Profiles
Sophia Torres
Education Researcher (Digital Learning)
Sophia is a full time junior researcher within the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti working on the Accessible Digital Textbooks for All (ADT) initiative. Prior to joining the team, Sophia worked at Videnza Consultores on qualitative research applied to projects related to public management in health, education and social protection aiming to contribute to the optimization of public services delivered to the citizens in Peru. Among her experience, she has been part of the team elaborating the Situation Analysis of children’s rights and wellbeing (SitAn) of Peru in 2020 and others. Sophia holds a BA in Economics from Universidad del Pacifico in Lima – Peru.
Articles
Blog
Innovating for Inclusion: Testing Uruguay’s first Accessible Digital Textbook for children with and without disabilities
Children with disabilities are 49 per cent more likely to have never attended school compared to children without disabilities. Even when in school, children with disabilities still face unique and additional barriers to learning, including limited access to appropriate and accessible teaching and learning materials. New and innovative technologies can be catalytic to advance inclusion in education to ensure ALL children can access, participate and learn in school. The UNICEF-led Accessible Digital Textbooks (ADT) initiative, in collaboration with Ministries of Education and implementing partners, follows Universal Design of Learning (UDL) principles to design and produce accessible digital textbooks (ADTs) for children with and without disabilities, to ensure that all students can learn together. ADTs have accessibility features such as sign language videos, navigation support, voice over and image descriptions, subtitles and interactive UDL activities.