INRIA - 2 rue Simone iff
,
75012 Paris
The economic and health crisis that has struck France (and the rest of the world) has completely upturned our habits and customs. While the information conveyed by the media allows a large proportion of the population to understand this exceptional situation and find answers to their questions, people with intellectual disabilities can have difficulty understanding. Faced with this fact, Unapei, Inria and Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research have pooled their skills to develop a new digital tool through a project called Cap’FALC, for “Facile à Lire et à Comprendre” (Easy to Read and Understand).
FALC or Easy to Read is a sort of universal language that speaks to everyone. Initially built to allow people with intellectual disabilities to understand certain texts, it has proved to be an excellent tool at the service of dyslexic people and the visually impaired, as well as foreigners who don’t speak the language very well, illiterate and elderly people and primary school children. Europe has been committed to Easy to Read since 2009 with the aim of reducing the social divide linked to language.
explains Sophie Cluzel, Secretary of State for People with Disabilities.
The Cap'FALC project aims to develop a digital tool to improve access to information for all by facilitating the production of texts in FALC thanks to an algorithm to aid transcription. The research project to develop the tool is the subject of a PhD supervised at Inria by Benoît Sagot within the ALMAnaCH team and in collaboration with Facebook AI Research in the framework of a CIFRE agreement.
Inria is the French national research institute for digital science and technology. World-class research, technological innovation and entrepreneurial risk are its DNA. In 200 project teams, most of which are shared with major research universities, more than 3,500 researchers and engineers explore new paths, often in an interdisciplinary manner and in collaboration with industrial partners to meet ambitious challenges. As a technological institute, Inria supports the diversity of innovation pathways: from open source software publishing to the creation of technological startups (Deeptech).
Unapei is a grassroots movement that has been working for 60 years to ensure that all people, whatever the specificities of their disability, benefit from the same rights as everyone else. Unapei is committed to creating a supportive, inclusive society that respects differences and the free choice of people with disabilities. Its network of 550 member associations innovates across the country and builds evolving support solutions adapted to every stage of life of disabled people to combat isolation and social exclusion. Unapei brings together 900,000 disabled people and families, friends, professionals, carers and volunteers and is the principal union of associations running services and facilities in the disability sector in France, with 3,000 facilities managed by 95,000 professionals and 70,000 volunteers.
Within Facebook, Facebook AI Research (FAIR) is a research laboratory whose aim is to advance the state of the art in the field of artificial intelligence through open and collaborative research that benefits the whole of the scientific community. Inaugurated in June 2015, FAIR Paris is Facebook’s European artificial intelligence research centre currently employing 80 researchers, engineers and PhD students from all over the world.
The FAIR teams work on long-term research projects in the fields of language comprehension, image recognition and new learning methods in artificial intelligence (AI). With teams located in centres in Paris, New York, Menlo Park and Montreal, FAIR currently employs around 350 researchers and engineers across the world.
A major player in social protection, Malakoff Humanis was created in January 2019 through the merger of the groups Malakoff Médéric and Humanis. With over 400,000 corporate clients and 10 million people protected (insured and beneficiaries), the insurer is a major player in group protection. Joint, mutual benefit and not-for-profit, Malakoff Humanis places its business performance at the service of social utility, dedicating over €160 million every year to supporting people in socially fragile situations. Malakoff Humanis is a member of the Comité National Coordination Action Handicap (CCAH), an association recognised as being of public utility. The CCAH unites social protection groups, mutual sector players, businesses and national disability associations. It brings together their energy, knowledge and resources to help improve the life of people with disabilities.