About

The Problem

Around 40% of people worldwide lack access to education in a language they understand; in some low- and middle-income countries, that figure reaches 90% (UNESCO). While excellent openly licensed textbooks exist, most are in English and scattered across platforms without curation. In response, UNESCO's 2024 Dubai Declaration on OER called for their translation into more languages.

Our Solution

We curate textbooks authored by credentialed experts and systematically translate them into major languages. We are building partnerships with ministries of education and universities to create editions customized to national curricula. Everything is available on this platform, for free.

Historical Precedents

UOTI is part of a long history of translation movements that expanded access to knowledge across languages. Those efforts were regional and manual; ours aims to be universal, using technology to achieve quality at scale.

• Abbasid Baghdad · 8th–10th c.

  Scholars supported by patrons translated Greek, Syriac, Persian, and Sanskrit works into Arabic, creating a shared scientific corpus that endured for centuries.

• Toledo School · 12th–13th c.

  Multilingual teams translated Arabic scientific and philosophical texts into Latin, helping bring core knowledge into European universities.

• Rangaku & Meiji Japan · 18th c.–1912

  Translation of foundational Western scientific works helped build modern technical vocabulary, universities, and industrial capacity.

Frequently Asked Questions