Accessible digital education: the importance of ADEDU project

The inclusion of people facing barriers in accessing education due to fewer opportunities, including learning disabilities, is one of the key points of the European Education Area, the Action plan on Integration and Inclusion 2021-2027, and is one of the European Pillar of Social Rights, which states “everyone has the right to quality and inclusive education, training and life-long learning” (pillar 1, 3 and 17 on Inclusion of people with disabilities). It is also in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations, the Implementation guidelines for Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps Inclusion and Diversity and the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education and the Support, Advanced Learning and Training Opportunities (SALTO) Inclusion and Diversity efforts and policy constant support on these topics.

Young people with learning disabilities are particularly at risk of early school leaving, and statistics show that fewer learners with disabilities complete a HE degree. There’s overall insufficient research on the specific needs of learners with different types of disabilities and the terminology needs to be standardised.

COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to address this topic, especially when providing training on digital skills, which by nature requires digital tools to be adopted at least partially. Usually, the topic is raised related to children to support schools and teachers in including students with disabilities and it is rare to find similar initiatives and dedicated support and educational programmes for adult learners.

The digital skills gap is one of the main actions in the European Commission’s work programme A Europe fit for the digital age, with an objective, within the funding period 2021-2027, to increase the percentage of citizens with basic digital skills from 56% in 2019 to 70% in 2025 (new European Skills Agenda and the Digital Education Action Plan). Finally, Europe’s Digital Decade sets the target for 2030 at 80%.

Supporting the inclusion of learners affected by learning disabilities, understanding diversity and embracing diversity in society, especially in education, is even more complex within the digital transition phases due to the impact on technology (e.g. accessible platforms and contents), educational methodologies (e.g. especially for educators) and digital skills of educators, showing the need of upskilling and strengthen educational organisations to effectively support the target audience.

The Accessible Digital EDUcation (ADEDU) project focuses on providing the same chances in life for independent living, contributing to reducing barriers to participating in society due to discrimination and tackling the digital skills gap of this target audience due to the lack of relevant skills to educators on providing training on digital skills. The ADEDU proposal aims at supporting educators, trainers and learning centres in upskilling and innovating their offers by including people affected by learning disabilities and facilitating digital transition and overall inclusion of excluded target audiences.