EASIT: Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training.
This is Unit 2: Easy-to-understand language, in short E2U.
Element 2: Legislation, standards, and guidelines.
Video lecture: Legislation. International perspective.
My name is Christiane Maaß from the University of Hildesheim.
In this short video, I will talk about the legislation
in the field of easy-to-understand language
with an international and European perspective.
The legal situation of easy-to-understand language
will be different in every country
with regard to the national legislation.
Within this unit, we have also a video lecture
about the situation of easy-to-understand language
in the countries of the EASIT project partners.
Access to communication and information
for people with disabilities has become a relevant topic
in the international legal and political discourse.
Through the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities,
short UN CRPD,
this issue became more relevant in the countries
that signed and ratified this Convention between 2007 and 2009.
All members of the European Union were part of the 80 countries
that signed the UN CRPD on the very first day.
As of spring 2020, 163 countries have signed
and 181 countries have ratified the UN CRPD.
With these numbers, the UN CRPD
is one of the most influential conventions
in the history of the United Nations.
The UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities
deeply changed the paradigm of envisioning disability in society.
Before the UN CRPD, persons with disabilities
were often seen as needing assistance
and the aim was to integrate them into the society as it is.
The UN CRPD demands that societies have to change in a way
that persons with diverse needs can be included.
That they can be empowered and can be active in society.
To achieve such change, inclusion of people with diverse needs
has to be put on the agenda in the different fields of society.
One important pillar is legislation:
Through legislation, the society can change in the way
that is necessary to make inclusion happen.
The UN CRPD states that accessibility to information and communication
is crucial to ensure the fundamental freedoms
and all human rights of persons with disabilities.
This document names Plain Language as a means of communication
to achieve accessibility and inclusion.
Article 2 of the UN CRPD states and I quote:
“Communication” includes language, display of text, Braille,
tactile communication, large print, accessible multimedia
as well as written, audio,
plain-language,
human-reader and augmentative and alternative modes,
means and formats of communication, including accessible formation
and communication technology”. (UN CRPD Article 2)
Through this article, the UN CRPD defines easy-to-understand language
as a way to make communication accessible.
The implementation of the convention
has been somewhat different for every country.
In Germany for instance,
Plain Language has indeed become part of the law.
But additionally, taking up impulses from the empowerment movement
of people with cognitive disabilities,
Easy Language is now part
of the German law of equality on the people with disabilities.
In 2019, the European Accessibility Act was passed.
The full name of the document is “Directive (EU) 2019/882
of the European Parliament and of the council of 17 April 2019
on the accessibility requirements of products and services”.
In Unit 1 “Media Accessibility”, element 2 “Accessibility”,
video lecture “Accessible legislation”,
you can find more information about this EU directive.
In this Directive, Easy and Plain Language are not explicitly named,
but easy-to-understand language does come into place
as a means of accessibility.
In this document, it is recommended to use
“language which can be easily understood” by the end users,
authorities and all actors involved in providing products and services
that are listed in this directive.
It is not clear which language variety the directive refers to,
but it shows clearly that easy-to-understand language
is considered an important means for accessible purposes.
In this presentation, we focused on the legal situation
of easy-to-understand language with an international
and European perspective.
Treaties, conventions and regulations
are the frameworks for legislation in the different countries.
The concrete legislation is different for every single country.
These differences are not covered in this short video lecture.
In this Unit, we also provide video lectures about
easy-to-understand language in different European countries,
and specifically in the countries of the EASIT consortium.
We recommend to look into these lectures and into the legislation
of your own countries for a perspective
on your national context.
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-ShareAlike 4.0 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.
Subtitleed by Janka Böhnke.