At its heart, comprehension is about meaning making. Students need to go beyond explicit details and learn to make inferences from early in their literacy learning progression. They need to learn to summarize, integrate, and determine the main idea. Skilled text comprehension involves understanding at multiple levels as readers integrate the information they are reading with their existing knowledge. From the beginning, text comprehension involves connecting text with lived experience and background knowledge. These connections help to make reading engaging and impactful. Without them, reading and listening can feel like tasks to finish rather than experiences to enjoy. 

A Story of Change: From Reluctant Reader to Engaged Thinker 

Take Bonita, a fourth-grade student who dreaded reading time. Each week, her teacher read to the class and then the students took turns answering questions. Bonita and her classmates would take turns coming to the front of the group, listen as the teacher read the question, and then point to the answer. Bonita could often find the correct answer, but she didn’t understand why her teacher did this each week. To Bonita, this routine was just one more activity to cross off her schedule each day.  

Bonita’s teacher, Mrs. Wright, recently made some changes to her approach to reading. First, Mrs. Wright started planning text comprehension lessons to help students learn to use their knowledge of world and life experience while reading. To begin each lesson, Mrs. Wright led the group through an anchor activity. This activity helped activate student thinking to prepare them for reading. For example, when she wanted students to listen to describe the main character, they completed an anchor activity focused on describing the school principal. When she wanted students to read to determine how the main character’s feelings changed during the story, they completed an anchor activity focused on their own emotions and how they can change during an event (e.g., excited for a birthday party then disappointed when it doesn’t go as planned). When she wanted students to read to determine the main idea, she worked with them to determine the main idea of some short video clips she gathered. In each case, Mrs. Wright followed the anchor activity with a clear statement of the purpose for reading or listening.  

In addition to changing the way she planned and implemented her group instruction, Mrs. Wright began offering choices for student reading and listening. She encouraged students to choose short stories, articles, and even picture books on a variety of topics. Bonita loved this. She was immediately drawn to a story about a young ballet dancer. The dancer wanted to be selected to dance a solo role in the Nutcracker. Bonita loved dancing. She too wanted to be in the Nutcracker one day.  

When Mrs. Wright talked with Bonita about the book she was reading, she refrained from asking typical comprehension questions. Instead, she asked questions like: 

• “Why do you think she wanted to be in the Nutcracker?” 

• “Have you been in a ballet before?”  

• “What questions would you want to ask the character?” 

Bonita responded to each of Mrs. Wright’s questions pointing to parts of the book, using her communication device, and gesturing as she does in her every day interactions.  

The Power of Connection 

When students are invited to make meaning, to bring their experiences, emotions, and ideas into the reading process, they begin to see reading as something that is worth their time and effort. Anchoring instruction in students’ background knowledge and experience is one important place to start. Teachers can also nurture this by: 

• Giving students choices in what they read. 

• Asking open-ended questions that encourage reflection and connection. 

• Encouraging students to share their interpretations. 

• Helping students see how reading connects to their world. 

Reading comprehension involves more than remembering facts. It involves understanding, connecting, and growing. When students see reading as a reflection of their own lives and interests, and a way to learn about others’, they evolve from passive readers to engaged thinkers. 

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.  

The teacher passes out the assigned reading, a two-page article titled “Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems.” The first sentence reads, “Organisms in an ecosystem rely on biotic and abiotic factors to maintain homeostasis.” 

For many of the students in the class, this language is challenging, but manageable. For Jordan, the meaning is out of reach. He knows a great deal about reptiles and their roles in ecosystems, but this sentence is meaningless to him.  

Every student needs to have opportunities to engage with content that is right in their sweet spot learning zone – just a bit above what they can do independently, but not so overwhelming that they become lost quickly. Jordan knows the word “animals” but hasn’t learned “organisms” yet.  He recognizes and can point to “plants.” Jordan has previous knowledge about living and nonliving things, but “biotic” and “abiotic” don’t make sense to him. The text is dense, abstract, and full of terms that assume a prior foundation in a very specific academic language that Jordan hasn’t built—YET.  

A paraprofessional sits beside him, breaking down the words one by one. By the time they’ve unpacked the first sentence, the class has already moved on to the next section, and Jordan is wiped out. His attention drifts. The moment to connect meaningfully with the concept, and with others in his class, has passed. 

What if, instead, this lesson looked like this? Jordan’s teacher used the Minimizing Text Complexity Artificial Intelligence (MTC‑AI) tool being piloted at the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies to clarify the text. The clarified text reads:  

All living things need each other to live and grow. 

All living things also need non-living things.  

All living things need water. 

All living things need air. 

All living things need sunlight. 

Jordan begins to read. The sentences are shorter, and the words are familiar. He pauses between lines, sounding out a few longer words, but the ideas make sense. When he finishes, he gets the attention of the paraprofessional. She comes over and Jordan uses his device to say “BOOK IN” and looks around to the backpack hanging on the back of his chair. The paraprofessional looks in his bag and pulls out a book about pond life. Jordan excitedly vocalizes and points to a photograph on the page of a female frog laying eggs in a pond. The paraprofessional says, “Yes, just like how frogs need water! You’ve got it, kid.” The teacher catches their excitement and comes over. The paraprofessional quickly summarizes and the teacher extends the conversation to include the other students —talking about frogs, ponds, and sunlight. Jordan grins—he’s hooked, and he has reason to feel confident and motivated to learn more. 

From Access to Engagement and Belonging 

When students like Jordan are given materials they can understand through reading or listening, they begin to see themselves as learners and as participants in the classroom community. This requires educators to strike a balance between the specific texts that are part of the general education curriculum and each student’s language and literacy skills. With the right balance all students can find a foothold—a way to grasp new ideas and build flexible connections to what they already know. 

By combining research on text complexity with the power of AI, MTC‑AI aims to make this kind of access to the general education curriculum possible for all learners. The goal is to make adapting instructional materials for diverse learners more manageable for teachers, and to help ensure that all students can experience that moment of connection when new ideas fit well with familiar ones–and it all makes sense. With MTC-AI as a supportive tool, teachers can focus on what matters most: helping students build understanding, communicate ideas, and find joy and motivation in learning. 

This blog post examines the advantages and disadvantages of current methods for text simplification and introduces a new solution: Minimizing Text Complexity with AI (MTC-AI).  

Why Common Text Simplification Strategies Fall Short 

Many well-intentioned strategies for adapting general education curriculum content don’t work as expected for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Here’s why: 

Readability Formulas Miss the Mark 

There are a growing number of online tools that make texts simpler by shortening sentences or using easier words. While this lowers the “readability score,” it doesn’t always make the text easier to understand. For example, shorter sentences can reduce cohesion, making it harder for students to follow the flow of ideas. Replacing nouns with pronouns makes words easier to decode but introduces more inferencing. These tools apply formulas and algorithms that focus on surface features, often impairing rather than supporting comprehension.   

Plain Language Isn’t Always Plain Enough 

Plain Language Guidelines are designed to make documents easier to read, but they still result in texts that are too complicated for many students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In fact, these Plain Language Guidelines are intended to reduce the readability to about a 6^th grade level – a level that is still far too complex for many students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  

Picture Symbols Can Be Confusing 

Using picture symbols to represent individual words in text is popular, but it can often backfire. Abstract words like “want” or “like” don’t have clear visual representations, and words like “back” and “turn” have multiple meanings that would have to be represented in different ways depending on their use. Furthermore, symbols do not convey universally understood meanings. Learners must be taught the intended use of at least some symbols in each text. Finally, this approach is problematic because it draws student’s attention away from the words that we eventually want them to learn to read. 

The Vocabulary Gap: A Hidden Barrier 

The meaning of individual words in a text contributes to its complexity. Understanding the meaning of individual words is essential for reading, listening, and learning, but many students with intellectual and developmental disabilities struggle to understand even with basic words. Most vocabulary lessons and grade level texts feature Tier 2 (i.e., academic terms that appear across various subjects) and Tier 3 (i.e., content specific words that are generally used within particular domains) words. However, students with intellectual and developmental disabilities often lack the foundational Tier 1 vocabulary (common everyday words) necessary to understand the Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary they encounter. 

Effective access to materials in the general education curriculum requires careful attention to vocabulary. This includes fostering deep understanding, of words, how they’re used in context, and how they connect to other words. For many students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, this requires careful attention to Tier 1, everyday vocabulary that is related to the Tier 2 and Tier 3 words being taught.  

A Better Way: The MTC-AI Project 

The MTC-AI project introduces a new approach to text simplification that targets the limitations of existing methods. Here’s how it functions: 

• AI-powered clarification: MTC-AI applies research-based guidelines to decrease word, sentence, and text-level complexity while maintaining the original meaning. 

• Cohesive and clear: The tool ensures that texts remain connected and understandable from beginning to end. 

• Vocabulary support: It organizes words into tiers (basic, academic, and domain-specific), offering student-friendly definitions, and connecting new words to familiar words. 

This tool is designed to be accessible to both educators and families, supporting lesson planning, professional development, and IEP development. 

What This Means for Teachers and Families 

When texts are truly accessible, students with IDD can engage, learn, and show progress. Educators can focus on developing essential skills, and families can better understand and support their children’s learning. The MTC-AI project is a step forward in making literacy instruction more effective, inclusive, and meaningful. 

That’s where minimizing text complexity comes in. It focuses on simplifying individual words and sentences, but it does so with attention to the complexity of comprehension.   

It’s Not About Making Texts Easy—It’s About Making Them Accessible 

Minimizing text complexity doesn’t mean giving students less information or replacing difficult words with easier to read words. Instead, it ensures students can connect with the same ideas—just in ways that are clearer and more manageable. We’re creating more ways for students to access and interact with meaningful content. 

What Makes a Text Complex? 

Text complexity can show up in many ways—unfamiliar vocabulary, long or difficult sentences, abstract ideas, or even how the text is organized on the page. For students who struggle to read or listen with understanding, these features create barriers to understanding—even when the topic is something they’re fully capable of learning through explanation and experience.  

As the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies led efforts to create the Minimizing Text Complexity Guidelines, we identified a range of factors that increase the complexity of a text. The guidelines divide the factors into six categories: whole text, sentence-level, word-level, formatting and layout, graphics, font and text effects.  

What Does This Look Like in Practice? 

Imagine you’re planning a lesson using a text from the general education curriculum. You know the ideas are important, but the language is too complex for your students. You know they will struggle to read the words, and even if you read it to them, they will struggle to understand the text.  

Many educators adapt texts using strategies they believe will help. For example, they shorten sentences, replace unfamiliar words, or add icons above the text. These approaches come from a genuine commitment to making content accessible. Unfortunately, these changes don’t always make text easier to understand. In some cases, these approaches further reduce understanding.  

In the MTC-AI project, we’re exploring a different approach: minimizing text complexity in ways that help students construct understandings of texts at multiple levels. This means adjusting language, sentence patterns, and formatting intentionally, so the text remains rich in ideas while becoming more accessible. 

A Real-World Example 

Take a book about how plants grow. The original text might say, “Photosynthesis is the process by which plants convert light energy into chemical energy.” That’s a lot to unpack. 

But you could say, “Plants use sunlight to make their own food. The process is called photosynthesis.” Same idea, just more accessible. And if you pair that with a picture of a plant in the sun, or a tactile model, you’re giving students more ways to connect with the concept. 

The meaning stays the same. The access point changes. 

Why It Matters 

When we thoughtfully minimize text complexity, we’re not simplifying the learning; we’re increasing access. We’re saying, “You belong in this conversation. You deserve to explore these ideas.” Inclusive literacy instruction isn’t about offering less. It’s about making sure every student has a way in. 

A Final Thought 

Minimizing text complexity isn’t about doing less—it’s about doing better. It’s a way to honor the diverse ways students communicate, learn, and make meaning. When we make texts more accessible without losing their richness, we’re not just adapting materials, we’re expanding opportunities. And that’s what inclusive literacy instruction is all about: making sure every student has a way in.