Teen creates website for ADHD, colour-blind, dyslexic users
Krishiv Kukreja ran out of breath as he shared the long list of math-related events he has attended – British Mathematics Olympiad, Purple Comet Math Meet, Singapore and Asian School Math Olympiad, the list goes on.
To top it off, the 16-year-old Grade 12 student from Tanglin Trust School also created a website, MathAdapt, which assists students with learning sensitivities such as colour blindness, dyslexia and ADHD.
“I’ve always wanted my love for maths to be experienced by everyone,” said Krishiv, who is colour-blind with a red-brown-green deficiency.
“Being colour-blind, I face difficulties seeing certain colours on learning websites. So, I wanted to create one that people like me can use.”
The website has three different interfaces for three types of learning sensitivities. For students with colour blindness, the site uses a universal colour scheme – orange, blue and white – allowing them to see the content clearer.
The font used in the pages for dyslexic students is thicker and more spaced out, making it easier to read.
For students with ADHD, there is a timer that prompts a pop-up notification for them to take a break – ensuring their short attention spans are accommodated.
He was inspired to create the website for his school’s Learning Support Department, which assists students with various learning sensitivities.
Ms Gillian Sams, head of Learning Support at Tanglin Trust School, said the website will be piloted by Year 9 and 10 students in the coming weeks to gather feedback.
She said: “When Krishiv met me to share his website, we discussed the challenges for neurodiverse learners and how he could make his website more accessible. We talked about font size and colour, ease of navigation, timed exercises and a feature to have the questions read audibly.”
The school has pitched the website to various International Baccalaureate schools overseas, and hopes to discuss it with the Ministry of Education as well, Krishiv revealed.
Krishiv, who aims to pursue a postgraduate degree in mathematics and become a professor, picked up basic computer science and programming skills from YouTube videos and took a free online computer science course from Harvard University to build the website.
Currently, he is footing the site’s maintenance bill with his family’s help.
“I want to keep the website free of charge for users so that more students can benefit from it,” he said. “I did not make this website with the motivation of profit.”
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