Transius Symposium

"Facilitating Legal and Administrative Communication in Multilingual Settings"

2nd Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Easy and Plain Language in Institutional Contexts

9 October 2026, University of Geneva

Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation

The demand for accessible communication has grown significantly in recent years, driven by legal mandates, such as Directives (EU) 2019/882 and 2016/2102 in the context of the European Union, and by a broader commitment to inclusivity across public and private sectors worldwide. This has generated, among other needs, an increased demand for texts in Plain Language and Easy Language to serve diverse lay audiences and those with special communication needs. Recent advances in generative artificial intelligence offer promising opportunities to scale up the production of accessible institutional content but also introduce risks — both of which are currently the subject of an increasingly sustained debate.

Building on the “1st Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Easy and Plain Language in Institutional Contexts” (2025), co-located with the 20th Machine Translation Summit held in Geneva, this Symposium aims to continue and deepen this debate, placing a stronger focus on legal and institutional communication. The programme will cover a range of topics related to AI-assisted Plain Language and Easy Language text production, including tool evaluation, prompting strategies, text assessments, implications for the tasks and workflows of drafters and translators, evolving professional competences, and empirical studies on reader reception across diverse cohorts.

This one-day hybrid event brings together research- and practice-based contributions, with the aim of fostering exchange of experience and best practices. It is open to all interested participants, including scholars, practitioners, and students in Translation Studies, Linguistics, Communication and Law.

Local organising committee:
Paolo Canavese, Fernando Prieto Ramos, Annarita Felici

Advisory committee:
Patrick Cadwell, Silvia Hansen-Schirra, Martin Kappus, Chris Maaß, Anna Matamala, Will Noonan, María Isabel Rivas Ginel

Programme

8.45-9.15: Registration

9.15-9.30: Opening

9.30-10.00: Helen Xanthaki (University College London): "Let linguists teach the drafters: easification in legislative practice"

10.00-10.30: Horacio Saggion (Universitat Pompeu Fabra): "Automatic text simplification to facilitate democratic participation of people with language barriers: lessons learned from the iDEM project" 

10.30-11.00: Coffee break

11.00-11.30: Valeria Qualatrucci (Centre of Expertise on Easy Language, Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs): "Producing easy language in the Swiss federal administration: workflows, challenges and AI support" 

11.30-12.00: Paolo Canavese, Annarita Felici, Eugenia Portioli & Fernando Prieto Ramos (Transius Centre, University of Geneva): Interactive session

12.00-13.30: Lunch break

13.30-14.00: Giulia Venturi (Institue of Computational Linguistics Pisa, Italy): "Putting the right text into the right reader's hands: opportunities and challenges of controllable text simplification"

14.00-14.30: Silke Gutermuth & Fabian Merkel (Johannes Guthenberg Universität Mainz): "Between lab and AI in user-centered easy language research: looking at a methodological landscape"

14.30-14.45: Short break

14.45-15.15: Jeroen Aspeslagh (European Commission’s Directorate General for Translation): "Making clarity count… when AI is around: editing and clear language at the European Commission"

15.15-15.45: Michael Filhol (Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), France): "Sign Languages, a distinctive case for language generation, recognition and translation"

15.45-16.00: Closing remarks and outlook

Each presentation: 20 min. + 10 min. discussion

Registration

*The registration fee includes participation in all sessions of the symposium and the coffee break, but not lunch or accommodation.

Registration closes on 4 October 2026.

Practical information

Venue

The symposium will take place at the Uni Mail building (40, Boulevard du Pont d'Arve. 1205 - Geneva).

Transport

Hotels provide with a free Geneva Transport Card for each day of the stay. To get to the Uni Mail building on public transport, please follow these indications:

From Cointrin Airport: Take any train at the airport's train station* and get off at Cornavin train station (first stop). Take the tramway line 15 towards "Palettes" until "Uni Mail" stop.

*All trains departing from Cointrin Airport's train station stop at Cornavin Train Station.

From Cornavin train station: Take the tramway line 15 towards "Plan-les-Ouates, ZIPLO" until "Uni Mail" stop. [map]

For more information, please visit Geneva's public transportation system website (TPG).

Meals

All participants must make their own arrangements for lunch.

Accommodation

Participants are responsible for booking their own accommodation if necessary.