Accessibility and Inclusion
Ensuring children’s voices can be heard from any part of the world
For children who are differently abled, lack of access to education, exclusion from the workforce, and other factors related to their marginalization make them much more likely to fall into poverty.
For UNICEF, accessible technologies can make a difference in closing the education gap, create more opportunities for socialization and inclusion, support employment and reduce stigma for children who are differently abled.
UNICEF is investing in education and communication technologies to identify scalable solutions for children who are differently abled and ensure their needs are being met by the accessible technology market affordably and sustainably.
UNICEF’s accessibility portfolio which includes a universal textbook and a set of technologies for communication (augmentative and alternative communication), support children of all abilities to learn through universally designed learning materials, and applications which provide them with the tools to express their ideas, thoughts, and needs.
UNICEF is supporting solutions that:
- Are context specific and available in multiple languages (particularly for minority groups)
- Are culturally appropriate and represent the environment of the child with familiar images, symbols and concepts
- Support children with complex communication needs supplement or replace existing speech, writing or nonverbal communication to express ideas, thoughts, and needs
- Provide scaffolding to improve the vocabulary and literacy of children who are differently abled
- Innovation Fund Graduate eKitabu move to final round of Sign On For Literacy prize competition held by All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD)
- Making Technology Work for Everyone: Interview with Disability Activist and Entrepreneur Fred Ouko
- GlobalSymbols.com: UNICEF Innovation Fund’s work on open symbol sets for greater communication
- Making Digital Learning Accessible For All Children in Kenya: Reflections from UNICEF Kenya on a universal textbook
- Accessibility Cohort Gathering: Companies work together to build an accessibility ecosystem
“The Accessibility and Inclusion portfolio supports communication and education technologies for children who are differently abled. This set of investments from Kenya, China, Argentina and India are improving literacy, reducing stigma, and providing a voice for children who are often unheard. ”
