Image: (OÖN)
People are often annoyed that gendering makes texts more difficult to read.
Researchers at the University of Graz have investigated how an easily understandable, gender-fair language could work. For this purpose, people who use “easy language” – such as people with little knowledge of German or with little reading skills – were interviewed.
It turned out that two forms in particular were read and understood without any problems: neutral designations, for example “the team”, “the staff” or “the teacher”, as well as the naming of both genders such as “teachers”. Participle forms like “Employees” or “Lehrende” did not do well.
Other gender forms such as the Binnen-I or the gender-colon performed differently depending on the level of difficulty of the text.
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I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.