Knowledge exchange and networking
The project activities revolved around exchange within the network and the involvement of the partner members’ country representatives during the project activities and especially in two major meetings.
The ICT4IAL network worked with experts in education and ICT from across Europe, as well as those working with key international organisations to exchange and collect multi-disciplinary knowledge with regard to accessibility of information for learning. Through this exchange guidelines for organisations to improve their information accessibility have been developed.
Developing and Trialling of Practical Guidelines
The Guidelines developed within the first year of project activities were trialled within the work of three organisations (the Agency, EUN, IAU) working across the compulsory and higher education sectors with the support and direct input of key advisory bodies for ICT (DAISY, G3ict and UNESCO).
Reflection and Evaluation upon Implementation
The process of the trialling and implementing the Guidelines was closely monitored and evaluated in order to identify learning points that will be of use to other organisations considering future developments in this area of work.
Details of this implementation including the challenges and successful approaches to overcoming challenges within work processes were collected in a report to support organisations that aim to become more accessible: Making Your Organisation's Information Accessible for All.
Validation of Guidelines
During the complete duration of developing, trialling and evaluation, the Guidelines were given feedback on and were validated by the European and international country network members of the Agency, EUN and IAU, but also the global membership of UNESCO. This process ensured the usability, applicability and adaptability to varying contexts of the Guidelines for Accessible Information developed to support organisations in providing accessible information.
Dissemination and Exploitation of Results
Each ICT4IAL network partner is an established network. In addition to the ICT4IAL network sharing project information publicly, each organisation disseminated project outcomes and news within their respective networks and through their established channels.
All project outputs are shared in accessible formats. Special attention was given to making the project website as well as the actual project outputs a model of accessibility as well as offering outputs in up to 26 languages.
The ICT4IAL Dissemination and Exploitation report summarises all the activities carried out in order to disseminate key deliverables of the project.
The final Guidelines were launched as an open educational resource at an International Conference in Riga in 2015, which was an official event of the Latvian Presidency of the European Union. To ensure the sustainability of the Guidelines developed, they have been provided as an open educational resource via the project website in a total of 26 languages. As open educational resource, any user can freely access the Guidelines. They can share comments, additions or updates via the public website as well as adapt them to their own personal context under the Common License Agreement.
This will allow for the Guidelines:
- to be sustained beyond the project duration;
- to be updated as new technologies emerge;
- to be adapted to varying educational and geographic contexts.
All network partners are committed to sustain the project outcomes, especially the Guidelines for Accessible Information, beyond the project duration and will continue to advocate for the necessity of accessible information and the implementation of the Guidelines.