EASIT: Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training
Creating content in Easy-to-understand language.
This is unit 2_ Easy-to-understand language, in short E2U.
Element 3: Processes
Video lecture: Creating content in E2U.
My name is Christiane Maaß from the University of Hildesheim.
In this short video lecture,
I will talk about the process
of creating content in easy-to-understand language,
focusing on Easy Language and Plain Language.
I will give some examples of texts
that were directly created in easy-to-understand language.
In the EASIT project, we differentiate between
creating content from scratch
and adapting or translating content into Easy or Plain Language.
The main difference between creating and adapting or translating is
whether we have a source text or source material
from where we depart to produce content in E2U.
If we are formulating directly in Easy or Plain Language,
we are in the realm of creating content.
If we have a source text or source material that we translate or adapt
into easy-to-understand language,
we are in the field of adapting or translating content.
The difference may seem trivial,
but the approaches are different in each of these two scenarios.
If we look into the guidelines of easy-to-understand language,
especially for Easy Language,
the focus lies mainly on translating into easy-to-understand language.
Most rulebooks focus on translation into easy-to-understand language
rather than creating content from scratch.
Nevertheless, the linguistic and layout features
of easy-to-understand language are the same for both practices.
The end product of both processes
is content that is perceptible and comprehensible
for the respective target groups and adapted to their needs.
In the video lecture of Unit 2: Easy-to-understand language.
Element 2: Legislation, standards, and guidelines,
you can find more information about the rules of EL and PL.
When creating content in easy-to-understand language,
these following items are especially important for the authors:
Knowledge about the target groups,
knowledge about the target situation,
training in easy-to-understand language
and soft skills.
Knowledge about the target groups and their communicative needs.
Based on this information, the text creators decide
if Easy or rather Plain Language should be used.
They decide on the media realization, on content editing etc.
Knowledge about the target situation.
The target situation in which the content will be used
is highly relevant.
Text creators have to evaluate whether the content is retrievable
for the target audience in the situation.
It is very important
to have a functional communicative scenario in mind.
Training in easy-to-understand language.
It is necessary that the authors and text creators
not only know the rules for Easy or Plain Language,
but are also trained in implementing them.
The authors of Plain Language texts are often domain experts
in the respective fields,
but are not trained to use E2U in their texts.
This may lead to content
that is not comprehensible enough for the target groups.
Therefore, special training in E2U is necessary for text creators.
Soft skills.
The authors or text creators
must know the communicative needs of the target groups
and adapt the content accordingly.
They have to behave professionally during the whole process.
Integrating easy-to-understand language right from the beginning,
opens a wide spectrum of opportunities,
wider than for translation.
The latter is especially the case,
if during the production of the source material
the translation into EL or PL were not considered.
To create texts directly in E2U allows the authors
more flexibility when it comes to planning their texts.
Linguistic and layout features that are necessary to increase
perceptibility and comprehensibility for the end users
can be taken care of during the production phase.
In our 2020 publication, we point out
that the same is true for audio-visual translation:
the material can be directly scripted in Easy or Plain Language
or a component in EL or PL can be added to a content later on,
leaving a narrower margin for action.
If the original material is already in Easy or Plain Language,
translating or adapting it to other languages
or modalities of accessible communication is easier.
This applies, for example, to subtitles,
dubbing or audio description in Easy and Plain Language.
If the integration of accessibility services,
like an easy-to-understand language version,
is already planned during the production phase,
the outcome will most likely be a highly perceptible
and accessible product.
We also refer to the concept of “accessible filmmaking”
proposed by Dr. Pablo Romero-Fresco from the University of Vigo,
who is also part of the EASIT consortium.
One example of content created directly in E2U
is the homepage of the EASIT project.
If you are interested, you can visit our homepage and see the texts.
They were directly written in Easy Language
and then translated into the various project languages.
On this slide you can see a screenshot of the homepage.
The screenshot shows that there is not only written text,
but additionally a screen reader is embedded
and you have an audio version of the text.
Accessibility was planned from the beginning for this homepage
and therefore we had more flexibility in the planning process.
With this slide we end our presentation.
In another video lecture,
we will focus on the translation process into E2U.
This video lecture has been prepared by Sergio Hernández
and Christiane Maaß from the University of Hildesheim.
You can reach us at easit@uni-hildesheim.de
The project EASIT has received funding
from the European Commission
under the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships
for Higher Education programme,
grant agreement 2018-1-ES01-KA203-05275.
The European Commission support for the production of this publication
does not constitute an endorsement of the contents,
which reflect the views only of the authors,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible
for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike4.0 International License.
Partners of the EASIT project:
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona,
Università degli Studi di Trieste,
Universidade de Vigo,
Stiftung Universität Hildesheim,
SDI München,
Dyslexiförbundet,
Radiotelevisija Slovenija,
Zavod Risa.
EASIT: Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training
Subtitled by Lukas Enders.