Why We Did This
In our first collaborative sessions as the Inclusive Literacy Alliance (ILA), we identified four priority areas for deeper exploration:
Training for providers to better support early literacy for children with developmental differences
Increasing parent and organizational awareness of accommodations
Expanding access to early literacy resources
Strengthening inter-agency learning and collaboration
Before designing solutions, we committed to listening. We recognized that to move forward effectively, we needed a clearer understanding of parents and caregivers' experiences, the current landscape of services and resources, barriers that prevent families from accessing literacy support, and gaps in training, collaboration, and awareness.
What We Did
Throughout Summer 2025, ILA volunteers partnered with First Steps Kent staff and facilitators to conduct primary community engagement.
We gathered insight from:
- Parents and caregivers to understand their experiences accessing literacy resources, navigating accommodations, and working with providers.
- Educators to explore training gaps, classroom challenges, and opportunities to strengthen inclusive literacy practices.
- Medical professionals to better understand referral pathways, ADA knowledge, and coordination with educational resources.
We conducted our own research using focus groups, interviews, online surveys, and community-based pop-up engagement.
What We Learned
Across stakeholder groups, several themes emerged:
Families often learn about resources informally rather than through coordinated systems.
Providers want more accessible, practical training on accommodations and inclusive literacy strategies.
Awareness of requirements and available accommodations varies significantly.
Collaboration across agencies has strong potential but needs more intentional structure.
Read the full summaries of our findings:
Voices from the Community
Struggles from parents:
- “I understand slowing down [interventions] in some areas but the parts that she still needs. And who can you talk to? The school says one thing and medical says another, and my daughter’s there, stuck in the middle, getting pulled both ways. She still needs support regardless”
- “My child is a gestalt-language learner, he was not able to learn phonetically but they repeatedly kept trying to teach him to learn phonetically even though he can very fluently sight read. It was very frustrating for him and did not support a love for reading.”
- “The process is hard to understand. Also, when you have a higher functioning child, they get overlooked for services.”
- “The view that because he behaves "properly" in school, that he does not need support.”
What parents wish providers and others know:
- I wish they knew that not all vision impairments are the same and require different needs.
- I wish providers understood that every child learns at a different pace, and patience makes a big difference.
- I wish more providers were patient and had enough empathy to tackle my kid's special needs. I wish they understood their struggles at those formative years. They're not refusing to learn, but rather unable to.
- Fun activities helps to boost his cognitive reasoning and behavior
- My child’s literacy develops best when reading, talking, and playing are woven into everyday life, not just formal lessons.
- The ability to recognize her potential
- How hands-on and tactile blind learners need to be
- Active participation in identifying appropriate methods of learning for children's individual differences and needs--tailoring to suit the child
- Providers need more education on deaf and hard-of-hearing kids in general.
- How to help build connections between what they are reading and actually comprehending the material
- That they need to exercise more patience.
- That my child reads just as well as any other student, but that may not be the case for every child with ASD.
- That all children are different. They may be good at something one day but struggle the next day.