Abstract:

Easy reading is a resource that is essential for many students with comprehension difficulties to access a more inclusive education. It can be very useful not only for students with functional diversity, but also for students with other educational or language needs.

This is a method of adapting documents to make them more intuitive as well as easier to read, understand and interpret. It covers both text and illustrations and layout, often including images, drawings and pictograms, as cognitive accessibility tools that provide an association of ideas that facilitates understanding of the content. The language should be simple and clear, so that the information is not confusing and is well structured.

Pictograms are visual communication resources that can be easily adapted in contexts of diversity, especially for students with attention, memory, language and pervasive developmental difficulties. Their main advantages are that they are perceptible, simple and permanent, unlike spoken or sign messages. They stimulate visual perception, boosting graphic memory, favouring concentration on a task and improving attention.

Nowadays, numerous easy reading materials can be found to facilitate the access of these students to books, news..., as well as guidelines for their development. However, there are few resources related to STEM education. In this presentation we show a series of easy reading laboratory experiments jointly built by teachers from the Chemistry Department of the University of Burgos and teachers of Adapted Basic Vocational Training courses for students with disabilities from IES Teguise.
The experiments are written in easy-to-read language, taking into account the profile of the students to decide what kind of elements will be more functional (more or less abstract icons, in black and white or colour...) depending on factors such as impairment of some of the senses or cognitive and linguistic abilities. Different levels of easy reading are also considered.

Acknowledgements:
The authors thank the financial support provided by EU (Erasmus+ project No. 2021-1-ES01-KA220-SCH-000024569).

Keywords:

STEM, Lab experiments, Easy reading, Functional diversity, Educational or language needs, Adapted Basic Vocational Training Programs.