Pop-up ads, hard-to-read fonts and robotic voices can overwhelm neurodivergent readers. LumiRead, a new Chrome extension built by a Northeastern computer science grad student, solves that.
If you find pop-up ads annoying, imagine how distracting they are for a person with heightened sensitivity.
A new plugin for Chrome users eliminates ads that pop up unexpectedly and also gives users control over reading difficulty and how text looks — all features that make content on the internet more accessible for neurodivergent readers and people with dyslexia.
Developed by Northeastern University computer science graduate student Anran Lyu, LumiRead is available on the Chrome Web Store. As a tool LumiRead allows users to modify their web browser experience and make it easier to focus on and understand content. The features Lyu included give users control over dynamic web pages so they can tailor them to their specific needs.
Lyu built the plugin with input from a consultant who works directly with neurodivergent readers and people with dyslexia. Neurodivergent is a term used to describe people whose brain functions differ from what’s considered typical. This would include ADHD and autism.
“I think the most important thing I learned as a developer is that when you start building things, you want to make sure you understand the user’s needs,” says Lyu. “You need to care about accessibility.”
The collaboration was built into an advanced computing course on Northeastern’s Vancouver campus that focuses on a specific group of users — neurodivergent people in this case — and invites an advocate to consult with students to ensure they know what users need and don’t need. In addition to being able to view content in “read only” mode, without ads, Lyu learned that users want to be able to modify text difficulty level, so he added a feature that uses AI to rewrite text at a chosen level.
The extension also allows users to select dyslexia-friendly fonts, translate content into different languages and listen to a more human voice while in text-to-speech mode.
“A lot of people use the screen reader, but the voice sounded like a robot,” says Lyu. “They wanted us to humanize the voice so they could be more focused.”
Neurodivergent students and those with dyslexia might struggle to keep up with classmates during web-based classroom activities, says Yvonne Coady, a visiting professor of computer science on the Vancouver campus who taught the course. Tools like the plug-in Lyu designed help to level the playing field for learners who might find a dynamic webpage distracting.
“If we can take a webpage and modify it to suit what this individual can consume in terms of information and distraction, their participation is much more in line with everyone else’s, and that’s transformative,” says Coady.
Lyu, who will complete his master’s degree in the winter, says that building the extension was transformative for him because he learned to put his initial ideas aside and listen to what the end users really needed.
“We are all developers, so we all talk about technology,” he says. “But with this experience, I applied what I learned in school to a real-world project that can actually benefit people. It’s awesome. It feels amazing.”
The course is finished and the plugin is available for sale, but Lyu continues to maintain and improve the product. He has shared the extension with users at technical fairs and events to get feedback on its design.
Lyu has also heard from users who contact him by email through the Chrome Web Store. Based on feedback, he plans to tweak a slide bar that helps users adjust an article’s reading level.