Assistive Technologies: Science Software for Supporting People with Dysgraphia

By Paul Graham

November 24, 2017

Editorial Note

This is the beginnings of an article on the topic. While it isn’t complete, I thought I would publish it early so others could see some of the information as early as possible.

What is Dysgraphia?

Dysgraphia is a condition that causes people to have problems with writing, in terms of handwriting, getting thoughts down on paper, and other challenges.

Useful Science Software for Supporting People with Dysgraphia

As I described in a previous blog post, my wife and I have been looking for software that might help our son with expressing himself with the written word and mathematical expressions. This particular blog post is going to summarize our experience with a few software packages that can help people complete science assignments.

Writing Mathematical/Scientific Expressions

As noted on the Mod Math web site:

“For some, the hardest part about math is writing the darn problem.”

It seems like one of the key pieces of software that can help people with dysgraphia work through mathematical and scientific problems is some reasonable method for expressing things mathematically without having them physically write the expressions with pencil and paper. One of the challenges here, though, is to find software that acts like the electronic equivalent of pencil and paper for mathematical expressions and not actually do all of the work for the student in the process.

To avoid repeating the majority of the information on writing mathematical expressions, please see my post Assistive Technologies: Math Software for Supporting People with Dysgraphia. The following is some information on potential software tools to help with writing scientific expressions.

Efofex Software: A Generous Company with Promising Tools

As noted in the blog post on math software, Efofex Software is a company creating tools for mainly math and science teachers that enable them to create various mathematical and technical diagrams. They also advertise some of their software products for students.

Further, they have a program through the EmPower Foundation where students with physical disabilities (as opposed to the schools they attend) can receive a gift of a 10-year license of Efofex products. They also mention that they will work with homeschool students to get similar benefits. We were able to contact them recently and they granted a license for our son to use - some much appreciated and amazing generosity.

Efofex Software seems to have two main packages that they sell: FX MathPack (a yearly subscription of $65 for individuals) and FX SciencePack (a yearly subscription of $40 for individuals). Each is designed for teachers trying to generate diagrams and mathematical or scientific expressions for supporting their classroom work.

The FX MathPack includes the following products:

FX Draw: a tool for drawing mathematical diagrams
FX Equation: a tool for typesetting mathematical expressions and equations
FX Graph: a tool that includes a subset of FX Draw’s graphing capabilities as a separate tool
FX Stat: a tool that includes a subset of FX Draw’s statistical graphical capabilities as a separate tool