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Simplified language is a variety of standard language characterized by reduced lexical and syntactic complexity, the addition of explanations for difficult concepts, and a clearly structured layout. It is used to enhance comprehensibility for the readers, allowing them to understand information or concepts more clearly. Among the target groups of simplified language are people with cognitive impairment and autism spectrum disorder, prelingually deaf and functionally illiterate persons, and sometimes also foreign language learners and children (Bredel & Maaß, 2016, p. 140–142). Simplified German has received increasing attention in research due to a number of movements in society and politics, as well as legal developments in German-speaking countries.

In research on Easy Language and automatic text simplification, it is imperative to evaluate the comprehensibility of texts by presenting them to target users and assessing their level of comprehension. Target readers often include people with intellectual or other disabilities, which renders conducting experiments more challenging and time-consuming. In this paper, we introduce Okra, an openly available touchscreen-based application to facilitate the inclusion of people with disabilities in studies of text comprehensibility. It implements several tasks related to reading comprehension and cognition and its user interface is optimized toward the needs of people with intellectual disabilities (IDs). We used Okra in a study with 16 participants with IDs and tested for effects of modality, comparing reading comprehension results when texts are read on paper and on an iPad. We found no evidence of such an effect on multiple-choice comprehension questions and perceived difficulty ratings, but reading time was significantly longer on paper. We also tested the feasibility of assessing cognitive skill levels of participants in Okra, and discuss problems and possible improvements. We will continue development of the application and use it for evaluating automatic text simplification systems in the future.

Nach dem aktuellen Stand des Behindertengleichstellungsgesetzes (BGG, 2018) sollen Kommunikationen in Leichter und Einfacher Sprache zugänglich gemacht werden. Diese Tätigkeiten sind im Bereich der intralingualen Übersetzung angesiedelt, die ihrerseits Teil der kommunikativen Barrierefreiheit sind. Es stellt sich mithin die Frage, inwiefern Instrumente und Prozesse der Qualitätssicherung und -optimierung, wie sie sich für die interlinguale Übersetzung bewährt haben, auf die intralinguale Übersetzung in Leichte und Einfache Sprache anwenden lassen. Im vorliegenden Beitrag gehen wir dieser Frage insbesondere mit Blick auf die ISO 17100 nach, die den Standard für Übersetzungsdienstleister definiert und Übersetzungsqualität über die Prozessqualität definiert., According to the current status of the Act on Equal Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz, BGG, 2018), texts should be accessible in Easy and Plain Language. These activities are considered as intralingual translation, which in turn is part of communicative accessibility. Against this background, the question arises to what extent instruments and processes of quality assurance and optimization, which are established for interlingual translation, can be adapted to intralingual translation into Easy and Plain Language. In this article, we address this question in particular in view of the ISO 17100, which defines the standard procedures for translation service providers and translation quality through process quality.