Accessible Content

From 2007 to 2025, the Competence Network KI-I, developed and established Easy-to-Read in Upper Austria on behalf of the Upper Austrian Government. This long-standing pioneering work laid the essential groundwork for understandable and inclusive communication

An important step was the introduction of different language levels and the development of translations specifically tailored to the varying needs of the respective target groups. Over the years, nearly countless documents related to the Upper Austrian Equal Opportunity Act were translated into Easy-to-Read. A particular milestone was the creation of legally binding decisions in Easy-to-Read—a first in Austria and likely across Europe.

The extensive translation expertise developed in the process was not only applied in practical work but also passed on through courses, training programs, and continuing education. In this way, knowledge about Easy-to-Read was sustainably imparted and firmly established in Upper Austria.

Access to information is a fundamental right and allows the participation in social and economic life. If a person is unable to understand information adequately, this person will be excluded from many areas of daily life. This applies in particular to people with learning difficulties, people with cognitive impairment or people with a low level of understanding or low reading ability. It is often difficult for them to capture content adequately. Therefore they are not only limited in their ability to have a say, but also in their ability to lead a self-determined and independent life.

Visualization

Visualizations allow better access to information and have the potential to provide information more easily and to support communication. They help to make complex topics more comprehensible and to sum up the essentials. In addition, they make language more concrete and support a better memory of content by acting as mental anchors for the related information. Our visualizations are hand drawn. This has the advantage that the images can be adapted for each individual situation.

Visualization in the context of communication is not about art, but about the basic, written and spoken text, and to present content easily and comprehensibly. The pictures should be simple and fast to draw and are therefore based on simple forms. Likewise, they should be comprehensible and easy to understand, which is why an image language with images from the everyday language is used.

More information on our visualizations (PDF, 365KB, german),

Easy-to-Read and easily understandable information

Apart from the main target group (people with learning difficulties, people with intellectual disabilities) many other people also profit from Easy-to-Read. Among others that would be people with foreign mother-tongue, functionally analphabetic people, people with a low level of education and, to a certain extent, deaf people.

Apart from laws, there are many other things, where a translation into Easy-to-Read makes sense: e.g. information for safety at work, training materials, travel information, public authority's information and many more. Also it is possible to document meetings, presentations and workshops by drawn minutes and to adapt their language for the different target groups in the audience. The KI-I offers translations into Easy-to-Read as an extensive and professional service to authorities, organisations and companies. In addition the KI-I team is engaged in the advancement of the topic on a national and international level and is doing research in the new combination of easy language and ICT.