The risk of marginalisation or exclusion on the basis of intellectual disability and integration of young people in higher education is the main focus of this presentation. We believe that higher education institutions should implement inclusion policies, valuing more actions based on respect for diversity. At present, the access of young people with disabilities in higher education is one of the most challenging aspects of the inclusive education system in Portugal. In higher education, support for students with intellectual and development disabilities still presents some weaknesses, since in the transition from compulsory education to higher education, students lose all the support structure made available by the Ministry of Education for basic and secondary education, with years of structure, experience and specialised professionals. This gap presents itself as a risk of exclusion and marginalisation of these young people in society. 

In this communication we will present a degree-free training, adapted from the model that has been working for 12 years (the Promentor programme of the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid) in "Digital Literacy for the Labor Market" which is aimed at young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities with a degree of incapacity equal to or greater than 60%. It is an innovative program, as it is the first model of inclusive education training in the context of higher education for intellectual disability in Portugal, aimed at personal development, well-being and social and labor inclusion in the training environment of the Polytechnic Institute of Santarém.

In line with this framework, we will also respond to the need to increase the number of students in technologies in the national context, promoting digital literacy for all and inclusion in society.The training that is presented will thus respond to point 8.1 "Making higher education accessible to all and more democratic is the task of the State and Society" inscribed in the opinion of"Students with Special Educational Needs in Higher Education"

The training lasts four semesters and its objectives were designed with the aim of students being able to autonomously apply the concepts, theories and principles acquired through problem solving and decision making, in new work environments and / or environments unfamiliar; to achieve socio-labor commitments that foster growth as full citizens; respond to the demands and perform tasks appropriately with the combination of cognitive skills and practices, knowledge, motivation, values, attitudes and emotions; acquire digital literacy skills that allow them to solve problems and perform tasks using different tools in the work context; acquire flexibility, understood as a capacity to adapt to change and as a prelude to the critical capacity to analyse the work itself; maintaining enthusiasm for lifelong learning; acquire the necessary training to compete for different offers (adapted for people with intellectual disabilities) in order to obtain a job; participate actively in the university environment.

We want to present an evaluation of this training process with some evidence from the 1st year of training, accessing the impact as perceived by students, parents and teachers through focus group interviews and practice documentation (in several curricular units). Since it is a procedural assessment, it is important that data collection is dynamic and open to various instruments, with narrative and information-based registers based on information and communication technologies (for example, digital presentations developed by students; digital applications, photographic and video recordings, etc.) In short, the basis of this evaluation methodology is AI (action research) that allows a practical reflexivity (comprehensive, flexible and adaptive analysis) of the various actors that make up the students' evaluation process, giving a reconstructive position along with the results obtained.

The discussion, that will follows a video presentation with evidence of this process of integration in the IPSantarem community, will be centred on the issue of inclusion of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in higher education. The experience from both countries ( Spain and Portugal ) should be integrated.

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