Language Technology for Readability and Simplification of Health-Related Texts in Dutch

About 25% of the adults in Netherlands have limited health literacy. This means that they have difficulty reading and understanding health-related information and consequently making appropriate health decisions. In this project we explore whether and how language technology can help with addressing this problem.

The goal of this project is to develop and evaluate technology that can make Dutch health-related texts more accessible. We contribute to this goal in two ways:

providing new knowledge about how linguistic needs vary across different target groups of readers; for example, is there a difference in what is difficult for native speakers of Dutch (NT1) and for Dutch learners (NT2)?;
providing new technological solutions (models/tools and language resources) that help creating more readable and audience-appropriate texts.

In this project, we pay special attention to two aspects of human-centered technology: (a) developing language technology that is cognitively plausible, explainable, and controllable; (b) responsible deployment of the technology in society, taking into account the needs and wishes of both the readers and the writers of the texts.

01 October 2024 - 01 October 2028