Empowering inclusive learning through touch, sound, and interaction.
z.Mantra is a fun, inclusive math learning app for Android, thoughtfully designed for both visually impaired and sighted learners. The app combines audio-based guidance, gesture-based interaction, and playful math challenges to make math education engaging and barrier-free.
Built with love using Kotlin, accessibility-first design, and real-world pedagogy.
There was a lack of fully accessible math learning apps for Android that truly catered to the needs of visually impaired learners. Many existing apps either lacked TalkBack support or failed to offer inclusive interaction models.
To address this gap, z.Mantra was developed by taking inspiration from the GSoC 2024 Math Mantra project, especially for features like:
- 🔔 Bell Ring Mode
- 🥁 Drum Mode
- 📈 Number Line Mode
While these served as initial references, the majority of the app—including the architecture, UX flows, and implementation—has been rewritten in Kotlin and refactored for modern standards. Major additions and improvements include:
- 🚀 New Modes: Quick Play, Learning Mode, and Game Mode
- 🎛️ Customizable Settings for accessibility and experience
- 🧩 Expanded Gameplay Logic, accessibility services, and hints system
z.Mantra is now a standalone, robust, and modern educational game built from the ground up with inclusivity as its core.
- 🎧 Fully accessible with TalkBack and custom AccessibilityService
- 📊 Real-world math via story-based problems
- 🧠 Multiple game modes – shake, tap, draw, touch, and more
- 🗣️ Text-to-Speech (TTS) powered guidance and instructions
- 🧩 Quick Play for short sessions and practice
- 🎮 Game Mode with interactive activities
- 🎓 Learning Mode for deeper concept understanding
- ⚙️ Customizable settings: speech rate, language, difficulty, contrast, music volume
| Technology | Description |
|---|---|
| Kotlin (XML) | Core language with traditional Android XML layouts |
| MVVM Architecture | Decoupled, scalable, and testable app structure |
| Glide | Smooth loading of images and GIFs |
| Lottie | Beautiful animations using JSON-based vector graphics |
| Apache POI | Parsing Excel files for dynamic question and hint loading |
| exp4j | Lightweight math expression evaluation engine |
| TextToSpeech (TTS) | Provides spoken feedback and instructions to users |
| Custom AccessibilityService | Enables gesture control and TalkBack enhancements |
| ViewBinding | Safe and efficient view access from layouts |
| Espresso / JUnit / Mockito | Robust UI and unit testing support |
| Version Catalog (libs.*) | Modern dependency management in Gradle via libs.* |
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| Bell Ring | Shake the phone a number of times |
| Drum Play | Tap the screen to match numbers |
| Drawing | Sketch shapes on screen |
| Touch Count | Tap the screen to submit number answers |
| Stereo Sound | Identify numbers using audio in left/right ears |
| Number Line | Move a character on a visual/aural number line |
| MCQ | Audio-based multiple-choice questions |
| Compass Navigation | Rotate the phone to point North, South, etc. |
| Day Calculation | Identify future days from today |
| Mental Math | Timed arithmetic questions |
- 📱 Full TalkBack support across activities
- ✋ Haptic and auditory cues for feedback
- 👆 Custom gestures for visually impaired learners
- 🎨 High contrast Dark Mode for low-vision users
- 🧠 Simple, consistent layout for easy memory-based navigation
- Language: Switch between supported TTS languages
- Difficulty: Easy / Medium / Hard
- Music & TTS volume
- Speech rate
- Enable/disable background music
- Dark Mode
Here’s what’s planned for future releases:
- ✅ User-defined Questions: Allow users to import or create their own questions
- ⌨️ Custom Keyboard: Develop a large, accessible keyboard optimized for non-visual input
- 👥 Multiplayer Mode: Enable peer-to-peer or local multiplayer game sessions
- ✍️ Drawing Answer Recognition: Evaluate math answers drawn by the user
- 🧱 Tiler Frame Mode: Introduce a spatial reasoning mode for tactile visual learners
- Main branch: ✅ Stable
- Development: 🛠️ Ongoing with regular enhancements
- Beta testing: ✅ Welcomed — reach out via Issues
- Design & Development: Shadil A M
- Artwork, Documentation, Testing, Mentors: [To be added]
- Special thanks to all the testers, educators, and learners who shaped z.Mantra.
📘 "Mathematics is for everyone. With z.Mantra, we make sure it's also reachable."