E-Inclusion with Barrier-free Vocational Education

The Technical University (TU) Dortmund is designing an e-learning programme for young people that works equally well for apprentices with disabilities. The plan will bring e-learning to apprentices with visual, cognitive, motor and auditory disabilities and others in vocational training in the transport and warehousing sectors of German industry. Barrier-free training will comply with German and international laws and standards.

Today's learning landscape provides more options than ever - and more challenges. Bjorn Fisseler, TU Dortmund’s project coordinator for EloQ - the E-learning-based Logistics Qualification, explains how e-learning promises great advantages for people with disabilities.

"Most regular approaches such as textbooks are inflexible. Someone with a print disability might find the font size too small, or the contrast too low. But in a digital programme you just enlarge the font size or change the contrast, or you make the programme read out the text aloud. Those with learning difficulties can be offered additional visualisations of the content or illustrations."

The EloQ project is developing vocational "e-education" in the logistics and warehousing sector that will cater for all adolescents, with and without handicaps or disabilities. It started in January 2010 and is funded by the European Social Fund and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The apprentices will gain a qualification in storage logistics, covering fixing goods transport, working in a goods inward department, warehousing, picking and packaging.