LexEase

LexEase is a web app that helps users with reading challenges by offering customizable features like dyslexia-friendly fonts, color schemes, and text-to-speech for a personalized reading experience.

Comment

Inspiration

LexEase was inspired by the need for a more inclusive, accessible reading experience. When we met with the Disabled Student Union, students shared their struggles with reading PDFs assigned by professors. Many were low-quality scans with blurry or curved text, making them nearly illegible. Others had fonts that were too small or difficult to read, forcing students to spend extra time deciphering words or looking them up. The tools provided by the university were slow, required premium subscriptions the school didn’t always cover, or took forever to process documents. These conversations made us realize the need for a tool that gives students control over how they read and format their texts, making class materials more accessible. With a focus on helping users with dyslexia and other reading challenges, we aimed to create a tool that makes reading easier for everyone.

What it does

LexEase is a web application that allows users to upload PDFs and other documents, extract text, and customize how it appears to suit their reading needs. Users can change the font, background color, and text size for better readability, and use text-to-speech to have words read aloud. If eyes feel strained, a user can instantly switch to white text on a black background. The tool is designed to help students read comfortably, efficiently, and on their own terms.

How we built it

We built LexEase using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create a responsive and user-friendly interface for the frontend. On the backend, we used Flask and Python to process PDFs, extract text, and apply formatting. Web scraping techniques helped us analyze and recognize text in documents. For text-to-speech functionality, we integrated Google Cloud’s Text-to-Speech API, allowing users to hear the text aloud.

Challenges we ran into

We faced challenges in integrating real-time color and font changes on the page, and ensuring that text-to-speech functionality worked seamlessly. Additionally, syncing styles and JavaScript for customization took some trial and error. One of our biggest challenges was our lack of backend experience. For two of us, this was our first hackathon, and we had to learn as we built. We struggled with unexpected bugs, tried multiple approaches through trial and error, and even learned Git as we went. We sometimes picked the harder route when using APIs without realizing it, and at one point, a key site we relied on for file processing crashed, forcing us to pivot. Despite the setbacks, we pushed through and found solutions.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud of successfully creating a tool that offers real-time customization of text features and integrating the text-to-speech functionality. The ability to provide both visual and auditory support is a major win. We’re also incredibly proud that we built a functional tool despite our initial inexperience. We created a minimum viable product that successfully extracts, formats, and customizes text, making it easier to read. The fact that we tackled backend development, web scraping, and API integration, things we weren’t confident in before, feels like a huge achievement.

What we learned

We learned a lot about web accessibility, especially how important it is to offer customization for users with different reading needs. We also gained experience working with APIs and making real-time updates with JavaScript. We also learned a lot about text processing, web scraping, Flask, and text-to-speech integration. More than that, we learned how to collaborate effectively, troubleshoot issues under pressure, and adapt when things didn’t go as planned. None of us started this project feeling fully confident in our skills, but by the end, we built something functional that would have a direct positive impact on students in our community.

What's next for LexEase

Next, we plan to enhance LexEase by adding more font options, improving the UI/UX for easier navigation, and expanding the text-to-speech functionality with more languages and voices. We would also like to make it work on websites as a browser extension. We plan to add a feature that allows users to adjust letter and word spacing, making text even more readable. Another key improvement will be an integrated dictionary, letting users look up definitions instantly. Our goal is to refine and expand LexEase so that more people can benefit from a tool that puts them in control of how they read.

Share this project:

Updates