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Accessible Digital Textbooks Initiative can be a powerful tool for engaging all learners through different formats.
This article was originally posted on unicef.org by Irene Sánchez, on September 30, 2024
Paro, September 2024. This is the crucial question for participants of the Accessible Digital Textbooks Initiative. The training was joined by national curriculum experts, SEN teachers, STEM officials and teachers, policy makers and UNICEF officials to discuss and propose ways to produce effective and user-friendly content when adapting digital textbooks, ensuring all children learn, including children with disabilities.
Coordinated by the Ministry of Education and Skills Development and supported by UNICEF, the workshop was held in Paro and facilitated by international experts who had experience of supporting over 10 countries around the world. The main objectives were to share and consolidate knowledge on producing content for children with visual, hearing, intellectual, developmental, and learning disabilities.
“When I first came to Wangsel, studying was difficult because tools like these (ADT) did not exist. ADT will be able to support students with disabilities. Looking at the materials, I can see how it will increase the interest of students with disabilities to study,” said Namgay Wangchuk, an instructor with disability at Wangsel Institute for the Deaf.
How do we make more learning content more accessible for all children? The Technology Adviser and Designer Consultant, Elias Constantopedos, from the Learning Innovation Hub in Finland, explained:
We blend universal design for learning principles with accessibility standards and inclusive testing. We test with all children, including children with disabilities and teachers.
For the curricula experts and technology team at the Ministry of Education, this is a significant challenge. It involves developing the distribution platform, reaching various audiences with the content, handling hosting, and training teachers. However, both experts are fully committed to overcoming these difficulties to ensure providing reassurances all students will be reached.
“This workshop helped us to understand better the design principles that can be incorporated based on the need of the child… Overall, we are optimistic” Tashi Zangpo from the Centre of School Curriculum Development in the Ministry or Education and Skills Development, said.
UNICEF experiences in Jamaica, Kenya, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Rwanda, Uganda, and Uruguay, among other countries have provided evidence that ADTs can be a powerful tool for engaging all learners through different formats. In other words, besides providing equal access to content, they can also become attractive tools for children and adolescents with and without disabilities to support learning together and in diverse ways.
“The Accessible Digital Textbook Initiative (ADT) is timely for Bhutan. We are here to support the national initiative to produce accessible digital content using their local ecosystem and local resources so that all children in school can learn alongside their peers with the same content”, Senior Advisor and Global Lead of the UNICEF ADT Initiative Julie de Barbeyrac said.
ADT may contribute “incentivizing out of school children to join schools in Bhutan”, Julie de Barbeyrac emphasized. This initiative, while supporting student learning, will also address the teaching methods and strengthen universal design for learning principles within the education system and with teaching strategies.
According to the report “Seen, Counted, Included: Using data to shed light on the well-being of children with disabilities” (UNICEF, New York, 2021), 64,431 children with disabilities aged 0 to 17 years live in South Asia. Thanks to the support of ELEVA foundation (UNICEF UK Natcom), the UNICEF Learning Innovation Hub is providing technical and technological assistance to two countries in the South Asia region, including Bhutan.