On 9 March, the DIVERSITY-LIVED project (funded by Erasmus+) officially launched. The project brings together partners from across Europe in a collaborative effort that will transform how health and social care professionals are trained. 

Understanding the lived experience of people with disability is essential for the delivery of inclusive and respectful care. However, many professionals working in health and social care have limited opportunities to fully grasp the everyday barriers that people with disabilities encounter. DIVERSITY-LIVED addresses this gap by developing innovative training methodologies that place empathy and inclusion at the centre of professional education. 

By introducing disability simulators and immersive learning scenarios in the teaching methodology, the initiative will enable professionals to experience first-hand the challenges associated with mobility, vision and hearing impairments faced by people with disabilities. 

Over the course of the project, three main results will be developed: 

• The Educational Methodology Manual will provide comprehensive guidance on how disability simulators can be used in professional and educational training contexts.  

• In addition, the project will produce the “Diversity-Lived Learning Situations through Disability Simulators” book, which will present practical and real-life simulated scenarios designed to stimulate reflection and learning among professionals.  

• Finally, a Specialised Training Course will be developed and implemented across participating countries, allowing health and social care professionals to test the new methodology in practice. 

DIVERSITY-LIVED targets educators and trainers working in health, social care, vocational education and training (VET), and higher education, as well as students and future professionals in these sectors. Importantly, people with disabilities will also play a key role in the project’s development and learning processes. 

Running from December 2025 to December 2028, the project brings together a diverse partnership of organisations with expertise in education, disability, and social care. The consortium is coordinated by Universidad de Burgos (Spain) and includes Università degli Studi Roma Tre (Italy), the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD (Belgium), Slovensko združenje za pomoč pri demenci Spominčica (Slovenia), and INFAD (Spain). 

Find out more about the DIVERSITY-LIVED project here.