This is the transcription of Nevenka Kos intervention during the multiplier Event celebrated in Munich.
You can read her words, or listen in the video below. (Slovenian and English):
We, facilitators, and validators, have never had a training
such as the training from the Train2validate project.
We learned to validate information directly
in validation groups, Easy-to-read groups.
It went like this:
The facilitator brought a text.
Someone read the text.
If you didn’t understand a word or sentence, you said so.
We changed the word or sentence.
We cleaned the text.
With Easy-to-read, we can say the essential things briefly and clearly.
When you are making Easy-to-read information,
you need to know who you are working for,
for which group of people.
You must pay attention to the left alignment of the text.
The tails of the letters.
These are Easy-to-read guidelines.
These things are useful for a lot of people.
It takes a long time to produce Easy-to-read information.
Easy-to-read is not easy to do.
It’s not just novels.
Instructions can be in Easy-to-read.
Very serious things can be written in Easy-to-read.
Us people are stronger when we get information.
Other people can’t make a fool out of us.
because we know things.
We can do things easier.
We know we have rights.
Other people can’t lie to us, manipulate us.
If you have information, you know what it’s about.
I will tell you my experience.
I lived in an institution.
In the institution depends on the will of the staff,
if they give you information.
If you want to know something, you can ask.
If the worker is in a good mood, maybe she will tell you,
otherwise, no.
Information can be hidden from people in the institution.
You need to know what to ask and who to ask.
Many people do not even know what to ask.
That is why they keep quiet.
If you ask something, you may get a surprising answer,
like I used to get: “How do you know that?“
For the most part, the institutions want to be
useful for the institutions, their own benefit.
So Easy-to-read is very important for life.
With training, we will get new skills.
We will be able to get a job as validators.
Validation, Easy-to-read, is a job, an intellectual job.
If one has a job, one is more self-reliant, independent,
and able to find out what they enjoy.
Other people, the community look at you differently.
They see that you are something,
you can live on your own.
Like I live on my own now too, in my own apartment.
Working in life changes things.
If we work, we are included in society.
People who need Easy-to-read,
are disadvantaged in many areas.
There are no jobs for them.
But being a validator is an important job.
You help others, not just yourself.
People’s lives are changing.
For me, Easy-to-read has changed my life a lot.
I know a lot of things.
I have learned a lot of things and I can pass it on.
I can develop Easy-to-read, and point out if something is not right.
My work is not just the technical preparation of Easy-to-read,
this is work for people, to make a difference in their lives.
Through this project,
more people will be able to become validators.
They too will change lives.
Thank you.