Assistivity Study participant
“As someone who's not tech-savvy, I appreciated using my voice over typing because the latter took a lot longer.”
84% faster than typing in Word
Nursing student · chronic concussion
Vanderbilt
Task
comparing population means
Phoenix: Remove the physical barriers in STEM equations.
Phoenix is a voice-powered equation workspace that removes the friction of writing equations. Instead of clicking through menus, searching for symbols, or wrestling with traditional equation editors, students simply speak naturally while remaining in control of every step of their work.
Built for universities committed to accessible, independent STEM education
Phoenix integrates directly into how students already work, so disability services can scale support without scaling staff.
Increase student independence
Students complete STEM coursework on their own, without relying on scribes or constant one-on-one support.
Reduce accommodation burden
Fewer support hours needed for math-heavy courses, freeing disability services to focus where it matters most.
Remove physical barriers to mathematics
Voice input eliminates the typing and handwriting fatigue that keeps students from engaging with equations.
Pilot-ready for universities
Easy to deploy alongside existing disability services workflows, no IT overhaul required.
Every Minute Spent Fighting Software Is Time Not Spent Learning.
Phoenix removed the mechanical barriers of equation entry. In a controlled study, every participant completed mathematical authoring tasks faster than with Microsoft Word.
24 / 24 participants finished faster with Phoenix than with Word
1.76× faster than Microsoft Word
145s average time saved per equation vs. Word
Traditional editors
Traditional equation editors require repeated clicking, searching, and navigating menus for nearly every symbol.
With Phoenix
Phoenix lets students express mathematics naturally by voice, preserving their focus on problem solving instead of software.
Why Universities Choose Phoenix
Student independence
Students author their own equations instead of relying on another person.
Cognitive flow
Reduce friction from typical equation editors through voice commands like "done" or "new line".
Accessibility
Support students with disability or temporary injury by dictating and editing equations with voice.
Real Student Experiences
Who We Are
Assistivity builds assistive technology for STEM education, shaped by lived experience and validated through research. Our mission is to remove the physical barriers that keep students from engaging with mathematics.
Grounded in lived experience
Phoenix emerged from co-founders who navigated STEM with chronic pain and fine motor limitations. We build for needs we understand firsthand.
Validated through research
Design decisions are tested against real student workflows. Our controlled study showed every participant completed tasks faster with Phoenix than with Word.
Designed for independence
Accessibility means autonomy. Phoenix lets students complete coursework on their own, without relying on scribes or constant one-on-one support.
Phoenix, our voice-powered equation workspace, helps students write and solve math without fatigue. For a deeper dive into how it works, explore our published research.
The Team
Priscilla Zhang
Co-Founder & CEO
Priscilla leads product strategy, user research, and institutional partnerships. Drawing from her lived experience navigating STEM with chronic wrist pain, she ensures Phoenix is built around the real needs of students with disabilities.
Ryan Paul
Co-Founder & CPO
Ryan leads UX and product design, applying expertise in Computer Science and Human-Computer Interaction to build accessible, intuitive workflows. He translates user needs into thoughtful interfaces that make creating mathematical equations faster and easier.
FAQ
Assistivity is an accessibility focused platform dedicated to making math/STEM learning and engagement more inclusive. Our first software, Phoenix, is a voice-powered math/STEM transcriber. It lets you speak math/STEM equations out loud, automatically generated accurate notation, and even allows equation editing by voice.
Phoenix listens to how you naturally talk about math, understands the context, and turns it into correct, editable equations on the screen.
To learn more about the research behind Phoenix, see our published paper.
Phoenix goes beyond current voice-powered math tools by:
- Accurately transcribing advanced notation (integrals, statistics, physics, chemistry, Greek letters).
- Supporting natural voice editing and LaTeX commands (e.g., say “change the plus to minus” or “factor the quadratic”).
- Using context-aware detection to filter out casual English, only transcribing the math (e.g., in “I was talking to my friend about 2x+5,” only
2x+5is captured).
Phoenix currently works best on Google Chrome (desktop/laptop, Windows or macOS). We’re actively developing support for additional browsers and mobile devices (iPad, iPhone, Android)
Yes, Phoenix is free to use! Each equation generation requires computing resources, so if you’d like to help us continue improving Phoenix, consider supporting our work: here
Phoenix is designed for students and professionals with fine motor disabilities, repetitive strain injuries or chronic pain. But it’s also for anyone who wants a faster, hands-free way to complete math/STEM work. By dictating equations and copying them over to Microsoft Word or LaTeX, users save time and reduce the frustration accompanying writing or typing.
Phoenix was created by co-founders Kenny and Ryan, specialists in assistive technology, and Priscilla, who experienced the limitations of existing voice-powered math tools due to chronic bilateral wrist pain. Together, they built Phoenix to overcome those barriers and to empower anyone facing disabilities, injuries, or the constraints of current math tools.
You can reach out to us anytime by filling out our support form here.
We’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
Removes Barriers. Not Answers.
Traditional AI assistants generate answers through conversation. Phoenix simply gives students a faster, more accessible way to express their own mathematical thinking.
Students stay in control of every equation, calculation, and decision.