An automated tool with human supervision to adapt difficult texts into Plain Language (2023)

Abstract: In this paper, we present an automated tool with human supervision to write in plain language or to adapt difficult texts into plain language. It can be used on a web version and as a plugin for Word/Outlook plugins. At the publication date, it is only available in the French language. This tool has been developed for 3 years and has been used by 400 users from private companies and from public administrations. Text simplification is automatically performed with the manual approval of the user, at the lexical, syntactic, and discursive levels. Screencast of the demo can be found at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXVtjfKO9FI .

## introduction understanding textual information is a societal issue. the lack of clarity in textual content is an essential dimension of the accessibility issue, in both the physical and digital worlds. it is essential for everyone's access to goods and services, assistance and rights. ## an automated tool with human supervision we have developed a tool to help people create plain language texts by using different text simplification techniques. a complexity score is computed for any given text input. the score ranges from 0 to 100, with 0 meaning the text is not clear at all, and 100 meaning it is very clear. then, the user is presented with an experience/interface similar to a spell and grammar checker: difficult words, sentences or paragraphs are underlined and linked to a suggestion. the user can ignore or accept the suggestion in order to replace the difficult element by a simpler one. figure 1 shows the interface. ## conclusion and future work an automated tool is effective to broadcast the use of plain language. users of our tool are private companies and public administrations. more than 400,000 words have been analyzed at the publication date. continuous improvements are made at each level. moreover, federated learning allows the scoring, words difficulties and the llm to improve themselves. at discursive level, logic or temporal reorganization will be tackled.