Making written texts for learning more accessible with easy-to-read and universal design

Abstract

Reading is regarded as one of the basic learning processes that provides multiple skills and abilities for daily life. The study reported on  here arose from evidence of reading comprehension difficulties of middle school students in Colombia, and from reflection on the  didactic strategies used for the promotion and teaching of reading. The purpose of this research was to strengthen students’ reading  comprehension by taking advantage of the benefits of Easy-to-Read in the context of a methodology applied in Universal Design for  Learning. The methodology was centred on the critical social paradigm, and the type of research was mixed with a design based on  action research. The instruments used included non-participant observation, online questionnaire, standardised testing and a survey. The  pedagogical proposal “Easy Reading” was designed and implemented to show progress in the students’ reading comprehension  skills, meeting the objectives set.