The development of a digital open textbook to support the inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream schools in South Africa and other African countries

Members of the Disability Studies in Inclusive Education open textbook team, Judith McKenzie, Jes Graham, Kofi Nseibo, Chantal Samuels and Michelle Willmers, gave an online presentation to the Rodrigo Mendes Institute (IRM) in Brazil on 22 June 2023 titled 'The development of a digital open textbook to support the inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream schools in South Africa and other African countries'.  

The presentation explains how, following development of accredited courses and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), the Including Disability in Education in Africa (IDEA) research unit decided that the materials developed in this process needed to be shared more widely. IDEA partnered with the Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) initiative in the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching at the University of Cape Town to develop an open online textbook that captures course contents and can be legally shared and adapted without restriction beyond the walls of the institution. 

The content development process was undertaken by the editors, with the production aspects (encompassing layout and proofreading) carried out in collaboration with DOT4D, which provided expert guidance on authorship, quality assurance and publishing approaches. The textbook design follows Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles, both in content offered and in the way in which it is presented.