What is Wrong with This Word? Dyseggxia: A Game for Children with Dyslexia
Luz Rello, Clara Bayarri, Azuki Gorriz · 2012 · Proceedings of the 14th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2012) · doi:10.1145/2384916.2384962
Summary
This demonstration paper presents Dyseggxia, a free mobile game application for iOS and Android that provides word exercises designed specifically for Spanish-speaking children with dyslexia. The game's content design is grounded in two empirical foundations: linguistic and pedagogical criteria from existing dyslexia research, and corpus analysis of actual errors written by people with dyslexia. This evidence-based approach differentiates Dyseggxia from existing tools, which are mostly text processors, spell checkers, or word prediction tools rather than targeted reinforcement exercises. The game addresses limitations of traditional paper-based word exercises: dysgraphia (a writing disorder affecting handwriting) is commonly comorbid with dyslexia, making paper exercises physically difficult; paper exercises tend to be repetitive and homogeneous; and children find them tedious. By presenting exercises as a mobile game, Dyseggxia makes practice more engaging and accessible. The content creation process involves four steps: selecting target words (using only real lemmas, avoiding pseudowords and foreign words), designing five exercise types based on established pedagogical approaches, choosing specific word modifications informed by empirical error analysis, and assigning difficulty levels with appropriate text layout.
Key findings
Dyseggxia implements five types of exercises derived from established pedagogical interventions for dyslexia: (1) Insertion — filling in a missing letter from a set of options (e.g., *_posible {n,s,r,p,m,b} → imposible); (2) Deletion — removing an extra, incorrect letter from a word; (3) Substitution — replacing an incorrect letter with the correct one; (4) Transposition — reordering jumbled letters or syllables; and (5) Word separation — correctly splitting two words that have been merged together. The word modifications used to create exercise stimuli are based on analysis of real errors made by people with dyslexia, ensuring the exercises target the specific types of mistakes that dyslexic readers actually make rather than arbitrary errors. The game was the first Spanish-language mobile application to combine reinforcement word exercises inspired by pedagogical books with empirical error analysis in a game format. At the time of publication, existing Spanish dyslexia apps offered only generic games (Dislexia Ejercicios Prácticos) without the systematic, evidence-based exercise design of Dyseggxia.
Relevance
This paper demonstrates how empirical research on disability-specific error patterns can directly inform the design of therapeutic technology. For accessibility practitioners, the key principle is that effective assistive tools should be grounded in understanding how users actually experience their condition — in this case, designing exercises based on the specific types of spelling errors dyslexic individuals make, rather than generic spelling practice. The mobile game format addresses both the engagement problem (children find paper exercises tedious) and the accessibility problem (dysgraphia makes handwriting difficult), showing how thoughtful medium selection can remove barriers. The free availability on major mobile platforms maximizes reach for a condition affecting over 10% of the European population. The work is also notable as an example of accessibility research addressing a non-English language community — Spanish-speaking children with dyslexia had few targeted digital resources at the time. The collaboration between researchers (Rello, who also authored the IDEAL ebook reader paper) and designers at Cookie Cloud in Barcelona exemplifies effective interdisciplinary accessibility work.
Tags: dyslexia · serious games · educational technology · Spanish language · reading accessibility · cognitive accessibility · mobile application · iOS · Android · spelling · children