FINLAND

In Finland there are two Plain Language Centres. Selkokeskus serves the Finnish speaking population and LL-Center serves the Swedish speaking minority in Finland.
The centres cooperate very closely and have several joint projects.
The Plain Language Centres promote information, communication and culture in plain language.

The Centres
- Publish plain language newspapers Selkouutiset, in Finnish, and LL-Bladet, in Swedish,
- Promote the publication of literature in plain language,
- Produce plain language-related services, communication projects etc.,
- Provide a channel for cooperation and communication in the field.
The Plain Language Centres generate new ideas and projects and design plain language applications. Selkokeskus is part of the Finnish Association on Mental Retardation and LL-Center is part of the Association for Swedish speaking people with learning disabilities, but they both offer services to anyone interested in plain language.

Selkouutiset and LL-Bladet
Selkouutiset and the Swedish-language LL-Bladet are plain language newspapers. These easy-to-read newspapers are distributed to, among others, people with learning disabilities, immigrants, Finnish expatriates, the elderly and school children. The newspapers have no religious or political bias.
Selkouutiset and LL-Bladet contain information about national and international events, sports, culture and entertainment. The papers are published every other week.

Web site
The centres’ plain language web pages (see Links) contain the network editions of Selkouutiset and LL-Bladet, information about plain language books and other topics as well as order forms for books and newspapers.

Support for literature in plain language
The Plain Language Centres works in close co-operation with the plain language working group set by the Ministry of Education. While they do not actually publish plain language books, the centres promote plain language literature in other ways (e.g. information, joint marketing). Free brochures on the latest plain language books and information about grants awarded for the publication of books can be ordered from the centres.

Brochures on different topics
The Plain Language Centres publish a variety of informative material annually. Plain language brochures on for example laws, elections, traffic and health have been published in cooperation with different authorities or organizations. The informative material is usually free of charge and some of it is also available on the Centres’ home pages.

Training, text editing
The Plain Language Centres organize training related to plain language. In addition to annual courses, the centres provide educators for different kinds of events. The centres also promote plain language-related research and provide assistance for writing and editing plain language texts. Their services are also available to companies.
Definition

The definition of plain language in Finland

is based on a comparison to common language.
The Research Institute for the Languages of Finland
defines common language as follows:
Common language is a language form shared by
various age and occupational groups within a linguistic community.
Its outward form is in accordance with the standards
of the written language, it uses a vocabulary that is
known to be commonly understood (or at least it explains
the special terms used) and has a simple sentence structure.
The Plain Language Centre’s Definition of plain language:
Plain language has been adapted in its content,
vocabulary and structure so that it is easier to read and understand.
Its purpose is to help people that have difficulties in reading
and/or understanding the common language.

Plain-language logo
A standard plain language logo has been used in Finland
since the early 1990s for the identification of
plain language books, newspapers, brochures and other applications:
The logo helps people recognize a plain-language publication
and also serves as a guarantee of quality.
The logo for plain language books is granted by
the Plain Language Working Party of the Plain Language Centre
(subordinate to the Ministry of Education).
The logos for other plain language publications
are granted by the Plain Language Centre.
Plain language Internet sites can also apply for the logo
from the Plain Language Centre.
You can find these sites listed in Internet address www.selko.fi.

Contacts

Selkokeskus, Plain language centre (Finnish speaking)
Selkokeskus
Viljatie 4 A, 00700 Helsinki, Finland
Fax: +358 9 351 3398
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Hannu Virtanen, Director of the Centre: +358 9 34809 241
Pauliina Kyllönen, Planner of the Centre (literature, brochures): +358 9 34809 243

Petri Kiuttu, Editor of Selkouutiset: +358 9 34809 244
LL-Center, Plain language centre (Swedish speaking)
LL-Center
Tölögatan 27 A 16, 00260 Helsingfors, Finland
Fax: +358 9 407 748
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Johanna von Rutenberg, Planner of the Centre: +358 400 716 078

Maria Österlund, Editor of LL-Bladet: +358 9 440 442

Links

Selkokeskus

The centre’s home web site at www.papunet.net/selkokeskus contain information about the plain language (theory and research) written in the standard language (Finnish). The pages include English-language material .

The centre’s plain language web pages at www.papunet.net/selko contain the network edition of Selkouutiset, information about plain language books and other topics as well as order forms for books and newspapers, all written in plain Finnish.


LL-Center

LL-Center's home web site at www.papunet.net/ll-center/ contain information about the plain language and is written in Swedish.
Here www.papunet.net/ll/ you can find the network edition of LL-Bladet and other information in plain language (Swedish).

NORWAY

Presentation of Books for everyone

Leser søker bok (Books for everyone) support and promote adapted books. We were established in 2003, with the aim of providing adapted literature for all kind of people who have difficulties in reading ordinary books. Everyone should have access to literature, regardless of their reading ability!

We are an alliance of 20 organisations, our members include the associations of booksellers, authors, publishers - and also various different organisations representing our target groups. The Ministry of Cultural Affairs has the main financial responsibility for Leser søker bok.
Leser søker bok collaborates with publishers, writers, illustrators, libraries and bookshops to make books available to everyone.

Supporting the authors and illustrators
We collaborate with authors and illustrators and offer professional support in developing ideas and texts which are adapted into easy-to-read. Since 2003 Leser søker bok has supported some 60 book titles. To see them all, click here.

Supporting the publishers
We collaborate with publishers who want to publish adapted/arranged literature for the Norwegian book market.

Information
Our goal is that adapted books should be a natural part of the Norwegian book market. Our catalogue contains all the books that we have supported, and is published every year. The catalogue is printed in 20,000 copies and distributed to libraries, bookshops, schools and education centres, immigrant organisations, etc.
Our website http://www.boksok.no/ is a complete guide to all available adapted literature in Norway. As far as we know, this is the world’s first search-site for adapted literature. The site overviews the book market for many different groups, as it contains a wide range of literature that has been made accessible in different ways. The users may easily find literature suitable for many different needs. You can also find out whether the book is available in your local public library or bookshop. You can search for titles based on genre, language, age, subject matter or other categories.
We are constantly striving to keep http://www.boksok.no/ up to date. When evaluating and selecting books, strong emphasis is put on how suitable they are regarding the quality of the reading experience.

Bookshops and libraries for everyone
We try to make it easy to buy the books, by making arrangements with some of the bookshops for them to be fronted as bookstores with Books for everyone. We collaborate with over 100 public libraries over the whole of Norway. We provide financial support so that the libraries are able to hold a wide range of adapted literature in their collections, and we give them the necessary advice and information to be able to find the right book for the right reader. We also help them libraries organise networks with reading representatives - who read aloud to people who are not able to read on their own (see below).
We publish a news letter four times a year about our work in the library field which is distributed to libraries and reading representatives.
"Reading representatives" and reading support
In cooperation with the public libraries who promote Books for everyone, we help to build networks of reading representatives. A reading representative is a person who reads aloud to others that are not able to read by themselves. We now have over 500 people who work with this kind of reading support, either as volunteers or as a part of their job. Our cooperating libraries collaborate with the administration for local Health and social services, participating institutions (retirement homes, psychiatric day care, homes for mentally disabled etc.) and volunteers. This is a highly welcomed offer for people who suffer from dementia, aphasia, or stroke patients, mentally disabled, elderly people with impaired sight etc. A reading representative can spread joy and inspiration and help improve the quality of life for many people.

Presentation of Klar Tale

Klar Tale is a weekly newspaper. It is independent of Books for everyone, and is seated in NTB, the main Norwegian news agency.
Definition

Definition

Our target groups

Studies of reading abilities among Norwegian students show that 20 % of are below the ”critical line”. 10 % have serious reading disabilities (PISA - Programme for International Student Assessment). However, both the international surveys SIALS (Second International Adult Literacy Survey) and ALL (Adult Literacy and Life Skills) show the same results based on studying adult readers. This means that a staggering 30 % of the Norwegian population have difficulties in reading ordinary text.

This does not mean that 30 % can’t spell. Nor do the 30% consider themselves poor readers. It simply means that reading tests show that they are unable to fully understand the contents in an ordinary text.
Adults with language or reading disabilities is a large and complex group. The most common reasons can be divided into the following:
- Language skills
- Dyslexia – reading disabilities
- Other disabilities that can lead to reading difficulties, i.e. visual or hearing limitations, blindness, deafness, mental impairment, etc.
- Inexperienced readers, more unknown reasons
In total all these groups count more than 1 million people in Norway.

Noone should excluded from the ability to read a good book!

Our books
Most of us may experience difficulties in reading, depending on the complexity of the text. Our goal is that there should exist books at all levels of complexity, and with every possible kind of adaption.

The books we support and promote are just as varied as the readers. They have different kinds of adaptions - or combinations of these:
- text that is easy to read
- contents that are easy to understand
- sound
- pictures
- tactile pictures
- braille
- sign language
- bliss or pictogram
Some people will never be able to read ordinary books, but being a "poor reader" does not have to be a permanent diagnosis. We consider adapted literature to be both a medium; a guide into the wonderful world of reading - and a goal in itself; an invitation to discover the many pleasures of literature.

Our newspaper
The newspaper Klar Tale is adapted in many ways: The text is easy to read and the content is easy to understand. They also have a braille version and they have sound on their web page www.klartale.no.

Contacts

Adapted books:

The task of "Leser søker bok" (Books for everyone)
is to make the book market able to offer adapted litterature
to everyone who has difficulties in reading ordinary books.
We support and develop
easy to read-books, easy-to-understand books, tactile books etc.,
and we work to make them available to the readers.

We are seated at the house of Litterature (Litteraturhuset) in Oslo.

Leser søker bok
Web: www.lesersokerbok.no
E-mail: post (at) lesersokerbok.no
Telephone: (+ 47) 22 54 75 00
Adress: Leser søker bok - Litteraturhuset - Wergelandsveien 29 - 0167 OSLO - Norway


Adapted newspaper: "Klar Tale" is a weekly newspaper.
We are seated at the Norwegian News agency NTB.

Web: www.klartale.no
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Telephone: (+ 47) 22 03 44 00
Adress: Klar tale - Pb 6817, St Olavs plass - 0130 Oslo – Norway

Links

BOOKS FOR EVERYONE - The organisation for adapted books in Norway.
Some text in English.

BOKSOK.NO - their page for searching adapted books
THIS IS THE MAIN SOUCE FOR SEARCHING ADAPTED BOOKS IN NORWAY!
The text is in Norwegian.

KLAR TALE - Norway's weekly easy-to-read newspaper
The text is in Norwegian.



If you are really keen and can read Norwegian...
these publishers have web pages about adapted books:

Cappelen: Books with easy-to-read text
Damm: Frontserien - easy-to-read text
Lettlest forlag: A publisher that only makes easy-to-read books
Solum Forlag: Tactile pictures, braille, bliss, piktogram and easy content
Gyldendal: easy-to-read text (Write ”bare" in the search field at the right, search and choose the series "Litt å lese".)
Orkana: easy-to-read text and easy content
Lydbokforlaget: Sound and easy content or easy to read-text
Omnipax: easy-to-read about autism and aspergers syndrom
Aschehoug: sign language
Heidilines: Bliss

SWEDEN

History

The Centre for Easy-to-Read is a foundation subsidized by the government and consists of

• 8 PAGES, a weekly newspaper
• the Easy-to-Read-publishing house
• the Easy-to-Read Commission Services, a department revising texts written by various authorities, organizations, associations and companies. The texts are revised into Easy-to-Read.
• the Reading Representation, through which care-givers at daycentres for persons with intellectual disabilities and caregivers att sheltered housing for people with dementia are educated to be so called Reading Representatives, i.e. they learn how to arrange Reading-aloud sessions together with the users. Today the Reading Representation is a part of the Department for Marketing and Communication and is seen as a way to influence the attitudes to Reading Aloud and Easy-to-Read.

The idea of publishing Easy-to-Read texts started as an experiment carried out by a committee at the Swedish National Agency for Education in Sweden in 1968. The books were published at different publishing houses in cooperation with the committee. In 1984 the first issue of the Easy-to-Read newspaper 8 PAGES was published on a trial basis. In 1987 the publication of the paper became permanent and was produced by the Easy-to-Read Foundation. In 1988 the publication of the Easy-to-Read books was transferred to the Easy-to-Read Foundation and in 1991 the foundation launched its own publishing house, the Easy-to-Read-publishing house.
The Department for Reading Representation started on a trial basis in 1992 and was made permanent in 1994. In 1997 the Easy-to-Read Commission Services was launched and at the same time the Easy-to-Read Foundation changed its name to the Centre for Easy-to-Read.
The Centre for Easy-to-Read is a foundation launched by a parliamentary resolution. The board is appointed and the articles are approved by the government. But the Centre for Easy-to Read is not an authority, neither is it an interest organization for the target groups.
Today the target groups for Easy-to-Read texts are many: persons with intellectual disabilities, persons with dyslexia, aphasia, autism, dementia, immigrants, school children, elderly people, persons with brain injuries, persons who are deaf from childhood and poor readers in general.

Contacts

Bror Tronbacke, Director
Centre for Easy-to-Read
Box 9145, 102 72 Stockholm
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Inger Fredriksson, Publisher
Centre for Easy-to-Read
Box 91 45, 102 72 Stockholm
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Mats Ahlsén, Chief Editor
Centre for Easy-to-Read
Box 91 45, 102 72 Stockholm
mats.ahlsé This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Ann Marie Lindman, journalist
Centre for Easy-to-Read
Box 9145, 102 72 Stockholm
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Links

Go to Centrum för lättläst - The Centre for Easy-to-Read in Sweden