  This paper examines the current state-of-the-art of German text
simplification, focusing on parallel and monolingual German corpora. It reviews
neural language models for simplifying German texts and assesses their
suitability for legal texts and accessibility requirements. Our findings
highlight the need for additional training data and more appropriate approaches
that consider the specific linguistic characteristics of German, as well as the
importance of the needs and preferences of target groups with cognitive or
language impairments. The authors launched the interdisciplinary OPEN-LS
project in April 2023 to address these research gaps. The project aims to
develop a framework for text formats tailored to individuals with low literacy
levels, integrate legal texts, and enhance comprehensibility for those with
linguistic or cognitive impairments. It will also explore cost-effective ways
to enhance the data with audience-specific illustrations using image-generating
AI.
  For more and up-to-date information, please visit our project homepage
https://open-ls.entavis.com
