Investigating Issues and Needs of Dyslexic Students at University: Proof of Concept of an Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality-Based Supporting Platform and Preliminary Results
Author(s)
Date Issued
2021
Type
article
Volume
11
Issue
10
Journal
Abstract
Specific learning disorders affect a significant portion of the population. A total of 80% of
its instances are dyslexia, which causes significant difficulties in learning skills related to reading,
memorizing and the exposition of concepts. Whereas great efforts have been made to diagnose
dyslexia and to mitigate its effects at primary and secondary school, little has been done at the
university level. This has resulted in a sensibly high rate of abandonment or even of failures to enroll.
The VRAIlexia project was created to face this problem by creating and popularizing an innovative
method of teaching that is inclusive for dyslexic students. The core of the project is BESPECIAL, a software platform based on artificial intelligence and virtual reality that is capable of understanding
the main issues experienced by dyslexic students and to provide them with ad hoc digital support
methodologies in order to ease the difficulties they face in their academic studies. The aim of this paper is to present the conceptual design of BESPECIAL, highlighting the role of each module that
composes it and the potential of the whole platform to fulfil the aims of VRAIlexia. Preliminary
results obtained from a sample of about 700 dyslexic students are also reported, which clearly show
the main issues and needs that dyslexic students experience and these will be used as guidelines for the final implementation of BESPECIAL.