How Assistive Technology Can Enhance Education for Nigerian Dyslexics

Technology has grown to become one of the tools needed to solve human problems. As EdTech (Educational Technology) is rising in its own right, individual tools that may help to enhance disabilities in learning are also springing up.

While EdTech startups such as uLesson are working on delivering proper curriculum to willing learners beyond the walls of the classroom, other tech tools that can support dyslexics in the school also deserves to be focused on.

In Nigeria, the declining quality of education is usually being talked about but not much is being done to improve the tools of learning. The mode of learning and the tools used for learning could all same be the problem that education is facing in the country.

Research has shown that dyslexia is not a vision problem even though it may co-occur with eye conditions – yet these two conditions are unconnected.

Dyslexics may struggle with spoken language, have difficulty expressing themselves clearly or even fully comprehend what other people say. Dyslexia can also affect routine abilities or activities such as memorisation, social interaction, and stress management.

Dyslexia is a disability where affected people exhibit symptoms that result in learning difficulties with respect to specific language skills and particularly reading.

The Africa Dyslexia Organisation (ADO) estimates that about 15% to 20% of any population may be dyslexics. So it is said that many Africans and even Nigerians may not know that they suffer from dyslexia yet keep struggling with learning in the traditional way.

This is why a core component of Dyslexia Nigeria’s service mission is to provide assistive resources to dyslexics.

Some examples of assistive tech tools that can help dyslexics perform better and unleash their potential include;

The Immersive Reader is a free tool available in Microsoft Edge, OneNote, Word, Outlook and Office Lens that improves reading comprehension, fluency, and writing. It also boosts the confidence of dyslexic readers by breaking down words into syllables, highlights verbs, nouns, adjectives, and subordinate sentences, and the converts text to speech.

Grammarly is an app that helps people improve spelling, grammar, punctuation, clarity for dyslexics.

For Quillbot, it assists dyslexics in the summarization of content and rewriting sentences to add clarity to their reading and writing.

Executive functioning tools such as Microsoft To-Do, Evernote, Google Calendar are some of the other tools that can be very helpful to dyslexics in Nigeria as they struggle with inadequate educational facilities catering to their needs.

Also, Mind Mapping Software such as Mindly and Coggle also enables dyslexics to organise, generate visual representations of their ideas and comprehend information better.

Any tech tool offering spell check, word prediction, word processing, voice recorder, and speech recognition can assist dyslexic individuals with learning, reading, and writing.

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adedoyin

Macaddy is mostly a farmer in the day who also dabbles into technology at night, in search of other cutting edge intersections. He's on Twitter @i_fix_you

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