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Zero Project Report 2020: Inclusive education. 75 Innovative Practices and 11 Innovative Policies from 54 countries

BUTCHER, Thomas
et al
January 2020

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There are several sections in this report:

  • Executive summary
  • Impact of the Zero Project: Survey results
  • Innovative policies and practices: Factsheets and life stories
  • The Zero Project Impact Transfer accelerator programme
  • An analysis of ICT supporting innovations in inclusive education
  • SDGs, Data and inclusive education
  • Summary of report in Easy Read. 

Themes were:

  • Early childhood and preschool
  • Formal education (primary and secondary education)
  • Universities (tertiary education)
  • Vocational education and training
  • Non-formal education
  • ICT-driven solutions related to education/digital skills

Global Disability Summit 2018 - Summary of commitments

August 2018

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The key objective of the Global Disability Summit was to deliver ambitious new global and national level commitments on disability inclusion. National governments and other organisations made 170 sets of commitments around the four central themes of the Summit (ensuring dignity and respect for all, inclusive education, routes to economic empowerment and harnessing technology and innovation), as well as the two cross-cutting themes (women and girls with disabilities and conflict and humanitarian contexts), and data disaggregation.

 

Commitments made can be viewed in full on: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/global-disability-summit-commitments

 

Global Disability Summit - commitments

August 2018

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A major outcome of the Global Disability Summit, July 2018, was the commitments of a large number of organisations to achieve the rights of people with disabilities in developing countires.

The commitments of each organisation are provided in the same format and are categorised by summit theme:

  1. Dignity and respect for all
  2. Inclusive Education
  3. Economic Empowerment
  4. Harnessing Technology and Innovation

Organisations making commitments are grouped in the following categories:

  • National Governments
  • Multilateral organisations
  • Private Sector organisations
  • Foundations
  • Civil society organisations
  • Research organisations
  • Other organisations

 

The disability data portal

July 2018

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The Disability Data Portal provides a snapshot of the data globally available on people with disabilities in 40 countries. The portal also identifies where there are gaps in the current body of data. 

The portal was designed for the Global Disability Summit, held on 24 July 2018, and focusses on data relating to four thematic areas: inclusive education, stigma and discrimination, technology and innovation, and economic empowerment. 

The portal presents key development indicators relevant to the Summit themes, mostly drawn from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), along with others relevant to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)

Enhancing reading abilities of learners with intellectual impairments through computer technology

MOSITO, Cina P.
WARNICK, Albert M.
ESAMBE, Emmanuel E.
2017

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Background: Developments in the teaching of children with disabilities support pedagogy that emphasises learners’ strengths as opposed to their assumed deficiencies. Educators and mediators who advocate this view continually strive for tools and methodologies that enhance learner participation in academic environments. Computer technology is one of the tools recognised for its potential to enrich learning experiences of learners with an intellectual impairment.


Objectives: We sought to assess the influence of text-to-speech stories on the reading ability of intellectually challenged learners.

 

Method: A qualitative action research study that involves learners at a special school in Cape Town, South Africa. Pre- and post-test data of the reading performance of learners are analysed with a focus on how they demonstrate change.

 

Results: Although no claims can be made about the explicit influence on reading performance, computer-assisted learning has the potential in isolating reading processes that classroom-based interventions can address. In addition, computers enhance motivation and enthusiasm to learn.

 

Conclusion: A need for education based on inclusion and positive differentiation remains the key driver in any educational interventions.

Accessible ICTs and personalized learning for students with disabilities : a dialogue among educators, industry, government and civil society

UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION (UNESCO)
2011

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"The use of technology in education plays a particularly vital role by enabling flexible curriculum development and assisting students with disabilities to participate as equals in the learning experience. The recommendations contained in this report target teachers, policy makers and administrators. The main recommendations centre on a number of core themes that include maximising the use of the myriad of accessibility features in mainstream ICTs such as personal computers, tablet PCs, mobile phones etc. already in use in classrooms; empowering students to learn their own preferences and settings when using technology for learning and removing attitudinal barriers to the use of technology for inclusive education, in particular those of teachers who may struggle with modern ICTs"
Collaborative Expert Meeting Report
UNESCO Headquarters, Paris
17 -18 November 2011

ICTs in education for people with disabilities

WATKINS, Amanda
TOKAREVA, Natalia
TURNER, Marcella
2011

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This is "a report presenting concrete examples of practice of the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) with people with disabilities in different educational contexts and settings. In particular, the review was targeted at considering examples of practice that can be considered to be ‘innovative’ within the specific educational setting and wider societal context they were situated within...The aims of this Practice Review are to use the collected examples in order to: highlight a range of different purposes for using ICT in education for people with disabilities, identify possible key messages for policy and practice in this area"

Accessible digital textbooks for all

UNICEF

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UNICEF and its partners are driving an innovative solution called Accessible Digital Textbooks for All, to make textbooks available, affordable and accessible for children with disabilities in all contexts. By adding specific features to digital formats and following Universal Design for Learning principles, textbooks can be made accessible to students who are blind or have low vision, to those who are deaf or hard of hearing, and to those who have intellectual, developmental or learning disabilities, among others. The initiative brings writers, publishers, teachers, organizations of persons with disabilities, technologists and ministry of education representatives together to develop the guidelines needed to produce textbooks in accessible digital formats. They jointly set standards for features like narration, sign language, interactivity and the audio description of images.

 

UNICEF is currently piloting the Accessible Digital Textbooks for All Initiative in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Uruguay throughout 2019, 2020 and into 2021. The goal of the pilots is to test and validate the process of creating quality accessible digital textbooks with the ministries of education and different stakeholders using curriculum-based content, and to measure the learning outcomes for children with and without disabilities using them.

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