Meet the HEDforALL Project Coordinator
Dr. Konstantinos Papadopoulos (UOM)

Dr Konstantinos Papadopoulos is a full Professor in “Education of Individuals with Visual Impairments” at the Department of Educational and Social Policy of the University of Macedonia (https://www.uom.gr/en/kpapado). His PhD thesis concerned the Tactile Cartography and Tactile Maps for individuals with blindness. Dr. Papadopoulos has participated in 24 funded research projects. He was the project coordinator in 10 of them. His research interests focus on a range of vital subjects of education and rehabilitation of individuals with visual impairments, such as accessibility, assistive technology, tactile pictures and maps, audio-tactile material, orientation and mobility, spatial skills, adaptive behavior, social inclusion, social support, and transition assessment. Prof. Papadopoulos is the author or the co-author of 67 articles indexed in Scopus. Most articles are published in prestigious international scientific journals.

Three questions to Dr. Konstantinos Papadopoulos

What is the rationale behind the HEDforALL project?

“Today, accessibility to higher education is at the forefront of discussions at the international level and constitutes a key objective of policies that need to be implemented at the European level. However, in some cases, there is no accessibility to higher education or, when it exists, it is limited to specific fields and is not comprehensive. That is, it does not cover every case of a student with a disability and their every need. There is still a significant amount of work to be done, both at the level of research concerning the needs of students with disabilities and the staff of Higher Education Institutes, as well as in the development of skills for personnel to support holistic accessibility. This includes the production of any form of accessible educational material for every student with a disability.”

What is the overall aim of the project?

“The HEDforALL project aims at improving the inclusion of students with disabilities (i.e., visual, hearing, physical, mobility impairments and learning difficulties) in Higher Education Institutes and support academic personnel to develop digital competences in order to cope with the students’ needs on accessible resources and the shift to Digital Education (DE) and e-Learning. The ultimate aim of HEDforALL is the development of a set of educational material, development practices and DE/e-Learning methodologies for the implementation of digital education in higher education.”

How does HEDforALL plan to achieve its objectives?

“The HEDforALL project aims to achieve its objectives by:

1. Taking into consideration the findings of ongoing research conducted for the first time within the project’s framework.
2. Designing and developing educational materials that meet the needs of students with disabilities.
3. Evaluating the accessible educational materials to be developed.
4. Implementing training programs.
5. Establishing a repository of accessible educational materials.
6. Disseminating the findings to stakeholders.”