Designing an Inclusive VET - Creating guidelines for accessible digital VET programmes for people with sensory impairment - DIVE

<< Background >>Digitalisation offers a lot of benefits – primarily, the growing variety of digital contents that are accessible virtually from every corner of the world. However, the limitations of this process are less obvious: due to missing equipment or poor Internet connection, technical arrangements or methodological/didactical design of online offers many population groups (incl. those with special needs) are left behind. This is true for various levels of education, incl. continuing VET and adult education. As a result, digital participation of persons with disabilities is lower than that of general population. Since the participation rate is relatively low, training institutions have little motivation to deepen their expertise on the topic and broaden the scope of their offers available to people with special needs. The project DIVE aimed to address this challenge by sensitizing the providers of CVET programmes and by equipping them with basic knowledge and competences needed to develop inclusive and barrier-free online offers. The increased number of digital offers geared towards the needs of people with sensory impairments should create more equal opportunities for their participation and raise their employability prospects. << Objectives >>The ultimate goal of DIVE project was to enhance the inclusiveness of digital training offers in continuing VET by providing recommendations and guidelines on design and delivery of barrier-free educational programmes for persons with sensory impairments (deaf persons). This goal was to be reached in several steps (by achieving the following objectives):- to explore the status quo of digital inclusiveness in continuing vocational education and training (C-VET) regarding persons with sensory impairments;- to test the collected insights/knowledge in real-life settings – that is, by conducting a pilot training with deaf persons; - to develop recommendations on organisation of bareer-free digital programmes taking into account technical, pedagogical and participative aspects. - to share the project results with a wide variety of actors and engage them in the discussion about the necessity to ensure equal access to training programmes.<< Implementation >>The achieve the goals set, the team of DIVE project implemented the following activities:- developed a concept of a survey with a relevant questionnaire to analyse the availability of digital training offers for persons with sensory impairments and identified a range of potential participants/respondents; - conducted a survey among European training providers and collected inputs from 21 trainings institutions in 9 countries on the status quo of digital inclusiveness in continuing VET;- based on the results of the survey and further research, DIVE team developed guidelines (booklet) on developing accessible digital programmes for persons with sensory impairments (specifically, deaf people);- carried out a pilot training for deaf persons on the topic of personal branding through social media; - held an online final conference in order to raise awareness about the development of inclusive training programmes in VET, present best practices (projects and institutions) and to share the results/lessons learned of the project. These activities were supported by consistent project management measures and regular dissemination efforts. << Results >>The following outputs were produced within the project: - A summary of the survey on availability of digital offers for persons with sensory impairments (in English). The report clearly demonstrates an urgent need to equip training institutions with the knowledge and skills needed to design and deliver accessible educational programmes. - A freely available booklet “Guidelines for accessible digital VET programs for people with sensory impairments” (in English and German) that contains tools and methods that can facilitate the participation of deaf people in digital trainings, good practices from Germany and Austria, and recommendations for the design of inclusive and barrier-free courses for deaf people.- Materials of the pilot training “Personal branding through social media” conducted in November 2023.- Materials of the final conference (presentations of key note speakers). Apart from that, through the dissemination activities (social media posts, mailings) more than 9000 persons in Germany, Austria and other European countries were sensitised towards the necessity to develop accessible and barrier-free training offers and the challenges that deaf people face when trying to access CVET programmes.