Engaging in democratic participation can be challenging for individuals facing literacy issues, communication barriers, or intellectual disabilities. Public information isn't always easily accessible to everyone, which can result in discrimination in democratic processes.

That's why the iDEM project is crucial—an initiative aimed at bringing significant changes in inclusion within participatory political spheres. It strives to make the processes and tools of democratic participation genuinely accessible.

Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) spearheads the project with the involvement of several European entities, under the coordination of Horacio Saggion, the main researcher of the TALN research group, a member of the AccessCat Network. 

The project is slated to receive 3 million euros in funding from the European Union's Horizon programme. It will utilise artificial intelligence (AI)—a technology in which Saggion is an expert—as a tool to achieve its objectives. With an expected duration of three years, the project began its activities and research in January, aiming to transform the foundations of current citizen participation processes.

The project is associated with one of the technologies featured in the AccessCat Network catalogue: the Lexical and syntactic simplifier for Easy Reading, an open-source tool with advanced software to transform (simplify) words, lexical expressions, and even syntactically complex texts while offering simpler and more easy-to-understand solutions (easy-to-read).