A picture for a thousand words
Type of project: Exploratory research
Disability concerned: Mental disability, Multiple disabilities, Polydisability
Topics: Services and communication, Intellectual and information accessibility
Status: In progress
The aim of the project is to develop a multi-platform application that can transform a sentence in standard French into a series of illustrations or an explanation in easy-to-read and easy-to-understand French (FALC).
One of the most common situations of disability for people with intellectual disabilities is access to information. It stems from the communication disabilities experienced by this population.
As a result, a large number of existing resources attempt to compensate for communication disabilities – communication software with pictograms, controlled by various interfaces, or devices involving communication “binders”. One of the existing methods is easy-to-read and easy-to-understand French (FALC). This is a regulated method that encourages the adaptation of written and spoken messages.
However, only 10-20% of people with mental disabilities read. For all the others, audio and images may be the only means of accessing information that is important to their social, cultural or political lives.
The originality of the project lies in the creation of a multiplatform application that works as follows: a sentence is written or dictated orally in standard French, before being analysed by a “FALC AI” and leading to proposals (explanations, formulations). Once the proposal has been validated, the application generates illustrations in the form of small cartoons to help understand the messages, while an audio reading of the translation can be produced if required.
All the elements can be exported (text, visuals, audio) for a wide range of uses (physical and digital media). The range of users of such an application is vast: specialised teachers, educators, but also public administrations, cultural circles, health circles, legal circles or any other player who has decided to promote accessibility to information. People with intellectual disabilities are not the only ones who could benefit, as could allophones or students with learning difficulties.
