Hypothesis and objectives

People with cognitive disabilities have significant limitations in their intellectual functioning and/or may also lack the ability to adapt to everyday situations. People with cognitive disabilities have spoken and written word comprehension deficit that may include misinterpretation of literal meanings and difficulty understanding complex instructions. They are confused by idioms, figures of speech, abstractions,
uncommon words, and lack of precision.

Hence, we start with the hypothesis that research, development and deployment of natural language processing technology can support the authoring of accessible content in Spanish for people with cognitive disabilities with a view to widening their inclusion and empowerment in Europe.

With this hypothesis in mind, the objective of the project is to research, implement, deploy, evaluate, and ultimately provide robust technologies for natural language processing to support the authoring of accessible Spanish content for public sector organisations (at local, regional and national level) that is intelligible to people with cognitive disability, thereby widening their inclusion and empowerment in Europe.

The project is expected to impact positively the quality of life of people with cognitive disabilities, facilitating their access to educational, vocational, cultural, and social opportunities in public sector organisations. In response to the call for research proposals, this project is aimed at generating scientific knowledge, developing technologies and supporting the modernization of public administration, putting people and
their digital rights at the center of the process.