ATECA (Aadaptation of TExtos in CAstellano) is a web solution that facilitates the process of adapting Spanish texts to easy reading.
The aim of easy reading is to write texts that are easy to understand for people with reading comprehension difficulties. These recommendations refer to avoiding, for example, the use of very long words or words containing complex syllables, the use of complex connectors (such as However o but nevertheless), the use of superlatives or the use of the passive voice.
There is a standard, UNE 153101 EX, which provides recommendations for adapting texts to easy reading.
Among the target audiences of easy-to-read texts are people with intellectual disabilities, autism, cerebral palsy, migrants with language difficulties or elderly people with cognitive difficulties. In addition, easy-to-read texts are a way of promoting cognitive accessibility.
ATECA has been developed by a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, https://oeg.fi.upm.es/ ,and Plena Inclusión, an entity that manages the Spanish Center for Cognitive Accessibility: https://www.ceacog.es
Adapting a document to easy-to-read format has traditionally been a manual and cyclical process in which three key activities are carried out:
- Analysis of which recommendations of the methodology are not followed in the document to be adapted;
- Adaptation of the document by experts in the methodology according to the previous analysis; and
- Validation of the adaptation of the document, which is carried out by a team made up of people with intellectual disabilities or other comprehension difficulties.
Using Artificial Intelligence techniques, ATECA automates the first two processes, facilitating the work and saving the time of the experts who have to carry out the final validation.