The Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe describes what Easy Language is and how it is used in European countries. It demonstrates the great diversity of actors, instruments and outcomes related to Easy Language throughout Europe. All people, despite their limitations, have an equal right to information, inclusion, and social participation. This results in requirements for understandable language. The notion of Easy Language refers to modified forms of standard languages that aim to facilitate reading and language comprehension. This handbook describes the historical background, the principles and the practices of Easy Language in 21 European countries. Its topics include terminological definitions, legal status, stakeholders, target groups, guidelines, practical outcomes, education, research, and a reflection on future perspectives related to Easy Language in each country. Written in an academic yet interesting and understandable style, this Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe aims to find a wide audience.

This volume presents current research and practices in the field of Easy Language and accessible communication. The publication of this volume was inspired by two international events, namely the International Easy Language Day Conference (IELD), and the panel The Social Role of Language: Translation into Easy and Plain Languages at the IATIS conference. By bringing together findings from different corpus-driven, cognitive and automation approaches in accessible communication research and providing insights into current projects of the emerging field of accessible health communication, the volume captures the dynamic and rapidly evolving nature of the field.

The Routledge Handbook of Intralingual Translation provides the first comprehensive overview of intralingual translation, or the rewording or rewriting of a text. This Handbook aims to examine intralingual translation from every possible angle. The introduction gives an overview of the theoretical, political, and ideological issues involved and is followed by the first section which investigates intralingual translation from a diachronic perspective covering the modernization of classical texts. Subsequent sections consider different dialects and registers and intralingual translation from one language mode to another, explore concepts such as self-translating, transediting, and the role of copyeditors, and investigate the increasing interest in the role of intralingual translation and second language learning. Final sections examine recent developments in intralingual translation such as the subtitling of speech for the hard-of-hearing, simultaneous Easy Language interpreting, and respeaking in parliamentary debates. By providing an in-depth study on intralingual translation, the Handbook sheds light on other important areas of translation that are often bypassed, including publishing practices, authorship, and ideological constraints. Authored by a range of established and new voices in the field, this is the essential guide to intralingual translation for advanced students and researchers of translation studies.

Expert-lay communication in the medical field requires the utmost attention to readers’ or listeners’ needs and competences. If these are neglected, laypeople’s comprehension of the message is likely to be negatively affected. Text types like package leaflets and informed consents have been the object of countless studies. In this volume, Giulia Pedrini examines a new document type: the layperson summary of clinical trials. She conducts her analysis from a contrastive and translational perspective in three languages (English, German, and Italian). All texts are instances of interlingual translations of simplified documents written in Plain Language; a still widely unexplored niche within the field of translation studies.

Written by leading experts from across Europe, this book provides a grounded exploration of innovation in the practice, research and education of social work. It focuses on the role of participation, collaboration and co-creation as key drivers of social innovation within these fields, providing practical examples of social entrepreneurship, people-centred design and participatory led innovation. The positive outcomes of local social innovations are analysed in the wider European framework, with reflections and recommendations for advancing innovation in policy, service provision, education and research.

This book shows how accessible communication, and especially easy-to-understand languages, should be designed in order to become instruments of inclusion. It examines two well-established easy-to-understand varieties: Easy Language and Plain Language, and shows that they have complementary profiles with respect to four central qualities: comprehensibility, perceptibility, acceptability and stigmatisation potential. The book introduces Easy and Plain Language and provides an outline of their linguistic, sociological and legal profiles: What is the current legal framework of Easy and Plain Language? What do the texts look like? Who are the users? Which other groups are involved in the production and use of Easy and Plain Language offers? Which qualities are a hazard to acceptability and, thus, enhance their stigmatisation potential? The book also proposes another easy-to-understand variety: Easy Language Plus. This variety balances the four qualities and is modelled in the present book.

Recent studies show that more than half of the German population have difficulties in accessing, understanding, appraising, and applying health information, thus giving accessibility in health communication new traction. This volume links research and practice in the areas of accessible communication, health information and health literacy. The articles focus on these fields from a methodological, text and/or user perspective. The authors examine how to improve accessibility of research methods and how to adapt existing methods to answer questions about accessibility of health information. They discuss accessibility of text types and link accessibility to individual, organisational and professional health literacy. Contributions also give insight to the implementation of Easy and Plain Language in health information. All articles stem from different fields: in bringing them together, this volume fosters interdisciplinary exchange to communicate accessible health information and methods to specific vulnerable target groups.

The European Language Portfolio aims to foster the development of learner autonomy, intercultural awareness and plurilingualism. Teachers of particular languages working on their own can use the ELP to promote learner autonomy, but the goals of intercultural awareness and plurilingualism invite us to use the ELP in all foreign language classes at all levels in the school. The guide introduces the language education policy that underpins the ELP, explores the key concepts that it embodies, and explains how to plan, implement and evaluate whole-school ELP projects. The ten case studies published on the project website illustrate various dimensions of ELP use and include practical suggestions and activities for teachers and learners.