Aarti: Thanks for having me, Spiffy! Our purpose is to build a world where people with disabilities belong. To create a world where everyone, no matter who they are, can shine brightly. We firmly believe that all of us have special gifts and talents. They can have a gift of hand, a gift of heart, or a gift of head. People with disabilities are sometimes not seen or heard, or they are unfairly thought of as less than others. We want them to be seen, heard, and valued for the incredible people they are.
Vaish: Thanks for having me, Spiffy! Our tool, Simili, uses AI-generated reading adventures and games to help young children learn to read. Kids get to play with their favorite characters, choose what they do and where they go, and in the interim, help the characters—and themselves—pick up phonics, vocabulary, comprehension and other reading-related skills.
Ethan: Thanks for having me, Spiffy! By the time they reach high school, students are expected to have switched from learning to read to reading to learn. Reading shifts from ‘free choice’ books to standardized curriculum organized around stories like Romeo and Juliet. For the millions of students who are behind in reading, grade-level texts are not only arduous, but inaccessible. Research shows that if a reader understands less than 98% of the vocabulary in the text, their reading comprehension plummets. Just like you can’t go from running a mile directly to running a marathon, students need to build up their reading skills with progressively harder texts in order to build vocabulary and confidence.
