For many students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, language and curriculum materials can be a barrier rather than a bridge to learning. Complex academic texts often assume a shared foundation of vocabulary, syntax, and background knowledge that many students—particularly those with intellectual and developmental disabilities—are in the process of developing, given additional time and support. Without accessible text, students are excluded not only from the general education curriculum, but also from opportunities to engage, think, and communicate alongside their peers in engaging classrooms communities.
Minimizing text complexity doesn’t mean removing challenging ideas. It means identifying and adjusting the features of language that make texts too difficult for individual learners to understand. For example, long sentences, dense noun phrases, abstract terminology, and unfamiliar vocabulary all work together to make some texts too complex for some learners. Minimizing this complexity while preserving the meaning and richness of the original content increases learning opportunities for all learners. When these efforts are paired with efforts to identify critical vocabulary and make connections to everyday vocabulary, students benefit even more.
How MTC-AI Works
The Minimizing Text Complexity Artificial Intelligence (MTC‑AI) tool is being developed by researchers at the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies (CLDS) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. MTC‑AI identifies features that make a text linguistically or conceptually difficult and then generates a clarified version that is less complex, while maintaining the core ideas and vocabulary focus of the original text.
The MTC Guidelines focus on multiple features that make text more accessible:
– Using the most common and familiar words
– Writing shorter, cohesive sentences that preserve meaning
– Clearly presenting the most relevant information
– Reducing demands on inferencing
– Streamlining layout and structure to reduce distractions
The MTC Guidelines were originally developed as part of a project funded by the CDC Foundation during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities struggled to understand the written guidance they so desperately needed to stay safe during the pandemic. When the MTC Guidelines were applied to the guidance materials being disseminated by the CDC, the results were dramatic. Texts that originally averaged a high school-level readability level were transformed into clarified versions that minimized the demands at the word, sentence, and text levels while still conveying the essential information from the original version. The result was improved access and understanding, which translated into improved safety for the target audience.
By combining the Minimizing Text Complexity Guidelines with the power of AI, MTC‑AI aims to make that kind of access possible for all learners. The goal is to make it more efficient for educators and families to minimize the complexity of texts learners with intellectual and developmental disabilities encounter each day. This will then help ensure that all students can experience that moment of connection when new ideas fit well with familiar ones–and it just clicks. With MTC-AI as a supportive tool, educators and families will be able to focus on what matters most: helping students build understanding, communicate ideas, and find joy and motivation in learning.