eKitabu to scale ICT for education solutions for children with disabilities in Rwanda

All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development on March 29 announced three winners of its UnrestrICTed Challenge, a global competition seeking Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solutions grounded in Universal Design for Learning to improve literacy and learning for children with disabilities. eKitabu, Save the Children, and World Education will be collaborating with Disabled Persons Organization partners in Rwanda, Papua New Guinea, and Nepal, respectively, to scale and test ICT for education solutions, including accessible books, literacy learning apps, and teacher training resources, to improve literacy and learning for children who are deaf or hard of hearing, are blind or have low vision, or have intellectual or developmental disabilities. Children with disabilities remain among the most marginalized in terms of access to education, with an estimated 90 percent of children with disabilities globally not attending school. This challenge is further compounded by poverty, inaccessible environments, social isolation, and conflict and crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic. In October 2020, solvers and their DPO partners participated in virtual workshops to co-create forward-thinking ICT for education solutions that demonstrate the highest potential to improve language and literacy for children with disabilities in low-resource contexts.