A worldwide online library of good practices in Inclusive Education

DIVERSA serves as a "resource bank" on inclusive education for educators, policy makers and other stakeholders. The website includes disability data, policies, and strategies as well as stories and articles. Although it is available in Portuguese only, DIVERSA has had users from more than 100 countries.

The Rodrigo Mendes Institute (IRM) is an NGO founded in 1994 in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, which aims to improve access to quality education for children with disabilities. In 2011, it started a web portal called DIVERSA (www.diversa.org.br) with the support of the Brazilian Ministry of Education. The website serves as a resource bank on Inclusive Education for educators, policy makers, professionals, and families of children with disabilities in Brazil. DIVERSA offers more than 140 articles and almost 300 practices and solutions. Although the site is available in Portuguese only, DIVERSA has had users from 110 countries since 2011.

Problems Targeted

Due to a lack of knowledge, resources, and information about best practices, Brazilian teachers and educators face a significant challenge providing Inclusive Education.

Solution, Innovation and Impact

DIVERSA’s goal is to support educational networks in serving students with disabilities in mainstream schools. The website includes disability data, policies, and strategies as well as stories and articles. Since 2009, DIVERSA has published 145 articles; and there are case studies from Brazil and other countries, including Argentina, Denmark, France, and the United States. All of DIVERSA’s online content is compliant with the accessibility standards of the World Wide Web Consortium, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and e-Mag, which is the accessibility standard of the Brazilian Government. The online forum is a space where people working in the area of Inclusive Education and disability can exchange ideas and information and also post queries, if any. In addition, there is a possibility to gain knowledge through face-to-face meetings with partners in education facilities that promote dialogues about difficulties faced by educators in mainstream schools. Launched in 2011, the platform has grown to 2 million users from 110 countries.

Funding, Outlook and Transferability

DIVERSA receives funding from private sector companies, such as IBM and J.P. Morgan, among others. The Rodrigo Mendes Institute has also created an endowment fund to further contribute to DIVERSA. Other education platforms, such as Nova Escola and Porvir, have replicated the content of DIVERSA, though there are copyright and creative commons license issues when using the DIVERSA content. Notably, UNICEF and the Government of Angola hired the Rodrigo Mendes Institute to help create a national policy on Inclusive Education, which was finalized and implemented in 2017.

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