Coreference

The linguistic phenomenon of two or more expressions in a text referring to the same real-world entity — for example, "Sam", "she", and "the scientist" all referring to the same person. Coreference resolution is the NLP task of automatically linking these expressions into chains. Coreference matters for accessibility in several ways: it underpins automatic readability assessment (complex coreference chains make text harder to follow), text simplification (replacing pronouns with their antecedents can aid readers with cognitive disabilities), and screen-reader comprehension aids that help users track who or what is being discussed across long passages.