Our editor Soufiane talks about easy-to-read

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.

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.

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!