Educational games portal for deaf and hard-of-hearing children

For deaf and hard-of-hearing children, learning to read often unfolds differently from hearing peers. Sounds that others take for granted form an extra hurdle; at the same time, literacy is precisely a key to independence and participation for this group. The platform I worked on plugs directly into that.

The idea is as simple as it is strong: children read a book — matched to their level — and then answer a set of questions presented as a game. The game element provides motivation, the questions test reading comprehension, and the teacher or supervisor gets insight into progress per child, per book, and per skill.

The original platform was no longer maintainable due to outdated technology. We decided to build a completely new version with the (then) latest stack — Angular 7 on the front-end, Kotlin with Vert.x on the back-end, and PostgreSQL as the data layer — while holding two requirements absolutely firm: accessibility and responsiveness.

Accessibility for this project meant much more than a few contrast settings. We aimed for WCAG A++ — a level at which the platform was ultimately certified by an external party — so all interaction had to be workable with keyboard, screen reader, and varying input devices. Animations, sounds, and visual feedback were deliberately supportive and never blocking; all content had to be reachable in multiple ways. That forced sharper choices in markup, focus management, and component design than in an average project.

Responsiveness mattered just as much. Some children work on large school displays, others on tablets at home, still others on older chromebooks provided by their municipality. We built the UI from the start with that diversity as a starting point, not as an afterthought.

For me this project was a fine reminder that good technology only becomes truly valuable when it serves people who otherwise couldn't take part. Every time a child completes a game and moves another step forward in reading, that's a direct justification of every effort poured into accessibility.