The project Bridge is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Servicio Espanol para la Internacionalizacion de la Educacion (SEPIE). Neither the European Union nor the National Agency SEPIE can be held responsible for them. -- Number: 2025-1-ES01-KA220-HED-000359236 --

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LEVEL 1. IHES – Inclusive Higher Education System

BRIDGE Main Challenge: A.2. Gap between regulatory frameworks, institutional discourses and actual inclusion practices

What problem does it address?

Across Europe, legislation guarantees the right to higher education for persons with disabilities, yet universities lack the infrastructure to include students with intellectual disabilities. Admission pathways, curricula, assessment and communication are designed for normative cognitive profiles, and governance structures exclude the voices of those most affected.

What does it propose?

IHES supplies the missing infrastructure: an online training programme on independent living, a digital handbook, and a policy recommendations framework covering five institutional domains with 28 measures, over 120 actions and quantifiable monitoring indicators. All materials are open access, available in four languages, with cognitively accessible easy-to-read versions.

Why is it an inspiring practice?
  • • It turns normative commitments (UN CRPD, European Accessibility Act, European Pillar of Social Rights) into measurable institutional actions.
  • • It places cognitive accessibility – historically the most marginalised dimension of disability in universities – at the centre of higher education policy.
  • • It involves persons with intellectual disabilities as co-constructors of the outputs, following the principle “nothing about us without us”.
  • • It produced the first comprehensive, multi-domain, indicator-based framework designed for this population in European universities.
  • • It integrates five previously siloed institutional domains: teaching, awareness, research, governance and third-sector cooperation.
  • • It proposes SEEDI, a replicable coordination service embedded in existing university structures rather than dependent on project funding.
  • • All outputs are open access, multilingual and modular, allowing selective adoption according to institutional maturity.
  • • It was designed and tested across four countries with different legal traditions and disability cultures.
Resources you'll find
  • • Online training programme on independent living at university: 4 modules, 4 languages, easy-to-read versions, integrated self-assessments.
  • • Digital handbook: 8 modules on independent living, 4 languages, easy-to-read versions.
  • • Policy recommendations book: 85 pages, 5 areas, 28 measures, 120+ actions, full monitoring framework.
  • • Open-access project platform: https://ihes.pixel-online.org
  • • All materials released under CC BY-NC-SA, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.
Featured results
3
Intellectual outputs produced: training programme, digital handbook, policy recommendations book
5
Institutional domains covered by the policy recommendations framework
28
Policy measures, each with monitoring indicators, target levels and data sources
120+
Specific actions for institutional implementation
4
Languages of all materials, each with cognitively accessible easy-to-read versions
What can visitors learn?
• How to diagnose the distance between formal diversity commitments and actual institutional practice.
• How to make academic content cognitively accessible without sacrificing rigour.
• How to attach indicators, target levels and data sources to every inclusion measure.
• How to involve students with intellectual disabilities as co-researchers rather than research subjects.
• How to structure a coordination service covering the whole student lifecycle.
• How to build sustainable cooperation between universities and third-sector organisations.

LEVEL 2. EXPLORE BEST PRACTICE

Introduction

IHES (2022–2024) was an Erasmus+ transnational project coordinated by Universidad Pablo de Olavide, with partners in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland. Grounded in the social model of disability, the capability and person-centred approaches and Universal Design for Learning, it addressed the exclusion of students with intellectual disabilities from European universities through three open-access outputs: an online training programme, a digital handbook, and an indicator-based policy recommendations framework.

  • Coordinating organisation: Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville
  • Participating countries: Ireland (IE), Italy (IT), Portugal (PT), Spain (ES)
  • Duration: 21 February 2022 - August 2024
  • BRIDGE Main Challenge: A.2. Gap between regulatory frameworks, institutional discourses and actual inclusion practices
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • SDG 4: Quality Education
  • SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
  • SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Secondary Challenges
  • A.3. Educational gaps throughout educational trajectories, including higher education

The Challenge

What social issue does it address?

The systemic exclusion of persons with intellectual disabilities from higher education. Although equal access is formally guaranteed, exclusion operates structurally (no adapted admission pathways), pedagogically (rigid teaching models), communicatively (mono-modal information) and in governance (decisions taken without them). Within disability itself, cognitive accessibility remains the most marginalised dimension.

Why is it important?

Legal guarantees that are not operationalised remain declarative. Accommodations have been standardised for physical and sensory disabilities while intellectual disability stays peripheral, leaving universities formally committed to equality and practically inaccessible to these students.

How does it contribute to the BRIDGE Challenge?

It addresses Level A Challenge 2 directly, showing that the regulatory-practice gap is a problem of institutional operationalisation rather than legislative insufficiency, and providing the services, training, accessible formats and monitoring indicators universities need to close it.

How does it work?

Three interconnected outputs over the project lifetime. A Person-Based Learning training programme adapts four modules to individual motivations and needs; a handbook built on stakeholder testimonies from four countries covers eight themes; a policy framework assigns each of five domains to specialist partner teams, pairing every measure with actions, indicators, target levels and data sources for institutional self-assessment.

What might inspire you?
Ideas for adaptation
  1. Check whether your inclusion policy is operationalised, or only declared.
  2. Design assessment that does not assume one uniform way of processing information.
  3. Offer course content in easy-to-read versions without lowering academic rigour.
  4. Invite students with intellectual disabilities to co-design your teaching materials.
  5. Pair every inclusion measure with an indicator, a target level and a data source.
  6. Use Universal Design for Learning to open the curriculum before adapting case by case.
  7. Train administrative staff too: accessibility often fails at the enrolment desk.
  8. Treat inclusion as governance, not as a favour granted by individual lecturers.
  9. Build third-sector partnerships covering the whole life trajectory of students.
Resources created

Online Training Programme on Inclusion and Independent Living at University

Online training

An online training programme on inclusion and independent living for people with intellectual disabilities in the university context, built on a Person-Based Learning framework that reconfigures generic programme structures around individual needs and circumstances. It comprises four modules: teaching approaches (social paradigm of disability, independent living, Universal Design for Learning); campus life (dimensions of inclusion); research (scientific production on intellectual disability); and management (inclusive policies, inclusive culture, student participation). Self-assessments close each module, and course variants are available for students with intellectual disabilities, undergraduate students, administrative staff and teaching staff. Available in English, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, with easy-to-read versions.

Teaching staff, Students, Professionals

https://www.upo.es/investiga/indis/IHES/programa-de-formacion-en-linea/

IHES Digital Handbook on Independent Living

Manual

A digital handbook designed as a key resource for universities supporting the inclusion of students with intellectual disabilities, developed from the testimonies of key stakeholders across four European countries. It comprises eight thematic modules on independent living: gender equality and support networks; disability in science, technology and innovation; professional orientation; international mobility; coexistence; training and curricular adaptation; disability observatory; and regulation. Produced in English, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, each module is also available in an easy-to-read version, making the content usable both by institutional staff and by students with intellectual disabilities themselves.

Teaching staff, Students, Researchers, Professionals

https://www.upo.es/investiga/indis/IHES/manual-digital/

IHES Policy Recommendations Framework

Digital publication

An 85-page policy recommendations book providing universities with an operational framework for the structural inclusion of students with intellectual disabilities. It is organised across five institutional domains: accessible quality teaching (10 measures, 30 actions); awareness and civic and social responsibility (4 measures, approx. 20 actions); inclusive research (4 measures, 40 actions); inclusive university life and governance (4 measures, 12 actions); and cooperation with the third sector (6 measures, 25 actions). Each of the 28 measures is accompanied by specific actions, monitoring indicators, target levels and proposed data sources, enabling institutional self-assessment. It also proposes a Specialised Service for Students with Intellectual Disabilities (SEEDI) as an internal coordination hub.

Teaching staff, Researchers, Professionals, Policy Makers

https://www.upo.es/investiga/indis/IHES/recomendaciones-politicas/