ICEVI European Newsletter

ISSN Number 2666-1527

Issue 77, Volume 27 number 2, August 2021

 

 

Coordinated by     Andrea Hathazi        ahathazi@yahoo.com

Edited by             Stephen McCall        s.mccall@bham.ac.uk and

       Martha Gyftakos      mgyftakos@yahoo.com

Designed by         Istvan Mozes           webmaster@icevi-europe.org

 

If you want to subscribe for ICEVI European Newsletter, or to stop receiving it, please send an e-mail message to: webmaster@icevi-europe.org.

 

The President’s Message

Brief Report of the outcome of the online 8th European Conference on Psychology and Visual Impairment in Prague

The oMERO Project

"Professional support for the teachers of pupils with visual impairment in mainstream schools - EQUAL" Project

News from Denmark

News from Greece: Erasmus+ Projects

The President’s Message

Dear Members and Non-members of ICEVI-Europe,

Hopefully many of you have been able to enjoy a holiday in recent weeks. I’m sure it will have been a well-deserved and much needed holiday after a time of intense commitment to education and rehabilitation for people with visual impairments against the background of COVID-19 which played such a defining role and in so many ways reshaped and determined our actions. Thankfully the outlook is getting better even though the virus continues to haunt us.

“In the last month there was life in the brewery,” that's how we say it in the Netherlands.

In France, for a second time, a 2- day French Speaking Conference for teachers and other professionals on Visual Impairment and Inclusive Education took place. This in-person conference was organized in partnership with INJA (Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles) and was held on May 11 & 12 2021 at INSHEA in Suresnes. The target audience of the conference included teachers and other professionals involved in the education of visually impaired and blind children and adolescents, but it also included parents, people with vision impairment, suppliers of devices for the visually impaired, researchers, and editors. It was a great opportunity for researchers and practitioners to present their latest research and innovations and for teachers to share their experiences and show the adaptations and new practices that they have developed with an inclusive education perspective.

In late June more than 4000 people participated in the online World Blindness Summit hosted in Madrid. In addition to the General Assemblies of ICEVI and WBU, the summit included many inspiring online presentations and thematic webinars. Hopefully, the proceedings of the conference will be published soon.

We used the time slot available to ICEVI-Europe during the conference for two interesting presentations;

1) “Teacher training in the field of visual impairment. Opportunities and challenges.” by Andrea Hathazi from Romania

2) “Cerebral Visual Impairment and Education, Three Tiers of Assessment” by John Ravenscroft from Scotland.

Both presentations are invitations for further follow-up and can be viewed on the Conference website.

At the beginning of July, the eighth conference of the professional interest group ENPVI, "On Psychology and Visual Impairment" took place online in Prague.

The general theme was Real Life (In)dependence with the important topics:

- Quality of life and visual impairment.

- Cortical visual impairment.

- Education of children and adults with visual impairment.

Soon the proceedings of this conference, which took place despite COVID-19, will be published.

Now that the outlook is a bit more favourable, the Board hopes to meet again soon and look into the activities for the coming period. Maybe we should even talk about revitalization of ICEVI-Europe.

These include the tenth European Conference of ICEVI-Europe originally scheduled to be held in 2021 in Jerusalem, as well as regional conferences in Eastern Europe and for the Balkan countries. I’m very pleased to mention that the tenth ICEVI-Europe conference will take place in Cluj Romania in 2022

Of course, the activities of the professional interest groups remain of great importance:

- Early Intervention

- Rehabilitation

- ENPVI (European network for psychologists and related professions working in the field of Visual Impairment)

- Vocational training and employment rehabilitation

- ICT

- Teaching and teacher training

- Parents interest group

I hope that we can meet again in the near future and inspire each other by sharing knowledge and experiences.

As far as those of you who haven't been on vacation yet, please "have a good time." Wishing a good start for all after the holidays.

On behalf of the Board of ICEVI-Europe,

Hans Welling

President

Brief Report of the outcome of the online 8th European Conference on Psychology and Visual Impairment in Prague

Martina Malotova and Conference organization Team

1 INTRODUCTION

The focus of the 8th European Conference on Psychology and Visual Impairment ‘Real life (In) dependence’ was on how to support visually impaired persons to reach their full potential and achieve true independence in their daily life. The conference was hosted by the Primary and Lower Secondary School for the Visually Impaired and the Special Centrum for Visually Impaired Children, located in Prague. The organization team worked closely with representatives of ICEVI Europe and cooperated with colleagues from the ENPVI team (the European Network for Psychologists and related professions working in the field of Visual Impairment).

The whole event was fundamentally supported by the capital city of Prague, the founder of the organizing organization. The chairwoman for education and training of the Prague City Council took over the auspices of the event.

The conference was originally planned for November 5-6, 2020, with a face to face design, but due to the unfavorable global developments in connection with Covid-19, it was moved to July 2021. During the preparatory work a change was made again and in the month of March 2021, after a discussion with consultants, ENPVI decided to change the design to an online form.

Members of the organizing team and consultants throughout the event included:

Hans Welling, President of ICEVI-Europe

Beáta Prónay, Board Member of ICEVI-Europe

Martha Gyftakos, Executive Assistant to the Presidency of ICEVI-Europe

Martina Malotová, Board member of the organizational team

Anna Jílková, member of the organizational team

Katerina Gibalová, member of the organizational team

Elke Wagner, member of the steering committee of the ENPVI professional interest group

Michael Bergström Morman, member of the steering committee of the ENPVI professional interest group

Bo Kjærgaard Andersen, member of the steering committee of the ENPVI professional interest group

Martin Trefný, webmaster, member of the organizational team

1.CONFERENCE TARGET GROUP

Professionals from a range of disciplines including therapy, psychology, education, health and other fields concerned with vision impairment across all ages.

2.TOPIC OF THE CONFERENCE and Main AIM

(In) dependence life of people with visual impairment

A major concern in leading a life with visual impairment is the issue of (in)dependence. What does it mean to be free and independent? This was the key question for our conference in Prague. How best to help blind and visual impaired people on their way throughout their life? How do psychologists, special educators, medics, visual therapists, and others help solve the problems faced by individuals with VI and their families and how can they maintain cooperation across the different specializations? What does independence mean? Is it a universal, or subjective idea? Can we evaluate it, or should we evaluate it?

These are just a few examples of themes that we discussed, explored and presented in our workshops, presentations, and discussion panels. During the conference we wanted to monitor assumptions about the skills that specialists need to have for their professional work, because it is important for our clients, patients, families of clients and everyone who is working with blind or impaired people. It was a great opportunity to exchange knowledge, experiences and skills with colleagues.

3.PARTICIPANTS

The conference was attended by a total of 54 colleagues, of which 22 were active participants from nine European countries. The highest number of participants were from the Czech Republic, the country of the organizing organization, but colleagues from Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom also joined in.

Active participants presented a total of 13 lectures and presented 3 posters. The conference participants agreed to publish their lectures on the conference website and signed the GDPR statement.

4.CONFERENCE DESIGN

The conference was in the form of online design as a two-day event. The conference language was English. The technical support was concentrated in the place of the organizing, where a virtual broadcasting studio was set up. In order to improve the quality of audio and video transmission and to eliminate possible delays and ambiguities in transmission, two virtual studios were created. First for active participants, including speakers, and the second one for passive listeners. The entire transmission is translated from Czech into English. Each conference day was followed by an online evaluation meeting to evaluate the course of the day in order to eliminate undesirable elements that appeared during the event.

The conference was technically supported by AV Media, Czech Republic www.avmedia.cz, in the ZOOM environment.

5.WELCOME SPEAKERS AND SPEAKERS

Mr. Rudolf Volejník, Vice President of the Czech Society SONS (United Organization of the Blind and Visually Impaired in the Czech Republic), spoke at the beginning of the conference, mentioned the importance of ICEVI EUROPE's work and expressed satisfaction that the Czech Republic had the honour to establish and strengthen ICEVI - EUROPE ideas. He spoke about the need to recognise the daily needs of all people, regardless of disability, and warmly supported the main theme and idea of our conference. He spoke of SONS as an organization helping to spread information about the needs and opportunities of the blind and partially sighted. He expressed his idea in connection with the main topic of (In) Dependence, as the possibility for visually impaired people to learn, discover and participate in the development of society.

The conference was significantly supported by the introductory speech of the President of ICEVI -EUROPE, Mr. Hans Welling. His words encouraged the whole team and significantly contributed to clarifying the main topic of the whole conference. The President emphasized the need for the independence of the visually impaired and pointed out the possibilities of their application in everyday life. He said that across European countries, but also around the world, support and discussion of topics related to helping professions is irreplaceable. Mrs. Beata Pronay, representing ICEVI - EUROPE in Central European countries, encouraged participants and speakers, talked about the development of the idea of ​​organizing conferences on the needs of visually impaired people and wished the conference a successful process. Both conference days had their moderator. The first day was moderated by Mr. Ondrej Cerha, psychologist and Ph.D. candidate in social psychology, the next day was moderated by Mr. Michael Bergström Morman, Lic. psychologist, specialist in educational psychology. Both moderators did a great job and thanks to them, the individual topics were always presented in the concept of impacts on everyday life.

6.PROGRAMME

VISION PRAGUE 2021 – Conference´s Programme
Thursday, 1 July 2021
8:30 – 9:30	Opening on- line registration
9:30 – 9:40	Conference introduction by Ondřej Cerha and Michael Bergström Mörman
9:40 – 9:45	Welcome speech from Prague SONS Vice President	Mr. Rudolf Volejník
9:45 – 9:50	Welcome speech from ICEVI Europe President	Mr. Hans Welling
9:50 – 9:55	Welcome speech from subregion Central European countries	Mrs. Beata Pronay
Topic 1. Quality of life and visual impairment
9:55 – 10:00	Introduction to the Topic 1Quality of life and visual impairment	Ondřej Cerha
10:00 – 10:30	Acceptance of disability and perceived life’s meaningfulness among people with visual impairment.	Ondřej Cerha
10:30 – 10:50	Children´s with visual impairment Gait analysis	Martina Malotová
10:50 – 11:10 Coffee break
11:10 –11:40	Early intervention	Carmen Costea Barlutiu
11:40 – 12:10	Identification of depression and anxiety in adults with visual impairment (the patient's perspective)	Edine van Munster
12:10 – 13:10 Lunch
13:10 – 13:40	The impact of visual impairment and comorbid mental disorders on functioning in essential life domains based: outcomes of a qualitative Delphi study	Hilde van der Aa
13:40 – 14:10	The role of season and sunlight in self-reported depressive symptoms by adults with visual impairment	Rob van der Linden
14:10 – 14:40	Needs of parents and professionals in early intervention	Andrea Hathazi
14:40 – 15:00	Closing 1 st Conference´s day	Ondřej Cerha

Friday, 2 July 2021
Topic 2. Cortical visual impairment (CVI)
8:20 – 8:50	Opening registration
8:50 – 9:00	Introduction to the second Topic Cortical visual impairment (CVI)	Michael Bergström Mörman
9:00 – 9:30	Children with CVI: Opportunities and Challenges in Early Intervention	Halka Tytykalová
9:30 – 10:00	My CVI"; a serious game that can be used in psycho-eduction for children with CVI, developmental age 6-12 years	Mariska Stokla-Wulfse, Yvonne Kruithof
10:00 – 10:20 Coffee break
10:20 – 10:50	CVI in children with dysfazia; the team work model: Low vision therapist, speach therapist and psychologist	Martina Malotová, Dagmar Moravcová
10:50 – 11:20	EDA PLAY: Fun and vision development for children with CVI	Markéta Skalická
Topic 3. Poster´spresentation
11:20 – 11:30	1.Development of imagination through tyflografic representations as a facilitating elements in independent movement and spatial orientation 2.Design and evaluate the reliability and the usability of a tool for the early detection of visual disorders at the level of the visual apparatus in children with cognitive deficits for special pedagogues 3.Accessibility of Czech Primary school for students with visualy impairment	Kateřina Kroupová, Veronika Růžičková Helena Štrofová Martina Vrubel
11:30 – 12:30 Lunch
Topic 4. Education of children and adults with visual impairment
12:30 – 12:40	Introduction to the third Topic Education of children and adults with visual impairment	Michael Bergström Mörman
12:40 – 13:10	Students with visual impairment at Charles University	Lea Květoňová, Pavlína Šumníková, Anna Kubíčková
13:10 – 13:40	Students with special education needs – assessment of the situation and possible interventions	Anna Kubíčková, Pavlína Šumníková, Lea Květoňová
13:40 – 14:00	Conference´s closing	Mariana Čapková, representative of the Prague´s government Michael Bergström Mörman- ICEVI Europe

7.HOMEPAGE

https://www.visionprague2020.cz

The conference website was created with a simple and clear design, adapted for the visually impaired. Emphasis was placed on the contrast of background and text and the clarity of topics and links. It was supported by the Blind friendly function for the blind. A special email was created conference@visionprague2020.cz only for the needs of the conference and facilitated communication with participants.

The course of the conference was recorded and individual lectures were presented in a structured way on the conference website.

8.ABSTRACTS AND FULLTEXTS

The abstracts of the conference were sent for processing to the management of ICEVI - EUROPE and are listed on the website of the organization. Sent full-texts of lectures will be published in a Special Edition issue of the ICEVI - European Newsletter and published as an e-Proceedings of the conference.

9.FEEDBACK QUESTIONARE

It was created by an organizational team in cooperation with consultants. The questionnaire was sent on the first conference day to all 54 participants. By July 14, 2021, only 8 questionnaires were completed.

The return rate of the questionnaires is 4.32%. The aggregated results are given in Annex 1 to this report.

The topic of CVI is rated as the most popular, which also arose from the final discussion. The conference participants identified the need for multidisciplinary cooperation, employment opportunities and employment of people with visual impairments in the labour market, work with families of children with MDVI as possible topics for future conferences. The daily discussions confirmed the results of the questionnaire survey, where colleagues perceived topics of the conference as well-chosen, and evaluated the format and structure of the conference positively as having an overall excellent feeling. They met with colleagues with whom they will establish cooperation in the future.

With regards to the overall event, conference participants praised the relevance of the topics and the good organization and expressed a need for more conferences.

https://www.netquest.cz/app/#!/analyze/aggregatedResults

10.CONCLUSION

The aim of the conference was to exchange experiences and share good practice in the field of helping professions that support the visually impaired. Students and Ph.D. candidates presented their research work here. The conference breathed a friendly atmosphere, expertise and real interest into us. We are looking forward to the next meeting, whether in a virtual space or even better face to face.

The way caregivers perceive the behavior of people with such disabilities can affect how they respond to it. How they perceive repetitive behaviour (RB) children with vision impairment (VI) and children on the autism spectrum (AS) manifest is a great challenge. A qualitative study, performed in Greece, which is based on the interpretative paradigm (Creswell and Poth 2017), presented by Aikaterini-Katrina Tavoulari. The question of whether or not a RB is socially acceptable, or it constitutes a social taboo, occurs in multiple occasions.

In his contribution, Ondrej Cerha points out the need to accept disability as a basic prerequisite for a meaningful life. In his research he confirms that the acceptance of vision impairment and the perceived meaningfulness of life, have shown a statistically significant relation.

Edine van Munster´s study aimed to explore barriers and facilitators in identifying and discussing mental health problems in adults with VI. Martina Malotova´s researches verify the effect of focusing attention on the performance of walking children with disabilities evaluated using spatiotemporal parameters and gaining deeper theoretical knowledge about sensory processes in controlling the walking of these people.

Based on that she hopes to improve, optimize and expand the methodological and teaching procedures of teachers and other professions in leading the physical activities of children with disabilities.

The main conference topic discussed was CVI. Halka Tytykalova told us that number of families with young children who have been diagnosed with CVI or are expected to have CVI is increasing. A lot of colleagues and organizations feel the urgency of the situation, and, therefore, they have begun to look intensively for ways to help children with CVI and their parents. The challenge is to set up functional multidisciplinary teams that will provide children with CVI with comprehensive care on their path of inclusion from birth, through education to independence in life. EDA, z. ú., comes with a practical helper for targeted all-round development of children with CVI. EDA cz, z. ú., a non-profit organization from the Czech Republic, has long been dedicated to early intervention and skills development for children with cortical visual impairment. The EDA team´s methodologists for visual perception development participate in the preparation of applications for iPads and Android tablets, as well as the worksheets for children with visual disorders. Parents and teaching assistants can download simple illustrations of understandable shapes at www.edaplay.com for free. In a case study by the author Dagmar Moravcová,the issue of CVI in a child with dysphasia was presented. The need for multidisciplinary cooperation was again emphasized.

The fact is that the departments for people with disabilities work at Universities, and research is being carried out on the employment of people with disabilities in the labor market.

And this problematics is offered as another suitable conference topic.

Martina Malotova and Conference organization Team

The oMERO Project

by Sonia Agrebbe, Project Officer - Istituto David Chiossone onlus

The main scope of the oMERO project is to overcome the mismatch between the skills currently offered through the Visual Disabilities Rehabilitation curricula and those that are actually demanded by healthcare institutions, private service providers and end users. The project is led by the Fondazione Istituto David Chiossone onlus and involves 8 full-partners from 5 EU Countries (Italy, Sweden, France, Lithuania and Ireland) and one International Associated Partner, the International Council for Education of people with Visual Impairment (ICEVI).

According to the World Health Organisation’s “Universal eye health: a global action plan 2014-2019” at least 2.2 billion people have a vision impairment or blindness, of whom at least 1 billion have a vision impairment that could have been prevented or has yet to be addressed. Population growth and ageing will increase the risk that more people acquire vision impairment. WHO ‘s “World report on vison” (2019) states that effective and feasible rehabilitation interventions are currently available but their successful delivery depends upon qualified rehabilitation professionals who are able to apply new user-centred and trans-disciplinary approaches in their daily practice.

Accordingly, to overcome the skills mismatch , the oMERO project will define:

1.a professional profile for Visual Disabilities Rehabilitation (VDR), which can be used at EU level for the formalisation and the certification of a qualification that will motivate students to take up a career in rehabilitation, and

2.a modular EU Curriculum that will be standardised but flexible enough to be adapted to individual countries and Higher Education Institutions. The Curriculum will meet the learning needs of students and the skills demand of labour market, and it will support transparency and international mobility, as well as the recognition and accreditation of formal and informal competencies.

Finally, oMERO project aims also to up-skill and re-skill academics with new competences related to the design and delivery of the innovative VDR curriculum.

The Professional Profile for Visual Disabilities Rehabilitator has been already been defined. oMERO project partners conducted a review of the health sciences literature and a critical analysis of complementary professional training curricula in Europe, the UK, USA and beyond.

Next, up to 36 stakeholders from six European countries, the USA, UK and Canada, responded to two rounds of a survey. This was complemented by a consultation with non-professional experts, stakeholders (service users and their families), after which a list of 17 Key Activities, each associated with up to six core competencies, was identified. Finally, input on the list of competencies from Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) from international third sector organizations and relevant professional bodies was sought.

The Visual Disabilities Rehabilitator is a professional who offers physical, mental and sensory rehabilitation services to people with visual disabilities, under the framework of a new trans-disciplinary, user-centred and ICT-based approach. The new VDR can be employed both in public and in private sector, in residential, semi-residential or outpatient healthcare facilities. The VDR will be able to collaborate with the other members of the rehabilitation team and informal carers. The VDR is designed to develop, implement, and monitor the global rehabilitation interventions of the visually disabled user of any age, assuring the best level of quality of life and autonomy through empowerment, communication, learning, mobility and orientation, daily life skills.

Look at the website to find out more https://www.visualrehabilitator.eu/

"Professional support for the teachers of pupils with visual impairment in mainstream schools - EQUAL" Project

by Janja Hrastovšek, Centre IRIS – Centre for Education, Rehabilitation, Inclusion and Counselling for the Blind and Partially Sighted 

Equal is an Erasmus+ projectwhichstarted in October 2019 and will finish in January 2022.

The project is a collaboration of professionals from four partner organisations namely:

The School for Visually Impaired Pupils "Veljko Ramadanovic" (Serbia)

The Rittmeyer Institute (Italy)

The State primary and secondary school for education and rehabilitation „Dimitar

Vlahov“ (Northern Macedonia)

Centre IRIS – the Centre for Education, Rehabilitation, Inclusion and Counselling for the Blind and Partially Sighted (Slovenia)

The number of pupils with visual impairment who are educated in mainstream schools continues to rise worldwide as it does in the countries where the partners in the project come from. As the numbers of pupils in mainstream schools, increase, so does the need for additional training and support for mainstream school teachers. Teachers at mainstream schools often do not have necessary experience and knowledge for teaching pupils with visual impairment. Thus, the importance of teachers’ training and a holistic support system are crucial to ensure good teaching outcomes. Mainstream school teachers can search for help and get the appropriate information from special institutions working in the field of visual impairment. However, these institutions and experts also need to prepare quality programmes to provide support for teachers in mainstream schools. The goals of our project are to empower teachers to run the educational process in the best manner possible.

Goals of the project:

To strengthen professional competencies of teachers working with pupils with visual impairment in inclusive education settings.

To improve the quality of teaching by using assistive technologies in inclusive education settings.

We will achieve our goals through these activities:
1. Development of professional training courses for teachers of different school subjects (two-day training courses).
2. Designing a manual for teachers of different school subjects in inclusive education settings which will function as a practical guide for working with pupils with visual impairment.
3. Exchange of good practices during the meetings, via Skype, Viber and a Web Site formed during the Erasmus + project.

Results:

A new, published Manual as a practical guide for teachers of different school subjects in inclusive education settings, which will provide information on the use of assistive technologies, and on Braille notation in subjects of natural sciences (maths, physics, chemistry and others). The Manual will consist of a general introduction and a main part. In the general introduction the target group and specifics/characteristics of the population will be presented. In the main part the following chapters will be presented: adaptation of the school environment/creating an encouraging environment for teaching; teaching tools applied to education of pupils with visual impairment; assistive technology applied to education of pupils with visual impairment; the etiquette for interacting with a person with visual impairment.

A training programme for teachers who work with pupils with visual impairment in inclusiveeducation settings. The content of the training programme is going to be tested within the project.

Up until now, we have had two transnational project meetings. All meetings were held virtually.During these meetings we:

prepared the implementation of project activities.

exchanged ideas on distance learning.

worked on Erasmus+ tools (Erasmus + Impact Tool).

Discussed the content of the manual and training programme.

The work is carried out in groups throughout the year, the tasks are divided among participating institutions. The materials are collected and shared on a common platform so all partners are familiar with its content. Project coordinators meet monthly to discuss the goals achieved and tasks that the institutions perform according to the agreements.

We believe that the project will contribute significantly to increase the competencies of teachers involved in the education of pupils with visual impairment.

References:

https://equalsims.blogspot.com/

News from Denmark

The Employment Project P.E.P. (2017-2021) shows good results

The internationally acknowledged Pre-Employment Programme, developed for job seeking visually impaired persons by the American career counselor Karen Wolffe PhD, has been translated and tested over four courses with clients from Denmark. Teachers were initially trained by Wolffe and familiarised with the programme elements. The programme was then gradually transformed to fit the Danish labour market and culture, resulting in a Danish version called P.E.P. Courses were offered in Jylland and Copenhagen by the Institute for the Blind and Partially Sighted (IBOS) and partner the socio economic company All Ears. The success target was 30% of 40 participants getting a job, but during the project period 65% got a job and one year after 56% are still in employment.

A Covid related extension of the project, that has been supported by the Danish Agency for Labour Market and Recruitment (STAR), has given IBOS an opportunity to perform an extra online trial, not counted in the results above. As participants could stay at home, costs were reduced and more could participate from all over the country. The experience with the online version is good, but results are still not available, since participants are interviewed and offered support till one year after participation. IBOS would like to continue offering the online version, hopefully under more normal societal circumstances than job seeking during the current Covid lock down offers.

Participants

In total 39 participants completed the first four P.E.P. courses. They largely consisted of two main groups:

1. Students in their final year or school leavers with little or no job experience, but who had good compensation/independence techniques and were used to coping with and managing their vision impairment
2. Adult persons, who had relatively recently lost their vision and still were learning how to cope with that, but who had former labour market experience to offer.

This mix of participants proved valuable, as experiences were shared and network relations were built.

The content of P.E.P.

The Pre-Employment Programme/P.E.P. consists of 15 day modules, preparing job seeking persons with a visual impairment to seek and get a job. Through analysis of the participants’ competences, their values and work-related personality, research on desired job opportunities and content, CV and training how to apply online became focused, so participants could develop their portfolios. Rehearsing job interviews with and getting feedback from real employers, teachers and peers, e.g. on how to talk about their vision impairment, builds self-efficacy. The programme advocates an empowering spirit and a job like setting with participants being treated as colleagues.

Evaluation

The teachers’ experiences, participants’ evaluations and the project results all indicate that the Pre-Employment Program contains what´s needed for persons with a vision impairment to find a job on ordinary terms for themselves, and enables those with a reduced capability to get their Municipal Job Center to assist them in finding a flexible job. An average of three out of four participants found the course excellent and just what they need to find a job. The rest evaluated it as good.

The P.E.P. results shows a contrast and P.E.P coordinator and labour market consultant Lise Plagborg, IBOS, states: “Our results shows, that group oriented rehabilitation and the investment in time, economy and effort is efficient in order to bring the target group into employment. But that is contrasted by a reality, where the public employment policy target is about saving time, short sighted economy and reducing rehabilitation offers.”

Transfer of knowledge

Because of the good results the Association for young persons with a handicap (SUHM), assisted by IBOS´ transfer of knowledge, are now trying to expand the program methods to other target groups in cooperation with local municipalities in a project entitled “Ban Vejen” which approximately translates to ‘Pave the way’ (2020 – 2024).

Facts

In Denmark, numbers from The Danish Center for Social Science Research (VIVE) (2020) shows that only 36.8 % of persons with a handicap are in job.

Incitas analysis (2019) of Danish employers’ attitudes towards applicants with a disability shows that 9 out of 10 would not hire a blind person.

News from Greece: Erasmus+ Projects

1.ToMIMEUs

Enriched training material has been developed within the context of the Erasmus+ Program entitled “ToMIMEUs: Towards a Multisensory and Inclusive Museum for Individuals with Sensory Disabilities” (No: 2019-1-RO01-KA202-063245) which is funded by the European Union. The coordinating partner of the Project is the Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography (Romania) and the leading organization for the development of the training material is the University of Thessaly (Greece). The training material in question includes issues regarding museum staff needs in relation to training for the access of persons/visitors with sensory disabilities. The ToMIMEUs Project focuses on the ways that museums can address visitors with sensory disabilities in their spaces and programs. The theoretical framework of the project underscores both the heterogeneity of the population of persons with sensory disabilities and the different social contexts of visits in museum.On line training events have been conducted so far from Babes Bolyai Universityand University of Thessaly.

For more information about the project and the project consortium visit: https://tomimeus.eu/project-overview/ or https://tomimeus.eu/partners/

2.ErISFAVIA

ErISFaVIA- Early Intervention Services for Families with Children with Vision Impairment and Additional Disabilities”, under the ERASMUS+ Programme, Key Action 2- Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices (No: 2019-1-EL01-KA201-062886)

The coordinating organization is the University of Thessaly and so far, two very important outcomes have been delivered. The first relates to the contemporary needs and challenges facing families regarding their involvement in early intervention programs. It consists of a critical literature review about the contemporary models of early intervention programs relevant to the field of children with vision impairment and additional disabilities or deafblindness which are family-oriented (leading organization: Babes Bolyai University). The second outcome relates to training material which was developed from the collaboration of two big European organizations with extensive experience in early intervention programs (i.e. Blindeninstitut München/Germany and Mali dom/Croatia).

For the time being, because of the pandemic, a series of on-line workshops have been delivered to all project partners and it is expected that on-site training events will be held in October 2021 and November 2021 in Germany and Croatia respectively.

For more information you may visit:

http://erisfavia.sed.uth.gr/, http://erisfavia.sed.uth.gr/index.php/project-partners, http://erisfavia.sed.uth.gr/index.php/project-overview,

3.ADD@ME

The current project “ADD@ME: Ambassadors of Diversity and non-Discrimination @ new Methods in non-formal Education” (No: 2020-2-IT03-KA205-019070) is funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union and coordinated by the Unione Italiana Ciechi ed Ipovedenti Sezione Provinciale di Firenze (Florence- Italy).

The main aim of the project is to develop an innovative, digital and adapted EU model to foster the active participation and social inclusion of young people with visual impairment engaging them as Ambassadors of Diversity and non-Discrimination. In fact, the acronym ADD@ME emphasizes their wish to be included in society.

The University of Thessaly is responsible for the dissemination activities of the project and so far, the training material of the project has been developed coupled with newsletters with differentiated layouts to increase accessibility.

The next activities of ADD@ME include training events which will take place in Poland in early September 2021 and it is also planned by the project consortium to participate to the 14th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation which will be held in Seville (Spain) on the 8th, 9th and 10th of November, 2021.

For more information you may visit www.ambassadorsofdiversity.eu

Publications relevant to projects which are in progress

Kanari, Ch., Nikolaraizi, M., Argyropoulos, V., & Papazafiri, M. (2021). Museums and individuals with sensory disabilities. Current practices, challenges and perspectives towards an inclusive museum. Culture - Journal of Culture in Tourism, Αrt and Education, 1, 45-56. [in Greek].

Available at https://journalculture.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/5/3/135316421/culture_-_journal_of_culture_in_tourism_%CE%91rt_and_education_-_vol.1_.pdf

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