Active Math Learning for Students with Writing Disabilities

Abstract

In a typical elementary mathematics(math) class, Students with Writing Disabilities (SWD) operate at a disadvantage. Math lessons and techniques are geared towards students who are able to actively ‘work out’ math problems with pencil and paper. We conducted interviews with special educators in elementary schools to learn about the pros and cons of current writing assistive technologies that are used in classrooms for math. Informed by the interviews findings, we designed a prototype called SMPL that enables SWD to work out math problems digitally. We ran a user study with 8 SWD to obtain feedback on SMPL. We present the interviews and user study findings. We found that: 1) There is a lack of writing assistive technologies that are designed specifically for elementary math learning; 2) It is feasible to provide SWD with a math learning experience similar to their peers; and 3) The writing assistive technology should be adaptive to students’ skills and backgrounds.