EASIT: Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training.
This is unit 2: Easy-to-understand language,
in short E2U.
Element 1: Understanding E2U.
Video lecture:
Modalities and different forms of media realisation.
My name is Christiane Maaß from the University of Hildesheim.
In this short video lecture,
we will talk about the modalities
and different forms of media realisation of E2U.
We will focus on Easy Language,
including Easy-to-read,
as well as Plain Language.
There are different definitions of the term “modality”.
In this video lecture, the term modality refers
to the sensory channels addressed through a specific content.
For example, seeing, hearing, touch etc.
This means: A multimodal text is a text that addresses
at least two sensory channels.
For example, audio visual content,
which has both audio and visual content.
Easy Language and Plain Language
both have traditionally been used in written communication.
The term “Easy-to-read”
already tells in itself that it focuses on written texts.
This is not only true for the English-speaking world,
but also for other languages.
Like for instance Swedish,
where Easy-to-read is called “Lättläst”,
which is Swedish for “easy reading”.
And in Spanish,
where Easy-to-read is called “lectura fácil”,
which is Spanish for “easy reading”.
The rulesets for Easy Language and Plain Language
are primarily made for written texts.
And the current legislation focuses as well
on written texts for Easy and Plain Language.
We will give more information on the rulesets
and the international and national legislation
in other video lectures in this Unit.
So, Easy Language and Plain Language
have mainly been used in written communication.
And the content in Easy and Plain Language
has therefore mainly been made in printed form
and in written digital formats.
In both cases, the texts are an additional service
that is supposed to help people that do not understand
the original standard or expert language text.
Texts in Easy Language or Plain Language
should never replace the original texts.
But it is not enough for accessibility and inclusion
if only written texts in EL and PL are produced.
Actually, the target groups of easy-to-understand language
tend not to have written texts as a preference.
And a disproportional part of the Easy Language target groups
is among the off-liners
and do not prefer the Internet as a source for information.
As Easy and Plain Language text offers are mostly additional offers,
they are not placed in front row
or on the entrance pages.
Thus, they are often not very retrievable.
So, the target groups may have a hard time
finding the text offers.
Even though they are especially designed for them.
Furthermore, focusing on just written formats
excludes the possibility of implementing E2U
in other media realisations that could address other groups.
Some of the target groups
cannot be addressed through the visual channel.
For instance, people with visual impairments.
Hearing Easy or Plain Language information
could be their first choice.
For all these reasons,
in recent years,
research and application in the field of E2U
has started looking into multimodal media realisations.
Audio-visual formats
are now being considered
to implement easy-to-understand language.
This is the primary purpose of the EASIT project.
But there are already practical examples.
For instance, the fairy tale project
that the Research Centre for Easy Language
realised with the North German Broadcasting Association.
The fairy tales were translated into Easy German and sign language.
The project produced videos
with sign language interpreters
that were interpreting on the basis of Easy German.
There are drawings on the content of the fairy tales,
subtitles in Easy German,
and an audio with a narration in Easy German.
This example explores multiple channels
and implements Easy Language on more than one layer and modality.
Easy-to-understand language is also practiced in interpreting scenarios.
Interpretation into Easy Language is a practice
that has been growing in recent years,
especially in Germany.
Meanwhile, research has started to look into this practice.
The language variety used in such interpreting scenarios
is mostly rather Plain than Easy Language.
Apparently, in spoken scenarios
in their enriched face-to-face situations,
Plain Language fits the needs of the primary target groups.
Easy or Plain Language interpreting is just another example
for the shifted focus:
EL and PL are used in different media realisations.
The EASIT project proposes to apply easy-to-understand language
for accessibility services,
such as audio description and subtitling.
It also proposes to implement E2U in audio-visual news.
In research, there are first publications
that systematically look into the possibilities
of implementing E2U in other formats
of audio-visual translation and accessible communication.
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 Partnership
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.
Subtitled by Michelle Becker.