• Appropriate networking for long-term outcomes towards fostering diversity, equity, and inclusivity in higher education institutions
• Incorporation of inclusive processes at all levels of education, especially at the primary and secondary levels, so as to create a process-based connection with HEIs in the long run
• The pre-admissions process, which can enhance the inclusivity that is to be incorporated in the HEI
• An Inclusive Registration and Enrollment Process
• Focus on accommodations for people with all functional diversities.
• Staff recruitment and promotion schemes connected with the practice of inclusiveness

Before Enrollment

• We need to establish a network so we can work as lobbyists to generate policies. MORE AWARE ORGANISATIONS CAN CREATE BETTER PROPOSALS AND MAKE A BIGGER IMPACT.
• The government should promote inclusion at lower levels of education.
• Connection with lower-level education occurs in two different ways:
  • Methodologies: so students are familiar with such methods when they enter higher education.
  • Curriculum contents
• Promotion and Recruitment: go to the schools and make students aware that we are here for them towards inclusion, and look for students with higher levels of performance amongst those with special needs as they have a higher chance of attending higher education institutions.
• Admission is at lower levels, so we can understand how many may actually enrol.

• Enrollment/Registration: The process should also be inclusive, and all the following should be done before starting the classes:
  • Need census information to identify actual special needs students
  • Reserved positions for special needs: for example, 2% of all students have special needs, and their competition is only within themselves to empower them.
  • Counselling
    • Service Level
    • Academic
  • Partial enrolment—for example, 50% of courses in the 1^st year—to allow special needs students to adapt to the university system
  • Fees: reduction (ideally free)
  • Scholarships—so we need to procure funds from the government or agencies or associations ready to help marginalised people. This is important as special needs people need to have:
    • Care services
    • Equipment
  • Dormitories for Special Needs Students
• Adaptation: people and infrastructure

1^st Year

• Pre-training is welcome to inform the special needs students about:
  • Services
  • Resources
  • People
    • Counselling and mentorship
      • Staff, academia, and students who are themselves inclusive
        • Internal Promotion and Recruitment
          • Other rewards, like
            • reduction in teaching hours for academia and hourly reductions for staff
            • extra credits for students

• Beginning classes
  • Simple and complete information
    • Time Tables
    • Rooms
    • Professors
    • Course Content
    • Course Materials
  • Adapted
    • Buildings
    • Classrooms: facilities and equipment
      • furniture designed specifically for inclusion
      • Induction loop and/or speakers in the classroom
      • Adaptive technology: communication tablets
    • Course Curriculum: simple and clear text with presentations, as well as an explanatory note or notes for an explanation of the contents of a slide.
      • Teaching Materials: Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
        • Include appropriate reference materials.
        • Alternative means of presenting materials for special needs students
        • Teacher Training for UDL
        • Accommodating the students so they can clear courses
          • Physical barriers—for example, no freehand drawing for students with cerebral palsy but rather allowing them to use computers to showcase their creativity; for example, oral exams for people with limitations
          • More time and accommodations in terms of certain courses
            • Examinations
            • Preparations

For example, suppose a student cannot pass a course due to some or other limitations. In that case, the institute allows the student to pass the course at the end of the programme; UPCT offers this to all students, irrespective of their functional capabilities.

• Prepare the students for future work.
  • Entrepreneurship: internet-based jobs can be highly accessible for people with all kinds of functional diversities.
  • Special Employment: Information regarding such economic accommodations
  • Public sector empowerment
• Continuous supervision is some mechanism for real-time feedback so that the students do not abandon their studies due to any reason. The abandonment rate in engineering studies is from 25 to 60% for regular students in Spain, so it is very important to control the quitting rate of special needs students, as they can be nearly twice as likely as other students.
• Internal education of all stakeholders at the university so as to be truly inclusive and for clear communications
• Election system of the Rector of the University: such processes should also be inclusive.
• A part of the population in Spain is aporophobic—has a fear of or negative attitudes and feelings towards poor people; hence, it is important to provide, showcase, and define
  • An environment that is respectful, promotes privacy for all, and is not segregated
  • that bad behaviour should not be tolerated at any level—a culture of acknowledging any issues in public and taking the right actions
  • Respect for all languages: use a language that is usually known by a larger group of people so as to be as inclusive as possible.
  • Benefits of Diversity and Inclusion for the institution as well as all its various stakeholders
  • Acknowledgement of Gender Diversity: Spain is in the 4^th position in Europe in terms of gender equality.
  • Special Needs People with an open and equal environment—for example, transgender students and people with disabilities—set up in public spaces as well as with organisations and institutions to inform them about any kind of physical, sexual, or verbal violence against people with special needs.
  • Terminology:

It is highly important for any higher education institution to be sensitive and specific in using the correct terminology for those for whom we want to foster access to higher education, and thus it is important to understand the historicity of such terminology in Spain:

• Earliest: Subnormal
• Then, disabled
• Later: People with Disabilities
• Now: People with Functional Diversities

• Problems of Intersectionality: a special person dedicated to a specified group of special needs students for person-to-person tracking, which includes knowing every detail of the person and their needs

• Create a culture of service to others.
• First-person experience should be shared with everyone, empowering all people and allowing for an inclusive culture to flourish in the HEIs.

Additional Notes

• Eye-tracking-to-typing devices are funded by the Health Ministry of Spain.
• Funding can be procured by proposals to our university, the government, or international organisations like the European Union; this project may act as a benchmark and a working model.
• We may offer this service to other organisations, including the public sector, and ask for specific funding towards a particular need.
• Develop technologies, systems, and methodologies in various programmes, as well as make the physical infrastructure more inclusive. Create a research system that focuses on inclusion and equity so as to get appropriate funding for appropriate technological, systematic, and innovative teaching projects.
• The webpage of the university should be inclusive.
• Teachers may focus on the development of inclusive projects to gain specific appraisals.

• After this seminar, Mr. Joaquín Francisco Roca González asked us to prepare a presentation on the learnings of the research articles shared with us as part of WP 2, then took us on a guided tour of the Museo de Ingeniería Tecnología e Industria (MITI) at ETSII, wherein we were presented with the various equipment, tools, and history of assistive technology in Spain.

  After this, we worked on the presentation asked of us by Mr. Joaquin, which was based on our readings, taxonomies, and summaries of the articles divided among our three groups. Additionally, we also worked towards the completion of the WP1 goals.