In order to improve the situation for blind and severely visually impaired persons, the number of O&M trainers needs to be raised drastically to shorten waiting times and provide the users with the required amount of training to fully be self-sufficient in their mobility. However this can only be a second step, as first there needs to be a training option for the orientation and mobility trainers (OMT) themselves. Currently the only available courses are hosted in single institutes that provide only a small amount of education slots. These trainings are also very expensive either for the trainers themselves or the organizations that plan to employ them in the future. Also the coordination between the different educational institutes in different European countries is quite weak which leads to OMT being educated in one country often not being able to transfer to another country as the techniques are used differently and the education is often not seen as comparable.Then there is the matter of the digital readiness in this specific situation. the projects want to analyse the different way to support the needs for frontal lessons during the OM path.The goal of this project is to set up a common training curriculum for all European countries that can be implemented by tertiary educational facilities (Universities and Universities of applied sciences) and that will encompass all skills and techniques, also ICT skils, required to provide OMT to blind and severely visually impaired persons. Over the duration of the project we will develop training materials, educational guidelines and courses that in their sum constitute a fully educational program. These materials will be based on existing training materials for OMT and will be adapted to gather for the needs of different countries and thus allow graduates to offer their services anywhere in Europe.Producing a curriculum is the first step towards a successful implementation of a train-the-trainer program in a defined curriculum. , we will also include the educational facilities that are supposed to host the newly developed program as well as public authorities who are later responsible for accepting the qualification of the OMT and subsequently are paying for their services. In order to involve these stakeholder groups we will conduct workshops and expert meetings in different countries represented in the consortium.Eventually the developed course materials will be provided as open educational ressources (OERs) that should allow different educational facilities to take up the provided content and develop their own graduate courses upon them and also to enable representatives of other persons with disabilities to add their needs and training requirements to these materials so that the range of services for the graduates can continuously be increased.

Due to the visual handicap and the requirements for assistive devices, blind and visually impaired people are usually at a disadvantage when it comes to modern digital education. However, digital competence will continue to be a key factor in the probability of placement on the labour market in the future.Another aspect is that tactile teaching and learning materials are still essential tools in the education of blind and visually impaired students. Such tactile materials are used in lessons of natural sciences, mobility training and all-day living skills. In vocational training tactile models are used in medical and technical subjects.Until now the production of tactile materials has been expensive and time-consuming. The more simple solution to work with swell paper, however, offers strong limitations in the three-dimensional representation and sufficient reproduction of details. The development of ever cheaper and more powerful 3D printers offers new opportunities for the individual production of versatile and affordable teaching materials. In addition, 3D printing technology is an emerging innovation in the context of digitalization, which in particular educational organizations need to address in order to be able to transfer the knowledge in a second step to their students. However, in order to meet this requirement, trainers must be able to recognise and operate the technology in question and its potential. However, it is necessary that this topic is not limited to the STEM subjects, as is usually the case.This project is an initiative to improve the digital education of visually impaired students and their digital competence by implementing 3D technology. These two objectives will be achieved by a two-step strategy. 1. In the first step, teachers and trainers for visually impaired persons will be introduced in the utilization of 3D printers themselves. This step should enable the trainers to create tactile teaching materials and tools for their participants and gain practical experience by using this technology regularly.2. The next step is to enable the trainers to use their acquired experience to instruct their students in 3D printing according to the methodological requirements of visually impaired students.As an additional result, the products that have been developed during the project will be published on an already existing 3D printing portal (Thingiverse) and on a new and open portal for products for the visually impaired, which will be developed and continuously hosted by the Austrian partner.The starting point for this project are the experiences of the applicant, who has already successfully realized this procedure in his own company. In the results of this project, the special experiences and requirements of the project partners will be considered and transferred.During the project a curriculum for the trainers and a curriculum for the students will be developed. The development of the corresponding teaching materials in the languages of the partner countries is also part of the tasks. The education of trainers into 3D printing will take place within two one-week lasting training events.The products developed here can be used by other educational institutions and teachers for people with sensory disabilities.

<< Objectives >>The aim of the project is to investigate areas of application of virtual reality systems (VR) in the context of vocational training for visually impaired people and to implement this technology in the partner organisations. The first step is to introduce the trainers and the technical staff to this technology so that they can identify new areas of application for the target group from a technical point of view. This approach is innovative, as VR has not yet been considered for this target group.<< Implementation >>Four activities will be carried out in this project. In the first phase, fields of VR applications in vocational training and research will be identified. This also includes finding possible applications for the vocational training of visually impaired people. Three hybrid conferences with the participation of external experts, specialists and researchers will be held as further activities. These will address their own experiences and potential uses of VR in vocational training and other fields<< Results >>As a result, the project publishes comprehensive information about existing and potential areas of VR applications in the vocational training for visually impaired people, ophthalmological diagnostics, simulation, and vision training. This publication is available digitally under Creative Commons Licence and includes multimedia examples of VR applications for the target group of visually impaired people. Innovative areas of application for VR systems in this field are also presented.

One of the many challenges people with various degrees of disabilities face is their difficulties in accessing mainstream products and services thus being excluded from benefiting from Web content and services on an equal basis as people without disabilities. Marginalising people with disabilities on this level is a critical and problematic issue, especially in today’s “Information Society”, where access to information should be equally available to all. While these challenges have been identified (also by EC with the recently Web Accessibility Directive which was entered into force on 22/12/2016), they have not been addressed yet efficiently. In this context and building on ongoing tools and work, WADcher will research, develop and demonstrate an innovative Decision Support Environment for large scale hybrid web accessibility assessment services. WADcher aims to build a large scale infrastructure by integrating extended and enhanced existing web accessibility solutions, and by also making them customizable to the needs of different stakeholders in EU member states. The minimisation of costs and development time along with increased scalability, accessibility and usability for all types of end-users will be also analysed. Specifically, the WADcher Innovation Action will be based on the following pillars: 1) build a large scale accessibility assessment infrastructure; 2) develop and demonstrate advanced decision support tools for assisting developers and designers to create accessible assets; 3) implement a web accessibility observatory platform for hybrid combination of automatic/expert reviews; 4) validate WADcher results under a significant number of pilots and users and a coherent Web Accessibility Conformance methodology; 5) develop methods and tools with which organizations can measure the evidence, accuracy and quality of testing results; 6) liaise with relevant standardisation bodies and create needed impact through proactive dissemination and exploitation.