Abstract

People with intellectual, language and learning disabilities face accessibility barriers when reading texts with complex words. Following accessibility guidelines, complex words can be identified, and easy synonyms and definitions can be provided for them as reading aids. To offer support to these reading aids, a lexical simplification system for Spanish has been developed and is presented in this article. The system covers the complex word identification (CWI) task and offers replacement candidates with the substitute generation and selection (SG/SS) task. These tasks have followed machine learning techniques and contextual embeddings using Easy Reading and Plain Language resources, such as dictionaries and corpora. Additionally, due to the polysemy present in the language, the system provides definitions for complex words, which are disambiguated by a rule-based method supported by a state-of-the-art embedding resource. This system is integrated into a web system that provides an easy way to improve the readability and comprehension of Spanish texts. The results obtained are satisfactory; in the CWI task, better results were obtained than with other systems that used the same dataset. The SG/SS task results are comparable to similar works in the English language and provide a solid starting point to improve this task for the Spanish language. Finally, the results of the disambiguation process evaluation were good when evaluated by a linguistic expert. These findings represent an additional advancement in the lexical simplification of texts in Spanish and in a generic domain using easy-to-read resources, among others, to provide systematic support to compliance with accessibility guidelines.

Highlights

  • The readability and understandability of texts containing long sentences, unusual words and complex linguistic structures can result in cognitive accessibility barriers for individuals with intellectual disabilities

  • As part of the solution, text simplification methods, which are found in the natural language processing (NLP) field, provide systematic support to promote compliance with these cognitive accessibility guidelines

  • After an analysis of language accessibility guidelines, this work presents a system to support the lexical simplification processes applied to text content in the Spanish language to improve its readability and understandability

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

The readability and understandability of texts containing long sentences, unusual words and complex linguistic structures can result in cognitive accessibility barriers for individuals with intellectual disabilities. As part of the solution, text simplification methods, which are found in the natural language processing (NLP) field, provide systematic support to promote compliance with these cognitive accessibility guidelines This is the motivation behind this work. After an analysis of language accessibility guidelines, this work presents a system to support the lexical simplification processes applied to text content in the Spanish language to improve its readability and understandability. This system follows a pipeline; the first step identifies complex words following a machine learning approach using Easy-to-Read features.

ACCESSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
LEXICAL SIMPLIFICATION SYSTEM
COMPLEX WORD IDENTIFICATION MODULE
SUBSTITUTE GENERATION MODULE
DISCUSSION
Findings
EASIER WEB SYSTEM
CONCLUSION
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