WordMelodies: Supporting the Acquisition of Literacy Skills by Children with Visual Impairment through a Mobile App

Abstract

WordMelodies is a mobile app that aims to support inclusive teaching of literacy skills for primary school students. Thus it was designed to be accessible both visually and through screen reader, and it includes over 80 different types of exercises for practicing literacy skills, each with adjustable difficulty levels, in Italian and in English. WordMelodies is freely available for iOS and Android devices. However, it has not been previously evaluated with children having visual impairments. Thus, in this article, we evaluate the app usability, its perceived ease of use, appreciation and children’s autonomy while using it, as well as the characteristics of the end users. To achieve this, we conducted a user study with 11 primary school students with visual impairments, and we analyzed app usage logs collected from 408 users in over 1 year from the app publication. We show that app usability is high, and most exercises can be completed autonomously. The exercises are also perceived to be easy to perform, and they are appreciated by the participants. Finally, we provide insights on how to address the identified app limitations and propose future research directions.