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{\an2}EASIT: Easy Access
for Social Inclusion Training
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{\an2}Easy-to-understand language in
Germany:
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{\an2}overview and legal situation.
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{\an2}This is unit 2: Easy-to-understand
language,
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{\an2}in short E2U.
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{\an2}Element 2:
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{\an2}Legislation, standards and
guidelines.
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{\an2}Video lecture: Easy-to-understand
language in Germany:
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{\an2}overview and legal situation.
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{\an2}My name is Christiane Maaß from the
University of Hildesheim.
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{\an2}We give an overwiew on the situation
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{\an2}of easy-to-understand language
in Germany in two video lectures.
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{\an2}In this first video, we will give an
overview
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{\an2}about the German concept of
easy-to-understand language.
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{\an2}We will give insight into the fields
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{\an2}where easy-to-understand language
is already used
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{\an2}and where more Easy Language
material is needed.
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{\an2}This video will end with an overview
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{\an2}on important legal milestones.
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{\an2}The second video is on the German
research situation.
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{\an2}We will talk about the existing
practical and scientific guidelines.
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{\an2}We will go into more detail
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{\an2}with regard to the German
easy-to-understand language rules.
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{\an2}This topic covers more aspects than
the other videos
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{\an2}and treats the situation of
easy-to-understand language
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{\an2}in Germany from different
viewpoints.
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{\an2}Therefore, we have created
two videos to cover this topic.
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{\an2}In Germany, easy-to-understand
language is differentiated
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{\an2}in Easy Language and Plain Language.
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{\an2}Easy Language is strictly normed
and is maximally comprehensible.
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{\an2}Plain Language
is not as strictly normed,
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{\an2}but covers an area of different
complexity stages.
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{\an2}It can be adapted
to the target groups
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{\an2}and the
respective target situations.
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{\an2}Let`s have a look at the different
areas of application.
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{\an2}Easy-to-understand language,
especially Easy Language,
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{\an2}is widely implemented in legal and
administrative communication.
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{\an2}The situation has evolved
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{\an2}on the basis
of the legal situation in Germany
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{\an2}that privieges Easy Language.
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{\an2}We will talk about the legislation
in a short while.
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{\an2}On the basis of the legislation
passed on federal level,
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{\an2}federal agencies of all kinds,
but also federal states
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{\an2}have to offer Easy Language
on their homepages
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{\an2}and there are projects to translate
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{\an2}legal and administrative information
into Easy Language.
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{\an2}Especially on municipal
and local level,
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{\an2}there are many interaction texts,
for example,
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{\an2}municipal services,
available in Easy Language.
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{\an2}Political participation
is another field
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{\an2}where many Easy Language texts
are available:
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{\an2}polling information,
programmes of political parties,
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{\an2}explanations of the
German political system
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{\an2}news from different news media etc.
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{\an2}News are actually available in Easy
as well as in Plan Language.
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{\an2}An example for a regular
Easy Language news offer
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{\an2}are the daily news of the North
German Broadcasting Association.
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{\an2}If you are interested, you can visit
their homepage and see
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{\an2}how they provide this service.
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{\an2}Offers in the field of public health
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{\an2}are also growing.
In this field,
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{\an2}it is especially Plan and not Easy
Language that is used.
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{\an2}Still quite rare are multimodal
services in Easy Language,
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{\an2}but there are some examples
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{\an2}like the fairy tales in Easy
Language and sign language.
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{\an2}Literature in Easy Language
is very rare in Germany
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{\an2}and there is no state funding
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{\an2}in place to promote such offers.
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{\an2}Very active are museums,
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{\an2}that are open to a broad
and diverse audience
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{\an2}and increasingly offer Easy
Language.
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{\an2}But there are many other contexts
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{\an2}where information in easy-to-
understand language is needed
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{\an2} and wished for by the target
groups, but are still lacking.
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{\an2}In the field of legislation,
the central pillar is the
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{\an2}Federal Act on Equal Opportunities
of Persons with Diabilities,
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{\an2}in German
Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz
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{\an2}or short BGG.
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{\an2}This law was passed first in 2002
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{\an2}an amended in 2016 and 2018.
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{\an2}In the 2016 amendment,
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{\an2}in this version,
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{\an2}a paragraph is contained on
comprehensibility and Easy Language
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{\an2}that became effective in
January 2018.
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{\an2}This paragraph states
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{\an2}" [...] that official notices,
general rulings,
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{\an2}public law contracts and forms
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{\an2}should on request be explained in
Plain Language and,
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{\an2}if it does not suffice,
in Easy Language".
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{\an2}That means, Easy as well as
Plain Language are mentioned
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{\an2}and we can see
the continuum of comprehensibility,
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{\an2}the different stages of complexity,
that we mentioned before.
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{\an2}Authorities may try with Plain
Language first,
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{\an2}but if this doesn`t work,
they have to go for Easy Language.
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{\an2}Paragraph 11 is limited to certain
text types of legal communication
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{\an2}and to persons with cognitive and
psychological diabilities.
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{\an2}Nevertheless, this law has boosted
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{\an2}the implementation of
easy-to-understand language
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{\an2}in Germany.
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{\an2}The Federal Act on Equal
Opportunities
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{\an2}of Persons with Disabilities
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{\an2}is implemented
through different regulations.
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{\an2}The most important for Easy Language
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{\an2}is the Accessible Information
Technology Regulation, in German:
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{\an2}Barrierefreie- Informationstechnik-
Verordnung
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{\an2}[in German] BITV 2.0
[in English] BITV 2.0
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{\an2}in its version from 2011.
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{\an2}It regulates
the accessibility of websites,
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{\an2}mobile apps, e-government tools
and graphical interfaces.
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{\an2}This regulation states
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{\an2}that every federal agency
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{\an2}has to have Easy Language offers
on their homepages.
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{\an2}In addition, the BITV 2.0
contains an appendix
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{\an2}with 13 basic rules for the creation
of Easy Language content.
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{\an2}This makes the Accessible
Information Technology Regulation
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{\an2}an important promoter
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{\an2} of Easy language in Germany.
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{\an2}On rather
political-administrative level,
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{\an2}there are the National Action Plans
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{\an2}that were drafted in 2016 and 2011
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{\an2}to concretely implement
the UN Convention
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{\an2}on the Rights of People
with Disabilities,
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{\an2}short UN CRPD, on a national level.
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{\an2}They contain many measures
evolving around
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{\an2}communicative accessibility in
general, among which Easy Language.
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{\an2}The National Action Plans for the
implementation of the UN CRPD
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{\an2}is not a binding document,
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{\an2}but rather a letter of intent.
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{\an2}Nevertheless, its implementation is
being monitored
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{\an2}and Easy Language is mentioned
several times.
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{\an2}You can find more information about
the UN CRPD in the video lecture
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{\an2}Unit 1 "Easy-to-undersand language",
Element 2
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{\an2}"Legislation, standards,
and guidelines",
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{\an2}video lecture "Legislation"
(international perspective).
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{\an2}Plain Language, on the other hand,
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{\an2}is mentioned in the National Action
Plan Health Literacy
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{\an2}that was passed in 2018
as a means to improve
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{\an2}health literacy
of the broader population,
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{\an2}especially the vulnerable groups
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{\an2}that tend to have
reduced health literacy
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{\an2}and are disproportionately often
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{\an2}faced also with
communication difficulties.
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{\an2}The main idea of the National Action
Plan Health Literacy is
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{\an2}that health literacy
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{\an2}can only develop on the basis of
accessible health information.
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{\an2}Plain language is seen as the tool
of choice to achieve this goal.
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{\an2}We will continue on the research
on Easy and Plain language
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{\an2}and the rulesets used in Germany
in our next presentation.
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{\an2}This video lecture has been prepared
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{\an2}by Sergio Hernandez
and Christiane Maaß
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{\an2}from the University of Hildesheim.
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{\an2}You can reach us at
easit@uni-hildesheim.de
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{\an2}The project EASIT
has received funding
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{\an2}from the European Commission
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{\an2}under the Erasmus+
Strategic Partnerships
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{\an2}for Higher Education programme,
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{\an2}grant agreement
2018-1-ES01-KA203-05275.
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{\an2}The European Commission support for
the production of this publication
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{\an2}does not constitute
an endorsement of the contents,
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{\an2}which reflect
the views only of the authors,
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{\an2}and the Commission
cannot be held responsible
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{\an2}for any use which may be made of
the information contained therein.
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{\an2}This work is licensed
under a Creative Commons
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{\an2}Attribution-ShareAlike
4.0 International License.
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{\an2}Partners of the EASIT project:
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{\an2}Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona,
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{\an2}Università degli Studi di Trieste,
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{\an2}Universidade de Vigo
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{\an2}Stiftung Universität Hildesheim,
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{\an2}SDI München,
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{\an2}Dyslexiförbundet,
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{\an2}Radiotelevisija Slovenija,
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{\an2}Zavod Risa.
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{\an2}EASIT: Easy Access
for Social Inclusion Training
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{\an2}Subtitled by Katharina Broermann.