"The focus of this project is students who require some level of support or consideration to be fully included in HE. While HE organisations have a stated mission to be inclusive and accessible places, anecdotal evidence from both students and teachers suggests that this is not always the case. Furthermore, awareness of accessibility and support strategies can tend to be in ""silos"" of knowledge such as equality and diversity units, student support centres, student enabling centres, faculty representatives for diversity and inclusion. HE lecturers , already under pressure to transfer their teaching materials and methodologies from classroom-based to online within a short timescale, have often had to focus on online teaching which suits the majority of their students. They may not consider or take into account additional accessibility options unless they are formally asked to do so by an organisational policy or a student's specific request for accommodation. It is accepted that when students have to request accommodations in advance, they are already being penalised or excluded to an extent, since students who do not require those same accommodations can simply turn up to any lecture without notice and be able to participate fully. To build a really inclusive higher education system, therefore, lecturers would need to incorporate as many accessibility features as possible, *without* waiting for student requests. InclUDE therefore has three objectives:•Provide an easy way to search and access free and open tools for online accessibility. •Create a practical, step-by-step resource that guides lecturers through setting up online teaching sessions that are accessible to a wide range of students. •Create guidelines of considerations that can help lecturers to make their teaching scheduling and practice more inclusive. These objectives will be reached through the production of 3 intellectual outputs: •IO1: Web repository of existing digital access tools (e.g. online transcription tools, website visibility checks for users with sight loss…);•IO2: Guidelines for accessible online teaching – how to make teaching via e.g. Zoom or Teams accessible to specific groups, for example:D/deaf students; students with sight loss; autistic students; students with mental health issues; economically disadvantaged students with limited access to technology/wifi (including Roma);•IO3: Guidelines for inclusive online teaching – looking at considerations for teaching practice that don't fall under the category of legally mandated accommodations, but can facilitate attendance and participation for students with a range of challenges. The outputs respond directly to this call in that they focus on activities to support learners, teachers and trainers in adapting to online/ distance learning, while facilitating quality and inclusive education. The direct target groups addressed by this project are:•HE lecturers - the main beneficiaries of the objectives and outputs mentioned above; •students - who will benefit from lecturers using best practice in online teaching. Indirect target groups include:•HE managers and administrators;•teachers from other fields (e.g. schools, adult education, VET);•learners from other fields;•local councils and ministries of education; •other policyholders in the field of education; •disability support and service organisations.The project will be managed using the Waterfall methodology, which works well with strategic partnerships that have the budget and outputs agreed from the very beginning. This project addresses the need to gather the best practice discovered under stress during the spring 2020 lockdown, as well as through ongoing online teaching. It further addresses the need for lecturers to have quick, practical and clear resources that they can use at their convenience, and without taking a lot of time away from everything else they are involved in. It aims to ensure that students in a range of circumstances do not get left behind as online and blended learning becomes more prevalent."

<< Background >>In order to adapt educational processes to the challenges of the 21st century, schools need to rely on innovative and practical methods, involving students in challenging activities and combining new educational needs with existing educational curricula aimed at creating active, inclusive and responsible citizens. In order to put this approach forward, transversal skills need to be fostered in the school ecosystem to allow a more transdisciplinary, learner-centred and challenge-based approach. Therefore, teachers and school personnel need to reinforce the development of key competence. Also, clear guidelines need to be traced in order to allow more and more schools to use innovative education approaches to prepare students to participate fully in society and enter successfully in the labour market.Given these premises, through the BUSTA project, student’s actions have real life impact that reaches beyond the boundaries of the school, on the lives of people with disabilities. It’s general objective is to promote innovative framework possibilities for students, with real world impact through the integration of service animal training.They also get the opportunity to contrast and exchange their research and actions with partnering countries, to foster a stronger European citizenship by developing cross-curricular projects that enhance learners’ global competence. With the close guidance from the partnering therapy animal associations, we will set up 3 parallel collaborations: - BOS democratic school in Brussels (Belgium) with a therapy dog association (Dyadis),- The Maria Montessori school in Klaipeda (Lithuania) with a dolphin therapy association (Lithuanian Sea Museum)- And Community for Democratic Education school in Sofia (Bulgaria) with a therapy horse foundation (PQHF).<< Objectives >>General Objective (GO): to promote innovative framework possibilities for students, with real-world impact through the integration of therapy animal training.Specific Objectives (SOs):SO1: Empowering teachers to promote students’ talents through innovative pedagogy.SO2: Empowering teachers to promote students’ active real-world participation and inclusivity through awareness building and action and psycho-affective connection.SO3: Empowering students' capacity to develop curiosity, welcome challenges, and co-design creative solutions.SO4: Empowering students' capacity to use digital tools and content to exchange practices with partner schools, and to create valuable content online for the public.<< Implementation >>In a European project, it is important to generate and share new knowledge collaboratively; this is why we have created a partnership with different stakeholders that under normal circumstances would not exchange their knowledge : schools and therapy animal associations, from 3 different countries with different schools systems, whose experience will be contextually different but that will have many similarities. This will be done by awareness building activities for kids and staff in order to understand the context and the purpose of each animal training requirement, understanding the different disabilities that are targeted by each type of animal therapy, identifying the training needs for each partnership, having virtual student methodology exchanges, and trips to transfer the knowledge and experience acquired from each partnership, along with the methods of co-creating new animal training protocols ( professional trainers, students and teachers). As this is research experience based, the students will also co-create the documenting process through video, with the project result being a full documentary about the research process.<< Results >>Students will improve their confidence when approaching animals, their leadership and communication skills, and their feeling of being part of a larger European identity. The predicted skills acquired would be transforming awareness about disabilities, their rapport with animals, and their power of action. Through a challenge-based project, they become actors by designing practical training solutions with professionals that will have a real-life benefit for people with disabilities. They will develop skills in the documentation and communication of their research process for the general public. For students, the development of a set of lifelong skills to be transmitted to youths such as active citizenship, critical thinking, self-regulation, flexibility, empathy, communication, growth mindset, creativity, problem-solving, inclusivity, personal responsibility.All key competences will be triggered: cultural awareness and expression competence, entrepreneurship competence, citizenship competence, personal, social and learning to learn competence, digital competence, scientific reasoning through their process of investigation through context-specific methodologies, literacy competence through critical and constructive dialogue, and an interest in interaction amongst students from the different schools. Through the zoom meetings and having to navigate the language barrier with the tools at their disposal, they will also develop the awareness of the impact of language on others and the need to overcome the gap by using language in a clear, positive, and socially responsible manner.

Our modern European societies are characterised by diversity: diversity of social background, of origin, of language, of potential. While integration gives access to the mainstream education system, it expects the learner to fit into the existing mold, and doesn’t change the fundamental structure of the education system. In an inclusive education system, the framework changes to adapt to and welcome every learner, who is welcomed and valued as able to contribute to the learning environment. Moments of transition are always the most difficult for individuals - transition from daycare to school, from school to employment, and from specialised to mainstream environment. The latter is particularly difficult for all actors involved, from the learner him/herself to his/her family, the special school staff, the mainstream school staff as well as the authorities that have to overview such a transition. Effective inclusive education depends however from such a successful transition from specialised to mainstream education, and particular attention and efforts should be given to that make it as smooth and positive for all involved stakeholders. With a consortium omposed of seven service providers coming from Belgium, France, Finland, Austria and Portugal, the 'To Inclusive Education and BEYOND' project aims at providing tools just for that. Even with a legal framework supportive of inclusive education, it is often difficult to change the attitude and 'the way it was always done'. Service providers and special schools, with their expertise in supporting learners with special needs, have a key role to play to support an effective transition to inclusive education. The first step of the BEYOND project is therefore to develop a training which gives the theoretical and practical tools to service providers and special schools staff to be able to work with mainstream schools and other stakeholders to develop a more inclusive learning environment, such as the use of Universal Design for Learning. This in-person training will be tried and tested throughout the project to ensure the quality of the output, before being adapted to a Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) so that it can benefit as wide a range of professionals as possible throughout Europe. To complement this practical training, the consortium will develop study on the role of service providers in the transition towards inclusive education. This study will be a very strong tool to support policy reforms towards inclusive education. In line with the General Comment 4 on art 24 of the UNCRPD, it will provide tools to reform, adapt or improve support services and their collaboration with other stakeholders, and ultimately facilitate the transition towards inclusive education. Finally, the BEYOND project will develop a study on developing methodologies for an effective transition to inclusive education. Centred around the Coproduction methodology, the Output will look into the barriers, challenges and opportunities faced relevant stakeholders, such as academics, young people and their families, and how each can support the self-determination of pupils and the transition towards inclusive education. A report will be developed on how an effective network surrounding the student with special needs that include all the needed actor can facilitate the transition to inclusive education and empower support services as well as students and their families. This study will be crucial to support the development of effective methodologies that involve the whole environment surrounding the learning process and will give innovative tools to stakeholders that wish to improve their learning environment. The BEYOND consortium is confident these steps will support the work of teachers, support staff, authorities and other stakeholders in providing a more inclusive environment for the child's learning, and facilitate the movement beyond special schools to inclusive education throughout Europe.

"Pursuing the goal of Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to provide all persons with or without disabilities with equal rights and equal opportunities in education, the project consortium of 7 partners from DE, AT, FI , ES and BE (Landes-Caritasverband Bayern, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Pädagogische Hochschule Salzburg, Kehitysvammaisten Palvelusäätiö, Fundacio Espurna, Plataforma Educativa and European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities) and 10 primary or secondary schools in DE, AT, FI and ES cooperated to implement inclusion competences among staff and to transfer inclusion theory into practice in primary and secondary schools.For this purpose the project consortium developed a guide on how to start, steer and implement a school´s development towards inclusion on the basis of coaching processes that were implemented in the 10 pilot schools. The project also tested and developed 4 training modules on inclusion for school staff and families. The topics of the training modules are ""Together in a team - team work and inclusive education"", ""Family partnership"", ""Inclusive cultures in schools"" and ""Inclusive educational practices"".The training modules can be implemented in schools and in the further education system. They can also be adapted to the general teacher training system. Finally the project produced 6 video-clips to enhance the dissemination of the guide and the training modules. School staff members of the pilot schools participated in the coaching processes at their schools and in 2 short-term joint staff training events (40 participants for the staff trainings in total).The activities of the project consisted of 5 transnational meetings of the project consortium, in average 6 meetings of the national project teams in each country, 2 joint short-term staff training events, the coaching processes in the 10 pilot schools, the work on the project products and diverse dissemination activities on the local, regional, national and European level.The impact on the persons who were directly involved in the project (project staff, the staff and stakeholders of the pilot schools and the participants of the multiplying event) is: enhanced positive perception on inclusion in education, increased knowledge on inclusion in theory and visible steps made in practice towards inclusion. In consequence to the coaching processes the pilot schools made a significant development towards inclusive structures, processes and competences in their schools.The partners acting as stakeholders on the political, scientific or professional level gained a sound understanding of inclusion in education and a clear picture of how inclusion can be achieved in practice in schools and which conditions are necessary for that. They are now able to communicate clear recommendations related to systems, structures and conditions to other political and professional stakeholders. The project products are helpful means to respond to the qualification needs of educational staff in schools on inclusion. The partners use them for their training and educational programs. Using the multiplying events, the project website, the project newsletter, the national project teams and their influential position in general the partners were able to transport the project results to other stakeholders in the educational system. These stakeholders are now invited to adapt the guide and the training modules and to transfer them to their own practice."

<< Objectives >>EARLYBRAIN will provide parents and relatives of children with developmental disorders with specific knowledge and skills to promote the development of their children. EARLYBRAIN is characterized by a joint, transdisciplinary and coordinated action to understand the child from a biopsychosocial approach and to empower parents/caregivers. It will promote good practice exchange and raise awareness on the need of early childhood interventions in line with the Child Guarantee, UNCRC and UNCRPD.<< Implementation >>EARLYBRAIN activities will be framed in 2 WPs:- WP2 Development of Toolkit (D1): best practices selection, development of training resources, co-creation of tales and stories and guidelines for users, design and validation activities.- WP3 Policy recommendations (D2): including drafting and validation through workshops.In addition, results will be translated into English, Spanish, Italian and French, shared and promoted through different channels, ensuring their impact and sustainability.<< Results >>EARLYBRAIN will deliver 4 main results: 1. A Toolkit with training contents for adult relatives/caregivers, including best practices and illustrated tales and stories (D1).2. Policy recommendations to address early care (D2) aimed at raising awareness among policy and decision makers.3. Two events aimed at disseminating the Toolkit among adult relatives/caregivers in Spain (E1) and Italy (E2).4. An international Event (E3) in Belgium to foster the debate on the policy recommendations.