In February, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), World Vision (WV), and the Australian Government, launched Round 2 of All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD), a competition that leverages science and technology to create and apply scalable solutions to improve literacy skills of early-grade learners in developing countries. One of the important focal areas of this competition round is attracting problem solvers from around the world to assist children with disabilities to learn to read.

We know that literacy leads to improved health, better education, greater employment opportunities, and more stable governments. But unfortunately, nearly 250 million children around the world are still unable to read or write. Through ACR GCD, we want to accelerate improvements of children’s reading in the early grades so they can succeed in school and have more opportunities as adults.

Round 2 seeks technology-based innovations in the following focus areas:

1. Mother tongue instruction and reading materials: Promoting the creation and delivery of reading materials in languages children speak and understand;
2. Family and community engagement: Providing technologies, approaches, and content to help families and communities in low-resource settings support early-grade literacy; and,
3. Children with disabilities: Enhancing early-grade reading outcomes for learners with disabilities.

It was especially important to the ACR GCD Partners to focus on children with disabilities. Global estimates suggest that the number of children, ages 0 –14 years, with a disability ranges between 93 million and 150 million, yet only between 1 to 3 percent of these children are in school.[1]  Of those who do attend school, the proportion that completes primary schooling is ten percentage points lower than children who do not have a disability, and fewer girls with disabilities attend school than boys.[2]

This is as a result of several issues which we hope innovations from ACR GCD will help address. Firstly, education systems may not be able to accommodate all children’s needs. Many schools are inaccessible for children with disabilities, either because of the building design, or because of existing policy or attitudes toward children with disabilities.  In addition, teachers, parents, siblings, other family members, schools, and communities all play an important role in improving reading for children with disabilities. However, barriers such as access, availability of materials, lack of teachers, teacher capacity, cultural attitudes, resources, data, and time often mean children with disabilities are left without many educational opportunities.

According to the World Health Organization, in many low income countries only 5–15 percent of the people who need assistive technology are able to obtain it.[3]  Education systems that lack equal access for all students, prevent students with disabilities from reading at their full potential.   

ACR GCD welcomes problem-solvers from everywhere, including: students, researchers, the private sector, startups, small businesses, and faith-based and civil society organizations to apply for the multiple grant and prize opportunities available throughout ACR GCD Round 2

Grant Competition

Applicants may submit Concept Notes until 14:00 EST, May 2, 2014 (extended).

The ACR GCD Partners seek applications focused on technology-based innovations to improve reading scores of students in early primary education (i.e. grades one to three). For the purposes of the grant competition RFA, the term “children with disabilities” applies to all children with disabilities, including those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various attitudinal and environmental barriers, hinders their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.[4]

Prize Competitions

Applicants may submit their software applications until 13:00 EST, October 1, 2014 (extended).

ACR GCD has also launched “Enabling Writers,” a $100,000 global prize competition to incentivize the development of software solutions that allow writers to easily create and export decodable and leveled fiction and non-fiction readers in mother tongue languages to help early primary students (i.e. grades one to three) learn to read.   Three innovators will be awarded $12,000 each and their software will be evaluated and tested in the field for these semi-finalists to compete for the $100,000 grand prize.

In Round 2, ACR GCD also anticipates launching a prize focused on technologies that enhance reading outcomes for children with disabilities, particularly children who are visually impaired.

For more information visit www.AllChildrenReading.org and follow @ReadingGCD on twitter.