The international entities participating in the IVRAP project met between 28 and 30 June at the IRTIC facilities to decide on the next steps to be taken and to carry out the verification of the virtual reality tool as well as the learning platform. The initiative aims to teach students on the autistic spectrum and with learning difficulties how to "learn to learn" through the development and evaluation of an immersive virtual reality (IVR) educational tool.

This action co-funded by the European Erasmus+ programme is based on the combination of one of the most widespread models of intervention in autism on education, called Individual Work System (IWS), whose effectiveness has been demonstrated by several scientific studies, with the power of IVR and hand tracking sensors to manipulate virtual environments.

Furthermore, IVR has the potential to significantly improve the results of the conventional version of IWS and to greatly facilitate the transfer of these methods to regions where access to autism knowledge and methodologies is limited.

IVRAP will conduct a research to test the usability of the software and produce both a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Virtual Reality and Autism, and Policy Recommendations.

In order to develop the initiative, a multi-sectoral team of nine participants have collaborated, including researchers from the Universitat de València in Spain, the project coordinator, and the University of the West of England in the UK.

Likewise, teachers and people with autism and their families from four schools have contributed to the action: Fundación Adapta and Koynos Cooperativa, from Spain; Cambian School, from the United Kingdom; and Sobe Foundation, from Turkey. Autismo Ávila from Spain also did so.

CEFIRE and Konya İl MEM, two continuous training institutions of the two regional governments of Spain and Turkey respectively, have cooperated too, as well as the umbrella organisation Autism-Europe.

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