Civic engagement of HEI students in the creation of a Pan-European mapping app for socially inclusive higher education institutions and accessible European cities

Civic participation and service-learning engagement with HE can enhance the citizenship competences among HE students including better critical thinking, social skills and appreciation of diversit...

By blending social inclusion, disability accessibility, civic engagement and ICT-enabled solutions the idea for the Map4Accessibility project was born. The main objective of the project is to civically engage HEI students through service-learning (SL), ECTS recognised activities in the co-creation of a pan-European PWA highlighting both digital and physical accessibility at the urban level. The project’s specific objectives are: i) promote and increase SL, community engagement and strengthen civic skills among HEI students by offering ECST credits for students’ involvement in the project SL activities, ii) gather and share best practices and expertise on digital and physical accessibility for HEIs and cities at large; iii) design a Pan-European accessibility mapping tool built based on an existing mobile application which enables people with disabilities to be better informed on the accessibility of public spaces and be able to influence both HEIs and a variety of institutions for an improvement in accessibility levels, iv) promote the inclusive education agenda – including but not limited to HEIs.