EASIER System. Evaluating a Spanish Lexical Simplification Proposal with People with Cognitive Impairments

Abstract

Cognitive impairments in text reading and understanding not only affect individuals with intellectual disabilities but also deaf and deaf-blind ones, the illiterate, and immigrants whose native language is different, among others. Technology to support accessibility to texts is required to help people to understand information. This article addresses an evaluation of the EASIER tool conducted with intellectual disabilities and older people for the identification of complex and unusual words in Spanish texts and proposes them simpler synonyms for the complex word detected. Fifty participants were recruited in collaboration with an organization that works with people with intellectual disabilities. The participants were divided into two groups: Group 1 represented 25 older people, and Group 2 represented 25 people with intellectual disabilities. The evaluation showed that, for complex word identification, the selected texts were more complex in content for people with intellectual disabilities than for older people, which consequently suggests that the proposal had a greater benefit for the intellectually disabled group. Related to the proposal of substitutes for complex words, there is a high number of substitutions accepted in participants with a high school level of education for Group 1 and primary level of education for Group 2. Additional multivariate analysis shows that the system is adequate for people of advanced age.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 http://easier.hulat.uc3m.es/

2 http://easier.hulat.uc3m.es/

3 http://thesaurus.altervista.org/

4 http://live.babelnet.org/

5 http://paraphrase.org/

6 http://hulat.inf.uc3m.es/

7 http://grupoamas.org/

8 http://comunidad.madrid/

9 https://plenainclusionmadrid.org/train2validate/?lang=es

10 https://www.inclusion-europe.eu/pathways-2/

Additional information

Funding

This work is part of the R&D&i ACCESS2MEET [PID2020-116527RB-I0] project financed by MCIN [AEI/10.13039/501100011033/], and the” Intelligent and interactive home care system for the mitigation of the COVID-19 pandemic” project (PRTR-REACT UE) awarded by CAM. CONSEJERÍ A DE EDUCACIÓN E INVESTIGACION.

Notes on contributors

Rodrigo Alarcon

Rodrigo Alarcon received his PhD in Computer Science and technology from Universidad Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M), where he currently works as a researcher to improve the understanding of texts. His research combines Human-Computer Interaction with Natural Language Processing using interdisciplinary approaches.

Lourdes Moreno

Lourdes Moreno is an Associate Professor at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M). She belongs to the Human Language and Accessibility Technologies Group (HULAT). Her research combines Human-Computer Interaction with Natural Language Processing using interdisciplinary approaches. Her research interests include ICT accessibility aimed at users with disabilities.

Paloma Martínez

Paloma Martinez got a PhD in Computer Science from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain). She is the Head of the Human Language and Accessibility Technologies (HULAT) in the Computer Science and Engineering Department, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Her research interests are human language technologies and web accessibility.

José A. Macías

José A. Macías received his PhD in Computer Science in 2003 from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, where he currently works as Associate Professor. He has been working on Human-Computer Interaction for more than 20 years, serving as President in the Spanish main HCI association and Co-Chair in the Spanish SIGCHI.