The practice and the training of text simplification in Italy

This paper reports on a subset of survey data to illustrate the status, the educational and the professional background of the Italian experts in the production of Easy-to-Understand (E2U) content. It opens with a definition of E2U in relation to the established terms Easy-to-Read Language and Plain Language, which are discussed and exemplified through examples in English, and it illustrates the European project EASIT on the implementation of E2U in the audiovisual context. After that, the paper focuses on the Italian situation regarding E2U training and practice as emerged from the answers to a survey of 19 experts. Results show that the Italian situation does not differ substantially from the general European situation as far as the (solid and varied) educational and professional background of the experts is concerned, as well as the still scant training opportunities that are offered and the limited involvement of academia in training. On the other hand, some specificities of the Italian situation do emerge, such as the dominance of theory over practice both in training and on the job, and an unbalanced implementation of E2U content which abounds in the area of education and overlooks other crucial areas of communication. The results of the Italian survey point to the need for more consistent and systematic training as well as to the need for more awareness-rising as far as communicative integration and inclusion through content simplification are concerned.