Created by Sofia Lytvinenko, Polina Lysenko, Mirra Volnianska, Ilaria Solyona, Karina Kukhar, Adriana Lermontova, and Anastasiia Batyuk, Curious Ears is an inclusive audio project: a series of popular-science audio stories that help children aged 5 and up explore the world through sound.
Why it matters
Childhood blindness consistently ranks fourth among the leading causes of childhood disability in Ukraine. Yet the 47,610 children with special educational needs in Ukraine have few accessible learning materials to choose from. Most children’s audio is fairy tales, and educational content doesn’t always hold a child’s attention.
How it works
Every story is a new adventure of the Vukhastyky — the “big-eared” characters who share one world. In the first story, Sounds of Nature, a Vukhastyk travels through the forest, hears the sounds around it, and explores with the child how those sounds are made. Children listen, explore, interact — and keep discovering. Accessibility is built in from the first day, not added later.
What’s next
The team is producing three original stories of 8–12 minutes each, 25–35 minutes of audio in all, and a simple online platform with an audio player. The stories are tested first with a small group of children and then with 15 to 40, with feedback from parents, teachers, and specialists at Ukraine’s inclusive resource centers. From there, Curious Ears aims to grow into themed science audio series for children with different learning needs.