About the event
UNESCO IITE, in cooperation with the International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA), hosts a webinar ‘Digital Technologies for Disability Inclusion: All Learners on Equal Terms’ on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (3 December).
This event is part of the UNESCO IITE flagship webinar series “Harnessing Technology to Transform Education”.
Background and Rationale
An ‘inclusive and equitable’ education lies at the core of the holistic SDG4. While the latter envisions inclusive education as encompassing all children, youth and adults, such education has historically been associated with, and often conceptualized as, education for persons with disabilities. The struggle of people with disabilities has therefore shaped the understanding of inclusion (2020 GEM Report, UNESCO, 2020).
UNESCO is convinced that ICTs can help mitigate the digital divide and foster the inclusion of persons with disabilities within an educational context as well as within society as a whole. Inclusive and accessible ICTs can be used to address the needs of persons with a variety of disabilities, to the extent that they encourage personalized lifelong learning, employment and social participation (From Exclusion to Empowerment: Role of ICTs for Persons with Disabilities, UNESCO, 2014/22).
Purpose of the webinar
The webinar will provide a platform for concerned stakeholders: professional individuals and expert organizations, to highlight and discuss disability-inclusive and accessibility-driven technological improvements in education. During the online session the participants will
- introduce innovative and discuss existing (working) means to enhance and support inclusion through viable and sustainable use of digital technologies and pedagogical practices in education;
- Identify the urgent needs and both existing and untapped opportunities, and present well-informed, high-impact proposals related to the use of disability-sensitive technological solutions across diverse educational settings;
- share organizational best practices and personal professional contributions towards boosting inclusivity and quality of regional/national/local education through the meaningful use of available digital technology and application of innovative teaching practices;
- discuss the benefits and pitfalls of rapid technology integration in the education and socialization of persons with disabilities and special learning needs across various contexts.
Target Audience
Practicing educators and academia; line government officials (e.g. MoE experts), representatives of key development partners, international and local NGOs whose professional and personal concerns embrace issues of accessibility and equitable learning opportunities, inclusive and special needs education, teacher training and curriculum design, technological social responsibility, experts from associated government institutions, representatives of welfare/charity organizations.
Date and time
Monday, December 4, 2023, 16:00 – 17:30 (GMT+3/UTC +3) / 14:00 – 15:30 (CET/UTC +1).
Platform
Webinar will take place on Zoom platform and will be available in English.