German Parliament discussed a proposal on accessible culture, information and communication - available in easy to read!

For people with intellectual disabilities, accessibility means having information that is easy to understand. In Germany, some politicians want to make a law to make all important information easy to understand. They did a proposal for this law to show it to other politicians. They did this proposal is also in easy to read. You can read the proposal here. The proposal is written in German.

Lebenshilfe Germany welcomed the parliamentary proposal “Culture for all! – For equal access of people with disabilities to culture, information and communication” presented by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). The proposal, translated into easy to read format, was discussed in the German Bundestag on 27 January.

Accessibility is usually associated with physical barriers such as high curbs or stairs impeding mobility of wheelchair-users. For people with intellectual disabilities, accessibility is about being able to find their way around independently, which is impossible without access to understandable information.

Easy to read formats do not only serve people with intellectual disabilities. A growing group of adults with reading and writing difficulties as well as numerous citizens with immigrant background and many others would be grateful for instructions, forms, or official letters in plain German.

A considerable amount of citizens are “cut off” from important information just because our selection of words is not understandable for them. It is high time for so-called Information Society to take on “easy to read” formats.

The national association Lebenshilfe has been publishing a magazine in easy to read format for 25 years. Last year, Lebenshilfe developed a comprehensive set of criteria on the topic for the Federal Accessibility Centre, available at www.lebenshilfe.de. During yearly parliamentary evenings, Lebenshilfe presents its requests to the members of parliament also in easy to read.

Source: Lebenshilfe Germany
The original press release in German is available here.

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If people with intellectual disabilities are to actively participate in the life of society on an equal basis with others, access to understandable information is a key prerequisite. The German proposal comes in the time when the European Commission is running a public consultation on accessibility of physical environment, to transport and to information and communication services, in view of creating a European Accessibility Act.

Inclusion Europe therefore invites its members as well as self-advocates and family members to take part in this public consultation to make sure that the accessibility needs of people with intellectual disabilities are adequately reflected in the future EU legislation.

Contributions can be submitted at http://ec.europa.eu/justice/newsroom/discrimination/opinion/111207_en.htm until 29 February 2012.