With the Decision G00772 of the 24th January 2023, published on the 8th Bollettino Ufficiale Regionale Lazio (Regional Official Gazette), the Director of the Direzione Regionale per lo Sviluppo Economico, le Attività Produttive e la Ricerca has taken note of the result of the investigation carried out by Lazio Innova and of the assessment made by the Technical Assessment Commission and has approved the list of the projects which have been considered appropriate and eligible to receive funding, as well as the amount of the granted contribution.

The project presented by Tech4All is one of the projects which were approved.

CUP: F88I23000130006

Granted contribution: 46.681,68€

Abstract

The goal of our project, REASY, is to develop a digital tool to support students with dyslexia by using the technology offered by AI algorithms. A preliminary study carried out by Università della Tuscia and published in the international journal MDPI-Applied Sciences (available at https://doi.org/10.3390/app11104624) has shown that students with dyslexia deciding to study at University obtain, on average, six less university credits than non-dyslexic students, the approximate equivalent of an exam, and they may not complete university exams within set time period. Therefore, the dropout rate is higher among students with dyslexia. Even in high school, the possibility of students with dyslexia dropping out of school (18,1%) is three times higher compared to that of non-dyslexic students (the average dropout rate is 6,1%). This dropout rate provokes a decrease in the amount of the Ordinary Financing Fund given to each University, because the Fund depends on the number of students. Furthermore, University teachers are not provided with appropriate training courses to make lessons more easily available to people with Special Educational Needs. Lastly, it is well known that the support tools for students with dyslexia are usually associated with primary school. However, growing up, the student is given less and less support, and, above all, there is no standardization among Italian and European Universities in making University courses more accessible. Hence the need to implement services and tools, using digitalization, to support University students with dyslexia.

Reasy is an app available for iOS, Android and Web. It will help students with dyslexia study. As a matter of fact, REASY offers the possibility to customize each student's didactic material, thanks to AI algorithms. Furthermore, thanks to the Reasy Chrome extension, the advantages offered by REASY can be extended to any web page and web app. Our extension makes learning environments such as Google Classroom, Moodle and Teams accessible.

Goal

The main goal of the setting-up project is to implement new functionalities on REASY and optimize those which already exist, such as Reading Easy, which can be downloaded for free from Apple and Google Store. Another goal is to advertise the product through marketing campaigns to sell the product to Universities and secondary schools. The general goal is therefore the realization of a product that could stimulate the interest of market investors.