Can you turn EU words into easy-to-read and understand language?, Helena Lambsdorff asks.
How about…
💶 MFF
🥩 Stakeholder
🧸 State of play
🍒 Fruitful discussion
🏅 Meaningful participation
👁️ Invaluable insight
🏟️ In the field
🫧 Brussels bubble
🪂 Paradigm shift
🧟♀️ Lived experience
💡 Shed light
💼 Brief intervention
👀 Exchange of views
📍 On the ground
For many people, this isn’t very easy. (We tried this at the EESC Civil Society Week, recently.)
And I know why.
We get so used language that is used by the group around us, even if it doesn’t make a lot of sense. We adapt, even if our first instinct is: “Really? Is that wave of bla bla really necessary to get the message across?!”
It’s easy to roll your eyes at this language- as pretty much everyone I know working with and for the EU does (especially those that use it themselves). But it’s a lot harder to change.
During Civil Society Week many people came to Inclusion Europe’s stand and played our easy-to-read challenge with us. Many were surprised that they didn’t find it as easy as they thought, because they had gotten so used to just going along with these terms. And many had an aha moment when we told them how much easier it could be. Same meaning, same depth, same importance, more inclusive.
Go ahead and give it a try! Challenge yourself to change a pattern. Challenge yourself to becoming better at being inclusive, so that people with intellectual disabilities (and a lot of others too) can be a part of public and political processes. It’s their right.
Don’t be afraid to mess up. Trying and failing is always better than not trying at all. After all that’s how we learn. And only if we learn can we become better.
And if you want to see how Inclusion Europe would translate these words follow us on Instagram, where we will be posting videos about this very soon!