Audio Textbooks – Help for Challenged Readers and Their Teachers Erasmus Project

Project Title

Audio Textbooks – Help for Challenged Readers and Their Teachers

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Disabilities – special needs; Access for disadvantaged

Project Summary

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.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 162424 Eur

Project Coordinator

Latvijas Disleksijas biedriba & Country: LV

Project Partners

• DAISY Consortium
• Lietuvos akluju biblioteka
• Stredna priemyselna skola elektrotechnicka, Komenskeho 44, Kosice
• Joniškio r. Skaistgirio gimnazija
• ZDRUZENJE NA GRAGANI KREATOR KUMANOVO