Working with Dyslexia

Elaine Kruse knows what it is to struggle—and succeed—with dyslexia. She lives with its effects herself, as well as having worked in the field supporting other dyslexics for many years. In her work, Elaine noted there are many ‘corporate’ idea mapping applications that respond to the highly networked manner in which people think and plan. However, as she conceived Spark-Space, she felt they lacked something critical for persons with specific processing difficulties:

I was a little frustrated because when you have another mapping tool, what you have to do when you’ve actually created your outline view is go into something like MS Word, and the moment you’ve gotten into MS Word, you’ve got a fixed linear structure. Then you’ve got to go back to the mind mapping program to add your ideas in. And you’ve got to keep changing the way you are thinking from a spatial way to a linear way.

Working closely with her husband and Co-Founder, Dr. Andres Kruse, who manages software engineering, she began conceptualizing a method for allowing people to develop mind maps with all necessary controls right on the screen—with no need to click through nested menus. She says,

Spark-Space is very ‘3D’—it accommodates a dyslexic’s way of thinking that is very tactile and spatial. We wanted something that allows you to be really intuitive. The other thing that we were trying to create was something that was very, very simple. Others are too complex for an AT type of use. Some people use Spark-Space as a normal desktop—those who find a regular desktop too cluttered… It’s also used a as a project planning tool and for essays or refinements of projects.

Designing for Simplicity

This notion of simplicity is a mantra for Spark-Space, and one she feels she must constantly reiterate in discussions with her small design team:

It’s worth making the point that often it’s a fight between technical designers who can produce a very cool feature and me as an end user and designer. Sometimes following up on an idea would serve to complicate the program. I ask, ‘What will it do for this person? How will it further extend their usability? Will it just complicate the interface?’ I think Einstein said you’ve got primitive, then complicated, then simple. I believe that is exactly the way the AT market will go.

Leveraging a Successful AT Business

The creation of Spark-Space was based more in a passion to make a difference and meet needs than a profit motive. In fact, Elaine was already running a unique business called ‘Right to Write‘, which has major governmental contracts in the UK, for assisting persons with disabilities in college and in the workplace be successful. This initial company helped Elaine to confirm her concept among existing clients, and provided both credibility and a revenue stream to get things started. Still, creating Spark-Space entailed substantial risk. The Kruse’s sold their home to raise capital and applied for a government-secured loan called a Smart Award. They succeeded, and obtained the equivalent of about $100,000 to develop a prototype. Happily, Spark-Space reached the break even point after only about 4 years of serious development and marketing.

Collaborating to Ensure Interoperability

Spark-Space views collaboration first from a technical interoperability standpoint, following up with the human connections necessary to make it happen:

Collaboration between Assistive Technology tools is absolutely critical. If Spark-Space didn’t work with things like Dragon, Kurzweil, Claro, and other products that serve as Assistive Technology tools, it would be useless in my opinion. So we’ve actually worked with their development teams to make sure our product works with theirs, and theirs works with ours.

In what she terms a “spirit of collaboration,” Elaine indicates a moment of enlightenment she experienced, along with other AT developers at a conference, is leading them into a project in which they are packaging various AT software together:

We realized if we had all these three things working together, and they were sold sort of as a bundle, this would really be sort of a complete tool for people—one that would always benefit the end user.

Optimistically, Elaine firmly believes more such collaboration will occur, leading to smoother interactions between AT tools—each bringing the strengths of different but complementary features.

Getting Considered as AT

Elaine echoes other developers with the notion that legislation is an essential component for market creation, but quickly segues into concomitant barriers within the system—including practitioners who don’t know technology well:

There’s no doubt at all that legislation helps people access education, the workplace, college—it helps sales. But the people who do disabilities assessments tend to be very conservative about one solution that they [recommend] every time, and they don’t often look at wider solutions that may have a greater benefit to an end user. This makes the process slower and more conservative. In the UK, I’d say that 80% of our sales are government funded. It is much less in the U.S.

Researching the Benefits of AT

Elaine recognizes the value of Scientifically Based Research, but practically emphasizes more informal modalities for evaluating benefits:

You tend to find that you get reviewed rather than having some kind of scientific study to show an improvement. You won’t have one product, you’ll have a series of products that all work together, so you’d have Spark Space, and like Dragon Dictate, and TextHelp or Kurzweil, and they would put them altogether and they would measure outcomes after a period of time. Or, you’ll get a classroom teacher who is commissioned independently to do a review, so she’ll use it in six different subjects and see how the class responds to that.

Furthermore, she believes the proper question isn’t one of simple academic skill growth, but whether devices lead to the more proper goal of greater inclusion. She explains,

So much with AT is soft outcomes—they’re extremely difficult to measure. It’s about how much it has increased someone’s confidence as well as ‘does it increase an exam result at the end of the year?’ And can you fully attribute it to the technology? That’s very difficult to resolve.

Expanding the AT Industry Globally

Elaine believes two complementary things are needed to push the AT industry forward. First, she advocates forms of meaningful national and international recognition for innovative technologies. She professes,

The most inspirational, resourceful people I’ve ever met are those who develop AT and push it along—they’re unsung heroes. I was really happy to receive the honour of Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Queen Elisabeth II last year. It was good for the company because it highlighted the fact that this had a social benefit. It wasn’t about being commercial, it was about changing the lives of people. Recognition is something that should be higher on the government’s agenda. There should be AT awards based on the impact on the end user. It would benefit the industry and encourage people to develop further.

Second, Elaine notes that the AT conference is king—the essential venue for “cross pollination” of ideas, concepts, and collaboration. Yet she knows many ideas are never fulfilled and not everyone has access to the big venues in the U.S. She has seen innovations in the UK market that do not reach U.S. vendors because “it’s a big scary market” and there are substantial capitalization constraints on the small AT market. She has taken it upon herself to carry some ideas from other innovators overseas to resellers in the U.S. based on her own passion and credibility. Based on successes, she feels,

We need perhaps a heavily subsidized Assistive Technology showcase to encourage new design, where resellers from all the countries can find that product. It would help internationally, because it really is a global market in Assistive Technology—there isn’t enough of a market in one country apart from maybe the States. This would promote the advancement of the industry itself.

Touting a need for innovation that is genuine, Elaine recommends that AT entrepreneurs:

Really go and talk to your end users, and not necessarily just to the practitioners (teachers and therapists) who often don’t understand the benefit technology brings. Ask, ‘What is the critical benefit this brings to the end user, and what is really new?’ So much technology is cool rather than useful. Avoid the shopping list—it’s not about a list of features, it’s about a list of benefits. There are so many ‘me too’ products out there that don’t really innovate.”

Involving End Users in Innovation

Elaine is intensely interested in knowing how users apply Spark-Space in creative ways, and what their experiences are. She elaborates,

The moment you stop listening is the moment your product fails. I think it’s always about an evolution, a new opportunity. I always want to know more. No software is ‘bug free’, but we try to get ours so that it is literally generations down the line. It costs us a lot more to do that, but I feel more comfortable releasing it—and we get very few support calls.

Even when the company obtains email feedback indicating the product has allowed a child to produce better work than ever before, Elaine isn’t satisfied. She follows up, asking, “What was it that made the breakthrough, what was the ‘click?’”

Elaine has a strong commitment to the idea that people who will actually apply technology should be intimately involved with the creation of that technology. She feels this has occurred to a degree among technology users who are blind, but says,

In terms of people with learning difficulties, there hasn’t been that cohesion yet. That will happen—a stronger voice. It is already becoming literally essential that you have at least a couple of representatives of the end user on every committee. That is changing the focus of work being done and products being produced. You’ll get a much greater focus on end-users driving development and evaluation. They’ll drive and control what the government will fund and therefore what developers will develop.