About Inclusion
Inclusive digital pedagogy enhances the digital learning experience for all learners in higher-level education. It recognises that learners have diverse backgrounds and are differentiated by a range of characteristics, including age, gender, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, abilities, disabilities, perceptions, and beliefs. They have different learning styles, educational and life experiences, levels of digital literacy and access, and levels of confidence and self-esteem. Inclusive digital pedagogy aims to make digital education accessible to all learners. Recognising and anticipating diverse needs when designing learning is an approach that encourages all learners to feel that the digital learning experience is open to them without having to ask to be included. This increases the chances of success and improves the learner experience.
About Representation
IDEAL does not seek to represent the interests of any particular group of learners. We have an interest in the inclusion of learners because we have the Istituto dei Sordi di Torino as an active partner. We also have Include.org, a UK charity that provides training and advice to improve the inclusion of people with comprehension or language difficulties. IDEAL seeks to develop our understanding of how digital learning can be inclusive for all learners and does not assume that all people can process written and audio presentations in the same way.
Why we use videos in International Sign?
Sign languages are natural languages that have the same linguistic properties as spoken languages. They have evolved over years in the different Deaf Communities across the world and Europe. There is not one single universal sign language in the world or even in Europe. Just like spoken languages, sign languages vary greatly between countries and ethnic groups. International Sign (IS) is sometimes also referred to as an auxiliary language and is used widely at international meetings where participants do not share one common sign language. IS has roots in American Sign Language and this differs from British Sign Language having only 31% identical signs. We also use Italian Sign Language (LIS) for our Italian partners as access in the national sign language should always be prioritised and is the only way to provide full and equal access. Our partners at Include.org use another language, Makaton, which uses symbols, signs and speech to enable people to communicate. It supports the development of users with learning or communication difficulties.
About Our Logo
This logo is the symbol of IDEAL.
Today the meaning of digital in the university field also means accessibility because it is possible to interact with digital material and texts. For this reason, the logo represents the human brain, with a branch inside it representing the digital: a reminder that useful tools can be developed from human intelligence.
An explanation of the IDEAL logo, translated into International Sign (IS) and Italian Sign Language (LIS)