Digital Inclusive Tool

In general, persons with autism have difficulties in terms of communication, interpersonal and behavioral relationships, and they can often also have cognitive disabilities. At school, these difficulties, as well as the difficulties of understanding, concentration and motor skills, create disadvantages for people with autism. Besides that, in most of the cases, the regular education is still not adequate to the specific needs of these persons.The lack of access to technological resources, digital materials and skills, as well as the scarce or even non-existent support for students with autism / neurodiversity in general, are problems that intensified during the confinement period. In that way, COVID-19 brought to the institutions' agenda the importance of the use of ICT for the field of inclusive education, as the inclusion of ICT in the development of the curriculum expands the opportunities for the learning process of these students (Autismo Sevilla, 2020).According to the recent diagnosis made by the different partners, as well as by a joint literature review, it was possible to verify that the social problem consists in the lack of preparation of the majority of teachers in the use of ICT tools in an autonomous and effective way (Inovar Autismo, 2020).As a way to mitigate this problem, the partners designed the project “Inclusive Digital Tool” (DiGiTool) which aims to train teachers (regular and special education), to work with autistic students, using ICT tools. Through this training, DiGiTool will also allow the training of students with autism to use these tools. For that, a new inclusive ICT approach in the scope of autism will designed and tested in Portugal, Spain and Italy. This new approach is essential to promote the communication, socialization and learning of these students, enhancing their school success. The project will train up to 90 teachers (up to 30 for each implementing country), trying to cover as many primary and secondary schools as possible in each country. After the end of the project, trained teachers in each school (focal points) will be encouraged by the implementing associations to replicate training sessions with their colleagues (at their school and others). The training will focus on inclusive ICTs, which are important for the teachers in order to learn and produce their own content as well as implement new teaching and assessment methodologies.The DiGiTool project will also have as a final product an inclusive ICT Multi-resource KIT, an user manual and an integrated app, materials that will be available for free download. These materials can be translated into several languages and disseminated at European level at the end of the project.The project consortium includes Inovar Autismo (coordinating and implementing entity), Diversamente ODV and Autismo Sevilla (implementing entities), CRID-IPLeiria and InterMediaKT (experts in the area of inclusive ICT), ISCTE-IUL (assessment) and Autism-Europe (dissemination).