INCLUSION THROUGH DIGITAL ARTS: CREATING A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE Ana Barata 1 , Paula Escudeiro 2 , Valérie Duarte 3 and Jadir Lino 4 ISEP; GILT Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 4314249-015 Porto, Portugal ABSTRACT To communicate is the deepest will of every human being since their very first minute of existence, as communication is what makes human beings really feel part of a whole. One of the most transversal, barrier-dropper, and universal ways of communicating is creating art. Having that assumption in mind, this paper introduces a proposal for combining technology and arts production using an online educational Community of Practice aimed at encouraging communication and collaboration between blind/low vision individuals and deaf/hearing impaired individuals having the creation of digital artworks using a technologically developed collaborative environment. To provide a framework for this challenge, this study provides a review of concepts and examples related to the art practices from an inclusive point of view, to inclusive design, and to the essential features of reliable Communities of Practice. Furthermore, the proposal for developing a collaborative environment for creating digital artworks, combining the best practices and features of the analyzed examples, targeting at the blind and deaf communities is described as well as the evaluation model – the Quantitative Evaluation Framework – to be used to assess this creative learning and communication environment. KEYWORDS Collaboration, Community of Practice, Digital Arts, Inclusive Design, QEF 1. INTRODUCTION The technological development, and the improvement of digital systems have revolutionized the way human beings interact not only with each other but also with the world around, they interfere with people’s work habits, with the education environments, and have opened the path for a wide set of communication possibilities in myriad contexts. Being able to communicate is what makes human beings feel, and really be, part of a whole (Gomes 2009). Interacting, understanding, sharing, feeling and being integrated are unquestionable conditions for belonging to a community, regardless of abilities, disabilities, origin or condition, and one of the most fascinating, transversal, barrier-dropper, and universal means of communication is creating art. In this paper we propose to combine the already long and close relationship between the arts and technology (Paul 2003), (Greene 2004), (Chung 2006), (Barata 2014) with the learning and challenging potential of online Communities of Practice (CoP), introducing a proposal for developing an inclusive collaborative learning and creative environment aimed at allowing blind and deaf individuals to produce digital artworks together. This project derives, on the one hand, from the authors’ experience in working with assistive technology and interaction projects (P. Escudeiro et al. 2013; B. P. Marques et al. 2017; P. M. Escudeiro et al. 2018), and on the other hand from the strong interest the authors have in contributing for diversifying and for the further development of various means and environments that may propel inclusive learning, working to tear apart barriers and to enrich human-human interaction. This way, the authors wish to put the technological innovation at the service of inclusion. 1 abt@isep.ipp.pt 2 pmo@isep.ipp.pt 3 1171493@isep.ipp.pt 4 jadirlino@gmail.com International Conferences ICT, Society, and Human Beings 2019; Connected Smart Cities 2019; and Web Based Communities and Social Media 2019 145