Development and Usability Evaluation on Individualized Reading Enhancing Application for Dyslexia (IREAD): A Mobile Assistive Application

Abstract

Mobile Applications Development has been the trend for the previous year to revolutionize the teaching and learning process. These technologies were designed to improve the quality of education for all types of learners, more specifically for learners who have learning difficulties like dyslexia. Learners having this learning disorder oftentimes have difficulty in reading and writing. The use of conventional instruction is challenged for this learner. With the advent of technology, specifically mobile assistive application development helps implement more dynamic, effective and efficient teaching strategies, thus provides an opportunity to improve the learning of the students. This study aimed to develop a mobile assistive application name Individualized Reading Enhancing Application for Dyslexia (IREAD) which primarily implements text-to-speech technology to enhance the reading capability of learners with dyslexia. Unity 3D is utilized in the development of the application and web support is present to manage learning resources of the application. Moreover, usability evaluation is performed to determine the overall usability of the application, with the following dimensions effectiveness, efficiency, and quality of support, ease of learning and satisfaction. The 10 participants who were teachers teaching in specialized education answered the usability questionnaire. Results show that the overall usability of the IREAD application is immensely positive.