Interactive and Adaptive Learning Tool for Special Need Kids

Abstract

The research presented here outlines the development of an engaging educational mobile application for kids with exceptional disabilities, aimed mostly at 5 to 8-year-old blind, deaf, and mute children. There are four main components to the application: audio lectures and tests for kids with visual impairments, improved penmanship and mathematics quizzes for the deaf, interactive Braille tutoring for kids with visual impairments, and instant sign language interpreter for the deaf/mute. Every element makes use of cutting-edge technology like the Google Text-to-Speech API, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Natural Language Processing (NLP), EasyOCR, image processing, Deep Learning models, etc.

Regarding the design and the content of the application, it was designed and created together with educators working in specialised institutions and schools. As for the main contribution of the study, it is explained that our approach focuses on transfer learning with the help of models such as VGG16 to achieve high recognition rates of signs from ASL in real-time, thus, balancing between speed and efficiency. The findings reveal strength in special needs children’s educational participation and academic achievements. This work, therefore, points to the imperative of applying modern technology in the offering of special education for integration.