Project – Objectives

Objectives

The HEDforALL project aims at improving the inclusion of SwD (i.e., visual, hearing, physical/mobility/ impairments and learning difficulties) in Higher Education Institutes (HEI) and support academic personnel to develop digital competences in order to cope with the SwD’s needs on accessible resources and the shift to digital education 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.

The project’ s specific objectives are:

To identify the needs and requirements of SwD for accessible materials regarding different subjects/courses taught in higher education and the needs revealed by distance education to SwD themselves.
To examine existing knowledge and experience of higher education teaching staff and accessibility advisors in relation to various forms of accessible materials and distance education practices for SwD in order to/and determine their training needs; to examine the impact of the training on their knowledge.
To build capacity and professional development for teaching staff and accessibility advisors that will enable them to develop accessible educational materials and DE methods for inclusive DE classes in order to provide SwD with meaningful, high-quality educational opportunities.
To develop the most suitable accessible educational materials for SwD in terms of accessibility, usability and educational efficacy and evaluate it in-depth through studies with end-users.
To develop training material for teaching staff and accessibility advisors (e.g., Accessible Material Guide, Educational YouTube videos, and Guide for DE programs), with a concrete set of practices and guidelines for accessible educational material production as well as for the implementation of DE programs to SwD.
To implement pilot accessible DE courses with SwD, and evaluate its accessibility adequacy and learning results.
To implement the first open and free online repository of accessible educational material of different subjects to be used by educators and any interested party.
To share project results at international level.