Hello and welcome to this video lecture.
The lecture is a part of Unit 2- Easy-to-understand language,
Element 3- Processes.
My name is Tatjana Knapp and together we will take a closer look
at the process of validating.
Validation is a process of assessing
whether the content is, in fact, Easy-to-understand.
The process should actively include
the end-users of Easy-to-understand information
and is often considered to be a crucial part
in the process of publishing Easy-to-understand information.
The principles of Easy-to-understand information combine
principles of Easy language or Easy-to-read,
which usually demands the involvement of the end-users,
and principles of Plain language,
which has somewhat looser rules.
Validated information in Easy language or Easy-to-read
is often marked with a special logo
that indicates the proof of validation,
like the European logo for Easy-to-read information by Inclusion Europe in blue color,
showing a person holding a book and giving a thumbs-up,
or a national logo for Easy-to-read,formation,
such as the logo for Easy Slovene by Zavod RISA
a purple round sign with a winking book.
Validating, however, differentiates between
validating comprehensibility and comprehension.
Validating comprehensibility is assessing
if the guidelines for producing Easy-to-understand information were followed.
That is something that Easy-to-understand experts can do by themselves
during or after creating the content.
We cover the guidelines in Element 4 of Unit 2.
In the picture, we provide an example
of a cover of written guidelines
by Inclusion Europe, titled Information for all.
Validating comprehensibility is, however, not enough for applying the logos
we used as examples earlier.
The process namely also requires validating comprehension.
The key actors in this are validators,
people with different barriers to obtaining information.
They validate the information.
Facilitators are there to support them
and are coordinators of the validating process.
The roles of validators and facilitators
are not yet officially recognized as professions,
which is clear from the European Union profession database in 2020.
As seen in this photo of a validator and a facilitator
discussing printed information,
both key actors work together very closely.
The status of both professions might be due to a change
as the European Project TRAIN2VALIDATE,
which started in 2020 and is to finish in 2023,
aims at creating new specific professional profiles
in the process of production of Easy-to-understand materials:
those of validators and facilitators.
For more information, visit the website: www.plenainclusionmadrid.org/train2validate
Regardless of the current official status of the aforementioned expert roles,
Easy-to-understand content should be validated.
Furthermore, it is recommended for the end-users to be included during the whole process of
publishing Easy-to-understand content,
which consists of selecting the content,
producing the content,
and promoting the content,
as seen in the picture.
Strictly speaking, however,
is the validation process a part of the production phase.
At this point, Europe has unharmonized methodologies
for approaching the validation process,
at least when it comes to comprehension.
The beforementioned project TRAIN2VALIDATE addresses this,
but for now, it is important to know
that the basis for the process in most countries is an inclusive methodology.
At the core of the process lays comprehension-
for example, language comprehension
and picture comprehension.
We mentioned language comprehension,
which involves analysis at different levels
(such as word, sentence, or message analysis)
and the integration of message meaning
with the prior discourse and world knowledge,
as described by Singer in 2013.
Similar can be applied to picture comprehension.
Generally, the process of validating comprehension can be applied in 2 ways:
The first type is producing or adapting the content together with the end-users,
which is no longer just validating, but co-authoring.
The other type seems to be much more common
and is based in validating pre-made drafts.
As we already pointed out the key actors in the process,
we can divide the activities into 2 main groups:
facilitation and comprehension assessment.
For the purpose of this lecture,
we chose to bypass the co-authoring,
which can be seen in the photo of an author writing the content on the computer
together with the end-users,
and speak about the more common type of validation and its’ main activities.
The first group of activities
define the role of a facilitator.
The facilitator creates a group of validators,
organizes and coordinates the validation sessions
and communicates the content between authors of the content, editors, and validators.
The role of the validators, who are supported by a facilitator,
is to assess comprehension of the content.
Together they analyze the information and give feedback.
Communication is essential for the process.
Some rules or guidelines for communicating with the validators
should be followed.
We cover this in Unit 4, Element 2,
under interpersonal skills,
so make sure to check it out.
To see some examples and get information on the subject,
check out some other videos:
Sample from Unit 2, Element 4,
Sample: Validation from Unit 3, Element 1,
video Validators: A true profession from Unit 4, Element 1,
and also from Unit 4 but Element 2:
videos Validation meeting: Interpersonal skills
and Communicating with validators and end-users.
This concludes our video lecture.
If you have any questions or comments regarding the content,
feel free to contact me through email.
The email address is tatjana@risa.si.