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The Campus Project is a pioneering initiative at an international level that has been promoted by the Secretariat of Telecommunications and the Information Society of the Regional Government of Catalonia and which has the participation of the Catalan universities. The project develops a series of tools that will enable the Catalan universities to construct their virtual campuses in free software, applying a design centred on the user, usability and accessibility by all students and lecturers. This is the first time, both nationally and internationally, that a number of universities have joined forces to create an environment of these characteristics. To achieve it, the two main e-learning platforms have been integrated into currently existing free software, Moodle and Sakai, and it has had the collaboration of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in order to achieve the desired technology aims. The whole procedure has followed the Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI) standard of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), ensuring its validity and utility outside Catalonia.

Campus accessible to all
One of the key characteristics of this project is the fact that it will afford people with visual, hearing, physical and language disabilities access to the campus. The Campus Project will follow the accessibility standards of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), created by the prestigious World Wide Web Consortium.This standard covers services and technologies that must include websites so that they can be used by everyone. Consequently, for example, it will be possible for people with a disability to be able to use a number of devices, including adapted keyboards, mobile devices, electronic ink books, programs that read screens and relief printers on these campuses.

Unique opportunity both for topics under debate and for figures attending
The Conference, which will be open and accessible to all, represents a unique opportunity for generating an in-depth debate on the future of e-learning and educational technology. Parallel to this conference is the opportunity to visit an exhibition showing the process for creating a virtual campus in open code where visitors will be able to see in situ how people with disabilities can access it. The aim of the debates is to share experiences and knowledge about the contribution that advances in technology have made in improving the learning process and quality of life of university students. Under discussion will be the reasons for using standards, which ones to use, the open code and how to achieve greater accessibility or usability, among other issues. Vijay Kumar, Director of Academic Computing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Rob Abel, CEO of IMS Global Learning Consortium, will participate in the opening ceremony and the conference will also be attended by other experts including Jeff Merriman, Executive Director of the Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI) project, at the MIT, and Charles Severance, the former Executive Director of the Sakai Foundation. The University Campus Conference will be open to all people with disabilities who wish to attend, as a companion service has been planned to help them enjoy the exhibition, as well as an on-screen simultaneous translation service so that they can follow the debates. The Campus Project is a project fostered by the Secretariat of Telecommunications and the Information Society of the Regional Government of Catalonia, with the participation of the 12 Catalan universities and other public and private agencies, which have shared the development functions and the observation and monitoring tasks. Development partners: Autonomous University of Barcelona, Polytechnic University of Barcelona, University of Lleida, University of Girona, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Ramon Llull University, International University of Catalonia. Observer partners: University of Barcelona, Pompeu Fabra University, Rovira i Virgili University, University of Vic, Abat Oliba (CEU) University, Public Administration School of Catalonia, Department of Education of the Regional Government of Catalonia, I2CAT and the Supercomputation Centre of Catalonia.

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