The VI International Congress "Inclusive Technologies and Education (CONTIE 2023)" took place from 25 to 27 October in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, jointly organised by the networks ACCESS and RITIE - Red Internacional De Tecnologías Inclusivas y Educación. Participants from Costa Rica, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Greece, Spain, Mexico, Peru, Dominican Republic and Uruguay attended this event in person or virtually, as the congress was also held in hybrid format.

The congress was inaugurated by Mr. Andrés Sandoval Bringas, President of the RITIE Network, Ms. Yolanda Camacho, Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit and Noelia López, ACCESS project coordinator, Universidad de Alicante. During the event, three keynote lectures and multiple simultaneous conferences were given. Among them, ACCESS network partners presented 17 papers focused on inclusive strategies and practices to promote accessibility to Higher Education for students with disabilities. Some of the papers were also based on the results of the needs analysis report on disability in Higher Education in Cuba, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic developed within the framework of the ACCESS project.

In the framework of CONTIE 2023, a Best Practices Session took place on the 25th, where the ACCESS network partners presented some of the best practices in the field of Higher Education in Cuba, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. On the 26th, the ACCESS network held its Coordination Meeting organised by the Institutional Project Management Office of the UA, represented by Inmaculada Caturla, Deputy Director of the OGPI, and Noelia López, Senior Project Manager. During the meeting, the progress and achievements of the various work packages were presented, as well as the action strategies for the successful completion of the project in January 2024.

It is worth mentioning that the University of Macedonia, partner of the ACCESS network, organised the GROW workshop for the participants in CONTIE 2023 on the 27th. The aim of the GROW Model application is to specify and understand the needs of students with disabilities and academic and administrative staff in universities. The partners reviewed the results of the first workshop that took place at the beginning of the project and discussed the development and results of the ACCESS project.

It was indeed a meeting full of innovative ideas and commitment to inclusive education under the umbrella of promoting accessibility and equality of the ACCESS network.

ACCESS / "Promoting accessibility of students with disabilities to higher education in Cuba, Costa Rica and Dominican Republic" is a Key Action 2 of Erasmus +: Cooperation for innovation and exchange of good practices: Capacity building in higher education, co-funded by the European Commission. The overall objective of the project is to improve accessibility, ensure learning conditions and foster policy change towards inclusion of students with disabilities in the context of Higher Education in Costa Rica, Cuba and Dominican Republic through modern practices of inclusion, capacity building and collaborative work.

For more information, visit the ACCESS Project website and its social networks: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.