LINCOLN- Several people testified on LB1253 on Monday. The bill aims to create a Dyslexia Research Grant Program for new technologies. State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn, who introduced the bill, also has dyslexia and has fought for years to support students with dyslexia. The proposed research program would set aside $1 million for Nebraska businesses researching artificial intelligence-based writing assistance for individuals with dyslexia.

Linehan said that some educators have long discredited the lifelong disorder or cast it off as having to do with a student’s IQ or intelligence. She herself has struggled with the disorder, recalling how “horrified” she felt before her 1995 interview to work for then-U.S. Senate candidate Chuck Hagel. It’s estimated that as many as 15%-20% of the world’s population has dyslexia.

In the past year, a group of University of Nebraska-Lincoln college students working in this field approached Linehan to discuss their fledgling business, Dyslexico, which they started about two years ago in the UNL Raikes School. Unlike other programs, the Dyslexico software is powered through AI but finds a middle ground in not rewriting sentences.

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