For this project, we were asked to make pitch to a product that we felt was necessary to have.
So I started thinking, what do we need? What problems do people face in todays society?
There is a lot of stigma regarding a lot of things, and I had a hard time coming up with an idea.
I then realized that I’ve been sitting on a potential product since the summer which I really want to make real, and that is a reading app that helps neurodivergent people, especially kids, but could be used by everyone.
During my whole life I have myself been struggling with being able to read because of my ADHD, so it would be quite a personal project, but it wasn’t intended to myself. It’s for the children struggling to be a part of the class because of them working a different way.
In 2018, I worked as a substitute teacher as well as a childcarer, during my employment I came accross several neurodivergent children that were being frowned upon by adults or bullied by other kids because they were different and didn’t partake in class.
One specific child that I taught had issues concentrating, and they didn’t get the help that was necessary for them to learn in school.
The teacher gave the child an ipad and continued with class like it was nothing, and I could audibly hear the other kids mocking them, calling them slurs and saying how unfair that they got to watch youtube videos while the other kids didn’t.
The child that acted that was did face the consequences from saying such things to their classmate, but the teacher never lifted a finger to help the neurodivergent child, to make them feel like they were a part of the class. I want to change that.
This has been an issue for a very long time, even when I was young. I was deemed a problem child and good for nothing because I didn’t work the same way the other children were. The teacher sent me out several times out of the classroom because she didn’t want to deal with me.
This was mainly because at the time I was undiagnosed, but the teacher kept insisting to get me diagnosed, but yet didn’t look into how to make my school experience any better.
