Inclusive education: Accessible digital textbooks initiative

When we at UNICEF talk about creating inclusive learning spaces, we refer to the educational solutions that each school can propose (methodologies, teachers, accessibility of learning spaces and appropriate educational materials). Such approaches seek to avoid the creation of greater barriers in order to promote that wonderful process of skills, knowledge development and transformation that occurs in each child from their diversity.

We believe in an inclusive education that takes place in schools where children with and without disabilities can discover, learn, and play together.

In these inclusive spaces, both in the classroom and at home, Accessible Digital Textbooks (ADTs) are a key tool to meaningful interactions. When textbooks are only available in a printed and monolingual format, they can only reach some students, excluding many others that require reasonable accommodations or have different learning styles (visual, auditive, kinesthetic, verbal, etc.).

Since 2016, when digital textbooks following universal design for learning principles gained momentum, the experiences of Paraguay, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Uruguay, and Nicaragua allowed us to perceive ADTs as a powerful and positive tool to engage all students on an equal basis.

This UNICEF innovation goes beyond the creation of accessible textbooks. ADTs not only allow students with different learning styles to access the same content, participate in the same activities (in and out of the classroom), and have the same opportunities to achieve positive educational outcomes, they are engaging tools for learning more and in flexible ways. As one student stated, "they are open-minded tools."

This UNICEF innovation goes beyond the creation of accessible textbooks. ADTs not only allow students with different learning styles to access the same content, participate in the same activities (in and out of the classroom), and have the same opportunities to achieve positive educational outcomes, they are engaging tools for learning more and in flexible ways. As one student stated, "they are open-minded tools."

Since 2021, UNICEF's regional office for Latin America and the Caribbean has received the financial support of the UK's ELEVA foundation to work on expanding, scaling-up and deepening this project in the region. And since the initiative is considered an innovative effort, UNICEF's Office of Research-Innocenti is collaborating to generate evidence on learning for children with disabilities.