Open Lexicon started with Ava Powell, a cognitive science major at Hopkins, who reached out to us to help her with her quest to create tools for readers with dyslexia. A group of computer science students took on the challenge as their course project in the “EN.601.421 Object-Oriented Software Engineering” class.

Open Lexicon, at its core, is a web component that empowers readers to customize the displayed text on their browser. This web component is a building block of a web-based e-reader and classroom management that allows teachers to assign readings to students. Students can then use the accessibility features to customize the text to their learning preferences.