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San Pablo Middle College students demonstrate 'Redefine', a dyslexia‑support app
Summary
Three seniors from Middle College High School in San Pablo presented 'Redefine', a prototype app that uses OCR and text format changes to improve readability for students with dyslexia; district leaders encouraged pilot discussions with special‑education staff.
Three seniors from Middle College High School, Emma, Lola and Arthur, presented a prototype accessibility app called Redefine at the West Contra Costa Unified board meeting on Jan. 28.
The students said their Mesa (STEM) program research and interviews with district special‑education staff led them to build an app that scans printed pages or uploads PDFs, runs optical character recognition (OCR) and applies text‑based formatting to support readers with dyslexia (font, color, spacing and other adjustments). They reported pilot testing at elementary and middle sites and a small staff survey: among 28 special‑education staff or administrators surveyed, 72% said current dyslexia accommodations were insufficient.
"We also wanted to clarify that our objective with this presentation is to have our app idea taken into account with the board and possibly implemented in the school district," Emma said during the demonstration.
Superintendent Cotton and several trustees praised the students’ work and encouraged connections to district leaders and advocacy groups. Trustee Gonzalez Hoy suggested the presenters contact statewide advocates; students said they would follow up. Dr. Fleshman (special education) described potential district interest in pilots and emphasized how a tool like Redefine could support both students with IEPs and those identified by the statewide universal screener.
The students described development details (Python and the Kivy framework, OCR.space for text extraction) and reported test outcomes they said showed a 34% average reading‑speed improvement in small user tests and strong teacher preference for the tool during trials. The presentation concluded with district applause and a request for staff to consider next steps for piloting and partnerships.
Next steps: Students and district staff indicated they would follow up with the special‑education director and consider pilot testing at interested school sites.
