We are using cookies to give a better service experience. By using our services you agree to use cookies. Read more

Accept
Reject
All articles
search
clear

EKUI

location_on Portugal

For a world with no barriers in learning and communication

What do have in common 1.7 M people in Portugal? And how many in the world? They used to leave school without being able to read, write or communicate. This is still the same as branding them for unsuccess in school and life. EKUI has found a game changer solution: a universal drawing methodology to learn, accessible to every child, leaving no one behind. Join us for a more inclusive education!

HundrED 2023
play_arrow

Overview

HundrED has selected this innovation to

HundrED Global Collection 2023

Web presence

2003

Established

113K

Children/users

11

Countries
Target group
All
Submitted
April 2020
EKUI has allowed many children to reach our world through their own world, without stop being who they are. You can't be included without being able to read or communicate. EKUI taught us that.

About the innovation

Why did you create this innovation?

650 million people worldwide face some “barriers” in their daily lives preventing them from learning and communicating through reading, writing, or speaking. In Portugal we talk about 1.7 million of people. I believe that all children should have equal learning opportunities and communicate without barriers, in a lesser restrictive environment. Only then we’ll have a more inclusive education.

How does your innovation work in practice?

EKUI is a Universal Design methodology for learning the alphabet. It uses visual cues (the alphabet of the Sign Language), phono articulatory cues (alphabet of sounds) and sensory cues (Braille) to enhance the learning and communication of all students, not leaving anyone behind. It is therefore more inclusive and accessible to everyone. To materialize the methodology, we use a set of 26 letters with the letters of the alphabet in physical version and app. Each letter has the handwritten letters with the respective grapheme and: The tactile and visual braille letter, the alphabet of the Sign Language (LGP), and the phonetic alphabet (children of speech).We train parents and professionals to implement the methodology. Afterwards, we provide mentoring to teachers in schools (online) and evaluate the impact through university-validated questionnaires.
EKUI focuses on an upstream and proactive attitude, promoting a methodology to solve problems before the symptoms start appearing.

How has it been spreading?

After 5 years of dissemination, in 2020, EKUI reached 353 student classes all over Portugal. We reached 11.225 children and teenagers from 310 cities within Portugal, and 12 in the world. We trained 5606 parents, educators, teachers and therapists. In this moment, we are a community of 113.453 persons, including some migrant and emigrant communities.
We are scaling through a digital platform (in Portuguese and English), where we have provided training and materials with universal design, an App and a manual of use of the EKUI methodology.
We want to continue to deliver EKUI in more schools in Portugal and in the world!

If I want to try it, what should I do?

Go to the platform. Impact evaluation, have shown that professionals implementing the EKUI methodology, change their teaching practices. Consequently, we’ve observed that children have increased letter learning abilities, development of phonetic skills and improved inclusive attitudes.EKUI has been considered as a great inclusive, efficient tool for families, teachers and therapists.

Impact & scalability

HundrED Academy Reviews
I love the acronym EKUI – Equity, Knowledge, Universality and Inclusion which stands for what education is all about. This method created to help people read and communicate has the indisputable potencial to succeed around the world.
EKUI clearly spearheads inclusion in the space of education. This innovation is not only breaking barriers that exist for some children in their journeys of learning but most importantly opens their eyes to various ways/mediums one can learn!
- Academy member
Academy review results
High Impact
Low Scalability
High Impact
High Scalability
Low Impact
Low Scalability
Low Impact
High Scalability
Read more about our selection process

Spread of the innovation

loading map...