Digital Tools for Students with… - Erasmus Mobility Academy

Why this is Erasmus+ eligible

Structured, multi-day programme (5 days) with a pre-defined schedule and learning outcomes — not a passive lecture format.

Built around interaction: participants engage directly with the trainer and with peers from other countries throughout the course.

Transnational by design — open to participants travelling from outside the host country, a core requirement of Erasmus+ mobility funding.

Aligned with the Erasmus+ horizontal priority: Inclusion & Diversity.

The tools in this course are digital, but its Erasmus+ justification is inclusion: the technology is there to remove an access barrier, not to modernise a lesson. The Programme Guide describes disability as covering “physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder someone’s full and effective participation in society on the same footing as others” (Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2026, Part A – Priorities of the Erasmus+ Programme, p. 7). Each Universal Design for Learning principle is paired here with the application that removes one of those barriers — text-to-speech for a student who cannot read grade-level print, an AAC system for a student with no verbal speech, a visual schedule for a student whom a change of routine unseats — so a participant returns able to match a tool to a named need rather than to adopt technology for its own sake.

Overview

What does it mean to design a lesson for a class where one student can’t read grade-level text, another has no verbal speech, and a third loses focus within minutes of a routine changing? Universal Design for Learning (UDL), developed by CAST, answers with three principles — Engagement, Representation, and Action & Expression — built to work for that range of students from the start, not as retrofits.

You work from four invented student profiles, so no real child is discussed, and you need no experience with assistive technology.

Monday — you learn the three principles and describe the barrier in each of four student profiles.
Tuesday — you adapt a text for a student who cannot read it, and build a twelve-symbol communication page for a student who does not use speech.
Wednesday — you build a morning visual schedule with a planned-change card and tune the settings of the tools.
Thursday — you find out what information these tools hold, write a privacy checklist, and design a lesson using all three principles.
Friday — you match each profile to a principle, a tool and a privacy decision, and present your plan.

By Friday you have a matching card for each profile, a communication page, a visual schedule, a privacy checklist and a short plan for what you will try first at school — small enough to start with paper and a free tool, before anyone buys anything.

Description

UDL asks teachers to plan for the range of learners from the start rather than adapting afterwards. CAST’s three principles are Engagement (why and how a learner stays involved), Representation (how information is presented) and Action and Expression (how a learner shows what they know). The week uses them as a way of naming a barrier: when a student cannot read the text, the barrier is in Representation; when a student cannot show what they know in speech or handwriting, it is in Action and Expression; when a routine change derails the morning, it is in Engagement.

Four tools serve as working examples. Immersive Reader and Read&Write read text aloud and change how it looks; both are free for teachers. Proloquo2Go is an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) app, and Choiceworks is a visual-schedule app; both are paid, one-off iPad or iPhone apps, so they are shown on the trainer’s demonstration device and nobody is asked to buy them. Everything you build yourself is built on paper or with the free tools first, because a good communication page or a good schedule depends on the decisions behind it, not on the app.

Tools also hold information about children — names, photos, custom vocabulary — and this is where teachers most often lack a clear answer. Thursday is spent on it: what these tools keep, where, and who else can see it, and what you can do today without any student data. The week gives you a checklist to take back to your school; it does not give legal advice, and it suggests asking your school’s data-protection contact where you are unsure.

The language of the week is about barriers rather than deficits. A student is not a problem to be solved; the task is to find and remove what stands in the student’s way. Students are described through four invented profiles, no real name, photo or diagnosis is needed in the room, and you are not asked to diagnose anyone.

This course is about choosing and setting up an access tool for a barrier. Structured teaching for students with autism or ADHD is covered in Inclusive Classrooms: Educating Students with ASD and ADHD, a general teaching repertoire for pupils with special educational needs in Every Child is Special, and the inclusive teacher’s profile in Inclusive Education and Special Needs.

Methodology

Barrier First, Tool Second

Each task starts from one of four invented student profiles and the barrier the student meets, and only then chooses a principle and a tool or setting.

Paper Before Apps

Communication pages and schedules are built by hand first, then compared with the apps on the trainer’s device, so what you learn works with or without a purchase.

Privacy Built In

Every tool is looked at for what information it holds, and the week ends with a privacy checklist to take to your school.

What you'll take home

Describe a student’s barrier through the three UDL principles and choose a tool or setting that addresses it.

Adapt a text with Immersive Reader or Read&Write and build a twelve-symbol communication page for a student who does not use speech.

Build a visual schedule with a planned-change card for a student who is anxious about changes in routine.

Write a privacy checklist for assistive tools and identify what to ask your school.

Plan what you will try first at school, starting with free tools or paper, for a student whose barrier you have named.

Daily programme

Icebreaker: "Channel Swap" — each participant introduces themselves through only one channel (drawings or symbols with no words, or speech alone with no slides or written names), then names one access barrier they have met in a classroom
Participants' school introductions
CAST's Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and its three principles — Engagement, Representation, Action & Expression — and how each names a barrier
Four invented student profiles: describing each barrier and which principle it points to

Warm-up: "One Message, Two Routes" — in pairs, pass a short message once in words and once only with a picture board, and compare what was lost
Adapting a text with Immersive Reader or Read&Write: read-aloud, spacing, line focus, and which settings helped most
AAC: what Proloquo2Go does, shown on the trainer's demonstration device, and building a twelve-symbol core-vocabulary page on paper for a student who does not use speech
Testing your page on a partner who may only point, and improving it

Visual schedules: what Choiceworks does, shown on the trainer's demonstration device, and building a five-step morning schedule on paper
Adding a planned-change card, and a "what next?" strip for a student who loses focus
Adjusting the settings of the free tools to match a profile: voice, speed, spacing, colour
Working through the four profiles: identifying and removing the barrier each student meets

What information assistive tools hold about a child (names, photos, custom vocabulary), where it is stored, and who else can open the device or account
Writing a privacy checklist for the tools, and deciding what you can do today without student data
Designing one short lesson that uses all three UDL principles for one of the profiles
What you will ask your school when you are back, and whom you will ask

Matching card: for each profile, one barrier, one principle, one tool or setting, and one privacy decision — presented in small groups with peer feedback
What you will try first at school, starting with free tools or paper
Reflection and self-assessment
Course evaluation
Giving out the Certificate of Attendance

Please note: sessions run from 09:30 to 15:00, Monday to Friday, with a break for lunch. Timings can shift a little to suit the venue and the group. If you'd like a specific topic covered, let us know when you apply — the confirmed day-by-day schedule is sent to registered participants ahead of the course.

Certificate: we issue the Certificate of Attendance to everyone who's present for at least 80% of the course — tracked with the daily sign-in sheet (see Certificate & assessment).

Equipment: a few of our courses ask participants to bring a laptop — check the day-by-day programme above, or ask us if you're not sure.

Need a formal invoice or proforma for your school's records? Ask us — we issue official invoices with the participant's name and course details.

Materials & tools

Worked on during the week: four invented student profiles, a text-adaptation sheet, a twelve-symbol communication page, a visual-schedule sheet with a planned-change card, and a privacy checklist, together with the matching cards that participants produce during the course. Tools: Immersive Reader and Read&Write (free for teachers), with Proloquo2Go and Choiceworks shown on the trainer’s demonstration device.

Certificate & assessment

This is a Certificate of Attendance, not an exam-based qualification — recognition comes from completing the structured programme, not from passing a test. The real, lasting value is in the competencies listed above under What you'll take home.

Erasmus Mobility Academy

Certificate of Attendance

Digital Tools for Students with Special Needs · 5 days · 25 hrs

+ Europass Mobility document

Type your name above — clearly marked "SAMPLE" in the PDF, not an official document.

The real certificate is signed by your trainer and EMA's authorised signatory. Your own signature isn't on this document — it's captured separately, on the Europass Mobility document.

Need to verify a real certificate? Check it online using the serial number and participant's full name, or contact us directly — [email protected], OID E10304561.

Attendance

Tracked using a sign-in sheet with one signature per participant per day (paper or digital). This record is used to issue your Certificate of Attendance and Europass Mobility document. View sign-in sheet (PDF)

Output

Every participant leaves with a completed Dissemination & School Impact Plan — a step-by-step template for applying the course back at your school (see below).

Feedback

An end-of-course evaluation form is sent to every participant after the course ends — a chance to reflect on what you've learned and how you'll apply it, and it helps us keep improving the course for future participants.

Your paperwork

Keep your travel tickets, boarding passes and (if you used green travel) any related receipts — your school or National Agency may ask for these for their own Erasmus+ reporting.

How to prepare

A laptop or tablet is useful. You do not need to buy or install anything before the course: the two paid apps are shown on the trainer’s demonstration device, and everything you build is made on paper or with free tools.

Practical information

Registration & documents

Not sure how registering works or what paperwork is involved? See our full Registration & Documents guide — from applying to your Certificate of Attendance, in one place.

Invitation letter

Need a formal invitation letter for your school or embassy? Request one — we send it within 2 business days. See a sample (PDF).

Learning Agreement

Prepared by our staff and sent to you and your school once your registration form is submitted — see what it looks like. See a sample (PDF).

Billing & invoicing

We issue official invoices/proformas with the participant's name and course details — ask us. Payment is due in full by bank transfer before the course start date. See a sample (PDF).

Airport transfer

Guidance on getting from the nearest airport to the venue is included in your welcome information.

Accommodation

We can recommend partner hotels close to the venue in the host city — ask us when you apply.

For your school / proposal

School impact

After completing this course, the participating staff member can transfer outcomes directly to their school: a short briefing for colleagues sharing the key takeaways, applying relevant tools or strategies from the programme in their own role, and inclusion of the course materials in the school's professional development resources — turning one person's mobility into a wider institutional gain that supports the school's Erasmus+ objectives. Use the Dissemination & School Impact Plan below to fill in your own — it saves as you go and can generate a one-page summary for your coordinator too.

Prefer a blank, course-independent version of this template? Get it here →

After the course

Participants will receive their Certificate of Attendance and the co-signed Europass Mobility document.

Participants will complete a general course evaluation and event survey.

Participants will receive course materials, videos, photos, and PDF documents in both digital and print formats.

Follow-up support: self-evaluation materials are provided. Depending on the group, an email group may be set up so that participants can keep exchanging ideas.

Frequently asked

This course is an eligible training activity under Erasmus+ Key Action 1 (School Education Mobility) — the course fee, travel and subsistence fall within the eligible cost categories. Whether it is covered depends on your own project's approved grant agreement and your National Agency's rules; we provide all the invoices, attendance records and certificates your National Agency requires for reporting.

B1 is enough — you do not need to be fluent. Trainers speak slowly and plainly, every session is built around doing something rather than sitting and listening, and groups are mixed by nationality so people help each other out. A rough test: if you could follow a staff meeting held in English and ask a question in it, you will be fine here.

Absolutely — group bookings of 3+ from one school or organisation receive priority placement, and we can schedule a dedicated session for groups of 12 or more.

Our courses run on request at our centres in Antalya, İstanbul, İzmir, Mersin, Budapest, Bremen and Rome. Tell us your preferred city and dates and we will arrange a session.

Tuition, all course materials, your Certificate of Attendance, and the co-signed Europass Mobility document. Flights, accommodation and travel insurance are booked separately — we send a vetted hotel list.

You can move to any later session free of charge. Cancellations made 30+ days before the start date receive a full refund; a reduced refund applies closer to the date — see our full Cancellation & Refund Policy for the exact schedule.

The tools in this course are digital, but its Erasmus+ justification is inclusion: the technology is there to remove an access barrier, not to modernise a lesson. The Programme Guide describes disability as covering “physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder someone’s full and effective participation in society on the same footing as others” (Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2026, Part A – Priorities of the Erasmus+ Programme, p. 7). Each Universal Design for Learning principle is paired here with the application that removes one of those barriers — text-to-speech for a student who cannot read grade-level print, an AAC system for a student with no verbal speech, a visual schedule for a student whom a change of routine unseats — so a participant returns able to match a tool to a named need rather than to adopt technology for its own sake. Frame it in your own project's terms — your National Agency's current call will confirm exactly how it applies.

No. Immersive Reader is free and Read&Write is free for teachers. Proloquo2Go and Choiceworks are paid, one-off iPad or iPhone apps; they are shown on the trainer's demonstration device, and everything you build in the room is made on paper or with the free tools, so nothing has to be bought before or during the course. A school licence is not included.

Digital Tools for Students with Special Needs