EdVisually is short for Educating Visually. The concept was coined by authors, Sarah Jane Edward-Sebeni and Vidya Sudarsan, to promote visual education of academic and non-academic subjects to neurodivergent learners. It emerged from the need to free education from being primarily textual and static, to making it more visual and dynamic through the use of real-life photo images, diagrams, illustrations, videos, animations, and visual interaction. It is becoming a proven fact that a dynamic visual mode of learning transfers higher information to a learner, than a textually static one.
“Research has found that “65 percent of the general population are visual learners, meaning they need to see information in order to retain it.”
Neurodivergent learners are highly visual, and processing information delivered to them visually, is vital to comprehending and making connections to analyze the world around them. Our nonprofit emerged to meet this need to provide visual learning resources for neurodivergent learners, especially those on the autism spectrum who absorb information almost entirely visually. It is our primary goal to meet the inadequate supply of visually-driven educational resources that are available, by creating augmented instruction for those with learning challenges.
In the field of education, information and knowledge has long been delivered predominantly through the medium of black and white printed text form. However, with the evolution of print media, students began to absorb information at lightning speed, as they went one step further in soaking up concepts visually via charts, illustrations, and diagrams. Then dawned the era of photographs. However, the volume circulated in textbooks has been proportionately low. That’s where EdVisually comes in. We are on a mission to transform academic subject material and deliver content with highly visual, colorful, and graphic photographs that are visually appealing in teaching and retaining information .
Since the dawn of the internet age, we have never before been more rapidly ushered into newer ways of acquiring knowledge. The information highway of today has most societies swimming in a media-rich frenzy, while learning in the classroom has somewhat remained the same, particularly, through the textbook medium. EdVisually believes it is time to bring about a change in this system of delivery method. We want to make the books students learn from, and other modes of learning, less textual, to be more dynamic, more interactive, more interesting, and needless to say, more visually engaging. With projectors and smart boards gradually replacing every blackboard, and even whiteboards in classrooms around the world, it is our hope to see a transformation take place in the way curriculum is delivered to students in the generations to come.
To be successful, visual learners require knowledge and concepts to be delivered in more than one format, so delivery on an online learning platform is our next big focus. EdVisually has been working tirelessly over the years to evolve in its approach to bring newer modes of instructional delivery using educational technology. It is a joy to see our vision finally come to reality as we strive to fulfill our mission to empower independence in every neurodivergent learner in our communities.
We are excited to announce the launch of our latest project, EdVirtually, an online Virtual Learning Platform, that supports and promotes learning autonomy of the highest level. This online learning program is designed and tailored with a curriculum that supports all visual learners with highly engaging and interesting content. It will instruct based on their identified learning gaps during their needs assessment according to their comprehension level, and will track student progress regularly.
Last but not least, our ultimate vision for how information is visually consumed, is to integrate next generation tools such as AR/VR technology into our platform, which is one of the best means to deliver augmented visual learning. This is where we see ourselves expand and evolve, as we leap into the future of educating and preparing the next generations for success.
We appeal to you to support us in any form toward this important social cause. Everyone, regardless of their learning style, deserves fair and equal access to a quality medium of education.
Let’s make a difference, and let’s make this happen together!
–Sarah Jane Edward-Sebeni
Co-Founder & CEO,
Edvisually For Autism and Beyond
Our NPO Mission
EdVisually for Autism and Beyond, is a nonprofit that was co-founded to serve Neurodiverse individuals in our communities to meet the fundamental need of fairly and equally accessing high quality educational tools and resources that support and meet the learning challenges neurodivergent learners face throughout our school systems globally today.
Our NPO’s mission is to be passionate advocates and supporters on issues pertaining to Autism, ADHD, and other Neurodivergent Learning Challenges, Mental Health, as well as support Neuro-diversity and Inclusion amongst the underserved, underrepresented and underprivileged in Education.
Our Objective
We create and deliver visual-based tools and resources that support learners who learn differently, especially those on the Autism spectrum, enabling their transition to be self-reliant and thrive independently in their community.The resources we create and provide such as hardcover and digital books, visual aids and apps, and our latest project which is our virtual learning platform will help, improve and support with language intervention and other communication and social skills amongst Neurodivergent Learners and even Neurotypical Learners.
Our Philosophy
Neurodivergent Learners such as those on the Autism Spectrum are extremely bright. However, they absorb knowledge and information differently. Many special needs classrooms lack essential learning resources that can deliver curriculum-driven knowledge on every academic subject that appeals to their curious minds. We’re on a mission to change that.
What We Do
We create and develop visual-based academic tools, resources and curriculum content that support Neurodivergent learners of all ages to enhance their learning and cognitive abilities. The end goal is for these learners to apply basic to extensive knowledge of a wide selection of life skills topics, academic and non-academic subjects areas in order to make connections with the world around them that help navigate them through their daily life, enabling their transition to be self-reliant and thrive independently in their community.
How Our Program works
EdVirtually,is an online Virtual Learning Platform that supports and promotes learning autonomy of the highest level. This program is designed and tailored with a curriculum that supports all visual learners with highly engaging and interesting content. It will instruct based on:
- A student’s identified Learning Gaps
- The student’s Needs Assessment
- The student’s comprehension level
- Track every student’s progress regularly
Our Action Plan
- We aim to Primarily create and provide learners on the autism spectrum with learning resources and tools such as hardcover and digital books, visual aids and apps to help with language intervention and other communication and social skills.
- Develop curriculum content that help learners of all learning styles to process information more easily. We do this by simplifying content with visuals that replace hard-to-process wordy texts found in many textbooks and learning resources. Our tools are visually engaging, interactive and practical to support learners in knowledge application to daily life.
- Educate visually in a variety of academic subject areas, particularly in the Sciences, as well as non-academic topics that teach social, problem-solving and life skills.
- Provide support to learners on the spectrum at all grade levels and enable them to pursue an education equal to mainstream learners up to the college level, and eventually become active participants in society.
- Advocate for and support the non-neurotypical young adult population with visual tools and resources that aid in their transitioning to be self-reliant and to thrive independently in their community.
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful baby girl. She came into this world with challenges that put her on the Autism Spectrum. Like all children, this little girl had the curiosity, zeal and enthusiasm to learn about anything and everything around her.
As she grew, her mother realized that there were limited resources available to teach her daughter certain subjects, particularly science and social studies, which she loved.
Her mother discovered that the tools accessible to her were not suitable for her eager learner since she was a highly visual learner. Her child soon began to make significant and rapid progress in learning about the world around her as her mother placed real life images in front of her in a sequential flow. Hence, the dawn of a new way of visually learning Science and everything else under the sun through real-life images!
