EASIT: Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training.
This is unit 2: Easy-to-understand language, in short E2U.
Element 1, Understanding easy-to-understand language.
Video lecture: Target groups and their needs.
My name is Sergio Hernández from the University of Hildesheim.
In this video lecture, I will talk about the E2U target groups.
I will focus on Easy Language, including Easy-to-read,
and Plain Language.
I will also deliver an insight into the needs of the target groups
considering communication barriers that they may face.
Target groups of EL are considerably diverse.
We talk about primary and secondary groups, according to the 2016 book “Easy Language”
(in German Leichte Sprache) by Bredel and Maaß.
The primary groups have problems with standard or expert language.
Therefore, they are addressed in Easy Language.
The secondary groups are confronted with Easy Language,
even if they could be addressed with standard or expert language.
In this video lecture, we will focus on the primary groups.
The primary groups of EL are persons with cognitive disabilities,
with learning difficulties, dementia,
prelingual hearing impairment, aphasia,
functional illiterates, and language learners.
They are confronted with different kinds of problems.
Rink’s barrier index will help to understand the issue.
The primary target groups face communication barriers they cannot overcome.
It is helpful to understand which communication barriers
they face in order to find right strategies for accessibility.
Easy Language is one of the tools to overcome communication barriers.
Rink proposes her barrier index based on these 7 barriers:
A text may represent a sensory barrier,
if the communication is oral and the group cannot hear.
Or if the communication has to be perceived
via the visual channel and the group cannot see.
There are different forms of accessible communication to address the sensory barrier,
for example, subtitles or audio description.
A text may represent a cognitive barrier, for instance,
if the content is too complex and abstract for the group to process.
This may be because the cognitive capacities of the group are reduced,
for example, because of cognitive impairment.
The cognitive barrier is a considerable obstacle.
Not every content can be made accessible for each group or individual.
They might not understand because of a cognitive barrier,
no matter how easy the linguistic form of what is said.
A text represents a motoric barrier, if the physical presentation
is not appropriate for the group.
For example, if a person cannot use a mouse,
but an online page cannot be navigated without a mouse.
Or if the paper quality of a brochure is not good
for persons with a motoric impairment and they cannot turn the pages.
A text may represent a language barrier,
if the content is in a language that the group does not understand.
Maybe they do not know this language, for it is foreign to them
If they do know the language,
it may be that the language variety in the text is not familiar to them.
Too high in style,
perhaps a local dialect
or belonging to a group that cultivates a certain language fashion.
A text may represent an expert knowledge barrier
or expert language barrier,
if special knowledge is needed in order to understand the content.
Or the content is written in expert language.
A text may also represent a cultural barrier,
if special knowledge or attitudes are presupposed
that belong to a certain culture.
And finally, a text may represent a media barrier,
if the media format is not appropriate for the group
or if they do not have access to the necessary tools and gadgets.
For example, many individuals among the primary groups of Easy Language
do not have access to the internet.
So what barriers do the EL target groups face?
Practically, all target groups confront expert knowledge
and expert language barriers.
EL can be helpful, because expert knowledge is presented
in a comprehensible way and knowledge on the subject is not presupposed;
it is explicitly introduced.
The language variety is also reduced to a minimum.
More about this in our lecture about lexical aspects
of easy-to-understand language.
The cognitive barrier poses an obstacle
for persons with cognitive disability and dementia-type illnesses.
Content in EL tackles this barrier:
Pesuppositions and implicatures are on the surface explained.
The amount of information is reduced to avoid overload.
You will learn more about this in our lecture
about textual aspects of easy-to-understand language.
The language barrier may be an obstacle
for persons with prelingual hearing impairment,
cognitive disability, dementia-type illnesses
aphasia, and language learners.
This barrier is tackled by using only a central vocabulary
and basic grammatical structures.
More about this in our lectures about lexical and syntactic aspects
of easy-to-understand language.
Persons with prelingual hearing impairment and language learners
are also confronted with cultural barriers.
EL addresses this barrier by making knowledge explicit
that is presupposed within a specific culture.
Persons with sensory impairments also face a sensory barrier.
A sensory impairment may come with another impairment.
For example, a hearing or visual impairment
in addition to a cognitive impairment.
A good way to work on barriers is to consider other media formats,
for example, audio-visual formats.
Or audio formats in addition to the written text.
For instance, people with dyslexia can be addressed through audio
or audio-visual formats because their primary problem
is not in the field of comprehending but rather in using written formats.
PL addresses persons that do not need the maximum comprehensibility level
to understand a specific content.
PL texts might not be perceptible and comprehensible enough
for persons with communication impairments.
PL is for persons that do not understand a specific content
due to language complexity or expert content.
This is very typical in expert-lay-communication.
If PL is not comprehensible enough for a specific group,
translators and authors should consider using EL instead of PL.
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 therin.
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 Adna Alic-Rucz.