What Easy Language is—and what it is not
Easy Language (Leichte Sprache) is not simply more basic German; it follows fixed rules. These include short sentences, one idea per sentence, explained technical terms, mostly active phrasing and clear design. DIN SPEC 33429 (March 2025) brings these recommendations together in a technical specification.
Plain Language (Einfache Sprache) is often confused with it. Since May 2024 it has had its own standard: DIN 8581-1. It is aimed at a broader audience and is expressly not aimed at people with cognitive impairments. For customer service, HR, administration, insurance, health communication and internal guidelines, Plain Language may be exactly the right level. More on Easy Language: rules, target audience and the legal basis.
Plain Language under DIN 8581-1
Not every text needs Easy Language. Many organizations first need understandable standard language: clearly structured, precise, free of unnecessary jargon and without losing legal or technical meaning. I revise texts according to the principles of Plain Language.
- customer information, help texts and FAQs
- forms, letters and internal guidelines
- health, insurance and administrative texts
- AI-generated texts that need to be accurate and sound human
Who needs Easy Language?
- Public authorities and public bodies—Under Section 11 BGG, public bodies should make greater use of Easy Language. BITV 2.0 requires federal public bodies to provide explanatory notes on the home page and in the accessibility statement.
- Companies with BFSG-relevant offers—E-commerce, banking, telecommunications, and passenger transport providers should check whether their products and services fall within the BFSG scope. The BFSG does not specifically require Easy Language, but clear texts are an important part of accessible communication. Everything about the BFSG in detail.
- Organizations with an accessibility statement—Anyone required to publish a statement under BITV 2.0 also needs explanatory notes in Easy Language.
- Agencies with public-sector clients—Anyone who wants to win public-sector contracts should be able to plan accessible communication reliably.
What AI cannot do here
Language models can simplify texts. But they cannot reliably produce Easy Language on their own.
- AI does not reliably stick to the rulebook—sentence lengths, word choice and design regularly deviate.
- Easy Language requires checking by the target audience. No algorithm can replace that.
- The design requirements (images, layout, font size) lie outside what text models can deliver.
- For compliance-relevant texts, responsibility remains with the publishing organization. “The AI did it” is not a reliable defense.
What I offer
I translate existing texts into Easy Language or write new texts from scratch, including the source texts in standard language. Specifically:
- Easy Language texts for websites, brochures and forms
- Texts for accessibility statements to BITV 2.0
- Source texts in standard language as the basis for the translation
- Advice on further quality assurance
The full Easy Language process includes a review by people from the target audience. This review is not part of my service, but I am happy to advise you on how to organize this step. More on the review-group process.
References: German Future Prize and funding guide
For the German Future Prize, one of Germany’s most prestigious science and innovation awards, presented by the Federal President in person, I translated Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s foreword and the texts of all six nominated teams from 2024 and 2025 into Easy Language.
In 2024 the prize went to ams OSRAM and Fraunhofer for intelligent LED technology. In 2025 it went to Robert Bosch for emission-free fuel-cell drives. The Easy Language texts are published on the Future Prize website under accessibility.
For the DARP funding guide in a Federal Ministry of Finance / PD context, I also worked on source texts and Easy Language content. The funding guide is publicly available; the website names the Federal Ministry of Finance, PD and NextGenerationEU as the project context.