# On the Ethical Considerations of Text Simplification

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.09565 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.09565/

## Key facts

- Cited by 20 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 12 of its 60 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 20 Apr 2022.

## Builds on (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- [Retrieval Augmentation Reduces Hallucination in Conversation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.07567/) (2021)
- [Challenges in Data-to-Document Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.08052/) (2017)
- [Faithful to the Original: Fact Aware Neural Abstractive Summarization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.04434/) (2017)
- [Sentence Simplification with Deep Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.10931/) (2017)
- [EditNTS: An Neural Programmer-Interpreter Model for Sentence Simplification through Explicit Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.08104/) (2019)
- [Controllable Text Simplification with Explicit Paraphrasing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11004/) (2020)
- [Text Simplification by Tagging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.05070/) (2021)
- [Document-Level Text Simplification: Dataset, Criteria and Baseline](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.05071/) (2021)
- [A Survey on Text Simplification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.08612/) (2020)
- [Assessing Language Proficiency from Eye Movements in Reading](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.07329/) (2018)
- [Explainable Prediction of Text Complexity: The Missing Preliminaries for Text Simplification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.15823/) (2020)
- [Predicting Text Readability from Scrolling Interactions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.06354/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 20 of 20)

- [The Intended Uses of Automated Fact-Checking Artefacts: Why, How and Who](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.14238/) (2023)
- [Dancing Between Success and Failure: Edit-level Simplification Evaluation using SALSA](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.14458/) (2023)
- [DEPLAIN: A German Parallel Corpus with Intralingual Translations into Plain Language for Sentence and Document Simplification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.18939/) (2023)
- [Simplicity Level Estimate (SLE): A Learned Reference-Less Metric for Sentence Simplification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.08170/) (2023)
- [InfoLossQA: Characterizing and Recovering Information Loss in Text Simplification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.16475/) (2024)
- [One Size Does Not Fit All: The Case for Personalised Word Complexity Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.02564/) (2022)
- [Progressive Document-level Text Simplification via Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.03857/) (2025)
- [Automatic and Human-AI Interactive Text Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.03878/) (2023)
- [Analyzing Multi-Task Learning for Abstractive Text Summarization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.14606/) (2022)
- [Lexical Complexity Prediction: An Overview](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.04851/) (2023)
- [SimpLex: a lexical text simplification architecture](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.07002/) (2023)
- [Context-Aware Document Simplification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.06274/) (2023)
- [Digital Comprehensibility Assessment of Simplified Texts among Persons with Intellectual Disabilities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.13094/) (2024)
- [Cognitive Simplification Operations Improve Text Simplification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.08825/) (2022)
- [Facilitating Cognitive Accessibility with LLMs: A Multi-Task Approach to Easy-to-Read Text Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.00662/) (2025)
- [A User-Centered Evaluation of Spanish Text Simplification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.07556/) (2023)
- [RALS: Resources and Baselines for Romanian Automatic Lexical Simplification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.20078/) (2026)
- [A Hybrid Multi-Agent Prompting Approach for Simplifying Complex Sentences](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.11681/) (2025)
- [THM@SimpleText 2025 -- Task 1.1: Revisiting Text Simplification based on Complex Terms for Non-Experts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.04414/) (2025)
- [No Reader Left Behind: Multi-Agent Summaries Everyone Can Understand](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.28836/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper outlines the ethical implications of text simplification within the framework of assistive systems. We argue that a distinction should be made between the technologies that perform text simplification and the realisation of these in assistive technologies. When using the latter as a motivation for research, it is important that the subsequent ethical implications be carefully considered. We provide guidelines for the framing of text simplification independently of assistive systems, as well as suggesting directions for future research and discussion based on the concerns raised.