easy Language fact sheet (FBED 2019, April) issued by the Federal Bureau for the Equality of People with Disabilities (Eidgenös- sisches Büro für die Gleichstellung von Menschen mit Behinderungen, FBED) First wide-scope research project on barrier-free communication 8 (Jekat and Massey 2018, Bouillon et al. 2018, Jekat et al. 2021) 3 Das Netzwerk Leichte Sprache, https://www.leichte-sprache.org/. In 2013, the network became the Verein Netzwerk Leichte Sprache e.V. 4 WohnWerk, https://www.leichte-sprache-basel.ch 5 Tagung Leichte Sprache, https://www.einfachesprache.ch/blog/tagung-leichte-sprache- impressionen/ 6 Textoh! Cours, https://www.textoh.ch/cours/ 7 Bureau langage simplifié, https://www.langage-simplifie.ch/fr.html 8 Swiss Centre for Barrier-free Communication, https://www.zhaw.ch/en/linguistics/research/ barrier-free-communication/ 576 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Switzerland 2019 First translation agency in Italian-speaking Switzerland, ‘Bureau for Easy Language’ (Servizio Lingua facile Pro Infirmis Ticino e Moesano)9 2020 Third version of the eCH-0059 e-Accessibility Standard (e-CH 2020) includes requirements for digital content in Easy Language and sign language Table 1: Milestones in the development of Easy Language in Switzerland. As Table 1 shows, Switzerland ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2014. In Switzerland, the treaty-making procedure requires widespread consultation among cantons, political parties, national and municipal umbrella associations, and pressure groups before international treaty legislation can be introduced (cf. Federal Council 2012). This proce- dure aims to assess how the ratification of a treaty will affect Swiss law. It may account for Switzerland’s delay in ratifying the CRPD and fulfilling its treaty obligations. In its 2016 Initial State Report (UN Committee 2018) on the measures taken to implement the CRPD, Switzerland expressed overall satisfaction with the implementation of Article 21: With regard to access to information for persons with mental disabilities, language that is easy to read and understand is devel- oping increasingly in Switzerland. Various projects to promote it have received support (UN Committee 2018: 28). In fact, despite considerable progress in recent years, the country still has no comprehensive, coherent strategy for meeting CRPD obligations. In reply to Switzerland’s Initial Report, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2019: 5) demanded evidence of laws, policies and programmes at the federal, cantonal and communal levels that ensure that information provid- ed to the public is accessible to people with disabilities and that the use of Easy Language is facilitated in official interactions. Similarly, Inclusion Handicap, the umbrella body of Swiss organizations for people with disabilities, chal- 9 Servizio di Lingua facile, https://www.servizio-lingua-facile.ch/it.html © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 577 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. lenged the federal government to provide information about which cantons have fulfilled their duty to ensure accessible communication for people with disabilities in their laws (cf. alternative or Shadow Report, Inclusion Handicap 2019: 20). In a recent report on Switzerland’s disability policy, the Federal Council admitted that the commitment to promoting barrier-free access to informa- tion and communication services must be strengthened to take into account the challenges of digitalization, and to extend the provision of information in accessible formats, including Easy Language and sign language (Federal Council 2018: 24). Switzerland’s delay in implementing the treaty obligations may help explain why the concept of Easy Language still receives so little recognition among the general public. Nonetheless, as Table 1 shows, the number of translation agen- cies and training programmes using Easy Language has steadily increased since 2014. The development of Easy Language in the different linguistic regions in Switzerland seems, in fact, to mirror the pace at which initiatives have been progressing in Germany and Austria (see chapters on Austria and Germany) and in France and Italy (see chapter on Italy). In recent years, Easy Language has also become a focus of academic re- search and a growing number of interdisciplinary projects (see Section 8). Furthermore, since Switzerland ratified the CRPD, federal initiatives for e-ac- cessibility have gained considerable momentum. The Action Plan on e-Acces- sibility 2015–2017 (IDA BF 2015) paved the way for improved accessibility to the Confederation’s websites, digital documents and applications (see Section 6). In the context of the 2020–2023 eGovernment Strategy Switzerland (Federal Council 2019, November), the third version of the eCH-0059 e-Accessibility Standard (e-CH 2020) introduced Easy Language and sign language as re- quirements for barrier-free access to the websites and digital applications of public sector bodies. This new standard is based on the Web Content Acces- sibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) and inspired by the EU Web Accessibility Directive. 578 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Switzerland 3 Current situation The current Easy Language situation in Switzerland is characterized by the multilingualism of the country on the one hand and its increasing emergence on the other – most recently after the ratification of the CRPD. 3.1 Definitions Because Switzerland is multilingual and its administrative and political struc- tures result in different methods, rules and standards in policymaking, there is no common terminology to refer to Easy Language. Table 2 presents an overview of related terms. German-speaking regions Einfache Sprache (= Plain Language) Leichte Sprache (= Easy Language, Easy German) Leicht verständliche Sprache (= Easily understand- able language)* French-speaking regions Langage facile à lire et à comprendre (FALC) (= Easy French) Langage simplifié* Langue facile à lire* Italian-speaking regions Linguaggio facile da leggere (= Easy Italian) Lingua facile* Linguaggio semplificato* Rumantch-speaking regions No information available *No distinction between Easy and Plain Language Table 2: Overview of terminology used in Switzerland In German-speaking Switzerland, Standard German is used in official cor- respondence, with some Swiss variants in vocabulary and syntax. The easily understandable form of the written language is therefore largely the same as that used in Germany and Austria. The terms Leichte Sprache (Easy Language) and Leicht verständliche Sprache (Easily understandable language) are the most common when it comes to simplified texts. Both refer to the fact that a text can © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 579 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. be made more comprehensible to inexperienced readers by simplifying both the form and the layout and, depending on the approach, sometimes also the content. The term Leichte Sprache is associated with the Network Easy Lan- guage, through which representatives from several European countries pro- mote the idea that complex language forms a barrier for people with intellectual disabilities. Inclusion Europe uses the same term and suggests a set of criteria to make texts easy to read. If a text meets these criteria, then it can use the association’s ‘easy-to-read’ logo. The widely used Regelwerk Duden (Bredel and Maaß 2016b) also uses the term Leichte Sprache and proposes a set of guidelines for simplifying texts. In contrast to Inclusion Europe, the Regelwerk Duden (Bredel and Maaß 2016b) explicitly addresses a heterogeneous target group of potential beneficiaries of Easy Language. Leicht verständliche Sprache is also used to designate an adapted language form that aims to enhance the understanding and participation of people with low literacy skills (e.g., the capito method, see chapter on Austria). Various principles are applied to render a text accessible to a specific user group and assign it one of three different language levels (A1, A2, B1) of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). This terminology makes no formal distinction between Easy Language and Plain Language. Thus it appears that although different labels are used, simplified language forms are best understood as being on a continuum (see chapter on Finland). Easy French and Easy Italian are currently referred to as Langage facile à lire et à comprendre (FALC) and Linguaggio facile da leggere (cf. Inclusion Europe 2009). Other common terms (see Table 2) are Langage simplifié, and Lingua facile (cf. Pro Infirmis 2020 10) and Langue facile à lire and Linguaggio semplifi- cato (cf. FBED 2019) respectively. While Inclusion Europe has a strict set of guidelines for Easy Language and primarily targets people with intellectual disabilities, the labels used by Pro Infirmis suggest no formal distinction be- tween Easy and Plain Language (see Table 2). Pro Infirmis agencies in Fribourg, Ticino and Zurich (Bureau for Easy Language) award translations their own seals of approval (see Figure 2). Depending on clients’ communication needs, texts are translated into different levels of comprehension, namely, A1 (very 10 Pro Infirmis, How we work, https://www.servizio-lingua-facile.ch/it/come-lavoriamo.html 580 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Switzerland easy to understand), A2 (easy to understand) and B1 (intermediate difficulty level), which broadly correspond to the CEFR levels. At the time of writing, the authors were not aware of any initiatives to develop an Easy Language variant for the standardized written Rumantsch Grischun used in the Romansh-speaking region of Switzerland. Figure 2: Pro Infirmis’ seals of approval issued by the Bureau for Easy Language (Fribourg, Ticino, Zurich) It could be argued that shared terminology might significantly reinforce the concept of Easy Language in Switzerland, as is the case in countries such as France and Italy (see chapter on Italy). 3.2 Societal and legal context At first sight, the Swiss legal system seems not to provide legislation designed to ensure access to information and communication for people with speech impairments and to enable them to participate fully and equally in society. Further investigation, however, and the interpretation of legislation and its abstract terms according to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) reveal that Switzerland is obliged to adopt all appropriate legislative, administrative and other measures to guarantee that people with disabilities have equal access to the information and communication provid- ed to the general public as a precondition for living independently and fully and equally participating in the democracy that Switzerland claims to be. In implementation, the principle of proportionality, as laid down in the Swiss © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 581 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and the CRPD, may nonetheless allow political and economic interests to restrict this right. At the federal level, several acts prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities. Article 8 paragraph 2 of the Federal Constitution (Bundesverfas- sung, BV) protects people with disabilities against discrimination both in law and in practice, including against structural discrimination. This protection covers not only explicit discrimination on the grounds of disability, but also neutral acts or regulations that result in people with disabilities being regularly disadvantaged (Schefer and Hess-Klein 2014: 22, Rieder 2003: 232–35). Art. 8 para. 4 BV mandates legislation to protect people with physical, mental or psychological disabilities against actual and structural discrimination, as a sup- plement to the general prohibition in Art. 8 para. 2 BV. The legislative mandate also addresses the cantons, which must take measures in all areas to eliminate discrimination against people with disabilities (Waldmann 2003: 538). The DDA formulates an unconditional obligation for the state service pro- vider to adapt their services if they cannot be accessed or only accessed with difficulty by people with disabilities (Art. 2 para. 4; Art. 3 lit. e). It is the respon- sibility of the Confederation, the cantons and the municipalities to take steps to prevent, reduce or eliminate discrimination against people with disabilities in service provision (Art. 5). Only addressing the Confederation, however, Art. 14 para. 1 in the DDA stipulates measures to improve access to informa- tion on the internet, and Art. 11 of the Disability Rights Ordinance (Behin- dertengleichstellungsverordnung, BehiV) requires that access to and adapted communication with state authorities during direct contact are made possible for people with speech and hearing impairments. In accordance with Art. 10 para. 2 of the BehiV and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), federal guidelines for the design of barrier-free internet (P028) have been is- sued. All federal websites must achieve an AA conformity level. Additional recommendations in an appendix to the P028 guidelines advocate that level AAA conformity is to be reached ‘as far as possible’. The use of sign language videos is expressly recommended for websites. The recommendations do not refer to Easy Language, although the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) also bases its comments in WCAG 2.0 Guideline 3.1.5. (on comprehensibility) on the European Easy-to-Read Guidelines. 582 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Switzerland Finally, private service providers are not obliged to take active steps to pro- vide services specially adapted to people with disabilities. In cases of discrim- ination, Art. 11 para. 2 DDA only grants the right to compensation (Schefer and Hess-Klein 2014: 296–303). The protective provisions are largely formulated in abstract terms and do not go so far as to refer explicitly to Easy Language as a source of help and support for those with speech and hearing impairments. In comparison, CRPD specifications are detailed and far-reaching. In connection with Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention, General Comment No 2 makes explicit reference to the use of ‘easy-to-read’ formats to ensure accessibility to information and com- munication for people with disabilities. Having ratified the CRPD, Switzerland is in principle obliged to ensure that all government policy and services conform with its obligations, including people with disabilities having access to information and communication. As a State Party, Switzerland is called upon to make information intended for the general public available ‘in a timely manner and without additional cost’, in accessible formats suitable for various types of disabilities. It must promote appropriate forms of assistance and support to ensure access to information and communication (Art. 21 CRPD). However, the way in which a provision of international law or its partial content is applied is ultimately decided by the national constitutional law. In the case of economic, social and cultural rights, Switzerland rejects their enforceability and considers those rights merely an interpretative aid in the application of relevant constitutional law (Federal Council 2013; FCD 130 I 113). The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has repeatedly criticized Switzerland because in general, individuals in Switzerland cannot invoke economic, social and cultural rights before the authorities or courts (CESCR Concluding observations Switzerland 1998 or 2010, Künzli et al. 2014). In addition, measures to prevent, eliminate or reduce the disadvantages of people with disabilities are generally subject to the principle of proportionality, which is the basis of both the DDA and the CRPD. The obligation to adapt ser- vices to the needs of those with disabilities either does not exist, or no claim can be made for the elimination or omission of service accessibility disadvantages © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 583 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. if the economic effort and the expected benefit for the disabled person are not in balance (Art. 11 para. 1 DDA). The legislator has not yet defined the criteria for assessing proportionality. On the one hand, quantitative, qualitative and temporal factors can play a role in measuring the benefit of adjustments. The yardstick to be considered is the respective collective of people with disabil- ities and not individual cases (Tschannen and Elser 2012: 28). On the other hand, if the elimination or omission of a disadvantage in the use of a service is economically unreasonable, then the state authority is obliged to offer an alternative solution, tailored to the specific circumstances. Disadvantages that cannot be eliminated at reasonable cost must be compensated, to the greatest extent possible (Art. 12 para. 3 DDA). 3.3 Stakeholders At the federal level, the Federal Bureau for the Equality of People with Dis- abilities (FBED) plays a leading role in advocating Easy Language implemen- tation. The FBED issued the first online factsheet on Easy Language, regularly provides public interest texts in Easy Language, and provides funding for ac- cessibility projects (among others). One of the pioneer providers of Easy Language courses in further education in Switzerland is WohnWerk Basel, a partially private foundation that works for the social inclusion of people with disabilities. Further important stakeholders can be found among non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The most ac- tive of these are Insieme, a pool of over fifty parents’ associations representing the interests of people with intellectual disabilities, and Pro Infirmis, Switzer- land’s largest professional organization for people with disabilities. Pro Infirmis runs several translation agencies that offer Easy Language services throughout Switzerland (see Table 1). INSOS Switzerland, a Swiss umbrella organization of service providers for people with disabilities, is also making considerable efforts to motivate social institutions to consistently use Easy Language. Fur- thermore, capito Zürich, the only Swiss partner in the capito network, has been offering translations and training in easy-to-understand language since 2018. An ever-growing number of independent translators now provide Easy 584 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Switzerland Language services across Switzerland, and several communication agencies promote and offer simplified text editing 11. Several higher education institutions play a stakeholder role by imple- menting Easy Language in their study programmes (see more details in Section 7), by researching Easy Language or by providing Easy Language services and training. Notable examples are the School for Special Needs Education in Zu- rich (HfH), the Department of Special Education at the University of Fribourg, the School of Applied Linguistics at the Zurich University for Applied Sciences (ZHAW), the School for Social Work at the University for Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) and the Institute for Computational Linguistics at the University of Zurich. In addition, most recently, Swiss national media have echoed the progres- sive development of Easy Language in the linguistic regions (cf. Bloch 2019, Visetti 2019, Gasser 2019, Jeitziner and Cornehls 2020, among others), thereby raising awareness of and interest in the potential benefits of Easy Language for the target populations. Nonetheless, Easy Language (more than Plain Language) is frequently asso- ciated with stigmatized groups or conditions in Switzerland. Jekat et al. (2020) argue that the central function of Easy Language as a gateway to improving reading skills in a first or a second language for specific target groups is still scarcely acknowledged in Swiss public discourse. Moreover, Switzerland did not take part in Inclusion Europe’s ‘Pathways’ projects 12, which played a crucial role in raising awareness of the potential of Easy Language in most European countries. 11 E.g., Textoh! https://www.textoh.ch/, Simpletext, https://www.simpletext.ch/; Supertext, https://www.supertext.ch/ 12 Cf. Inclusion Europe Pathways, https://www.inclusion-europe.eu/pathways-2/ and Easy to Read, https://easy-to-read.eu/projects/ © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 585 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. 4 Target groups Table 3 13 shows the estimated figures per primary target group for Easy Lan- guage services in Switzerland. It should be stressed, however, that not all mem- bers of the target population necessarily need Easy Language: Group size (estimate) Source Intellectual disability 50 000 FBED (n.d.) Deafness 10 000 SGB-FSS (n.d.) Aphasia 5000 new patients Koenig-Bruhin et al. every year (2013) Dementia (including 110 000 FOPH and CMPH Alzheimer’s disease) (2018) Functional illiteracy 800 000 – 1 000 000 OECD and Sta- aged 16 or over tistics Canada (2005); Guggisberg et al. (2007) Immigrant background and > 200 000 aged 15 or FSO (2018a) no national language in over one’s linguistic repertoire Table 3: Estimates of primary target populations in Switzerland The collective primary target population for Easy Language services in Switzer- land includes an estimated 50 000 people with an intellectual disability (FBED n.d.), as well as people with specific learning difficulties 14 such as dyslexia 15. Easy Language is essential for self-advocates with intellectual disabilities to be active citizens (cf. Anffas Nazionale 2016); it can also facilitate the develop- 13 The table structure is freely adapted from Bredel and Maaß (2016a: 31). 14 To avoid terminological ambiguity, and in line with current professional and academic discourse, ‘intellectual disability’ and ’specific learning difficulty’ are understood as two clearly demarcated concepts here. 15 There are no current official statistics for the incidence of dyslexia in Switzerland, but it is estimated that, in Europe, 3% to 4% of the population has a reading, spelling, or combined reading-spelling disorder (cf. European Dyslexia Association, https://www.eda-info.eu/ what-is-dyslexia/). 586 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Switzerland ment of basic reading skills for people with dyslexia (Bredel and Maaß 2016a: 33). Recent studies show that considerable numbers of people in Switzerland have low levels of literacy and numeracy. According to the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (ALL) of 2003–2007 (OECD and Statistics Canada 2005), around 16% 16 of the Swiss population aged between 16 and 65 (approximate- ly 800 000, or one in six adults) lacks functional literacy skills. Notably, the figures in Italian-speaking Switzerland are significantly lower than the Swiss average in both prose and document literacy (FSO 2005). This means that low- skilled adults in Switzerland struggle to understand written communication in standard German, French or Italian. New data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) will be available in the next three to four years. Considering the growing diversity of the Swiss population, ongoing digitalization, and the recent Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results (Konsortium PISA.ch 2019) which indicat- ed below-average reading scores among Swiss 15-year-olds, we can expect the new data to reveal a challenging scenario nationwide. Easy Language has the potential to address this issue. A good command of at least one national language might be seen as an essential requirement for successful integration into Swiss society. Between 2014 and 2016, among the population aged 15 and over with a first-generation immigration background 17, almost one in ten people (over 200 000) had no national language in their linguistic repertoire (this repertoire involves the main language, the language usually spoken at home/with relatives and the language usually spoken at work/in school) (FSO 2018a). Furthermore, ac- cording to the 2017 Swiss Labour Force Survey, among economically inactive and unemployed people (as defined by the International Labour Organization), 42% declared that they needed to improve their skills in an official language in order to find suitable work (FSO 2018b). First-generation immigrants ex- pressed the greatest need for improvement (57%) (FSO 2018b). As of 1st Janu- 16 Percentage of adults aged 16–65 assessed as being at Level 1 (on a prose literacy scale from 1 to 5, in which 5 is the highest measured level of literacy) (FSO 2005). This share of the Swiss population may include people from other target groups, e.g. people with a poor command of a national language. 17 The first-generation migrant population includes all foreign nationals born abroad, as well foreign-born naturalized Swiss citizens (FSO and SAKE 2019) © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 587 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. ary 2019, the revised Federal Act on Foreign Nationals and Integration (FNIA 2020, April) stipulates a certain level of integration in Switzerland (including proof of official language skills) as a prerequisite for obtaining and retaining a Swiss residency permit. First-generation immigrants could greatly benefit from Easy Language to develop or improve their independent reading skills, second language acquisition and, ultimately, labour market integration (Bredel and Maaß 2016a: 39–40). Another significant demographic trend in Switzerland is the ageing pop- ulation. In 2019, the number of people aged 65 or older increased by nearly 2% and now make up just under one fifth of the total. This entails urgent and unmet health care needs related to chronic diseases, including cognitive de- cline and dementia, aphasia, eye disease and hearing loss, and multi-morbid- ity. Approximately 110 000 people are estimated to be living with dementia in Switzerland, a figure that increases by an estimated 25 000 annually. Over the age of 65, prevalence rates of dementia rise sharply (FOPH and CMPH 2018: 7). Age-related communication problems affect important functions such as access to health care and the maintenance of social roles. Easy Language poli- cies could reduce barriers to comprehension, and not least, facilitate commu- nication between patients and health professionals. Furthermore, according to the Swiss Federation of the Deaf (SGB-FSS n.d.), almost 10 000 people in Switzerland are prelingually deaf or profoundly hard of hearing, and approximately one million have some hearing loss (of the latter, half are working-age adults). The prelingually deaf regularly encounter difficul- ties in acquiring spoken and written language, which can seriously affect their social participation. A recent study (Hille et al. 2020) revealed that the unem- ployment rate among deaf and hearing-impaired people is about three times higher than the average. Hille et al. (2020: 21) cite evidence that good commu- nication skills (spoken or sign language), literacy, and a willingness to engage in lifelong learning are prerequisites for professional success. Easy Language can play a crucial role in helping prelingually deaf people acquire these skills (Bredel and Maaß 2016a: 35–36). 588 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Switzerland 5 Guidelines In September 2020, an online survey 18 among Easy Language service provid- ers in Switzerland collected information on their professional activities. This survey has provided valuable information that offers insights into current is- sues in Easy Language translation practices in Switzerland. Swiss practitioners reported adhering to specific guidelines when writing and translating into Easy Language; for instance, the majority of Swiss German respondents fol- lowed Bredel and Maaß (2016b). Swiss French respondents stated that they sometimes followed several guidelines at the same time (e.g., Ruel and Allaire 2018, Inclusion Europe 2009), including those for Leichte Sprache. This suggests that translators may need additional orientation materials to tackle translation problems and to develop effective translation strategies. For an illustration of the Easy Language guidelines used in Switzerland, see Appendix 1. According to our survey data, translations from Standard into Easy Lan- guage are the most common. However, whereas Swiss German respondents pro- vide few interlingual translations (e.g., from Lingua facile to Leichte Sprache), the situation is quite different in the French and Italian-speaking regions. Par- ticularly in the latter, interlingual translation is the most common service, suggesting that texts are first drafted in Easy German and later translated into Easy Italian or Easy French. As translating into Easy Language normally in- volves both an intralingual (involving diastratic variation), and an intracultural process (Bredel and Maaß 2016b: 185), this raises the question as to whether interlingual translations of Easy Language texts are functionally appropriate for target readers’ own linguistic and cultural settings (discussed in Section 6). As our survey suggests, the number of Easy Language service providers is growing in all language regions, but the type of service and the client groups differ from one region to the other. Thus, a more professional exchange among 18 Seventeen respondents participated, i.e., three each from the Italian- and French-speaking re- gions, and eleven from the German-speaking regions. The survey consisted of 20 questions on the following areas: experience, Easy Language services provided, workload, clients, Easy Lan- guage training, Easy Language guidelines, quality control and participation of target groups, and remuneration. The survey was available in German, French and Italian. It was launched on 28th August 2020 and was accessible for 10 days via a commercial online survey tool. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 589 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. providers and, ideally, a stronger interplay between practice and research, are urgently needed. 6 Practical outcomes A great deal has happened since the introduction of Easy Language in Switzer- land and the start of the first Easy Language services agency. Not only are social institutions and disability associations increasingly using Easy Language more consciously, but information in Easy Language is being increasingly published by public authorities as well as by social and cultural institutions. This applies to all linguistic regions. Yet commitment to offering information in Easy Lan- guage varies greatly, especially in public administration, and therefore, the supply of information in Easy Language is still selective and far from homoge- neous. As a further result, information in Easy Language is not easily found and target groups are often not aware that it exists (see Section 8 for more details). 6.1 Media Easy Language is not yet provided in public broadcasting. The Swiss Broad- casting Corporation (SRG SSR) must provide subtitling, sign language and audio description 19. According to the Radio and Television Ordinance (RTVO 2007 Art. 7), the SRG SSR and the main community associations concerned have to determine the services to be provided in an agreement (in particular, subtitled content). The agreement concluded in 2017 and covering the peri- od 2018–2022 stipulates that the proportion of subtitled content gradually be increased to 80%, and that the time devoted to broadcasts with audio de- scription be increased from the current 450 to 900 hours by 2022 (cf. Federal Council 2018, UN Committee 2018) 20. It would be highly desirable to integrate Easy Language principles into the existing provisions and use them to produce 19 The SRG SSR has a 35% to 40% market share in each language region. The other 60% belong to foreign television stations, which are not obliged to comply with RTVA regulations (Bundesrat 2018, UN Committee 2018). 20 SWISS TXT (cf. https://www.swisstxt.ch/en/; retrieved 15/09/2020) acts as a subsidiary and multimedia competence centre of the SRG SSR and fully implements the RTVO mandate for 590 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Switzerland easy-to-understand audiovisual content (e.g., news) and access services (e.g., subtitles and audio descriptions) for people with the widest range of cognitive capabilities (cf. SDI München 2020). An important contribution since 2020 is the online magazine www.infoeasy- news.ch, which translates current affairs and topics published by other media sources. On the website, readers can use a button to rate the accessibility of texts and suggest other topics of interest to them. Concerning literature, many public libraries in Switzerland have books in Easy Language or in simplified language, but these are not designated as such (e.g., see Ethique 2019). In addition, INSOS has co-edited teaching mate- rial in simplified language for general education classes in vocational training schools 21. 6.2 Informative texts One year after Switzerland ratified the CRPD, the FBED published the CRPD text and the Disability Discrimination Act in Easy French, Easy Italian and Easy German on its website. In October 2019, the federal parliament website was also translated into Easy Language French, Italian and German. So far, there is little official information in Easy Language on federal referenda, although two websites (www.ch.ch and easyvote.ch) talk about topics related to politics, elections, and popular votes in simplified language (which is not, however, Easy Language). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) began to publish information and instructions regarding the pandemic in Easy Language. Fewer than half of the 26 cantons provide any information in Easy Lan- guage. St. Gallen was the first canton to translate an official document into Easy Language, namely the cantonal report on the ‘Act on Social Security and Integration of People with Disabilities’ (Gesetz über die soziale Sicherung und Integration von Menschen mit Behinderung). Today, St. Gallen also presents a portrait of the canton in Easy Language and selected documents (including a audio description. Since 2016, the Ticino-based TV channel RSI has broadcast audio descrip- tions produced by SWISS TXT. 21 INSOS teaching resources, https://insos.ch/ausbildung-pra/pra-lehrmittel-und-ausweise/ © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 591 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. report on services available for adults with disabilities in the canton, cantonal planning for the period 2018–2020, and a report on the effectiveness of the canton’s disability policy). Another lighthouse project was launched in the Solothurn canton, where since 2016, the child and adult protection authority (Kindes- und Erwachsenenschutzbehörde, KESB) has developed letter templates and an information brochure on the protection of adults 22 (in the ‘Just easy to understand’ Einfach leicht verständlich 23 project, HSA FHNW). Later, the bro- chure was extended to child protection and adapted for the cantons of Berne and Zurich 24. In the French-speaking part of Switzerland in 2019, the ‘Office of Migrant Integration and Racism Prevention’ of the Fribourg canton (Bureau de l’intégration des migrant-e-s et de la prévention du racisme), in collaboration with the ‘Bureau for Easy Language’ (Pro Infirmis Fribourg), published the ‘The Canton of Fribourg Welcomes You!’ brochure in Easy Language. Easy language is also gaining importance in the public health sector. In 2019, the ‘Alliance for Health Competence’ (Allianz Gesundheitskompetenz), in close co-operation with the FBED, published a practical guide aiming to improve the communication skills of health care professionals. This is particu- larly important when the language of the workplace is not an employee’s first language and they may have learned it ‘on the job’. One major Easy Language project is the brochure on the electronic patient file system issued by eHealth Suisse 25. Further informative texts have been written in Easy Language on, for example, balanced diets, breast cancer, or sex education for children. 22 Brochure on adult protection, https://www.jgk.be.ch/jgk/de/index/direktion/organisation/ kesb/publikationen/kindes--und-erwachsenenschutz-in-leicht-verstaendlicher-sprache-. assetref/dam/documents/JGK/KESB/de/KESB_ES_in%20leichter%20Sprache.pdf 23 Just easy to understand, https://irf.fhnw.ch/handle/11654/28147 24 Brochure on child protection, https://www.kokes.ch/application/files/5115/5946/4492/ Informationen_zum_Kindesschutz_in_leicht_verstaendlicher_Sprache_ZH.pdf 25 eHealth Suisse, https://www.dossierpatient.ch/sites/default/files/2020-12/Bev_Leichte_ Sprache_DE.pdf 592 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Switzerland Disability organizations in Switzerland (e.g., Pro Infirmis 26, INSOS 27, In- sieme) continue to increase information in Easy language, especially when addressing target groups directly on websites as voters 28 or as internet users. 6.3 Other projects Investment in Easy Language in the cultural sector is promoted by the ‘Special Office for Inclusive Culture’ (Fachstelle Kultur inklusiv) of Pro Infirmis. This office is the skills centre for inclusive culture in Switzerland, which also awards a label for sustainable projects. On its website, it provides information on the label as well as the Charter for inclusive culture in Easy Language. Several other cultural institutions throughout the country also provide information in Easy language, for example, information on museums and their exhibi- tions (Laténium 29, Creaviva at the Zentrum Paul Klee 30, St. Gallen Museum im Lager haus 31), as well as workshops and guided visits with educational material (the Croque-Musées project by Atelier 1001 feuilles and ASA-Handicap Mental). What all these examples have in common is that the Easy Language content is promoted on their websites. 7 Education and research In-depth research on Easy Language began relatively late in Switzerland, and one of the results of this is that, while some European countries now have a long tradition of Easy Language training courses, in Switzerland these remain relatively rudimentary, unstructured and fragmentary. Still, recently, a substan- tial supply of opportunities for Easy Language training has been developed in quite a short time. 26 Pro Infirmis Easy Language, https://www.proinfirmis.ch/leichte-sprache.html 27 Action plan CRPD, https://www.aktionsplan-un-brk.ch 28 Insieme Electoral Assistance, https://insieme.ch/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Wahlhilfe_ insieme_A4_DE-2.pdf 29 Laténium, https://latenium.ch/product/le-latenium-en-langue-facile/ 30 Creaviva, https://www.creaviva-zpk.org/de/creaviva-inklusiv/leichte-sprache 31 St. Gallen Museum im Lagerhaus, https://www.museumimlagerhaus.ch/service/leichtesprache/ © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 593 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. 7.1 Practical training At the time of the CRPD ratification in 2014, Switzerland lacked knowledge of and experience in Easy Language. Consequently, interested people had to travel abroad to acquire expert knowledge in the subject matter (see Antener et al. 2014, Studer and Parpan-Blaser 2014, INSOS 2016) and attend training courses such as the ones offered by the KI-I (Kompetenznetzwerk Informationstechnol- ogie) in Austria, the Research Centre for Easy Language at the University of Hildesheim, Germany, or the capito network in Austria and Germany. In the long term, however, recourse to training opportunities in neighbor- ing countries cannot be effective because the diverse regional-dialectal par- ticularities of Switzerland cannot be sufficiently taken into account in training programmes designed and offered abroad. Moreover, technical terms, such as those used in the legal field, differ considerably among German-speaking countries. Easy Language can only develop to its full potential if those involved in producing Easy Language texts (including copywriters and translators) are familiar with specific political and regional contexts and thus with the imme- diate world knowledge of target groups (see also Parpan-Blaser et al. 2018). To remedy this shortcoming, several training programmes have been de- veloped in Switzerland since 2014 by different providers, offering more or less differentiated introductions to Easy Language. However, the existence of appropriate training courses depends on the commitment and expertise of individuals. This highlights the problem that Easy Language teaching skills can vary greatly, depending on individual understandings of the subject mat- ter and, not least, on the principles and rules used by the trainers. In recent years, the great demand for specialist knowledge in a variety of professions has also led to private providers offering courses. Training opportunities have developed at different speeds in different parts of Switzerland (cf. Section 2). As mentioned in Section 3, WohnWerk Basel was one of the pioneer provid- ers of further education courses on Easy Language. Their programme devel- oped from the identified need for easily understandable texts in the residential area around the institution (Debelle 2015). Since 2014, WohnWerk’s ‘Bureau for Easy Language’ has offered practice-oriented two- to three-day courses in Easy Language and customized training courses for companies and other 594 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Switzerland institutions. The target groups for this further training have largely been pro- fessionals working in institutions and organizations for people with disabilities. Occasionally, professional associations also offer Easy Language training. For example, since 2019, the Swiss Association of Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters has been developing further training initiatives in accessi- ble communication, including Easy Language. In the field of speech therapy, the topic was very quickly taken up in presentations at professional meetings, which has increased interest and demand for training. Such inputs and train- ing are essential because, for example, teachers and speech therapists who are already practising special education and speech therapy have seldom come into contact with Easy Language during their education. In the French-speaking region, the first systematic training courses in Easy Language, specifically based on Langage facile à lire et à comprendre (FALC), were established in 2016. The Faculty of Translation and Interpretation at the University of Geneva (FTI UNIGE) offered a pre-existing Easy Language pro- gramme in 2016, but this was only run in German (Zaugg 2018). The private agency Textoh!, the Atelier1001feuilles and the Department of Special Educa- tion of the University of Fribourg co-operate to offer several Easy Language training courses, including a two- or three-day introductory course and ad- vanced modules. These courses are designed for managers and employees of institutions, organizations and public services that are responsible for creating information for the general public and those who have reading and compre- hension difficulties. The Italian-speaking region currently has no Easy Language courses at all, so all training still takes place in Italy. Easy Language training in Easy Italian for Pro Infirmis translators, for example, is provided in collaboration with Inclu- sion Europe partner Associazione Nazionale Famiglie di Persone con Disabilità Intellettiva e/o Relazionale (ANFFAS Nazionale Italia) (see the chapter on Italy). Based on the Easy Language research project for adult protection discussed below (Section 7.3) (Antener et al. 2014), the School of Social Work, Univer- sity of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (HSA FHNW) developed a one-day course in co-operation with the ‘Conference for Child and Adult Protection’ (KOKES, Konferenz für Kindes- und Erwachsenenschutz), which is an inter-canton conference of experts and directors in the field of child © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 595 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. and adult protection. This course was specifically designed for professionals in the field, with the aim of raising their awareness of Easy Language. In connec- tion with projects on child and adult protection, the HSA FHNW also offers services to organizations involved in child and adult protection, ranging from a short input to a whole-day course. The further education courses aimed directly at users of Easy Language texts are also immensely important. Here, the goal is to increase users’ opportuni- ties to participate, as well to train them as validators. In the French-speaking region, ASA handicap mental proposes an Easy Language awareness course and a course to train people with intellectual disabilities to validate texts in Easy Language. In Switzerland, people with intellectual disabilities can join specific groups, for instance, the Pro Infirmis ‘Education Club’ (Bildungsklub). A course on self-advocacy has been available there for a few years now, in which the target groups not only learn about their rights, but also learn to represent themselves. The participants also get to know the concept of Easy Language on this course. In sum, it can be observed that the linguistic, regional and political di- versity of Switzerland influences the development of Easy Language training courses. As mentioned earlier, the language regions look to their respective neighbouring countries in their approach to Easy Language. Accordingly, the development of expert knowledge is based on German, Austrian, French, or Italian approaches. This not only makes it more difficult to bundle resources and exchange expertise at the national level, but also reduces the number of people who can be reached by training programmes. It can also have a financial impact on the implementation of training courses. 7.2 Higher education In recent years, Easy Language teaching has found its way into the education programmes of some Swiss universities. Initially, tertiary courses were offered in the German-speaking region, but they are now also available, though to a lesser extent, in the French-speaking part. As already mentioned, none are of- fered in the Italian-speaking region. Easy Language learning is offered in both regular bachelor’s and master’s degree courses as well as in non-degree contin- 596 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Switzerland uing education courses. The largely unsystematic and fragmented nature of the Easy Language training courses that the higher education sector offers makes it difficult to obtain an overview of what courses exist and might previously have existed. As far as can be ascertained from discussions with experts and an online review of degree programmes, Easy Language training in this sector still largely depends on the interest and commitment of individual teachers, and the courses are rarely part of a fixed curriculum. Easy Language training and further education courses are offered within different disciplines, usually in social and education sciences: as part of social work and special education, speech therapy, linguistics, and translation scienc- es. The following subsection presents an overview of current Easy Language training initiatives, and refers largely to Switzerland’s German-speaking region. It discusses a number of examples, but makes no claim to offer a complete picture, because much is still under development and subject to change. Training courses in the education disciplines are playing a pioneering role in Easy Language teaching. Special education and speech therapy, in particu- lar, took up Easy Language at a relatively early stage. Experts at the University of Applied Sciences of Special Needs Education (HfH 32), which specializes in special education, point out that Easy Language has been discussed in indi- vidual training courses via a few selective thematic inputs there for around 15 years – not in the form of in-depth examinations of the concept, but in the form of awareness-raising introductions to Easy Language and its objectives. Easy Language has appeared as a topic in special education, speech therapy and social pedagogy courses, in connection with discourses on participation, empowerment, accessibility and inclusion, which are central to these fields. Since the introduction of these courses, master’s theses have been written on, for example, the simplification of texts in already-existing teaching materials and children’s and young adults’ books. Currently, the HfH is the only university of teacher education that has relatively broadly incorporated Easy Language knowledge development into 32 HfH Institute for Disabilities and Participation, https://www.hfh.ch/de/institute/institut-fuer- behinderung-und-partizipation, HfH Institute for Language and Communication Special Needs, https://www.hfh.ch/de/institute/institut-fuer-sprache-und-kommunikation-unter- erschwerten-bedingungen © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 597 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. its bachelor’s and master’s degrees (Arn and Baumann 2019). This is in part because those teaching Easy Language at this institution were involved in the discussions on it in Switzerland in the very early stages. The HfH trains special needs teachers and speech therapists, for example. By including Easy Language in regular degree courses, this institution is trying to provide one of the tools to fulfil this pedagogical mission. In the speech therapy curriculum at the HfH, Easy Language appears in individual courses in linguistics speech therapy in a special education context – central speech disorders, and counselling. Ideally, Easy Language should be incorporated as a core part of a curriculum and thus prevent possible fluctu- ations in study programmes depending on the faculty’s turnover. In speech therapy, efforts are underway to include Easy Language as a compulsory subject in the next curriculum review. In the French-speaking part of Switzerland, smaller introductory courses have recently been offered in the master’s programs in the French section at the Department of Special Education at the University of Fribourg (UNIFR) 33. The aim is to familiarize future special education professionals with the concept of Easy Language. The students are introduced to Easy Language and its methods over three hours, during which the origins of Easy Language, its target groups, and the steps involved in translating texts into Easy Language are discussed. They are also provided with information about the Inclusion Europe guide- lines 34 and Public Health France’s guidelines (Ruel and Allaire 2018). Capacity building in Easy Language is also being promoted in social work disciplines. Individual discussions on Easy Language in social work courses were taking place before 2014 but remained an exception. Since then, expertise in Easy Language in social work courses has somewhat improved, but until now, it has not really been part of degree programmes in German-speaking Switzerland. In the French-speaking region, the anchoring of Easy Language in social work degrees is a little further advanced. Since 2017, at the School of Social 33 UNIFR Special Education, https://www3.unifr.ch/spedu/fr/ 34 Inclusion Europe Guidelines, https://www.unapei.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ L’informaion-pour-tous-Règles-européennes-pour-une-information-facile-à-lire-et-à- comprendre.pdf 598 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Switzerland Work Fribourg (HETS-FR) 35, students in the bachelor’s programme receive at least a three-hour introduction to the topic. This is the same input as that offered to master’s students in the French section of the Department of Special Education at UNIFR (discussed above). The first further education programme on Easy Language in the Swiss ter- tiary sector was developed in 2014, in social work, by the School of Social Work, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (HSA FHNW), which offers a specialist seminar on Easy Language that lasts several days. As mentioned above, this offer was introduced in connection with the first Swiss research project on Easy Language (Antener et al. 2014), triggered by the lack of Easy Language training opportunities in Switzerland at the time. Since 2019, the HSA FHNW has offered a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Accessible Communication, of which the ‘Easy Language Seminar’ (Fachseminar Leichte Sprache) is an optional module 36. Here, the Easy Lan- guage training is conceived of and integrated into a larger communication framework. The participants of the ‘Easy Language Seminar’ have changed significantly in recent years: initially, they were mainly staff of institutions for people with disabilities, who needed Easy Language knowledge in their daily work. Increasingly, different specialist areas have become represented on the course, including social educators; social workers; special-education teachers; speech therapists; communication managers; translators; lawyers; professionals from schools, health care and insurance; and people from the cultural sector, for example, theatres and museums. This can be taken as an indication that Easy Language in Switzerland is no longer mainly discussed in the context of disability; it is being seen as a tool for a range of addressee-oriented interactions. Swiss universities seem to offer very few inputs for Easy Language in lin- guistic science degree courses. However, some notable examples are worth mentioning. In the MA (Master of Arts) programme in linguistics at the Uni- versity of Zurich, for instance, Easy Language is part of the ‘Digital Linguistics’ module in the Department of Computational Linguistics (CL UZH) 37, where 35 HETS Fribourg, https://www.hets-fr.ch/fr/ecole/accueil 36 CAS Accessible Communication, https://www.fhnw.ch/de/weiterbildung/soziale- arbeit/9270392 37 UZH Digital Linguistics, https://www.cl.uzh.ch/en/studies.html © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 599 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. it is discussed in relation to systems for automatic text simplification in the area of Language Technology for Accessibility. Easy Language is also incorporated into professional translation courses. In 2020, the Institute of Translation and Interpreting at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) 38 launched a new specialization in Barrier-free Communication and Audiovisual Translation in its MA in Applied Linguistics. Students are encouraged to investigate the theoretical aspects of intralingual translation into Easy Language, familiarize themselves with the relevant liter- ature and carry out translations. Bachelor students of Applied Languages are also introduced to the basic concepts of Easy Language and can explore the subject further in their final research paper. Furthermore, after its first training course in 2016 (Zaugg 2018, section 7), the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting of the German Department at the University of Geneva (FTI) included Leichte Sprache in its ‘Text Analysis’ bachelor’s course in 2020. The master’s programme at the FTI also offers indi- vidual units on Easy Language, as it is a possible professional field for future translators. These examples show that, today, Easy Language training is not yet system- atically implemented in Switzerland. However, a promising range of education- al options are already in place. 7.3 Research In Switzerland, research on Easy Language has only recently begun. This sec- tion summarizes the different approaches to Easy Language research, the var- ious disciplinary perspectives and the financing of the work. Regarding research financing, in addition to the research institutions them- selves, the following state institutions have been important contributors to funding: a) the Federal Bureau for the Equality of People with Disabilities, which co-finances up to 50% of research and development (R&D) projects that increase equality for people with disabilities in certain areas such as accessibil- 38 ZHAW Institute of Translation and Interpreting, https://www.zhaw.ch/en/linguistics/ institutes-centres/iued-institute-of-translation-and-interpreting/ 600 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Switzerland ity of information and participation in official procedures, but does not fund ‘pure’ research proposals; b) the federally-funded ‘Swiss Innovation Agency’ (Innosuisse), which promotes science-based innovations (products, services) deemed to be in the general interest of the Swiss economy and society; and c) the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (Staatssekretariat für Bildung, Forschung und Innovation). For international projects with Swiss participation, research institutions in the relevant states and the EU can be important funding sources. To a lesser ex- tent, Easy Language R&D is supported by private foundations that sometimes sponsor pilot projects or prepare project applications, especially when these benefit disadvantaged groups. Contract research is of secondary importance; indeed, so far, very little has been done in the field of Easy Language. The sci- entific discourse on Easy Language is promoted by conferences that either deal exclusively with Easy Language or include a focus on it; for example within the framework of the three Swiss Conferences on Barrier-free Communication, in Winterthur and Geneva in 2017, 2018 and 2020, and the second KLAARA con- ference, which is in Olten at the School of Social Work (HSA FHNW) in 2021. In the social sciences, Easy Language research has emerged from the in- creasing use of Easy Language in research projects over the past decade. Easy Language is crucial to understanding the situation of socially marginalized groups (such as people with disabilities, immigrants, children, the elderly) because it enables their involvement, whether this be in recruiting participants for a study, obtaining their consent to participate, conducting interviews and questionnaires, or discussing the findings of the study. So, as Easy Language was used as a means to conduct research, and researchers’ awareness of its importance was growing, Easy Language also became a topic of research itself (see Petitpierre et al. 2013 on declarations of consent and Hedderich et al. 2014 on the use of Easy Language in participatory research). Producing and making Easy Language accessible to people with disabili- ties involves selecting, writing, reviewing, and applying texts. In the first so- cial science Easy Language R&D project in German-speaking Switzerland in 2015 to 2018, ‘Just easy to understand’ (Antener et al. 2017), the School for Social Work FHNW investigated the production of Easy Language texts for an adult protection authority and made recommendations for good practice © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 601 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. (Parpan-Blaser et al. 2019, Girard-Groeber et al. 2021). The Department of Special Education at the University of Fribourg has had a similar focus in the French-speaking region since 2017, and has evaluated not only the procedures (translation, validation) but also the documents translated by the Bureau for Easy Language Fribourg. At the time of writing, a PhD candidate is also work- ing on a thesis on how people with intellectual disabilities can participate in translating a questionnaire into Easy Language and whether such a version is more accessible than the standard language one (Diacquenod 2018). Since 2017, the Institute of Translation and Interpreting at Zurich Univer- sity of Applied Sciences has been working with the Faculty of Translation and Interpretation at the University of Geneva to create the foundation for a Swiss Research Centre for Barrier-free Communication 39. The project investigates how access to information and education in Switzerland can be facilitated for people with hearing, visual or intellectual disabilities. Easy Language is one of the project’s ten research areas. Several corpus analyses have been conducted to understand translation strategies and information loss in texts in German Easy Language (Jekat et al. 2020, Nüssli 2018, Jekat et al. 2017, among others) and Italian Easy Language (Carrer 2021), and to investigate how Easy Language is portrayed in the Swiss German press (Jekat et al. 2020, D’Agostino 2018). Experimental studies have also evaluated the impact of Easy Language texts on the comprehension of health-related issues among people with intellectual dis- abilities (Carrer 2021, Nüssli 2018). Interim project outcomes include explora- tory studies of a) the potential of French Easy Language in inclusive classroom settings (Casalegno et al. 2019), b) the impact of neural machine translation (NMT) on the usability of Easy Language texts by people with intellectual disabilities (Kaplan 2021, Rodríguez Vázquez et al. forth., Rodríguez Vázquez and Bouillon forth.), and c) the use of NMT for rendering speech output into a simplified form in a medical speech-to-speech translation system (Mutal et al. 2019). The results of some of these investigations were disseminated at three international conferences held as part of the project in 2017, 2018 and 2020. 39 The project is funded by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation and is supported by the Swiss University Conference. See Swiss Centre for Barrier-free Communi- cation (https://www.zhaw.ch/en/linguistics/research/barrier-free-communication/; retrieved 14/09/2020) and Proposal and Implementation of a Swiss Centre for Barrier-free Communica- tion (https://bfc.unige.ch/en/; retrieved 14/09/2020). 602 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Switzerland The Centre for Legal and Institutional Translation Studies, TRANSIUS, at the University of Geneva has recently conducted comparative studies of Swiss administrative language, using participatory research methods. They systematically analysed insurance leaflets in three languages (French, German and Italian) and assessed their readability and comprehensibility according to Plain Language principles (Griebel and Felici 2021, Felici and Griebel 2019, Griebel and Felici 2018). Computational Linguistics (CL) research at the University of Zurich focus- es on the contribution of linguistics and language technology to accessibility for people with disabilities and special educational needs. The research topics related to Easy Language are semi-automatic and automatic text simplification, the automatic sentence alignment of standard and simplified texts, and the automatic assessment of text readability. The ‘Capito automatisiert: Automatic text simplification for German’ project runs from 2020 to 2021. A system is also being developed for AI 40-based automatic simplification of German texts. A novel approach at the University of Zurich has enabled such an AI-based system, developed and ‘trained’ on the basis of existing capito texts, to be used to turn complicated texts (C1/C2) into simple language (A1 to B1) (Säuberli et al. 2020, Battisti et al. 2019). The Living Lab Handicap 41 at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES-SO Valais-Wallis) is cur- rently developing the ‘FALC-Assistant’ 42. Available on the internet, the FALC Assistant is a software programme for creating and translating documents into FALC. It is designed to assist people by automatically checking the application of the rules. Groups of validators may be contacted via this platform. Within the framework of web-accessibility studies, Easy Language has been examined by academics at the University of Fribourg Department of Psycholo- gy. A study of Easy Language used on disability-friendly websites (Schmutz et al. 2019) has shown that Easy Language has both advantages and disadvantages compared with standard languages: Easy Language makes content recognition easier, but also prolongs reading time, decreases the general appreciation of the 40 Artificial Intelligence 41 Living Lab Handicap, https://livinglabhandicap.ch/en/living-lab-handicap/ 42 Langage facile à lire et à comprendre (= Easy French) © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 603 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. text and leads to reduced intentions to visit the website again. Note that these are results of tests of non-disabled users (students); no evidence was collected of the views of users with disabilities. 8 Future perspectives Although much has been achieved in a few years in the field of Easy Lan- guage in Switzerland, a great deal of questions remain unanswered. As has been shown here, Switzerland’s multilingualism and federal structure impact on Easy Language in many ways. Its prospects and its problems, therefore, are not the same in all regions. Yet, in order to move forward, it would be helpful to agree on a substantial common ground in order to network in a continuous exchange and to advance in the development of knowledge and practice. A co-ordinated approach to the interplay of practice, research and poli- tics would be valuable. To address such questions and others about the fu- ture systematically, however, a determined political will is needed at all levels: Switzerland’s federalist democratic political system, based on compromise and consensus, entails both difficulties and opportunities in all areas of policy, and the implementation of Easy Language is no exception. Constructing an over- arching strategy is not easy. The resulting patchwork makes it more difficult to define binding principles and standards for Easy Language for the whole country. Switzerland’s multilingualism adds to the challenge and raises issues not only of process (should the original text be translated or the one that has already been transposed to Easy Language?), but also of finances. Collaboration among Easy Language service providers, researchers, com- munity organizations and target groups should be closer. Only through effec- tive collaboration among these various actors can Easy Language services be implemented systematically and in time be regarded as professional services in their own right, like other communication services such as translation and copywriting. Perhaps Easy Language service providers should consider organ- izing themselves into a professional association. Validators of Easy Language texts should ideally be recruited from the intended target groups. Furthermore, 604 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Switzerland only appropriate remuneration for providers and validators can guarantee the provision of quality. Besides collaboration, awareness of the potential of Easy Language should increase. The use of Easy Language and the amount of information available in Easy Language currently still depends too much on the commitment of individuals. Social institutions are aware of its potential but there is no con- sistency in how they see Easy Language fitting into their communication strat- egies. Providers of information in Easy Language, such as public authorities, associations, and institutions face the question not only of how to use Easy Language as a means of communication but also of how to integrate it into an overall concept of accessible communication. This entails making information in Easy Language visible in such a way that the target groups can find it without additional effort. Ultimately, awareness of Easy Language should increase not only in the general population but also among the target groups, especially beyond self-ad- vocates and institutions. They need to know the opportunities and to be made aware of their rights and possibilities, so that they themselves can demand and lobby for more Easy Language. In summary, there is still a long way to go before accessible, comprehensible information and communication can be taken for granted and experienced as part of an inclusive society. An important step towards this goal would be to regard Easy Language as a service to the general public rather than as a special service for individual groups. Never- theless, it is important, for advocacy purposes, to have up-to-date figures on the different Easy Language target groups (see UN CRPD 2019: 7, Inclusion Handicap 2019: 27). Our vision for Easy Language in Switzerland is that experts – especially in the social, administrative and communication fields – are sensitized to Easy Language and that all information relevant to active citizenship is available in Easy Language. In addition, efforts should be made to raise users’ aware- ness: end users have the right to know that texts in Easy Language exist and where to find them. This places them in a position to advocate for their own best interests. Disability organizations set a good example and show how Easy Language is used in a meaningful way (e.g., on their websites). Easy Language should eventually become a natural part of communication concepts and be © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 605 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. considered one of the many different means of appropriate communication that must be budgeted for from the outset. Approaching this vision in a typically Swiss manner means tackling the difficulties enumerated in this chapter with perseverance and making the ef- fort, step by step, to achieve a common ground. For compromises to be viable, they will have to be in keeping with Swiss tradition: once reached, they will be supported by a majority of the population, regardless of their region or national language. Authors Anne Parpan-Blaser (Prof. Dr.) is a senior researcher and lecturer at the School of Social Work FHNW, Switzerland. In addition to her teaching activities (BA and MA), she leads R&D projects on Easy Language, e-accessibility and social innovation. Together with her colleagues at the Institute for Integration and Participation, Anne has developed the Certificate of Advanced Studies pro- gramme ‘Audience-oriented and barrier-free communication’ of which she is the co-director. She also a trained social worker. Contact: anne.parpan@fhnw. ch, https://www.fhnw.ch/en/people/anne-parpan Simone Girard-Groeber (Dr.) is a senior researcher at the Institute for In- tegration and Participation at the University of Applied Sciences for Social Work FHNW Northwestern Switzerland. Her work focuses on interaction and participation in spoken language and Sign Language as well as on audi- ence-oriented communication, including Easy Language. In addition to her research activities, she is also active in teaching and further education. Simone Girard-Groeber is a trained linguist. Contact: simone.girard@fhnw.ch, https:// www.fhnw.ch/en/people/simone-girard Gabriela Antener (Prof.) is a senior researcher and lecturer at the Institute for Integration and Participation at the School of Social Work FHNW. She leads R&D projects on barrier-free communication, Easy Language, and e-acces- sibility. She is co-director of the Certificate of Advanced Studies programme 606 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Switzerland ‘Addressee-oriented and barrier-free communication’. She has a background in special education and augmentative and alternative communication. Contact: gabriela.antener@fhnw.ch, https://www.fhnw.ch/en/people/gabriela-antener Christina Arn (lic. phil, MAE) is a senior lecturer at University of Applied Sciences in Special Needs Education (HfH). She conducts lessons and research in the fields of speech therapy, curative education and ethics, in particular, teaching and further training in the basics and the application of Easy Lan- guage for speech therapists in studies and further education. Contact: christina. arn@hfh.ch Rita Baumann (lic.phil.) is a senior lecturer at the University of Applied Scienc- es in Special Needs Education (HfH). She conducts lessons and research in the field of training teachers of children and teenagers with intellectual impair- ments. In particular, she provides teaching and further training in the basics and the application of Easy Language for teachers in special needs education and further education. Contact: rita.baumann@hfh.ch Alexandra Caplazi (lic.iur., LL.M.) is a senior lecturer at the Institute for Inte- gration and Participation of the University of Applied Sciences north-western Switzerland, School of Social Work. In addition to her teaching and research activities, she is the director of the Master of Advanced Studies programme in Social Law. Her main fields of teaching and research are national and in- ternational human rights, in particular anti-discrimination law, labour law and family law. Contact: alexandra.caplazi@fhnw.ch, https://www.fhnw.ch/de/ personen/alexandra-caplazi Luisa Carrer is a research associate in Accessibility Studies at the Institute of Translation and Interpreting of the ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland. She recently completed her MA in Applied Linguistics at the ZHAW. Her master’s thesis, which focused on Easy Italian, was awarded the 2020 Lionbridge Prize. Luisa has a background in Italian Studies and Italian language teaching. Before joining the ZHAW, she gained valuable experience © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 607 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. in teaching and research at major academic institutions in the UK. Contact: luisa.carrer@zhaw.ch Cindy Diacquenod is a scientific collaborator and junior researcher at the Department of Special Education at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. She has a background in special education, specifically intellectual disabilities. For her master’s thesis and her PhD, she has worked with people with intel- lectual disabilities in order to create an Easy Language version of self-report questionnaires. In addition to her PhD (in progress), she leads R&D projects and provides training in Easy Language. Contact: cindy.diacquenod@unifr.ch Annette Lichtenauer (lic. phil.) is a researcher at the Institute for Integration and Participation at the School of Social Work FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts, north-western Switzerland. Her work focuses on participa- tion, equality, and barrier-free communication. She co-leads an Easy Language training programme. In addition to her research activities, she is active in teaching and further education. She is a trained sociologist with a background in special education and social pedagogy. Contact: annette.lichtenauer@fhnw. ch, https://www.fhnw.ch/en/people/annette-lichtenauer Andrea Sterchi is a journalist and writing coach. She has worked as a freelance translator and copywriter in Easy Language and plain language since 2015. She supports authorities, institutions, companies, and individuals in their com- munication in Easy and Plain language and gives workshops and lectures. In 2020 she co-founded the first Swiss online news magazine in Easy Language infoeasy. Contact: info@as-sprachbuero.ch, https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-sterchi/, www.as-sprachbuero.ch, www.infoeasy-news.ch Acknowledgements We express our gratitude to all the people who helped us make this chapter what it is. First and foremost, a sincere thank you goes to Leealaura Leskelä 608 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Switzerland and Urs Germann, who helped us sharpen and substantiate our explanations with their precise, critical advice and constructive feedback. We would also like to thank Kathleen Weekley, who assisted us with her feeling for language and expertise as a translator. And last but not least, we are indebted to all the people whose participation in the survey or whose information enabled us to make relevant statements about Easy Language in Switzerland today. References Action plan CRPD. Web. 20 September 2020. . Anffas Nazionale. Il progetto “IO CITTADINO!”. Strumenti per la piena partecipazione, cittadinanza attiva e Self Advocacy delle persone con disabilità intellettiva e/o rela- zionale [Tools for full participation, active citizenship and self-advocacy of peo- ple with intellectual and/or relational disabilities]. 2016. Rome: Anffas Naziona- le. Web. 27 October 2020. . Antener, Gabriela; Parpan-Blaser Anne, and Annette Lichtenauer. Ein- fach leicht verständlich! Leichte Sprache am Beispiel Erwachsenschutz [Just easy to understand. Easy Language using the example of adult protection]. Unpublished project concept. Olten: FHNW, 2014. Print. 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Griebel, Cornelia, and Annarita Felici. “‘Inhalt des Originalsatzes unklar...’ Verständlichkeit und Vereinfachung von Schweizer Verwaltungstexten: Eine em- pirische Untersuchung im Kontext der Mehrsprachigkeit.” [“Content of the origi- nal sentence unclear...” Comprehensibility and simplification of Swiss administ- rative texts: An empirical study in the context of multilingualism]. Parallèles 33.1 (2021). DOI: 10.17462/para.2021.01.09. Guggisberg, Jürg; Detzel, Patrick, and Heidi Stutz. Volkswirtschaftliche Kos- ten der Leseschwäche in der Schweiz [Economic costs of reading difficulties in Swit- zerland]. Bern: Büro für Arbeits- und Sozialpolitische Studien (BASS AG). 2007. Web. 20 September 2020. . Hedderich, Ingeborg; Egloff, Barbara, and Raphael Zahnd. Eds. Biografie, Partizipation, Behinderung [Biography, participation, disability]. Bad Heilbrunn: Verlag Julius Klinkhardt, 2014. Print. HETS Fribourg. Web. 20 September 2020. . HfH Institute for Disabilities and Participation. Web. 20 September 2020. . HfH Institute for Language and Communication Special Needs. Web. 20 September 2020. . © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 613 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. Hille, Anina; Roos, Brigitte; Seidel, Felix; Seiler Zimmermann, Yvonne, and Gabrielle Wanzenried. Studie zur Arbeitsmarktsituation von gehörlosen und hörbehinderten Personen in der Schweiz [Study on the labour market situation of deaf and hearing-impaired persons in Switzerland]. Lucerne: Institute of Finan- cial Services Zug IFZ, 2020. Web. 14 September 2020. . IDA BF (Interdepartementale Arbeitsgruppe Barrierefreiheit). Aktionsplan E-Accessibil- ity 2015–2017 [Action plan E-Accessibility 2015–2017]. Federal Bureau for the Equality of People with Disabilities (FBED). 2015. Web. 14 September 2020. . Inclusion Europe. Informazioni per tutti. Linee guida europee per rendere l’informazio- ne facile da leggere e da capire per tutti [Information for all. 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Winterthur: Zurich University of Applied Sciences, 2018. DOI: 10.21256/zhaw-3000. Jekat, Susanne J.; Germann, Esther; Lintner, Alexa, and Corinne Soland. “Parteiprogramme in Leichter Sprache: Eine korpuslinguistische Annäherung.” [Party programmes in Easy Language: A corpus linguistic approach]. Eds. Bettina M. Bock, Ulla Fix, and Daisy Lange. “Leichte Sprache” im Spiegel theoretischer und angewandter Forschung. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2017. 229–246. Print. 614 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Switzerland Jekat, Susanne. J.; Hagmann, David, and Alexa Lintner. “Texte in Leichter Sprache: Entwicklungsstand und Hinweise zur Qualitätsoptimierung.” [Texts in Easy Language: State of development and hints for quality optimisation]. Eds. F. Heidrich, and K. Schubert. Fachkommunikation – gelenkt, geregelt, optimiert. Fach – Sprache – Kommunikation, Vol. 1. Hildesheim: Universitätsverlag Hildesheim, 2020. 175–193. Print. Jekat, Susanne J.; Puhl, Steffen; Carrer, Luisa, and Alexa Lintner. Eds. Proceedings of the 3rd Swiss Conference on barrier-free communication (BfC 2020). Winterthur (online), 29 June–4 July 2020. Winterthur: Zurich University of Ap- plied Sciences, 2021. DOI: 10.21256/zhaw-3001. DOI: 10.21256/zhaw-3001. Jeitziner, Denise, and Sven Cornehls. “Verstehen Sie diesen Text?” [Do you un- derstand this text?]. Tages-Anzeiger 22 August 2020. Print. Just easy to understand. Web. 20 September 2020. . Kaplan, Abigail. Suitability of Neural Machine Translation for Producing Linguisti- cally Accessible Text: Exploring the Effects of Pre-Editing on Easy to-Read Admi- nistrative Documents. Geneva: University of Geneva, 2021. Unpublished Master’s thesis. Koenig-Bruhin, Monica; Kolonko, Beate; At, Ayse; Annoni, Jean-Marie, and Erika Hunziker. “Aphasia following a stroke: recovery and recommenda- tions for rehabilitation.” Swiss Archives for Neurology and Psychiatry 164.8 (2013): 292–298. Print. 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Mutal, Jonathan D.; Bouillon, Pierrette; Gerlach, Johanna; Estrella, Paula, and Hervé Spechbach. “Monolingual backtranslation in a medical spe- ech translation system for diagnostic interviews – a NMT approach.” Ed. European Association for Machine Translation. Proceedings of machine translation summit XVII Volume 2: Translator, project and user tracks 2019: 169–203. Print. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 615 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. Netzwerk Leichte Sprache. Web. 20 September 2020. . OECD and Statistics Canada. Learning a living: First results of the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey. Ottawa/Paris: Statistics Canada and OECD, 2005. Web. 1 Sep- tember 2020. . P028 – Richtlinie des Bundes für die Gestaltung von barrierefreien Internetangeboten, Version 2.03 vom 31.3.2016. [P028 – Federal Guideline for the Design of Barri- er-free Internet Services]. 2016. Web. 1 September 2020. Parpan-Blaser, Anne; von Fellenberg, Monika; Girard, Simone; Lichtenauer, Annette, and Gabriela Antener. “Potenziale Leichter Sprache zur Partizipati- on Betroffener im Verfahren auf Anordnung einer erwachsenenschutzrechtlichen Massnahme.” [Potentials of Easy Language for the participation of affected persons in the procedure for issuing an adult protection measure]. ZKE Zeitschrift für Kin- des- und Erwachsenenschutz 4 (2018): 272–292. Print. Parpan-Blaser, Anne; Girard, Simone, and Annette Lichtenauer. ‘Einfach leicht verständlich.’ Leichte Sprache im Erwachsenenschutzverfahren [‘Simply easy to understand.’ Easy Language in adult protection proceedings]. Olten: FHNW, 2018. Unpublished project report. Parpan-Blaser, Anne; Girard-Groeber, Simone; von Fellenberg, Monika; Lichtenauer, Annette, and Gabriela Antener. “Behördenkommunikati- on leicht verständlich und inhaltlich korrekt.” [Communication with the authori- ties easy to understand and correct in content]. Soziale Sicherheit CHSS 3 (2019): 25–30. Print. Petitpierre, Geneviève; Gremaud, Germaine; Veyre, Aline; Bruni, Ivo, and Cindy Diacquenod. Aller au-delà de l’alibi. Consentement à la recherche chez les personnes présentant une déficience intellectuelle [Going beyond the alibi. Consent to research among people with intellectual disabilities]. Société Suisse d’Ethno- logie. 2013. Web. 12 September 2020. . Pro Infirmis. Come lavoriamo [How we work]. Web. 1 September 2020. . Pro Infirmis. Easy Language. Web. 20 September 2020. . Rieder, Andreas. Form oder Effekt? Art. 8 Abs. 2 BV und die ungleichen Auswirkun- gen staatlichen Handelns [Form or Effect? Art. 8 para. 2 BV and the unequal effects of state action]. Bern: Schulthess, 2003. Print. Rodríguez Vázquez, Silvia, and Pierrette Bouillon. “Accessibility, Easy Language and Machine Translation through an Ethical Lens.” Eds. Carla Parra Escartín, and Helena Moniz. 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Standard German Easy German Source: https://www.parlament.ch/ WAS TUT DAS PARLAMENT? de/über-das-parlament/ parlamentsportraet/aufgaben- der-bundesversammlung Das sind die wichtigsten Aufgaben vom Parlament: • Die Gesetze prüfen • Entscheiden, ob ein Gesetz geändert werden muss • Einen Vorschlag schreiben, wie ein Gesetz geändert werden muss • Neue Gesetze vorschlagen Das sind die anderen Aufgaben vom Parlament: • Die 7 Bundesräte und Bundesrätinnen wählen • Die Richter und Richterinnen für die Bundesgerichte wählen • Den Bundeskanzler oder die Bun- deskanzlerin wählen • Die Arbeit vom Bundesrat überwachen • Die Arbeit von den Bundesgerichten überwachen https://www.parlament.ch/de/ über-das-parlament/leichte-sprache © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 619 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. Standard French Easy French Source: https://www.parlament.ch/ QUE FAIT LE PARLEMENT? fr/über-das-parlament/ portrait-du-parlement/attributions- assemblee-federale Au Parlement, on parle. Au Parlement, les tâches principales des députés sont: • examiner les lois • voir s’il faut changer les lois • écrire des propositions pour changer les lois • écrire peut-être de nouvelles lois Les autres tâches du Parlement sont : • élire (ou choisir) les 7 personnes du Conseil fédéral: • les 7 conseillères et conseillers fédéraux • élire les juges fédéraux des Tribunaux fédéraux • élire la chancelière ou le chancelier de la Confédération • contrôler le travail du Conseil fédéral • contrôler le travail des tribunaux fédéraux https://www.parlament.ch/fr/über-das- parlament/langage-simplifie 620 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in Switzerland Standard Italian Easy Italian Source: https://www.parlament.ch/ COSA FA IL PARLAMENTO? it/über-das-parlament/ ritratto-del-parlamento/compiti- assemblea-federale In Parlamento, i compiti principali dei deputati sono: • esaminare le leggi • decidere se occorre cambiare le leggi • scrivere delle proposte per cambiare le leggi • eventualmente scrivere delle nuove leggi. Gli altri compiti dei deputati in P arlamento sono: • eleggere le 7 persone che formano il Consiglio federale. Queste persone si chiamano consigliere e consiglieri federali • eleggere le giudici o i giudici federali dei Tribunali federali • eleggere la cancelliera o il cancelliere della Confederazione • controllare il lavoro del Consiglio federale • controllare il lavoro dei Tribunali federali. https://www.parlament.ch/it/über-das- parlament/lingua-facile © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 621 Anne Parpan-Blaser et al. Standard English Easy English (author’s translation) Source: Portrait of Parliament [WHAT DOES THE PARLIAMENT DO? – The Federal Assembly is the parliament of the Swiss Confeder- ation on: www.parlament.ch These are the most important tasks of the Parliament: • Examining bills • Deciding whether laws need to be changed • Writing proposals to change the laws • Proposing new laws These are other tasks of the Parliament: • Electing 7 Federal Councillors • Electing judges for the federal courts • Electing the Federal Chancellor • Supervising the work of the Federal Council • Supervising the work of the federal courts]. 622 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Deborah Chinn, Susan Buell Easy Language in the UK 1 Introduction The United Kingdom (UK) is made up of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It is densely populated: the total population at the last census in 2011 was 63 million. Over the last 50 years, the UK’s population has become increasingly diverse and multicultural. In 2018, around 13.8% of the population were from Black and Minority Ethnic Groups (BAME). Com- pared to other European countries, the UK population has higher levels of wealth inequality (European Union 2018), with the richest 10% of households holding 44% of the country’s wealth (The Equality Trust 2019). There is also an unequal distribution of wealth across the UK, with median total household wealth in the south-east of the country being twice that in the north-west. It is estimated that in the UK, 14.1 million people have a disability, defined as a health problem or impairment that is associated with restrictions to every- day activities (Department of Work and Pensions 2019). This includes 19% of working-age adults and 44% of adults over 65. Around 8% of children are reported to have a disability. Rates of disability across the UK vary, with higher rates reported in areas of local deprivation (Office for National Statistics 2015). The UK Royal College of Speech and Language Therapy has calculated that nearly 20% of the population experience communication difficulties at some point in their lives. This might include individuals with cerebral palsy, intel- lectual disabilities, Down syndrome, autism spectrum conditions 1, hearing impairments, stroke, brain injuries, head and neck cancers, Parkinson’s disease, motor neuron disease, or dementia. Within this group, individual abilities to 1 We use this term in preference to ‘autism spectrum disorder’ in recognition of the preferences of people with autism and their supporters to frame autism as a neurodiverse condition rather than as a medically defined ‘disorder’. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 623 Deborah Chinn, Susan Buell speak, understand, read, and write vary greatly, some people are minimally affected but others require considerable support and reasonable adjustments of written material to be able to adequately understand the content. Around 1.5 million people in the UK have intellectual disabilities (Emerson et al. 2012) and it is likely that 80–90% of these individuals have significant difficulties with reading, although there is little reliable information on this. Apart from the national language of English, spoken by around 98% of the population, other indigenous UK languages are Welsh (1.1 million speak- ers), Scots (1.5 million), Irish (95 000), and Scottish Gaelic (66 000). At least another three hundred other languages are also spoken by settled and recent immigrants. The basis of English is a variety of West Germanic language, brought to Britain by Anglo-Saxon migrants between 450 and 600 AD. Contemporary English has borrowed a large number of words from many other languages, which means that nearly every sound in a word can be spelled in multiple ways, and that many letters are pronounced differently. Consequently, even native speakers make spelling mistakes from time to time. English grammar has very few word endings inflections, a comparatively regular subject-verb-object word order, and a complex syntax. English has spread internationally as a lingua franca to many parts of the globe and in many professional settings, including those of science, academia and law. It is the most widely learned second language in the world. ‘Easy English’ and ‘Easy Language’ are not terms that are commonly used in the UK to describe varieties of English that are adapted for individuals that need support in communication. The terms that are likely to be used in a range of institutional settings are ‘Plain English’ (relating to the general population) and ‘Easy Read’ 2 (more specifically designed for people with intellectual dis- abilities). Our own expertise is in the ‘Easy Read’ area of research and practice. Nevertheless we include an overview of ‘Plain English’ that has been greatly aided by input from specialists in UK government departments and non-gov- ernmental organizations (NGOs). We also note an increasing emphasis on the 2 ‘Easy Read’ is the widely used and recognized national term in the UK to refer to texts and resources adapted for people with intellectual disabilities rather than terms used in other countries, such as ‘Easy-to-Read’ (Australia or the US). 624 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the UK concept of ‘accessibility’, which provides an overarching framework for both Plain English and Easy Read initiatives. 2 Historical perspectives Historically, the discourse on the English language advocating for clarity and simplicity in written communication is long, with repeated calls over the centu- ries for a plain and unadorned style. Bennett (2019) identifies such arguments with a suspicion of obfuscation associated with verbal complexity, and with dis- courses that imply that a plain prose style is intrinsically more transparent and authentic and promotes honesty in public life and active citizenship. George Orwell’s famous 1946 essay ‘Politics and the English Language’ launched an attack against ‘the inflated style’ in discourse that he claimed inevitably con- tributed to the decline he noted in intellectual and civic life (Orwell 1946). Whereas Orwell and his predecessors were primarily concerned with public discourse in general, the UK Plain English Campaign (PEC), launched in 1979 by Christine Maher and Martin Cutts, emerged as an organization advocating for consumers and service users by holding to account unnecessarily complex and misleading public information (Maher et al. 1986). The founders of the PEC had backgrounds in journalism, community work, adult education, and adult literacy. Their first act was to ritually shred government and local author- ity forms in front of the Houses of Parliament. Their emphasis was on making the forms and information distributed by public and private bodies readable and useable by the general public. Funded by commercial activities, including text editing and training, the PEC continued its activities in the 1980s and 1990s, successfully putting Plain English writing on the agenda of the government and policy circles as part of a wider policy priority to advance governmental efficiency and individual rights and freedoms within neo-liberal free market ideology (Ager 1995). The PEC established the ‘Inside Write’ awards for best practice in writing inter- nal government communications in 1987. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher promoted their agenda in her foreword to a 1988 leaflet sent to civil servants. She stated that ‘Plain English must be the aim of all who work in Government’ © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 625 Deborah Chinn, Susan Buell (Plain, 1988 quoted in Ager 1995: 133). In 1990, the PEC launched the Crystal Mark, their seal of approval of clarity in a document. The Plain English movement has continued to advance through the efforts of the PEC and other organizations and pressure groups such as the Plain Language Commission and Clarity, which since 1983 has campaigned for plain language in legal documents and the courts (Perry 2014). These organiza- tions are increasingly active at an international level, through the International Plain Language Federation, which spearheads the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) project to develop an international plain language standard. Plain English has become the language of the digital government in the UK. The government website, GOV.UK, was launched in 2012, providing a single point of access to all government services, with the goal that users would interact with the government online in a ‘simpler, clearer and faster’ manner. Fundamental design principles emphasize accessible design, making all con- tent as ‘inclusive, legible and readable as possible’ (Government Digital Service 2012). In 2014, the Government Digital Service announced official guidelines for writing in plain English on the government web pages, stating ‘Plain English is mandatory for all of GOV.UK’. Easy Read practices in the UK developed in the context of the reimagining of services for people with intellectual disabilities in the 1980s and 1990s, which was influenced by an expanding disability rights movements and concerns about the poor standards and high costs of institutional care. Large mental handicap hospitals that had housed many thousands of disabled people closed down and a new model of care influenced by the ideology of normalization and an Ordinary Life framework promoted person-centred planning practices based on individual preferences and choices. This developed in tandem with an expanding self-advocacy movement for people with intellectual disabilities and the establishment of national and local People First groups that aimed to give them a voice in society. These developments created a need for written texts that could be easily comprehended by people with intellectual disabilities so that they could be more directly involved in personal life planning, service development and self-organization. However, until the late 1980s, the responsibility for reading 626 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the UK and interpreting information was largely placed on the people with intellectual disabilities themselves. For Jan Walmsley, an intellectual disability academic and expert in accessible information, a watershed moment came in 1986. This was the year advocacy organizations for people with intellectual disabilities challenged her team at the Open University to adapt a package of learning materials to improve communication between service providers and family members so that people with intellectual disabilities could use them. The out- come, ‘Patterns for Living: Working Together’, claimed to be the first University course of study designed for people with intellectual disabilities (Walmsley 2009) and illustrated a shift in the creation of accessible information to the producers rather than the consumers of information. As Walmsley (2009) and others have pointed out, the development and pro- motion of Easy Read in the UK has been closely linked to the goals of disability rights movements, underpinned by the social model of disability. This model distinguishes impairment from disability, in which barriers to social oppor- tunities, which arise due to discrimination and exclusion, create the lived expe- rience of disability. Removing these barriers opens up access to opportunities, and Easy Read is therefore understood as part of making texts and information more accessible; not just as an end in its own right, but part of a wider social movement to promote the inclusion, autonomy, self-determination, and active citizenship of disabled people (Baxter et al. 2008). With these goals in mind, the 2001 Government White Paper (policy doc- ument) on services for people with intellectual disabilities, Valuing People (Department of Health 2001) repeatedly stressed the importance of using accessible formats for producing and disseminating information to service users. The document itself was produced in a separate accessible format with an accompanying audio tape (Walmsley 2009). Since the publication of Valuing People and the further strengthening of the rights of people with disabilities to accessible information communicated through legislation (see Section 3), Easy Read resources for people with intel- lectual disabilities have expanded exponentially (Chinn and Homeyard 2016) in the areas of health and social care and public services. However, commercial organizations and business are less likely to offer Easy Read information to customers with intellectual disabilities. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 627 Deborah Chinn, Susan Buell 3 Current Situation Both Plain Language and Easy Read are frequently used concepts in the UK, though until fairly recently, there has been relatively little communication and interaction between practitioners with expertise in these different formats. 3.1 Definitions Plain English has several definitions, but most of them encompass the prin- ciples in the PLAIN (Plain Language Association International) definition. ‘A communication is in plain language if its wording, structure, and design are so clear that the intended readers can easily find what they need, understand what they find, and use that informa- tion’. (Cutts 2020: 3) Common features of Plain English are short sentences (15–20 words), the use of the active rather than the passive voice, avoidance of abstract nouns (nom- inalization), and the use of common everyday words rather than specialist jargon. Easy Read can be understood as a general approach or set of principles that makes information more accessible for people with intellectual disabilities, as a recognizable format, and as a set of tools for creating accessible texts. As a general approach, Easy Read should involve people with intellectual disabil- ities in creating texts from the beginning, offer information through a range of modalities and channels, be of interest to end users, and meet their needs (Department of Health 2009a). Written information in an Easy Read format uses ‘straightforward words and phrases…supported by pictures, diagrams, symbols and/or photographs to aid understanding and to illustrate the text’ (NHS 2016: 7). Resources and tools for creating accessible texts include specially created picture banks of photographs, most commonly those created by Photosymbols 3, which feature 3 Photosymbols, http://www.photosymbols.com. 628 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the UK models with intellectual disabilities and are constantly updated to keep the featured topics current. Other image banks contain drawings or symbols; for example the Bonnington Symbol System 4 and Widget symbols 5. The Widget symbol system is often used in educational settings to augment the written word and to some extent in healthcare settings. The reader must be familiar with the symbols. 3.2 Societal and legal context The Equality Act (2010) unified and consolidated previous legal instruments that had been introduced and amended over the years to address issues relating to discrimination and equality. The Act brought together previous national legislation, such as the Disability Discrimination Act (1995), EU legislation and case law (Butler 2016). It attempted to go beyond the removal of direct discrimination to enact the principle of ‘transformative equality’, requiring public institutions to remove access barriers encountered by historically dis- advantaged groups and provide appropriate resources to redress inequalities. The Act included a list of nine protected characteristics that provide grounds for determining that discrimination is unlawful (age, disability, gender reas- signment, religion or belief, marriage and civil partnership, race, pregnancy and maternity, sex, and sexual orientation). An important aspect of the Act is the requirement that all public services make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to make sure that people with disabilities are not substantially disadvantaged (Equality Act 2010 s20:1-5). The provision of information in accessible formats is regarded as a rea- sonable adjustment. Since the duty to provide reasonable adjustments is an- ticipatory, service providers are required to consider in advance what sort of adjustments to the presentation of texts and information are required, either collectively or individually, by disabled people (Heslop et al. 2019). Inevitably, what counts as reasonable is open to interpretation and involves consideration of the practicability of making adaptations, their costs and the 4 Bonnington Symbol System, http://www.tomorraccessibility.co.uk/bss.htm. 5 Widget, https://www.widgit.com/index.htm. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 629 Deborah Chinn, Susan Buell resources available to the organization. Thus, the Act can be accused of rein- forcing historically engrained conceptualizations of disability as a ‘problem’, with adjustments as inconvenient add-ons to ‘normal service’ (Roulstone and Prideaux 2009). Moreover, the Equality Act enshrines a categorical and medical definition of disability as referring to a defined set of characteristics, rather than recog- nizing that many citizens have a range of informational access needs, due to unfamiliarity with English, limited educational experiences, or more transitory emotional states. These would not count as ‘protected characteristics’ under the Act. The commitment to providing ‘accessible information’ stated in Valuing People (Department of Health 2001) was reinforced in the follow-on policy document, Valuing People Now (Department of Health 2009b). This docu- ment stated that: ‘Providing accessible information is essential if people are to have choice and control over their lives and is an implicit expectation of the Disability Discrimination Act. The Government will work to improve its performance in this area and expects all other public, voluntary and private bodies to do the same – in particular by employing self-advocacy organisations to advise on and develop materials’. (Department of Health 2009b: 57) The Mental Capacity Act (2005) outlines the responsibility of all health and social care providers to support the decision-making of adults who might lack the capacity to make decisions on their own. Care providers are required to provide these individuals with information in a format they can understand to support their decision-making. This might include the provision of Easy Read information for people with intellectual disabilities. The Care Act of 2014 detailed specific duties for local authorities with re- gards to the provision of advice and information for users of services, including the requirement that ‘Information and advice provided under this section must be accessible to, and proportionate to the needs of, those for whom it is being provided’ (Care Act 2014 c23: 4). 630 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the UK The Accessible information standard (AIS) came into force in 2016 and required that all organizations that provide National Health Service (NHS) care and/or publicly funded social care adopt a consistent approach to ‘identify- ing, recording, flagging, sharing and meeting information and communication support needs of patients, service users, carers and parents, where those needs relate to a disability, impairment of sensory loss’ (NHS 2017: 11). The obligation of service providers to comply with the AIS was given add- ed force in 2017, when the Care Quality Commission, which registers and regulates providers of health and social care stated that all inspection reports would include an evaluation of how providers apply the standard and offer information to service users in formats they can understand. Compared to the US, where Barack Obama mandated the use of Plain Language by federal agencies in the Plain Writing Act (2010), progress in the legal enforcement of the use of Plain English for public documents has been relatively slow in the UK. The 2015 Consumer Rights Act consolidated exist- ing consumer legislation and required that consumer contracts and notices be expressed in ‘plain and intelligible language’. If businesses fail to meet this standard, they may be vulnerable to legal challenge by consumers. Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Ac- cessibility Regulations (2018) state that websites or mobile apps created by organizations providing public services should meet accessibility standards that require digital media to be ‘perceivable, operable, understandable and robust’ so that they can be used by ‘as many people as possible’, including those with sensory or intellectual impairments or motor difficulties. The new legal requirements correspond to the international WCAG (Web Content Accessi- bility Guidelines) 2.1 AA accessibility standard. All public sector bodies are also required to include and update an accessibility statement on their websites. This legislation indicates a move from making ‘reasonable adjustments’ specifically for disabled people to coming closer to the principles of universal design, since the definition of accessibility provided has ‘content and design clear and simple enough so that most people can use it without needing to adapt it’ (Government Digital Service 2020). © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 631 Deborah Chinn, Susan Buell 3.3 Stakeholders Numerous UK-based commercial organizations, including general translation agencies, offer services covering text editing, auditing, user testing and trans- lation of texts into Plain English and Easy Read formats. Some organizations also offer training on using Plain English or Easy Read. These businesses tend to orient towards particular types of clients; public service organizations that are concerned about legal compliance with disability and accessibility legis- lation, digital content providers, or legal services. The UK Association for Accessible Formats is an association that sets national standards regarding the adaptation of print formats. Although it mentions Easy Read on its website, its focus is more on the accessibility of public information for those with visual impairments. There is no overall recognized body that oversees or regulates Plain English or Easy Read services. The Plain English Campaign (PEC) and the Plain Language Commission are two commercial organizations that confer a certificate of document accred- itation (Crystal Mark and Clear English Standard respectively) to confirm that a document or organization has met their standards for Plain English, although fees for this service are not modest (upwards of EUR 500 per document or EUR 500 –12 000 for different levels of corporate membership). Accessibility has become a cornerstone of the provision of government information to the public through the GOV.UK website. The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the civil service office in charge of setting accessi- bility standards for all GOV.UK content posted by different government de- partments. GDS supports a cross-governmental accessibility community, has established an Accessibility Leaders Network, and provides accessibility train- ing for civil servants. It is also the monitoring body for the Web Accessibility regulations and is obligated to check websites, documents and mobile apps for accessibility, and to enforce the requirement that providers of public services publish accessibility statements on their websites. Guidance on creating Easy Read texts for people with intellectual disabil- ities emphasizes the importance of involving these end users in the creation of Easy Read texts (see section on Guidelines). Consequently, a number of third sector organizations for and of people with intellectual disabilities, including 632 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the UK self-advocacy groups under the People First 6 umbrella, are engaged in the de- sign and distribution of Easy Read information. This can be an income source for these organizations (Chinn 2019a) and for individuals with intellectual disabilities, some of whom have become experts in the creation of Easy Read information (Goodwin et al. 2015). Some of these groups are employed by public sector and commercial businesses to check their Easy Read outputs. In July 2020, Learning Disability England, a charity that represents, cam- paigns for and researches the lives of people with intellectual disabilities, launched an Accessible Information Campaign 7. The campaign group came together as a result of the coronavirus epidemic, in dismay at what they per- ceived as the government’s delay in making sure people with intellectual dis- abilities received accessible information about the epidemic, and support to understand and act on it. In the last 20 years in the UK, healthcare providers’ acceptance of the idea that limited health literacy should be considered a significant social de- terminant of poor health outcomes has been growing (Patient Information Forum 2013). Health literacy is defined as ‘….the personal characteristics and social resources needed for individuals and communities to access, understand, appraise and use information and services to make decisions about health’ (WHO, cited in Public Health England 2015). Personal characteristics include literacy skills and the ability to read and decode health information, or ‘func- tional health literacy’ (Nutbeam 2008). Various National Health Service (NHS) bodies have devoted resources to awareness raising and staff training on health literacy (see for example NHS n.d.) and disseminating messages about making health information accessible using Plain English and other accessibility design principles (Health Education England 2018). Health information providers are advised to make sure that in- formation is available to all, including an estimated 42% of working adults who are unable to understand or make use of everyday health information (Row- lands et al. 2015). This work is also promoted through the Patient Information 6 People First, https://peoplefirstltd.com/. 7 Accessible Information Campaign, https://www.learningdisabilityengland.org.uk/news/ accessible-information-campaign/. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 633 Deborah Chinn, Susan Buell Forum (PIF), a not-for-profit, UK membership organization and network for people working in and involved with healthcare information and support 8. Government funded UK Research Councils require that funding applicants provide Plain English summaries of research proposals in order to make re- search accessible to the general public. The UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) established the national advisory body INVOLVE in 1996 to support active public involvement in health and social care research. This body has promoted a ‘Make it Clear’ campaign to improve the quality of these Plain English summaries, distributing guidance for researchers underpinned by Plain English principles. However, evidence of the accessibility and im- pact of these Plain English summaries is sparse, with one study concluding that the Plain English summaries provided by the researchers were no more comprehensible to lay readers than standard research abstracts (Kirkpatrick et al. 2017). Nevertheless, Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in research has become a requisite for UK Research Council funding, and this extends to research involving people with intellectual disabilities. Involving people with intellec- tual disabilities as collaborators and partners in research predates the rolling out of the PPI agenda, and inclusive and participatory research with people with intellectual disabilities is a well-established tradition in the UK (Walmsley 2001). Easy Read research materials are used to support co-researchers with intellectual disabilities (Walmsley 2004) and are also created to involve people with intellectual disabilities as research participants using Easy Read partici- pant information and consent documents (Hamilton et al. 2017). Since the 1990s, researchers have also been concerned about sharing information about research on people with intellectual disabilities with this group (Bashford et al. 1995). The British Journal of Learning Disabilities 9 requires that all articles be accompanied by an accessible summary. The journal also commissions self-ad- vocates with intellectual disabilities to select an article of interest in each issue and produce an Easy Read commentary (see for example Sunderland People First 2021). 8 Patient Information Forum, https://pifonline.org.uk/about-us/our-story/. 9 British Journal of Learning Disabilities, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14683156. In the UK, ‘Learning Disabilities’ is used as an alternative term to ‘Intellectual Disabilities’. 634 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the UK 3.4 General attitude Bennett (2019) argues that cultural straightforwardness and clarity are valued in written texts in English, as these qualities are associated with authenticity and trustworthiness. The adoption of Plain English principles in government communication has generally been well received and in 2013, the GOV.UK website won the prestigious Design of the Year award. There has been some resistance to the simplification of legal documents by members of the legal profession, who claim that removing technical legal language removes impor- tant concepts and alters the meaning and function of these texts (Bhatia 2010, Waller 2011). Progress in promoting clarity in legal and legislative documents has been relatively slow. Easy Read has become embedded in the culture of intellectual disability ser- vices, and the creation of Easy Read texts has grown exponentially, particularly in the wake of the Equality Act (2010) and the Accessible Information Stand- ard (2016). Undoubtedly, people with intellectual disabilities appreciate hav- ing access to Easy Read texts (Waight and Oldreive 2020) and have explained that access to these resources supports their autonomy and decision-making (Chinn 2019b, Goodwin et al. 2015). Nevertheless, some voices have been more critical and concerned about the proliferation of Easy Read in a social context in which many more entrenched access barriers to education, employment and relationships for disabled people are proving resistant to dismantling. Produc- ing Easy Read texts can be seen as a way of ‘doing inclusion’ and a relatively low-cost way to make reasonable adjustments to mainstream services (Chinn and Homeyard 2016). Moreover, disseminating a ‘special’ version of a docu- ment for people with intellectual disabilities, rather than attempting to make sure that the standard version is designed to be accessible to the widest possible audience may reinforce perceptions of difference and dependency relating to people with intellectual disabilities (Chinn 2017). 4 Target groups Plain English is seen as benefitting all citizens and is targeted at the general population, with claims that even very competent readers prefer Plain Lan- © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 635 Deborah Chinn, Susan Buell guage texts for public information (Cutts 2020). GOV.UK also refers on its web- sites to the usefulness of Plain English communication for people who struggle with reading, citing the finding that one in six adults in England (7.1 million people) have been identified as having ‘very low’ literacy skills as defined by the UK National Literacy Trust. Easy Read texts are targeted squarely at peo- ple with intellectual disabilities. The Photosymbols library that is often used in Easy Read materials uses people with intellectual disabilities in its photos, thus signalling that this is the group being addressed (Chinn 2017). This may mean that other adults with cognitive disabilities caused by stroke, injury or dementia are not offered Easy Read information created for people with intel- lectual disabilities, even though it may also cover areas of interest for them. The Alzheimer Society website, for instance, publishes Easy Read information on its website, but these documents are targeted towards people with intellectual disabilities rather than people with dementia. Adapted written information is also targeted towards adults with aphasia, though this is usually not referred to as Easy Read; but as ‘accessible information’ instead, though there is little to distinguish these formats. People from diverse ethnic groups in the UK who do not speak English confidently are not legally entitled to receive reasonable adjustments in in- formation provision under the terms of the Equality Act (2010), as they do not constitute one of the groups with protected characteristics as defined by the Act. 5 Guidelines Individuals and organizations who create Plain English texts are often directed to Martin Cutts’ book on this subject, The Oxford Guide to Plain English (first published as The Plain English Guide in 1995), which has been regularly up- dated (Cutts 2020). The author emphasizes that he is offering guidance, rather than rules for writing in Plain English. The book refers to research, but is geared more towards a general rather than an academic audience. Writers of content for government websites are obliged to follow guidance compiled in style and content guides. GOV.UK provides fairly extensive guid- 636 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the UK ance for those writing website content, including using accessible language, ef- fective layout (fonts, headings, numbered or bulleted lists), structuring content, and using summaries. In terms of language, the style guide requires the use of language at a nine-year-old’s reading level (Government Digital Service 2016). The creators of the style guide state that their principles are based on re- search, and have published a commissioned survey of the relevant evidence base to support their guidance (Walker et al. 2013). This document reiter- ates the Plain English writing advice contained in the GOV.UK writing guide, namely using short sentences and paragraphs; avoiding jargon; using simple, everyday words; being specific rather than general; using active verbs; and thinking of what the audience needs (Walker et al. 2013: 11). Advice to GOV. UK content writers extends to writing about gender, ethnicity and disability in ways that avoid discriminatory or offensive language. As a devolved nation, the Scottish government hosts its own website, and has published named content standards for the mygov.scot website (Dowle 2018). In contrast to the GOV.UK content guidance, these standards refer ex- tensively to readability and suggest using instruments such as the Learning and Work Institute’s SMOG tool (National Institute of Adult Continuing Education 2009) or the Hemingway app 10 (to check reading level and readability, with the proviso that all such literacy tools require interpretation and context. Similar guidance is available for the National Health Service’s (NHS) digital content, which emphasizes that content must be factual, neutral and unambig- uous. The NHS style guide also mentions reading ages and advises that NHS content writers should aim for a reading age of 9 to 11 years (NHS 2019). The guide advises using short words, sentences of up to 20 words, and short para- graphs with up to three sentences. Medical terminology is unavoidable on the NHS website, but writers are required to use the plain English term first, and then the medical term. There is no shortage of guidance available for creating Easy Read informa- tion for people with intellectual disabilities, dating back to the 1990s (Bashford et al. 1995). Guidelines for creating accessible texts have been disseminated by 10 Hemingway app, http://www.hemingwayapp.com/. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 637 Deborah Chinn, Susan Buell intellectual disability (ID) charities, (Mencap 11 2000, 2008, Change 2015) aca- demics (Norah Fry 2004), local authorities (North Yorkshire County Council n.d.) and the Disability Rights Commission (Disability Rights Commission 2006). To complement their guidance, Learning Disability Wales have created a toolkit for checking and rating Easy Read information (Learning Disability Wales 2012). In 2009, the Department of Health created guidelines that were intended for use across the government and to introduce a minimum standard for the production of Easy Read materials. For an illustration of these guidelines, see Appendix 1. Words and Pictures Rule 1 Each idea needs both words and pictures Rule 2 Pictures and words go next to each other Rule 3 Make sure that it is clear which pictures support which bits of text Pictures Rule 4 Pictures must be easy to understand Rule 5 Pictures should go on the left Rule 6 Pictures can be drawings, photographs or other images Rule 7 Make sure that pictures are as big as possible Words Rule 8 Words must be easy to understand Rule 9 If you use difficult words, say what they mean using easy words Rule 10 Words go on the right Rule 11 Words must be written clearly – a font like Arial is good Rule 12 Words must be big 11 Mencap is the largest charity for people with intellectual disabilities in the UK. 638 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the UK Length Rule 13 Each sentence must be as short as possible – more than 15 words is harder to read Rule 14 Each document must be short – more than 20 pages is too long. Table 1: Easy Read Principles (Department of Health 2009). The revised set of guidelines offers more detailed advice on the use of layout, punctuation and numbers (Department of Health 2010). With the exception of the Norah Fry guidance, the guidance documents for creating Easy Read resources generally make little reference to research on readability or expert opinion. Common themes in various guides are the use of images, the need to think carefully about the potential audience for an Easy Read text, and the need to convey specific information relevant to the reader. In addition, all guidance emphasizes the importance of involving people with intellectual dis- abilities in the planning, design and testing of Easy Read texts, though with an acknowledgement that this may be unrealistic in some instances (Department of Health 2010). Guidance has also been developed to create accessible information for peo- ple with aphasia (Stroke Association 2012). Despite a great deal of overlap with the Easy Read guidance described above, a few differences are also noticeable (apart from avoidance of the term ‘Easy Read’). Specific guidance includes avoiding personal pronouns, which can present difficulties for people with aphasia, and putting pictures under, rather than to the left of written text. 6 Practical outcomes The majority of texts published in Plain English and Easy Read formats for UK citizens are informative texts. As English is an international lingua franca, the UK has a large publishing industry that distributes adapted literature texts for learners of English as a second or other language (ESOL). © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 639 Deborah Chinn, Susan Buell 6.1 Media The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) UK public service broadcaster is a widely trusted (Ipsos Mori 2020) source of news in English for UK and overseas citizens and is the largest broadcaster in the world. The BBC does not specifically offer written or broadcast news in either Plain English or Easy Read formats. United Response, a support agency for people with intellectual disabilities, conducted a survey of 133 service users and reported that 38% felt the news in existing newspapers was irrelevant to them, whereas 56% said they would read a paper if it was made easier to understand. The organization launched Easy News, an online Easy Read news magazine in 2013 12. United Response Easy News stories are selected and rewritten in an Easy Read format by a group of people with learning disabilities and autism spectrum conditions. According to its website, Easy News has a regular readership of around 4600 people; 80% of its readers say this is their primary source of news. News bulletins are also published in Widget symbols on the SymbolWorld website 13. 6.2 Literature The publishing genre that comes closest to Plain English comprises the many texts that are distributed for ESOL students. Graded readers, many of them re-workings of well-known texts in English literature, are available in collec- tions distributed through a range of publishers, including Penguin Readers, Oxford Bookworms, and Cambridge Readers, with an eye on more of a for- eign than a domestic audience. The English Easy Bible, which uses only 1200 common English words to convey the meaning of all the books of the bible in Plain English, is similarly targeted towards people outside the UK who do not speak English as a first language 14. Aimed more at a UK-based audience, Gatehouse Books, a small publishing company, publishes and distributes original titles that support literacy develop- 12 Easy News, https://www.unitedresponse.org.uk/resource/easy-news/. 13 SymbolWorld, https://symbolworld.org/articles/latest. 14 EasyEnglish Bible, https://www.easyenglish.bible/bible/easy/. 640 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the UK ment for adult learners in the UK, both those learning to read for the first time and ESOL students. They publish books using a variety of formats, including comic strips, illustrated stories and non-fiction books, and dual language texts. Since 2006, the UK Reading Agency’s project Quick Reads has published over 4.8 million copies of more than 100 titles that are ‘short and engaging’, though they do not, strictly-speaking, adhere to Plain or Easy Language guidelines. Books Beyond Words are stories for people with intellectual disabilities that use only picture illustrations to explore many issues, mainly relating to phys- ical and emotional wellbeing, through short narratives featuring people with intellectual disabilities. These wordless stories go further than Easy Read in assuming that the audience has no reading skills, though the books are accom- panied by guidance notes for supporters to encourage reflection and discussion with the reader with intellectual disabilities (Tuffrey-Wijne and Bernal 2003). 6.3 Informative texts As mentioned in Section 1, all government website content is required to be written using Plain English principles. However, little evaluation of the adher- ence to the Government Digital Service (GDS) guidelines has been published. Visible Thread, a commercial organization concerned with content quality management, released a readability report on 26 Central and 12 Local Gov- ernment websites. They found that 92% of websites failed to achieve the target readability score (Visible Thread 2016). Central government departments and local authorities publish versions of key documents in Easy Read formats. The usual practice is to outsource this work to commercial communication and translation companies or self-advo- cacy groups. The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) is exceptional in that it has a dedicated Easy Read team that has been working with Mencap and other charities to produce Easy Read versions of their documents (Railton 2019). Easy Read health information is created and disseminated by the NHS Health Trusts (National Health Service Health Trusts) and healthcare charities through their websites. Because NHS trusts are autonomous self-governing bodies, if anything, there is an over-expenditure of resources on the duplication of health information by different healthcare providers, particularly relating to © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 641 Deborah Chinn, Susan Buell common procedures such as blood tests (Chinn 2017). EasyHealth 15, a website hosted by a London charity for people with intellectual disabilities, has help- fully compiled these sources of information on their website as well as video and audio resources that can be downloaded free of charge. Individual healthcare practitioners also create individually tailored Easy Read resources for their own clients using the resources described in Section 3. Skills in creating Easy Read resources are regarded as part of the everyday skill set of specialist intellectual disability healthcare staff, though few are likely to have received specific training in creating these resources. 7 Education and research Little accredited training or education in either Plain English or Easy Read that is hosted by higher or further education institutions is available in the UK. A well-developed academic interest in literacy more generally involves researchers with backgrounds in linguistics, sociolinguistics, education, and ethnography. However, it seems that interaction is scarce between these ac- ademic communities and those concerned with Plain English or Easy Read communication as a practical matter in everyday life, apart from researchers concerned with health literacy. A small group of intellectual disability research- ers and practitioners have undertaken research on Easy Read. We ourselves have developed links with researchers outside the UK with these same interests through interaction at conferences hosted by the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IASSID) (Chinn et al. 2019). 7.1 Education and training As mentioned above, commercial organizations offer training in ‘clear commu- nication’, using Plain English and text design principles. Little is on offer in the way of university-based training in easy language modification, though Read- 15 Easy Health, https://www.easyhealth.org.uk/. 642 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the UK ing University 16 does offer a module in Information Design as part of a master’s degree in Communication, which looks at Plain English content design. The Simplification Centre led by Dr Rob Waller 17 runs an annual interdisciplinary summer school in language simplification attended by practitioners working in health, technical writing, psychology, education, law and government. Accredited training is available for Language Modifiers, individuals who provide language support as a reasonable adjustment in examinations for candidates who ‘require a level of support beyond that provided by a reader’ (Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors 2020a). These candidates may be deaf, or have a specific reading comprehension or language difficulty, including autism spectrum conditions. Language modification specialists may advise examination boards to make sure that the language they use is suitable for all candidates, including those with the aforementioned communication needs. Language modifiers may also give support during examinations at the request of a candidate needing explanations and rephrasing of questions. Guidance for language modifiers covers operations such as breaking down and simplifying complex sentences, substituting common words for unfamiliar ones, changing the passive to the active voice, replacing phrasal verbs and abstract nouns, and removing ambiguities and metaphorical expressions (Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors 2020b). Training in designing Easy Read texts is widely offered by commercial companies and self-advocacy groups. This training is not regulated and has no agreed standards. As no evaluations of such training seems to have been published, its impact is difficult to estimate. 7.2 Research The creation and evaluation of Plain English and Easy Read texts is mainly seen in the UK as a practical matter for practitioners and end users, rather than as a topic for academic research. Moreover, UK research on clear communication, Plain English and Easy Read is very cross-disciplinary. The researchers come 16 Reading is a town in south-east England. 17 The Simplification Centre, www.simplificationcentre.org.uk. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 643 Deborah Chinn, Susan Buell from backgrounds in literacy, psychology, design, education, speech and lan- guage therapy, linguistics, and health and social care. One inter-disciplinary community of researchers in Information Design draws from expertise in graphic design, writing and typography (Waller 2011). The University of Reading Centre for Information Design Research 18 brings together researchers interested in the design of clear and accessible informa- tion. Recent projects have analysed that ‘tone of voice’ is conveyed by document design and pain assessment for people with dementia. Another example of a cross disciplinary Information Design project is Information Design and Architecture in Persuasive Pharmacy Space: Combatting Anti-Microbial Re- sistance (IDAPPS n.d.), which aims to use information design principles to improve knowledge and understanding of anti-microbial resistance in com- munity pharmacies. The impact of health literacy concepts in medical research is evident from an expanding literature, largely authored by medical researchers, evaluating and improving health information and patient information leaflets. Health Literacy UK is a special interest group that supports researchers who are intent on building the evidence base of health literacy 19, organizing seminars and conferences, and advising healthcare providers. Research in the UK on the design, production, use, impact and features of Easy Read material for people with intellectual disabilities has been limited but is now represented by a small body of published literature. Poncelas and Murphy (2007) and Jones et al. (2007) explored the contribution of images to readers’ understanding of Easy Read information and addressed questions on whether images actually hinder understanding or contribute to idiosyncratic interpretations. Later work by Mander (2015) and Walmsley (2013) identified some of the tensions that can arise in the process of language simplification, including the risk of losing essential concepts or fostering an overly directive tone of voice (Buell et al. 2014), which may undermine rather than promote self-determination and autonomy. 18 Centre for Information Design Research, https://www.reading.ac.uk/cidr/. 19 Health Literacy UK, www.healthliteracy.org.uk. 644 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the UK Two reviews of available research on Easy Read material for people with intellectual disabilities have also been carried out (Chinn and Homeyard 2016, Sutherland and Isherwood 2016). Both of these outlined the lack of hard evidence for the impact of adapted information for helping people with intellectual disabilities understand content, but underlined the importance of Easy Read material as a positive societal and cultural factor in the everyday lives of this population, a finding that has been reiterated by people with in- tellectual disabilities themselves (Waight and Oldreive 2020). Some research has also been conducted on the accessibility of digital information for people with intellectual disabilities. A survey of Easy Read digital design features was undertaken by Waight and Oldreive (2016) and showed wide variation in the application of guidelines across a number of websites. Hurtado et al. (2014) and Buell et al. (2020) focused more on the cognitive processes involved in accessing information from Easy Read material. Both studies concluded that grammatical constructions can often have complex and unintended domino effects on the reading and comprehension processes of people with intellectual disabilities, some of which were not in line with ex- pected outcomes. The combined impact of images, the repetition of words and textual demands could lead to cognitive overload (Hurtado et al. 2013). The interplay between a reader’s skill sets (e.g., their vocabulary level and world knowledge) could in fact have more influence on their understanding than the simplification of the text (Buell et al. 2020). Other researchers have written accounts of how Easy Read resources have been created, often with the participation of people with intellectual disabil- ities (Turnpenny et al. 2015, Wyre Forest Self Advocacy and Tarleton 2005). Chinn (Chinn 2017, 2019b, 2019a) has taken a further in-depth sociological approach by examining the social and interactional contexts in which Easy Read information is presented in health checks with general practitioners in the UK (generalist doctors) and has investigated the complexities of power plays in the processes of the co-production of Easy Read material (Chinn and Pelletier 2020). A distinct body of research exists on the information accessible to people with aphasia. Researchers have explored the readability and acceptability of adapted materials for people with aphasia (Nguyen et al. 2020, Rose et al. 2011, © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 645 Deborah Chinn, Susan Buell Wilson and Read 2016) and have collaborated with people with dementia to create guidance and accessible resources (Herbert et al. 2019, Pearl and Cruice 2017). 8 Future perspectives In the UK, the debate is ongoing on the use of parallel simplification systems – one for the general public and one specifically for people with intellectual dis- abilities – and even an additional system for people with aphasia. Whether this creates further divides and discourages the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in the wider circulation of accessible information, by isolating them in what Le Grys has called an ‘information ghetto’ (Le Grys 2004) is a moot point. In some ways, as a society we have encultured people with intellectual disabilities and their supporters to expect their own Easy Read versions of information without providing assurances that these texts will indeed meet their communication needs. This last point refers to the further tension between the effort and resources expended on working on texts and documents to simplify and clarify them and the paucity of evidence regarding how much any of these measures effectively improves anyone’s access to the information contained in them (for both Plain English documents and Easy Read). The translation into plain English of a long document explaining credit card terms and conditions will still be very lengthy and unlikely to be read by the average credit card holder. On the other hand, a short summary of a long document intended to convey the general gist runs the risk of omitting or over-simplifying key concepts (Walmsley 2009). People with intellectual disabilities constitute a highly diverse group, and it is likely that many will need very individualized texts tailored to their particular communication requirements rather than a publicly available text designed for the group as a whole. For many, a simplified text or added images will be less helpful than access to a video or audio recording (Waight and Oldreive 2020). The communicative aspects of images are often overlooked. Chinn (2017) used a multimodal social semiotic methodology to explore implicit messages in Easy Read health leaflets for people with intellectual disabilities and noted 646 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the UK the social positionings of people with intellectual disabilities that these com- municated. Images can support understanding of written information, but can also signal that a specific audience is being addressed. This point can, to some extent, explain why separate accessible resources are developed for people with aphasia following condition-specific guidance that specifies that older adults should be represented in images (Stroke Association 2012). The Department of Work and Pensions uses stock images rather than Photosymbols in their Easy Read resources, which may go some way towards explaining why these texts have proven popular with a wider audience than only people with intellectual disabilities, such as people from ethnic minorities who do not read English confidently (Railton 2020). Another research gap concerns evidence that illustrates how people actually use simplified texts in their everyday lives, rather than how they describe their attitudes to adapted texts, or how they perform under experimental conditions in reading tests. Many individuals involve friends, families and supporters in making sense of texts (Papen and Walters 2008). However, little guidance is available on how to effectively help people with communication needs make use of simplified texts (Chinn 2019a, Terras et al. 2017). There is a growing interest in researching the affordances and principles of different forms of simplified information and the literacy practices of peo- ple with a range of literacy skills. Opportunities are therefore arising to work towards an understanding of Plain English and Easy Read material as an underpinning element for accessing information within a much wider con- text of social communication and interaction, individual skills, interests, and motivation. Communities of practice such as GOV.UK promote principles of universal design (Story et al. 1998), endeavouring to produce written content that is accessible to the widest possible readership, without requiring separate resources for people with communication support needs. In the future we hope that capitalizing on the growing expertise in simplifying and developing accessible information, particularly in digital environments, will mean that ‘plain’, ‘easy’ language will increasingly be the norm for public information. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 647 Deborah Chinn, Susan Buell Authors Deborah Chinn is a clinical psychologist who works with people with intellec- tual disabilities in a South London NHS community team and as a lecturer at King’s College London. Her research looks at how people with intellectual dis- abilities access health and social services. She is currently using Conversation Analysis to look at healthcare encounters involving people with intellectual disabilities and their supporters. Susan Buell is a speech and language therapist who works as a lecturer at the University of Dundee. 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Wilson, Lucy, and Jennifer Read. “Do Particular Design Features Assist People with Aphasia to Comprehend Text? An Exploratory Study.” International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders 51.3 (2016): 346–354. Print. Wyre Forest Self Advocacy, and Beth Tarleton. “Writing It Ourselves.” British Journal of Learning Disabilities 33.2 (2005): 65–69. Print. © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 655 Deborah Chinn, Susan Buell Appendix 1. An illustration of guidelines for Easy Read. The extracts relate to UK government information about ‘Universal Credit’. This is a payment that the government offers to people on low incomes or who are out of work to help with living costs. The rules about who is eligible for this payment are available on the gov.uk website. The texts below are taken from the part of the guidance that explains eligibility for adults who are training or studying. Standard language Easy Read If you’re 18 or over and in training or Created by the same government studying full-time department, full text available at You can make a new claim for Univer- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/ sal Credit if any of the following apply: government/uploads/system/uploads/ • you live with your partner and attachment_data/file/955636/who-can- they’re eligible for Universal Credit claim-universal-credit-easy-read.pdf • you’re responsible for a child, either as a single person or as a couple • you’re in further education, are 21 or under and do not have parental sup- port, for example you’re estranged from your parents and you’re not under local authority care Source: https://www.gov.uk/ universal-credit/eligibility 656 © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Easy Language in the UK Standard language Easy Read © Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur 657 EASY  –  PLA IN  –  ACCESSIBLE Vol. 1 Isabel Rink: Rechtskommunikation und Barrierefreiheit. Zur Übersetzung juristischer Informations- und Interaktionstexte in Leichte Sprache. 472 pages. ISBN 978-3-7329-0593-5 Vol. 2 Silvia Hansen-Schirra/Christiane Maaß (eds.): Easy Language Research: Text and User Perspectives. 288 pages. ISBN 978-3-7329-0688-8 Vol. 3 Christiane Maaß: Easy Language – Plain Language – Easy Language Plus. Balancing Comprehensibility and Acceptability. 304 pages. ISBN 978-3-7329-0691-8 Vol. 4 Elisa Perego: Accessible Communication: A Cross-country Journey. 200 pages. ISBN 978-3-7329-0654-3 Vol. 5 Silke Gutermuth: Leichte Sprache für alle? Eine zielgruppen- orientierte Rezeptionsstudie zu Leichter und Einfacher Sprache. 312 pages. ISBN 978-3-7329-0587-4. Vol. 6 Anne-Kathrin Gros/Silke Gutermuth/Katharina Oster (Hg.): Leichte Sprache – Empirische und multimodale Perspektiven. 160 pages. ISBN 978-3-7329-0708-3 Vol. 7 Maher Tyfour: Sprachmacht auf engstem Raum: Die Inszenierung der Stadt in den Hörfilmen der Münchner Tatort-Filmserie. Eine korpusgeleitete Studie zur Audiodeskription. 246 pages. ISBN 978-3-7329-0699-4 Vol. 8 Camilla Lindholm/Ulla Vanhatalo (eds.): Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe. 660 pages. ISBN 978-3-7329-0771-7 Vol. 9 Silvia Hansen-Schirra/Katja Abels/Sarah Signer/Christiane Maaß: The Dictionary of Accessible Communication. 212 pages. ISBN 978-3-7329-0729-8 Vol. 10 Katrin Lang: Auffindbarkeit, Wahrnehmbarkeit, Akzeptabilität. Webseiten von Behörden in Leichter Sprache vor dem Hintergrund der rechtlichen Lage. 488 pages ISBN 978-3-7329-0804-2 EASY  –  PLA IN  –  ACCESSIBLE Vol. 11 Optische Gliederung von Komposita in Leichter Sprache. Blickbewegungsstudien zum Einfluss visueller, morphologischer und semantischer Faktoren auf die Verarbeitung deutscher Substantivkomposita. 782 pages. ISBN 978-3-7329-0834-9