# Presentation: 672822

## Enabling 508/Accessibility to Statistical Information with Natural Language Generation  

- CoGenTex, Inc.
- http://www.cogentex.com
- July 31, 2002

- © 2002 CoGenTex, Inc.

## CoGenTex: “The NLG company”

- Specializes* ****in Natural Language Generation*** (NLG) technology for ***information*** ***presentation*** applications
- Commercial products:
***Project Reporter*** – Multimedia project status reports (www.cogentex.com/products/reporter)
***Project Explainer*** – Add-in for Microsoft Project 2002 (www.cogentex.com/products/explainer)
***Product Recommender ***– For guided selling (patent pending – www.cogentex.com/solutions/recommender)

- © 2002 CoGenTex, Inc.

## What is Natural Language Generation (NLG)?

- NLG systems
**Automatically** compose text or HTML from computer-readable data
- Use linguistic tools to ensure text is **fluent, grammatical** and **stylistically correct**
- Enable **508 compliance** by delivering structured data in text or speech

- © 2002 CoGenTex, Inc.

## NLG for 508/Accessibility

- New product **Chart Explainer*****, ***currently under development
**Functionality**: generates fluent textual summaries of charts or tables
**Benefit**: Fluent textual summaries are more ergonomic than output of table-reading tools or literal descriptions of charts
**Development requirements*****: ***minimal amount of domain terminology acquired via a simple interface

- © 2002 CoGenTex, Inc.

## First release (Q4 2002): ChartEx for time/age series

- Features:
- Input: formatted tabular data (XML, etc.)
- Simple editor for terminology with textual preview to check correct usage
- Output: automatically generated narrative summary
- Examples on following slides:
- Use BJS data
- Output text modeled on manually written chart descriptions on BJS site

- © 2002 CoGenTex, Inc.

## For males, the rate of homicide victimization begins at 14 per 100,000 in 1976 and increases to 16 per 100,000 in 1980.  Then it drops to 12 per 100,000 in 1984, after which it grows to 13 per 100,000 by 1986, and further,  with small fluctuations, to 16 per 100,000 in 1991. Finally, between 1991 and 1999 the rate decreases almost in half, reaching 9 per 100,000 in 1999.

**For males, the rate of homicide victimization begins at 14 per 100,000 in 1976 and increases to 16 per 100,000 in 1980.  Then it drops to 12 per 100,000 in 1984, after which it grows to 13 per 100,000 by 1986, and further,  with small fluctuations, to 16 per 100,000 in 1991. Finally, between 1991 and 1999 the rate decreases almost in half, reaching 9 per 100,000 in 1999.**
**For females, the rate of homicide victimization begins at 4 per 100,000 in 1976 and decreases gradually, reaching 3 per 100,000 in 1999****.**

- © 2002 CoGenTex, Inc.

## Variation over years, age = 1:

- Variation over ages, year = 1980:

**For age 1, the rate of homicide victimization begins at 3.05 per 100,000 in** **1980 and increases to***** *****5.41 per 100,000 in 1993. Then it decreases, reaching 3.29 per 100,000 in 1999.**

**For year 1980, the rate of homicide victimization begins at 3.05 per 100,000 at age 1 and decreases to 1.31 per 100,000 at age 13. It increases sharply to peak at 23.8 per 100,000 at age 25 and then decreases, with fluctuations,  to 6.83 per 100,000 at age 43. The rate grows again to 11.84 per 100,000 at age 50 and then gradually decreases, reaching 4.51 per 100,000 at age 90.**

- © 2002 CoGenTex, Inc.

## Terminology Editor

- © 2002 CoGenTex, Inc.

## Future Development

- Later releases of ChartEx will handle  other types of charts/tables
- Bar charts, involving comparisons
- Stacked bar charts
- Pie charts
- ...
- Following examples show tentative texts; however, more requirements analysis is needed

- © 2002 CoGenTex, Inc.

## Example 1 - Table ST-2001EST-02

- “Estimated State Demographic Components of Change: April 1,2000 to July 1, 2001”, from Workshop sample spreadsheets

|  | Population Change | Births | Deaths | Natural Increase | International Migration | Domestic Migration |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Alabama | 17256 | 80131 | 56534 | 23597 | 3793 | -9400 |

- © 2002 CoGenTex, Inc.

## Textual description for Table ST-2001EST-02

- Text which uses a formula:
**From April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2001, for Alabama, the difference between Births, 80131, and Deaths, 56534, resulted in a Natural Increase of 23597. That number, combined with a value of 3693 for International Migration and negative 9400 for Domestic Migration, resulted in a Population Change of 17256.**
- Text which does not use a formula:
**From April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2001, for Alabama, the Population Change was 17256. In particular, the value for Births was 80131, the value for Deaths was 56534, and the value for Natural Increase was 23597. In addition, the value for International Migration was 3693, and the value for Domestic Migration was negative 9400.**

- © 2002 CoGenTex, Inc.

## Example 2: Table 2 from Workshop sample tables 

- Ruritarian population

- © 2002 CoGenTex, Inc.

## Textual description for Table 2

- For all regions, the total population was 13,332.  In a breakdown by gender, males constituted 5,555 persons, females 7,777.  In a breakdown by age, there were 3,773 persons of age under 18, 6,777 persons of age 18 to 64, and 2,822 persons of age 65 or older.
- Within all regions, for North, the total population was 3,333...etc.

- © 2002 CoGenTex, Inc.

## Example 3:  Bar charts depicting  comparisons

- Chart “Percentage of aged receiving income from major sources, by race and Hispanic origin, 2000”

- © 2002 CoGenTex, Inc.

## Textual decription for Chart “Percentage of aged...”

**     ****Comparing the percentage of persons receiving income from Social Security by race and Hispanic origin, the percentage for whites, 91%, is only slightly higher than that for blacks, 88%, which is somewhat higher than the percentage for Hispanics, 77%.  For persons receiving income from assets, the percentage for whites, 63%, is much higher than that for both blacks, 29% and Hispanics, 28%.  For persons receiving income from pensions, the percentage for whites is the highest at 43%, followed by that for blacks, 33%, which, in turn, is higher than the percentage for Hispanics, 22%. Within the group receiving income from earnings, the percentage for whites, 23%, is slightly higher than that for blacks and Hispanics, both 19%. Finally, for those receiving income from SSI, the percentage for Hispanics is the highest at 16%, followed by blacks at 10%, and whites at 3%. **

- © 2002 CoGenTex, Inc.