Kaoutar El Ajouaoui wants to read literature.
For example the Sherlock Holmes novels by Arthur Conan Doyle.
The problem: she often doesn't understand long sentences and complicated words.
El Ajouaoui works at the Praunheimer Werkstätten, the largest facility for people with intellectual disabilities in Frankfurt.
In order to enable everyone in Frankfurt to participate, the Volkshochschule Frankfurt (VHS) would like to make its offer more accessible.
There is already an inclusive reading club and a sign language course.
With the pilot project “Course on Inclusion”, which is funded by the Hessian Ministry of Culture with 138,000 euros, the courses themselves are to be designed in such a way that, for example, people with intellectual disabilities can also take part.
An offer from the VHS: a city tour through the new old town in simple language - due to Corona as an online presentation.
Among the twelve participants are El Ajouaoui and her colleague Kathrine Watson.
You should check the presentation for comprehensibility for the disabled.
Short films and lots of pictures
Verena Röse, who has been an independent tour guide for twelve years, uses short films and lots of pictures to guide you through the alleys and squares of the new old town. It patiently and clearly explains what a spoilage is and leaves plenty of space for questions. In addition, she repeatedly names clearly which pictures show houses from the past and which show them today. One cannot assume that this is a matter of course for people with cognitive handicaps, explains Peter Hankiewicz, who is responsible for the educational and leisure program at the Praunheimer Werkstätten.
Röse has already guided children, senior citizens, the blind and the deaf through Frankfurt, and it is a great and huge challenge for them. It is important to her to take as many people as possible with her on her city tours, as she knows from her personal environment that some people need special help. She is also happy about the gratitude of the people, who otherwise often do not come along so well on city tours.
A city tour in simple language is also new for her - and so she sometimes slips out words like Carolingian or pagoda.
El Ajouaoui says she almost fell asleep on the city tour because she wasn't interested in cities.
But Watson still has the year numbers in his head pretty well and would like to see the old town in real life.
Both of them still vividly remember the golden scales hanging on the house of the Golden Scales, because it is not made of gold.
Right to easy language
In spoken language, the differences between simple and “difficult” language are hardly noticeable, but they are clearly recognizable in written communication. Simple language is based on level A2 to B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (GER). It is not expressly intended only for people with cognitive disabilities, but for everyone who wants to obtain information quickly and easily. People who do not speak German well, older people and children also belong to the target group of the simple language, says Christiane van den Borg, head of the staff unit for inclusion in Frankfurt. Short, actively written sentences, each containing only one thought and no more than 15 words, are intended to make the language easier, for example.