Council using AI to help people with learning disabilities

Experts by Experience of a Learning Disability, whose members have a broad range of learning disabilities, have been helping to shape an innovative Generative AI (GenAI) solution that converts complex documents into the accessible Easy Read format.

And the Council will be open-sourcing its solution, license-free, worldwide so that the technology can benefit as many people as possible.

The Council’s Emerging Technology team paid the volunteers for their time so they could understand some of the obstacles they face in their lives. The group advised on the importance of features such as large font size, increased spacing between words and the option to have images to help with comprehension.

Sarah Pena, the Council’s Head of Emerging Technology and Business Improvement, explained: “The Experts by Experience group were absolutely fantastic and opened our eyes to their world.

“Imagine facing barriers with making everyday decisions about your life? You want to move into a flat but cannot understand the tenancy agreement or you missed a dentist’s appointment because it wasn’t clear to you when you should be there.

“And how would you feel if someone opened letters addressed to you because they think you won’t understand them? These are common challenges that millions of people face across the world, so we wanted to find a solution that can overcome that problem and make people’s lives easier.”

The main purpose of an Easy Read document is to let people with learning disabilities know what they need to, so they can make key decisions about important areas of their life.

In the UK there are 1.5m people with a learning disability, in the US it is 44.2m, and globally it is estimated that 15 per cent of the population have some form of learning disability. The right to accessible information is established in law.

At present, creating these documents is costly and time consuming, ensuring that people with learning disabilities are further disadvantaged. Using a standard Easy Read service costs on average £120 per A4 page.

By utilising GenAI the cost now is on average less than 10p, but this can vary slightly depending on whether any images are required and the model chosen.

The Council’s ground-breaking GenAI Easy Read document creator ‘Simply Readable’ is powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It was built using Amazon Bedrock, a fully managed service for building generative AI applications with foundation models and leverages Anthropic’s Claude 2, and Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion large language models.

The tool, which can be converted into 75 different languages, has the potential to empower millions of individuals with learning disabilities, making information more accessible and comprehensible, bridging the information gap and ensuring that no one is excluded or disadvantaged.

GenAI acts as an assistant and council staff maintain oversight, reviewing outputs from ‘Simply Readable’ and amending them where needed.

It is hoped that the tool could also help those with low literacy skills, cognitive impairment or easier-to-read information in another language.

“I like it when people use simple words and no jargon,” said Tom, one of the volunteers who contributed to the project. “Easy Read and pictures are important to help me understand.”

Fellow group member Tammy added: “When I see the Easy Read, it makes me feel happy because I find reading difficult.”

Councillor Emma Bushell, Deputy Leader of Swindon Borough Council and Cabinet Member for Organisational Oversight, said: “We believe that technology can be a force for good and accessibility is at the heart of that vision.

“With the development of 'Simply Readable', we’re taking a leap towards creating a more inclusive world, where everyone has equal access to information and opportunities. It also fits in perfectly with our Mission to Reduce inequality across the Borough.

“I’d like to especially thank our experts Tom, Dan, Charlotte, Tammy, Elroy and David who were a fantastic help to the team in developing this innovative tool.”