CARDET participates in the project Adults with a learning disability – Observatory of Best Practice / ALDO with partners from Ireland, Romania, Austria, Belgium and Spain. This is a Lifelong Learning Program which is leaded by the County Meath Vocational Educational Committee.

Addressing the educational needs of adults with a learning disability is not a once-off endeavour but a continuing phenomenon that is a core part of education provision throughout the European Union. As one would expect in such an important educational field, a significant number of projects that address the educational needs and integration of adults with learning disabilities have been financed with the help of the European Commission under the current Lifelong Learning Programme. In a majority of cases projects have focused on the use of ICT in education and training of disabled persons to support their further integration into mainstream provision. This project will instigate a series of European research studies to identify successful educational projects in the area ICT in education and training of disabled people. The project will develop an appropriate and robust assessment mechanism to evaluate these based on especially defined criteria. It will provide a virtual laboratory for teachers and trainers who work in this area to support them in engaging with the best practice models identified and will produce a good practice guide.

The aims of the project are (1) to support improvements in the quality and accessibility of education and training for adults with a learning disability by identifying and validating best practice approaches; (2) to promote increased use of the best practice resources identified by raising awareness of the resources and presenting them in one central online portal or observatory.

During the first meeting the consortium presented the aims of the project and the activities that will be conducted during the project life cycle and discussed about its status and the tasks ahead. In the second meeting Partners discussed about the research phase of the project and they set all the deadlines. The next project meeting will be in Romania. All the partners will collect 12 best practices in 30 countries and they will start assessing them.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication (communication) reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.