<< Objectives >>Digitalization of education can have many positive impacts on students and their learning success, but at the same time, it can also pose a major barrier for some students, especially for students with different disabilities or special needs. The project aims to improve inclusive digital capabilities of the higher education sector for enabling equal educational opportunities for all students, but especially for students with disabilities or special needs.<< Implementation >>In the project we are going to:- develop Self-evaluation tools for HE institutions and HE teachers to determine the inclusiveness of their digital education,- develop various microlearning units on Inclusive digital education for HE leaders and HE teachers,- collect and describe several good practices on Inclusive digital education,- develop an E-learning platform as a central knowledge point for Inclusive digital education and - organize International Conference on the topic.<< Results >>The project will:- develop Theoretical framework for Inclusive digital education,- provide several Open Educational Resources for HE institutions and HE teachers on the topic of Inclusive Digital Education,- promote the involvement of students with special needs and disabilities in the processes of building an Inclusive digital learning environment,- increase the capabilities of HE institutions and HE teachers for implementation of Inclusive digital education.

The Web is an increasingly important resource in many aspects of life: education, employment, government, commerce, health care, recreation, access to information and more. It is essential that the Web is accessible in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to persons with disabilities. An accessible Web (and mobile web) can also help people with disabilities more actively participate in society. Persons with disabilities in Europe are a significant group. Around 80 million people in the EU are affected by a disability. As the EU population ages, the figure is expected to increase to 120 million by 2020. It means that more and more people will have access needs. For them, equal integration into society, including digital access can be a real challenge. According to the EU Parliament, only one-third of the 761,000 EU public sector websites meet basic web accessibility standards. In its estimation, more than 167 million EU citizens have difficulty accessing public websites to use online public services. They also represent a huge market potential for businesses that use digital approaches what it can mean economic gains, as they can reach a larger customer base. Digital accessibility is becoming a must. The directive (EU) 2016/2102 on making the websites and mobile apps of public sector bodies more accessible have recently published (on 2 December 2016) and entered into force on 22 December 2016 (the Member States have until 23 September 2018 to transpose the text into their national legislation). The consortium consists of 6 partners from 4 EU countries, covering Southern, Middle and Northern Europe. All of the partners are from countries with a very low share of accessible web pages and almost not existing national/industry regulation of digital accessibility, where the training on digital accessibility is the most needed. Therefore it is important that website developers, designers, marketing and public relations people as well as managers and policymakers, have knowledge and skills for improving accessibility to disabled visitors of their websites / mobile apps. The aim of this project is to develop VET training modules and an Accessible web platform totally focused on digital accessibility to improve the knowledge, skills and competencies of key stakeholders according to web accessibility standards and in order to enable them to respond to the needs of visual, auditory, physical or cognitive disabled as well as older persons or low literacy website visitors/apps users, so they, in turn, are able to fully access and benefit from the digital era. The project aims to meet the following objectives: - create an ACCESSIBLE WEB PLATFORM - develop DIVERSE TRAINING MODULES - develop and implement CURRICULUM AND MATERIALS for trainers - increase the participation rate of disabled people in digital society - promote inclusion of disadvantaged groups in the labour market The training modules are to be embedded into the existing VET educational programmes to improve competencies of VET learners, students as future experts on one hand, and to improve competencies of already existing professionals in the professional field of websites/marketing, all that to contribute to more inclusion and equity in education and lifelong learning. Indirectly, VET trainers from all over Europe will be involved through the publication of modules as freely accessible materials of the modules. The project will also: - contribute to better access to training and qualifications for all, through making all materials accessible to all and freely downloaded from the web portal, - have an impact on the social inclusion of people with disabilities by promoting and encouraging learning about accessible webs and apps - strengthen the professional development of trainers, teachers. The project will improve the quality of training (initial education and continuing development), the quality of teachers, trainers and other professionals in the sector and will make courses more relevant to the labour market. Furthermore, the EU Added Value of the project is, on the one hand, provided by the ACCESS WEB PLATFORM, the enhancement of the new, updated, holistically approached to those people who want to learn accessibility of website/apps and on the other hand improved, intensive multidisciplinary modules for teachers but also for professionals and students in the field of Digital Accessibility, which will result, in the long term, in equally accessible for an increasing number of disabled people in Europe and in promoting employability in economically prospering, and necessary, sector of the digital economy. High-quality, certified and on European level recognised training will contribute to increased employability of people with disabilities. In the final stage, this type of education will contribute to the EU objective to ensure web accessibility for all.

"Diverse European works have highlighted the multiple forms of Work-Based Learning (WBL) organised in Europe and have developed recommendations in terms of key competences for trainers in WBL.However, despite a proven informal recognition of WBL, a persistent difficulty has been identified at the level of the recognition of learning outcomes. Indeed, although methodologies based on informal/non-formal learning have proved to be very relevant to enable low-skilled people to achieve efficient training pathways, the informal/non-formal character of these systems does not currently allow them to be certified.Therefore, the project ""Work-Based Learning Recognition (Reconnaître les Acquis en Formation par le Travail - RAFT"") aims to take part in the construction of evaluation systems that can support formalization of WBL evaluation with a view to certifying such skills while preserving the general informal context of training. Thus RAFT project aims to :- build a clear, precise and relevant reference framework; - develop an evaluation process consistent with the training process; - produce simple, concrete, objective observation tools;- produce simple, concrete and individualizable reporting tools.This new approach will enable people with low qualifications to highlight all their knowledge (knowledge, know-how, interpersonal skills, etc.). To do this, training and integration professionals will be equipped with RAFT resources namely, Assessment Reference Frameworks in the horticultural and catering sectors (O1), Guide on methods for assessing informal learning (O2), Quality Guide for recognition systems (O3) and Procedures manual for recognition/validation, including the production of Open Badges (O4). The Strategic Document for the recognition of informal/non-formal learning outcomes of low-skilled people (O5) will consolidate RAFT initiative by defining an implementation strategy for stakeholders, local decision-makers and sectoral actors.In total, nearly 30 trainers and 80 trainees in Europe are expected to test the developed tools.Thus, 8 partners from 6 European countries (AT, BE, FR, IT, LV, SL) will use their experience and expertise for 2 and a half years to develop and test RAFT tools with professionals and their trainees. From April 2023 onwards, all project outputs will be available free of charge in 6 languages (DE, EN, FR, IT, LV, SL) on RAFT website and Facebook page and on project partners' websites."

VET has a decisive role in the acquisition and certification of new competences in rural areas, which face multiple challenges and they are desperate for life saving solutions. AccessAngels teams up VET and sustainable tourism to entice the interest of the accessible tourism market. AccessAngels uses a package of personal assistance paid services (PAS), already offered to disabled tourists in major cities, adapts it and offers it as a free-of-charge package to those disabled who want to experience rural tourism. This proposition works as an enticement for the accessible tourists and may elevate the obstacle of the difficult living conditions of the rural areas.The AccessAngels project aims to meet the following objectives:- contribute to employability, economic growth and social cohesion through VET- offer to adults and young people the prospect of career opportunities through VET- promote inclusion of disadvantaged groups in the labour market- ensure the sustainability and excellence of vocational education and training.- use VET in support of sustainable development and in delivering social education to youth- provide rural tourism with a competitive advantage to attract the accessible travel market- contribute to rural economies- increase awareness of the disabled people needs in rural areas- foster active citizenship and volunteerism among the youth VET organisations, accessible travelers, rural youth and sustainable tourism authorities are the beneficiaries of this project. They are all represented in the project partnership. The direct participants will no less than 1650. The project will utilise ENAT’s network to involved accessible travelers in the baseline research and testing IO activities. The nine multiplier events will be attended by members of all target groups.The project will carry out research to determine what services to include to the PAS package for rural areas. The AA service will be managed by regional authorities and other stakeholders that could be interented, such as travel agencies, training companies. A second survey among the rural authorities will investigate their capacity to manage such service. The data gathered from the first survey will be utilised to form the definition of the service, and that of the results of the second survey will be processed to create an Operations Manual for the AA service. A training curriculum and the corresponding pedagogic material will be developed. Two trainers from each partner country will attend a 5-day train-the-trainer workshop to learn how to manage and support the AA service and how to train and coach the recruited volunteers to become AA.This project will introduce vocational education partnered with social education to service sustainable tourism.

FAST addresses a service need which is currently a key barrier to accessible travel. Personal Assistant Services (PAS) are often necessary to accessible travellers but expensive to have, primarily because they are controlled by travel agencies and the supply of such professionals is low.This project (FAST) will develop the definition of the individual who offers PAS to give more people the opportunity to become “Accessibility Travel Facilitators” (ATF). In this regard, FAST will first define the exact role and duties of the ATF under the new conditions and requirements. By clearly defining the role, the responsibilities and corresponding expectations will be set. Consequently, the definition of the position will identify the necessary qualifications, experience and educational requirements.As the occupational role of the ATF will be significant and key to the growth of accessible tourism, the project will design a qualifications framework for its profile to accredit the acquired skills by defining the level descriptors and the corresponding learning outcomes based on EQF. This will also facilitate access to, mobility and progression within education, training and career path. Furthermore, this will enable national qualification systems to expedite recognition of the acquired skills and competences, thereby ensuring an integrated system that encourages lifelong learning. FAST will then develop the necessary training framework comprising of the training methodology, training curricula and didactic material. Lastly, an Assessment Guide will be developed to address assessment strategies for the different stages of learning.The overall aims of the project are to:1.Define ATF as an occupation in accordance to EQF, thus establishing the basis for all European national qualification systems to licence it as a qualified job;2. Achieve ECVET/EQF/NQF conformity for the description of this position in order to allow mobility of learners, facilitate lifelong learning and qualifications recognition; 2.Encourage the local authorities to take control of this service, thus benefiting their local economies; 3.Motivate disable travellers to have more travel experiences without significant cost;4.Eliminate significant cost barriers associated with escorting for the disabled traveller;5.Foster transnational cooperation among the widest possible number of actors along the tourism value chain to better service accessible tourists;6.Demonstrate that VET education can contribute to the enhancement of accessible tourists’ travel experience;7.Stress the importance of VET education in improving the skills and competences of learners; 8.Establish safer land travel conditions for the disabled.The expected target groups will be:(1) VET Trainers: who are mostly engaged in non-formal VET education of learners in the tourism and hospitality sectors(2) Learners (future Accessibility Travel Facilitators): who will acquire new skills and competences and become the Accessibility Travel Facilitators(3) Local/Regional authorities: Want to implement new tourism policies and initiatives in order to increase influx of tourists to their destinations(4) VET Centres & stakeholders: VET who will strengthen their role and relationship with the tourism supply chain, specifically related to accessible tourism. (5) Tourism stakeholders: who want to claim greater market share from international accessible tourism (6) Tourism SMEs: Want to address new tourism markets and increase their sustainability outlook. (7) Accessible Travellers: want travel barriers to be eliminated in order to have more destination options.At least 460 members of the above target groups will participate in the various project activities.The impact on the various target groups will be:(1) VET Trainers: - benefit from their exposure to accessibility in tourism. - gain new skills, competences to offer accessible travellers an enhanced travel experience - be exposed to best practices and tools (2) Learners: - acquire new skills and competences –- be able to use a ready-made toolkit which will enhance their role in assisting accessible travellers (3) VET Centres & stakeholders: - strengthen VET role and relationship with the tourism supply chain- exploit the learning outcomes to launch EQF aligned certification programmes.(4) Partners: - identify opportunities by offering consultation and VET based courses to local/regional authorities to improve their accessible tourism services.(5) European business community: - gain competitive advantage over international competition in servicing accessible travellers (6) Accessible Travellers: - elimination of an important barrier to travelling - added quality assurance of a properly trained individual. - use of a trusted serviceFAST offers the basis for local/regional tourist authorities to launch a service that will differentiate their destinations from competition.