Our editor Soufiane talks about easy-to-read

Our work brings the voice of people with intellectual disabilities and their families where decisions about their future are made. This has always been incredibly important. It is even more so with the Covid pandemic drastic impact on their rights and lives. Being visible and vocal on issues directly affecting millions of people requires your...

Our editor Soufiane talks about easy-to-read

Soufiane El Amrani

 

Click on a word which is in bold to read what it means.

 

My name is Soufiane, I live in Belgium.

I am a self-advocate.

 

 

I work at Inclusion Europe as the easy-to-read editor.

I started working here in 2008.

I am also part of the Empower Us Action Team.

 

 

What is easy-to-read?

Easy-to-read is information that is written in a clear and easy to understand way.

Many people with an intellectual disability
as well as other groups of people find it useful.

I edit the newsletter Europe for Us using the European easy-to-read standard,
which I helped create.

I have also written this article using Easy-to-read.

 

Why is easy-to-read important?

Having easy-to-read information is very important
for people with intellectual disabilities,
so that we can:

 

  • Learn new things.

 

 

 

  • Take part in community life.

 

 

 

  • Know our rights and stand up for ourselves.

 

 

  • Make our own choices.

 

 

People with intellectual disabilities have the right to get information
that is easy-to-read and understand.

With my colleagues, I have worked on many different easy-to-read documents.

For example:

  • presentations;
  • articles about inclusion in Europe;
  • booklets for meetings.
I have also travelled to a few places
training people about how to write in easy-to-read.
I have been to Portugal, Spain, Croatia, Greece and Russia.

Soufiane in Russia, where he talked about easy-to-read

 

When I write an article in easy-to-read
I have to understand what the article is talking about.

I also check the layout and the format of the text.

Each time I check a text,
I follow a checklist that I created for myself.

This checklist reminds me of all the things I need
that are important for an easy-to-read document.

For example, the text must be at least in Arial 14 as a font.

If the text is long,
it needs page numbers.

I use clear and short words and sometimes pictures too,
to help explain what is written.

For me, it is important to be able to read information
that is written in a way that it is easy to understand.

I feel part of the community
because I get the same information as everybody else.

There have been many times when easy-to-read was useful to me.

For example:

 

  • When I was looking up train timetables;
    a
    a

    a
    a
  • When I took part in a conference at the European Commission
    and they gave us an easy-to-read programme.
    a
    a

 

Part of my job is to help create our newsletter, Europe for Us.

Europe for Us talks about the news that is interesting for self-advocates.

For example, it talks about meetings of self-advocates
and about the work of Inclusion Europe.

Europe for Us is written in 6 languages.

I enjoy writing easy-to-read articles
because I can pick out what people with intellectual disabilities
want to read about.

It is a fun challenge because I learn new things every time.

I get to learn about different organisations in the world
that support people with intellectual disabilities.

It is challenging to change texts into easy-to-read
because organisations’ documents
are usually way too long and not easy-to-read.

But I love my job!

 

 

This article is a slightly revised version of the original article published on the website of Empower Us.

Empower Us is Inclusion International‘s work to help self-advocacy grow around the world. 

The Action Team is a group of self-advocate leaders from around the world who work with Inclusion International on Empower Us.

Our work brings the voice of people with intellectual disabilities and their families where decisions about their future are made.

This has always been incredibly important. It is even more so with the Covid pandemic drastic impact on their rights and lives.

Being visible and vocal on issues directly affecting millions of people requires your support. 

Become Inclusion Europe supporter and help us keep doing our work.

 

 

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