UNIALL- Accessibility of Higher Education for Students with Special Needs Erasmus Project

Project Title

UNIALL- Accessibility of Higher Education for Students with Special Needs

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Disabilities – special needs; Access for disadvantaged

Project Summary

The UNIALL project “Accessibility of Higher Education for Students with Special Needs” was focused on developing a methodology and tools to ensure inclusive higher education, in line with the Erasmus + objective to support equality and inclusion of disadvantaged groups in the education process. The aim of the UNIALL project was to systematically develop, test and review effective methods to ensure comprehensive universal accessibility of the academic environment (including architectural, information and communication accessibility), in particular through student-centered methods and the provision of support and counseling services.

In line with the project’s objective to cover all aspects of universal accessibility of higher education, the partners with a variety of expertise have been involved in the project: (P1) The Center of Design for All (CEDA) at the Faculty of Architecture of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava is focused on inclusive design of educational environment ; (P2) Teiresiás – The Support Centre for Students with Special Needs at Masaryk University in Brno is aimed at the provision of support services and information and communication accessibility, including accessibility of study materials; (P3) The Association of Service Providers for Students with Special Needs in Higher Education (AP3SP) in the Czech Republic has several experts from support centres for students with special needs; (P4) The Department of Architecture at the University of Chieti-Pescara is focused on human-centered design and ergonomics, and is linked to the Italian national network of centers for the support of students with disabilities.

The main activities of the UNIALL project were focused on the realization of several outputs: (1) Monitoring and evaluating the current state of accessibility of the academic environment (including legislative and national documents) in the project partner countries; (2) Process of adapting psychometric tools to diagnose learning disabilities of students in higher education; (3) Creating the framework and reference material for national action plans to ensure inclusive higher education in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; (4) Creating the tools to improve support services for students with special needs – for example: on-line dictionary in sign language and virtual guide of the building accessibility; (5) Case studies of inclusive higher education in selected European countries; (6) Publication “Inclusive Higher Education”, which provides a comprehensive methodology for the creation of inclusive tertiary education.

The UNIALL project outputs and tools can help to ensure comprehensive access to the higher education and to increase the participation of students with special needs in higher education. Within the project, various tools have been developed to improve information and communication accessibility so that students with sensory impairments have access to information and study materials. Therefore, the UNIALL project also has an impact on enhancing digital integration and increasing the use of assistive technologies in education.

Effective learning through student-centered methods, tested within the UNIALL project, has an impact not only on students with special needs but also on other students, because these methods (e.g. Universal Design for Learning) provide more flexibility and adaptability to different requirements and the individual abilities of all students (taking into account their working pace, communication skills, preferred learning styles, etc.), thus increasing the effectiveness of the teaching of diverse groups of students.

The UNIALL project outputs help to raise awareness of the importance of inclusive higher education for students with special needs in order to facilitate their transition to the work process and at the same time to improve the ability of academic staff (including management of universities) to respect the diversity of students and their specific needs by providing adequate study support.

The significant impact of the UNIALL project is related to the creation of a framework and background for national action plans to ensure an accessible academic environment in cooperation with national authorities and stakeholders. Implementing action plans into national policies and legislative provisions so as to ensure inclusive higher education will have an overall societal benefit for individual European countries.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 243493,57 Eur

Project Coordinator

SLOVENSKA TECHNICKA UNIVERZITA V BRATISLAVE & Country: SK

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI GABRIELE D’ANNUNZIO DI CHIETI-PESCARA
• Masarykova univerzita
• Association of Service Providers for University Students with Special Needs