The project will start the practice of creating and using accessible textbooks and other printed materials (Daisy format) and materials in the project partner countries as an effective way to support challenged readers (dyslexia and other reading disabilities) and their teachers in their mainstream education. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) stipulates accessibility as one of its seven basic principles. It means that signatory countries of the Convention have to provide equal access to all students regardless of their disability to give them the same exposure to education and life as their peers have. Around 20% of student population have print disability - most of this number is reading disabled and around 1% visually impaired. Providing accessible learning materials is not only the human right and the way to limit social exclusion of print disabled people, it is also a way to let big intellectual potential of students bloom as print disability is not linked to general abilities of a person. Thus a person who is adequately and effectively helped at school can become a big contributor to societal needs and advance progress in many spheres of human activity like very many people with dyslexia have done before - let's mention here a few: Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs, Stephen Spielberg, Agatha Kristi and many, many more. Traditionally in the project countries textbook and other learning material accessible versions have not been produced – in the project proposal preparation we have not identified a single audio Daisy textbook. Plus to traditional lack of accessible study materials in the project countries the Covid-19 lockdowns and distance learning have shown that too many reading disabled students become disadvantaged as all distance learning contents is delivered in writing and they have to respond in writing which is very difficult if not impossible for them. Not to leave many students without key academic competences and waste intellectual and creative potential of students with print disabilities this project foresees to give schools, other public institutions and NGOs a capacity to create and apply accessible textbooks and other learning materials using Daisy methodology. Daisy integrates printed text with its audio - either human voice or machine voice (text-to-speech) read. Student can manipulate the printed text - to make it bigger, change font type and sizes, karaoke read the text (see it and listen to it simultaneously), navigate the text to find the necessary information. This project plans to achieve five goals: 1) To obtain and codify knowledge of creating accessible textbooks and learning materials using Daisy in the project partner countries and to scale this knowledge to at least 150 people and institutions involved in providing education; 2) To create 12-15 Daisy textbooks (copyright protected) and 20-30 learning materials (copyright free); 3) To establish a platform for safely storing these books according to the Marrakesh Treaty so they are made available only to eligible students and 4) To collect, codify and spread the best practice of using audio textbooks and other accessible learning materials in the classroom. 5) Create a set of guidelines for hosting materials so that publishers rights are respected and they are accessible to those who need them. If possible, some sample hosting will be done. All these goals are scalable – many other people and institutions will be able to use the competence and materials collected and codified in two manuals and training videos created during the project.
1. We wanted to create accessible multimedia school textbooks for students with dyslexia and other forms of print disabilities. 2. We wanted to learn how to create accessible texts for reading disabled students. 3. We wanted to collect and share the best practice in creating and using accessible textbooks and study materials for students with print disabilities. 4. We wanted to improve basic literacy skills of reading disabled students. 5. We wanted to lessen the stigma of having dyslexia in middle and secondary school students. 6. We wanted to help and inspire teachers to provide better education for students with dyslexia. 7. We wanted to teach tecahers to make their own accessible texts and study materials. 8. We wanted to demonstrate how effective and useful digital tools are for quality and equal education.
We wanted to create accessible textbooks and study materials for students with reading disabilties in the project partnership countries to compensate their reading struggles for better education and thus also for general quality of life as reading is the skill that impacts all walks of human life. OECD PISA data shows that a big bumber of general education 15-year old students are practically illeterate (8% in the UK, 11% in Latvia, 14% in Lithuani, 15% in Slovakia and 55% in North Macedonia) - they remain below Level 1a which is considered functional illiteracy. We add students with identified dyslexia who do not participate in the reasch we get at least 20% (around 65% in North Macedonia) reading disabaled school students in every partner country. While in the Western Europe and USA it is a standard practice to provide accessible textbooks to reading disabled students, in most post-soviet countries there is no education philosophy and provision to do that. We wanted to break this practice by producing high quality mutimedia textbooks for middle and high schools students and demonstrate how teachers can create accessible books and study materials themselves as our authorised institutions are too ignorant/indifferent to do it.