BT young people Pioneers win £10,000 to develop app for Dyslexic children.
Monday 28 September 2020
BT has announced that an all-female team of teenagers from The Sacred Heart High School in London, have won the BT Young Pioneer Award 2020, part of the Ability Net Tech4Good Awards.
Dorothy (14), Sonia (14) and Justine (14) created the ‘Dimming Dyslexia’ app to analyse online text and other educational resources, translating them into formats that are easier to understand for those with dyslexia. The app can present written text into videos, cartoons, alter font size and colours on the page, presenting more dyslexic-friendly formats.
This project has been inspired by the team witnessing how some pupils were perhaps struggling with some basic skills, such as reading and writing. Consequently, the team got together to find a way to help others improve their everyday skills, skills the team admit sometimes they take for granted.
Dimming Dyslexia’s innovative design and team ambition makes it a potentially game changing tool for the 1.3 million people in education with dyslexia. As winners of this year’s BT Young Pioneer award, they will receive the support of BT experts who will work with the team to take this from prototype to a fully working app. In addition, they will receive £10,000 to fund the project so they can take it to the next level.
Dorothy from The Sacred Heart High School’s STEaM TEAM said: “I can’t believe we won! We’ve been working really hard to create a prototype for ‘Dimming Dyslexia’, so we’re very excited to start working with BT to take the development of the app to the next level. Our ambition is to get ‘Dimming Dyslexia, onto the apps stores so that we can help as many people with dyslexia as possible.”
Professor Kerensa Jennings, BT Group Director of Digital Impact, said: “The calibre of entries this year has been outstanding, with a record breaking number of individuals and teams submitting their ideas. We are absolutely thrilled to announce Dimming Dyslexia as this year’s winner’s’ as we recognise the positive impact this could have to help 1.3 million people in education. With the support of BT, we hope to help the Dimming Dyslexia team reach their goal in their ambition in supporting more people with dyslexia.”
