Seeing What We Mean

By Mark W.F. Condon, Unite for Literacy vice president

One of the joys of using innovative technology is discovering we can do things that we never thought possible. For example, our genius techies here at Unite for Literacy figured out how to make it possible to share our picture books with children who are deaf and hard of hearing. We believe that anything that creates access to picture books for a group of little ones is worth celebrating.

We have dozens of books in our digital library that are narrated in American Sign Language (ASL). These books extend our reach to the many children who use ASL in the U.S. and Canada, and there are many.

For some perspective, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data have shown that “…approximately 1 to 3 per 1,000 children have hearing loss. Other studies have shown rates from 2 to 5 per 1,000 children.”

According to the World Health Organization:

·      6.1% of the world’s population, 34 million of whom are children, are identified with hearing loss.

·      There are more than 300 different versions of deaf sign language. 

·      ASL is currently in use on four continents.

It is a long-term hope of Unite for Literacy to offer books written in every official language written around the globe—approximately 200 languages in all. We want to provide resources for every family to launch their children on a path to success in learning to read in the language of instruction used in their communities.

We also aspire to offer book narrations in every mother-tongue language; there are more than 7,000 worldwide. That dizzying number of languages will be gathered over time, through partnering with English+ bilingual individuals and groups.

To date, we offer books in U.S. English, Spanish and Ukrainian text. Many of our books have as many as 60 narrations.

All of this has been made possible by technological developments and via the good graces of bilingual speakers and signers committed to serving new readers in their home language communities.

That is the power of uniting for literacy.