Unidigital Project: The Accessible University of the 21th Century : Index TermTowards the digital transformation of the Spanish University System

In January 2021 the Ministry of Universities supported by European funds, launched an ambitious project whose ultimate goal is to achieve the digitisation of the Spanish University System. This project is based in three main objectives: digital transformation, innovation and modernisation from a digital perspective. In this sense, the University of Alicante intends to develop a strategic line based on different support measures and grants for digitisation and teaching, focused particularly on students with disabilities. Likewise, it is meant to reduce the digital gap that exists today in our education system. For this reason, our university has been funded with a total of 50,000€ for the purchase of accessible technology. In higher education we are aware that we must address the ever-increasing demand for technological needs for the adequate training of our students. Currently, our university is equipped with 71 computer classrooms, but almost all of them lack a fully accessible workstation. Therefore, with the UNIDIGITAL project, we aim to provide all computer rooms with the suitable computer equipment and to adapt them to the special needs of our students (27-inch monitors, mouse, and keyboards with long cables to facilitate mobility, adapted tables, etc.). So far, this program has allowed us to purchase wireless microphones to be used with speech-to-text transcription systems (such as TAL or ListenALL) or to purchase analogue and digital systems for assisted listening. In addition, we have updated the software licenses for the Jaws screen reader and ZoomText magnifier. The implementation of this project will be carried out throughout the years 2022 and 2023. This funding plan aims to achieve a 10% increase in the digitisation rate of the Spanish university system by 2025, compared to 2019.