INCLUSIVE UNIVERSITY DIGITAL EDUCATION: LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE COVI...

The project "Inclusive University Digital Education" (InclUDE; 2021-2022) intends to facilitate the process of making digital education as accessible as possible. Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, under the Digital Education Readiness call released in response to the COVID‑19 pandemic and global lockdown, InclUDE aims to identify tools and best practice for higher education lecturers to make their online teaching more accessible and inclusive to a wide range of students. Within the framework of the project, the four partners from Austria, Belgium, France and the UK will identify problems, both of a technical and a social nature and propose respective solutions.

In Phase 1 of the project, a survey was distributed to higher education staff, students, social service providers and policy makers to identify baseline familiarity with accessibility tools and gaps in knowledge or provision. Most of the responses came from Austria (54%), France (31%) and the UK (9%). Findings from Phase 1 indicate that over half of the participants were not using any online accessibility tools, with around a third of them citing limited knowledge of how to use such tools as a barrier. This problem will be addressed by InclUDE's Online Repository, where interested parties can look up free accessibility tools.

In the current Phase 2, additional surveys are being distributed to higher education staff, students, and policy makers, and being followed by focus groups and interviews. The Phase 2 surveys focus on two topics. First, best practice in and barriers to accessible online teaching, from a technical perspective. Second, how the student experience during online teaching can be affected by a range of non-technical aspects, such as unsuitable workspaces, isolation or commitments outside of study.

In Phase 3, the results of the Phase 2 surveys will lead to recommendations for improved digital inclusion, in the form of two sets of guidelines, with the same focus as the Phase 2 surveys.