Museums for all: students with intellectual disability and accessible information

The purpose of this investigation is to explore the use of simple Apps and programs for checking narrative texts comprehension problems, in a Design for all paradigm. The UDL (Universal Design for Learning) guidelines cite key principles, which aspire to increase motivation and engagement in learners. In particular, the principle that draws attention to the many possible formats and difficulty levels of texts and Multimedia concerns the way in which people perceive and understand Information. This principle has inspìred this work proposal. Indeed, following the CAST study group (Center for Applied Special Technology), it is crucial to provide more Information representation options, providing the widest possible population with opportunities for knowledge gaining. The analysis we conducted took into consideration short but linguistically complex texts. The aim of the analysis was to identify the problems posed by the text, which a skilled reader does not notice with ease and to simplify the texts to make them legible and comprehensible to readers with moderate to mild intellectual disabilities. The example we propose during the conference is the analysis of a text by a famous Italian writer, Gianni Rodari, widely used in schools. We will present the simplifìcation process and the tools used in order to verify the assumption that these are procedures within the reach of all teachers when they have students with difflculties in the classroom.