On account of the disruption caused by the COVID-19 crisis, ACCESS project is scaling up its virtual presence. ACCESS is working across a wide array of conferences, seminars and events, directed towards raising-awareness on inclusion, accessibility and disability at Higher Education level in the Caribbean region. In consequence, ACCESS partners have recently participated in III INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF INCLUSIVE TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION – CONTIE 2020 with representatives from TEC Costa Rica, the INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION WEEK organized by the INTEC and the “Dialogue: Interaction and dignified treatment of people with disabilities from a rights perspective" celebrated by UNAPEC.

This strategy obeys to the necessity to bypass international travel restrictions and face-to-face gathering limitations stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.  As such, ACCESS ensures maxim outreach of dissemination actions directed towards key stakeholders at University level, which work towards building up a Higher Education system for all and leaving no one behind. Connecting with students with disabilities, general student population, administrative and academic staff from the Universities, political actors and disability NGOs is key to ensure exploitation and sustainability of ACCESS project results. Virtual events are now and considering circumstances an optimal platform to maximise engagement in Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Cuba.

Actions were spearheaded by TEC Costa Rica with their participation in the III INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF INCLUSIVE TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION- CONTIE 2020 on 29^th October 2020. They provided a thorough update of the current status of the needs analysis activities carried out within the framework of the ACCESS project to unveil barriers, challenges and problems that students with disabilities face on their day-to-day learning experience.

INTEC leveraged the organization of its INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION WEEK on 24^th November 2020 to showcase ACCESS project aims, goals and activities to an audience of students and academic personal eager to cooperate and advance further on the inception of a real inclusive environment within their Higher Education system in the Dominican Republic.

Finally, UNAPEC, on the occasion of the celebration of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 3^rd December 2020, held a meeting with the National Council of Disability from the Dominican Republic – CONADIS to dialogue and train people on how to build better interactions with persons with disabilities from a Human Rights approach. ACCESS project activities were presented and generated momentum to partake with CONADIS in future dissemination actions.

ACCESS/“Promoting Accessibility of Students with Disability to Higher Education in Cuba, Costa Rica and Dominican Republic” is an Erasmus+ Key Action 2: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices: Capacity-building in higher education, co-funded by the European Commission. The overall objective of the ACCESS project is to improve accessibility, ensure learning conditions and foster policy change towards inclusion for students with disabilities within the context of the Higher Education system in Costa Rica, Cuba and Dominican Republic via modern inclusion practices, training and networking. ACCESS will be implemented during the next 3 years and plans to return to face-to-face actions as soon as the COVID-19 pandemics allows to do it.