Disability Pride Month: Second-year CCT Student Riya Mittal is paving the way for automated learning aids.

This Disability Pride Month, CCT is excited to feature second-year student Riya Mittal and her project Dyslex-Aid, which uses automated technology to create personalized learning aids.

Riya’s story begins in 2015 when she was asked to drop out of high school because of a lack of support for educational accommodations. Staff at her school told her that, because of her reading disability (which she now realized was undiagnosed dyslexia), she simply was not suited for academia and should pursue an alternative path. She did not let this discourage her. Rather than dropping out, Riya decided to attend Christ University in Bangalore to pursue her Bachelor’s Degree. During her time there, a professor who had experience working with students with learning disabilities recommended that she be tested for Dyslexia. After her formal diagnosis in 2019, Riya had access to accommodations that completely changed the way she could engage with the material. This not only encouraged her to pursue her M.A. but inspired her to create a tool for other individuals like her to overcome reading challenges and excel academically. While the accommodations she received in her undergrad changed the game, she felt that learning aids were still unable to fully address the scope of individual learning needs. Here is where Dyslex-Aid comes in.

Knowing she wanted to pursue her master’s degree and continue researching learning and visual aids but not knowing which program to pursue, Riya decided to take a year off of school. During her time off, she found the CCT program here at Georgetown and decided that because of Georgetown’s entrepreneurial community and CCT’s interdisciplinary focus on technology and communication, this program was the perfect fit. A year into the program, Riya has launched her academic project Dyslex-Aid, a three-fold solution software that provides individualized aid to its constituents. This threefold solution includes LearnBud, which offers personalized insights into what learning strategies are best suited to each student, SmartBud which enhances reading comprehension with interactive visual learning, and ReadBud, an overlay that transforms websites through customizable reading settings. Riya says, “I founded Dyslex-Aid out of personal necessity.”

LearnBud is a program that helps students and their educators understand their specific reading and learning patterns (such as whether the student is a visual or auditory learner) so that they can receive relevant accommodations. SmartBud can then use this information to generate videos, diagrams, or images based on specific content students are struggling with. ReadBud is applicable both in and outside of the classroom, as it can transform any website into an experience suited to its user’s reading needs (whether that be font changes/color changes/etc.). Currently, Riya is enhancing Dyslex-Aid by integrating phonetics into the software. Additionally, she is exploring methods to gamify the learning experience, aiming to make the software more engaging and effective for users.

Riya says that without the support of the CCT program, she would not have been able to pursue this project at this level or build the expertise she’s honed within the program. During our conversation, Riya said that her experience in two CCT courses, Diagrams and Visual Thinking with Dr. J.R. Osborn and Interaction Design with Dr. Evan Barba were instrumental in changing the way she approached the project. Continuing her work with Dr. Barba and Dr. Osborn, Riya also worked with the CCT Iteration Lab, a program founded by the two professors that allows students to develop both research and creative endeavors with guidance from Barba and Owen.

Riya also worked closely with CCT alumni and Professor Ken Williams, who encouraged her to get involved with entrepreneurial efforts such as the School of Foreign Services Global Impact Pitch Competition– where she secured second place, and the 2024 Georgetown Entrepreneurship Summer Launch Incubator, where she worked on her project this summer under the guidance of two mentors: Laura Frederiks and Mrim Boutla

From here, Riya plans on continuing to develop the project through further user testing, and prototyping, and participating in pitch competitions and entrepreneurial efforts.

To support Riya and her work, check out her LinkedIn profile, or the Dyslex-Aid website.