Skillability is a in initiative which is based on project partners' expertise, shared values, commitment to equal opportunities and to design and development of innovative education-based solutions. We are well aware of the specific challenges that many people with disabilities need to overcome in their lives. Many such challenges are in the focus of national and regional policy measures, and within the EU there are a number of common frameworks on coordinated policies and strategies. With Skillability, we are addressing a niche group withing the wider group of people with disabilities: people with talents or skills which can, if supported, become for them an additional source of financial income, contribute to the development of entrepreneurial attitudes, open the road to greater financial independence, reduce the reliance on the social systems, facilitate the return to formal or non-forma education and training systems, provide direct opportunities for digital training in developing new skills and partial qualifications, extend their contact and social networks, help reduce the impact of inaccessible physical enviroment and geography-based challenges.We intend to create a digital platform where people with disabilities can present their talents, skills or products for the visitors of the platform - individuals and businesses - to purchase or to support in other ways. The platform will be people-centric with its main property being a solid centerpiece of a wider and more comprehensive support infrastructure. This infrastructure will consist of specially-deisgned digital training courses focusing on: Personal presentation skills, Digital sales, Product presentation (incl. copywriting, graphics and video), Terms of service in the digital world, Remote services, Logistics and delivery (National/International), Pricing and promotion, and a range of additional topics and subjects which will come up from the direct work of our organisations with the target group of the project. The platform will be focused on bringing the two parties in a typical marketplace together, but in a spirit of support and common purpose. No payments will be made through the platform - all purchases and other support will pass through other standard secure channels for this, and Skillability is not designed to be a commercial platform.We will develop a comprehensive methodology for individual needs' assessment and for designing individualised training paths for each Skillability platform member. A team of trained mentors in each country will then work with interested people and help them on the platform. We expect that this work will also include the various stakeholders in this very specific field - these could be parents or other family members, the immediate support network of the candidate, their case social worker, their doctors, physical or occupational therapists. We will then, based on a thorough assessment and the personal plans and aspirations of each participant, carry a complete training needs analysis and develop an individual training path for them. The training will be a product of the collaboration between key licensed education and training institutions and organisations who have joined the project, and who stand by to develop further digital training courses and resources for Skillability based on the aggregated results from all training needs analyses.To further support the Skillability initiative participants, we will carefully construct and anthology of stories, successes and failures, personal stories and achievements. This will be used to shed light on the potential, on the capabilities, and away from the disability. We expect that such a collection can have an imprtant inspirational and motivational effect for many others - in particular in countries and societies where a disability is still largely a drive for stigmatisation, or where there are still significat obstacles - physical and otherwise - to successful and seamless integration of all people with disabilities in the economical, social, cultural and educational systems.

<< Background >>InTACT project complements the successful De Facto initiative, which focused on the impact of disinformation in education. Stepping on the thresholds of De Facto theoretical model, it further applies the concept of cognitive layers, explores the impact of conspiracy theories in particular and proposes practical tools to meet needs of teachers and educators in this regard. Within our partnership we have established that teachers and educators that we work with experience the need:> to assess the sensitivity and vulnerability to disinformation of learners (to be addressed by R1)> for a model measuring the impact of disinformation and CTs on personal, educational and social level (R2)> to raise awareness and build attitude of learners towards disinformation and conspiracy theories (R1)> to prevent unprotected exposure to disinformation of learners (R1-4)> to prevent the potential harm of disinformation on social systems in general (R1-4)> to better understand and be able to lay out for their learners the nature and cognitive mechanisms of conspiracy theories (R3)> to be prepared to deal with conspiracy theories (as a distinct disinformation type) (R4)Our project additionally covers well-known deficits of the education systems in participating countries, related to disinformation: > a lack of disinformation indice, designed and validated for education-related use (R1)> very few initiatives targeted at disinformation in education, and a lack of quantification and modelling tool (R2) > a lack of sufficient self-study resources on disinformation to help educators recognise and confront disinformation (R4)<< Objectives >>The project activities and expected project results are planned in line with identified needs of educators in the field of fighting disinformation and promoting active citizenship. Our set objectives also meet the needs of organisations in the InTACT consortium to reinforce and further widen established partnerships, to exchange good practices of project implementation and to enrich the scope of research and training activities. The objectives that we set for our project are as follows:Main objectives:> Improve the competencies of educators and other education staff> Address partners’ common needs in the field of education and training> Increase quality in the work, activities and practices of organisations involved> Improving and enhancing the digital competences and information literacy of target groups> Promote active citizenship, social engagement and social participationSpecific objectives:> Provide a tool for benchmarking and assessing the sensitivity and vulnerability of learners to disinformation and conspiracy theories> Propose a theoretical model to focus the attention of target groups and researchers on the disinformation impact at personal, educational and social level> Develop an innovative training intervention model based on deconstruction of conspiracy theories> Supply teachers with quality digital resources, activities and comprehensive lesson plans addressing disinformation and CT> Provide self-paced online training course for teachers and educators to better prepare them and build confidence when working with disinformation and CT> Promote active citizenship, social engagement and social participation<< Implementation >>In the course of InTACT project we plan to implement the following main types of activities: > Project management. Ongoing planning, monitoring and evaluation will include planning, implementation and evaluation of each project activity. Organising and equally distributing administrative tasks among partners, following the principle of best match to profile and expertise. Planning of 6 transnational project meetings which are critical to establishing and maintaining good cooperation, along with the regular virtual meeting of thematic work groups. Preparing and launching of surveys to evaluate to what extent TPMs and project results meet the expectations as well as against set objectives. Developing a quality management plan and sustainability plan. > Project implementation. A core activity is establishing teams and working in groups, based on relevant expertise, to develop the project results. This is part of the overall project networking, which opens the possibility to involve both staff and experts, depending on the assigned tasks. Keeping daily communication with partners via mailing list and work in shared documents, which allow for a quick exchange of comments and replies. Planning, organising and delivering 1 short-term joint staff training.> Sharing and promotion. Organising 5 multiplier events to share, explain and promote the project results. Developing a dissemination plan which will include the following activities: identifying relevant stakeholders, developing project’s visual identity and website, preparing regularly project related newsletters, translation of website content into partner languages.<< Results >>The planned activities within the InTACT project lead to the following results and main expected outcomes:Result 1: Self-assessment baseline and follow-up tests for sensitivity to disinformation & conspiracy theories. A comprehensive test for disinformation vulnerability will be designed and validated. With it we intend to establish a baseline for teachers and learners of their disinformation vulnerability. We will be able to calculate and produce risk scores and risk profiles which can work in a computerised self-assessment format. The test questions will take cognitive layers into account (complementary to De Facto E+ project).Result 2: Study and model of disinformation impact on personal, educational and social level. We will explore all major areas of malicious impact and estimate the extent of this impact: erosion of trust can impact institutions, democratic values, active citizenship, well-established social conventions, experts and expertise; on a personal level, harm can extend to becoming a scam victim and being tricked of one’s finances, accept news or rumours at face value, become an object of manipulation and opinion change, lead to poor health choices, result in political and social alienation. The model will be based on case studies which allow for easy use, extension and transferability. Itl will be tested with focus groups before final adjustments and publication. The results will feed directly into R1 (test design) and R3 (training intervention model).Result 3: Training intervention model, based on deconstruction of conspiracy theories. A method for deconstruction of conspiracy theories will be devised, experimented with, and validated. Possible aspects of deconstruction could be: intent, specific audience, strength of the community and CT perseverance, links to other CTs, cognitive influence methods used, reinforcers, individual motivation, attributed value, internal consistency, archenemy/villain role and image, main argument, resistance to debunking, etc. The training intervention will be designed using a collaborative method and will be based on collaborative learning. The model will consist of a deconstruction algorithm, links to live CT webspace resources, list of suggested AI/ML apps, well defined learning outcomes and proposed teaching methods, proposed learning activities. We plan to validate the training intervention with the help of focus groups and pilot editions, which will also add insights and feedback before publishing the final versions of R3 results.Result 4: Online training course and resource repository. It will provide online rich-content resources, such as: an introduction to conspiracy theories; collection of conspiracy theory content; the deconstruction method (R3) explained; collection of apps and tools based on AI and ML which are used in investigating and analysing media content; infographics, information sheets, checklists and worksheets which can be used in class. Overall, we expect a direct impact on teachers’ practice and on learners’ attitudes towards disinformation and conspiracy theories, resulting in increased awareness and interest in improvements. Other significant outcomes will be the improved cooperation, teamwork, know-how exchange and complementarity of expertise, improved digital and information literacy, raised awareness of disinformation and conspiracy theories’ (CT) impact mechanisms, improved skills in designing training materials and conducting specialised training interventions, improved research and modelling skills.