<< Objectives >>Touching Maths+ aims to develop an Extended Mathematics Core Curriculum for braille readers thus giving them the possibility to achieve the same academic goals in learning mathematics as their sighted peers. Math teachers will be equipped with tools and teaching methods that will increase the inclusion of braille readers in the classroom. The established methodology of creating Extended Core Curricula can be further used for other mathematical topics or even other subjects than mathematics.<< Implementation >>The project will include-Writing of EMCC and (reverse) adaptation-Testing the EMCC and the (reverse) adaptations with braille readers, math teachers and braille professionals-Writing of manuals on how to use (reverse) adaptations for math teachers and braille professionals-Organise training programs for math teachers and braille professionals in each of the partner countries-Create website, organise dissemination and awareness activities and promotional events.<< Results >>-Overview of existing contents of math curricula for sighted students per partnering country -EMCC for graphs, mathematical equations and programming in maths -Manual for braille professionals -Manual for math teachers-Recommendation report for other countries: how to create Extended Core Curricula for braille readers-Testing plan and test reports-Dissemination and awareness plan-Training programs for braille professionals and math teachers-Project website-Dissemination events

Students with visually impairments, especially blind, have difficulties with editing and reading mathematical content, especially 2-dimentional objects such as formulas and mathematical graphics (geometric shapes, function graphs). Teaching methods based on Braille techniques and limited access to many mathematical educational resources make learning mathematics difficult and time-consuming. The results of the published research conducted by IMM in Poland on the needs of computerization of mathematics teaching of the blind and partially sighted students showed that the only non-computerized subjects are the sciences, and the reason for the low results on the matriculation examination in mathematics is, among others, lack of support with ICT tools. The success of the PlatMat educational platform developed in projects preceding the EuroMath project in the EU TellUs Awards competition (2014-2015) disseminating the best innovative ICT solutions for formal education systems in the EU, and the award obtained at the international ITEX 2015 exhibition, confirmed the deficit and needs of this type of solutions in Europe and in the world.The aim of the EuroMath project was to develop, make available under open licenses and disseminate in Europe, innovative specialized ICT tools supporting teachers and students with visual impairments in math lessons and extracurricular activities in mathematics. EuroMath technology combines selected innovative solutions in PlatMat and new functions to cover the identified needs of mathematical inclusive education in Poland, the Netherlands and Ireland. About 100 people took part in the project, including teachers, pupils, students and scientists from 24 educational institutions in Poland, Ireland and the Netherlands (first and second degree schools and universities), as well as education organizers and representatives of bodies and institutions operating in favour of people with disabilities. The following activities were implemented in the project:1. Knowledge about the state and needs of mathematical education of blind and visually impaired students was gathered, especcialy on support with ICT tools, in Poland, the Netherlands, Ireland and in neighboring countries for the purpose of adjusting EuroMath tools to the expectations of target groups. Questionnaire research and literature analysis were carried out. 3 short-term joint staff training events were organized. The final report with conclusions was prepared.2. Based on the state of the art and the IO Report1, the technical and functional assumptions for EuroMath tools were formulated.3. EuroMath tools have been implemented, including:a. EuroMath web application in PL and EN language version with built-in tools for editing and reading math content (4 formula editors, graphics editor, formula navigator, graphics navigator, quiz module, UEB and BNM converters, black and white/Braille printouts and tactile graphics);b. 2 Windows applications: CUBARITHMS i CALCULATOR, (PL, EN);c. portal and repository of open math educational resources (OER) available to users with sight disabilities (PL, EN).5. 3 documentation was developed - technical, functional and functional documentation for the needs of blind users of the EuroMath web application (PL, EN).6. The EuroMath model verification tool was developed and the technical correctness of the model was verified by the Partners.7. The EuroMath valorisation tool was developed and the teachers' valorisation of the EuroMath tools was performed.8. A research tool and a comparative analysis of Braille techniques in the 3 countries of the Partnership were made and a summary report (in EN) was prepared.9. 340 didactic materials and 10 interactive lessons for students and teachers were developed in .docx files, including 140 in Polish, compliant with the Polish core curriculum in mathematics and 210 in English, including 100 compliant with the Irish core curriculum and 110 - with Dutch. Using EuroMath tools, they were converted to the EPUB3 electronic publication standard format and then published in the OER repository. Additionally, a comparative analysis report (from p. 8) was published in the repository, constituting the 351st resource in the repository.10. 42 video tutorials on the use of EuroMath tools and OER were prepared (PL, EN).11. 5 Quick Start Guide brochures for EuroMath tools were prepared (PL, EN).12. Multiplier events were done.Activities in the project were carried out in close cooperation with the educational community in the Partnership countries, and the quality and usefulness of the developed EuroMath tools was assessed by end users as part of verification and valorization tasks.Intellectual outputs obtained during the project:IO1 – Report “A comparative Analysis of ICT Tools and the Mathematical Education of Blind and Visually Impaired people in Ireland, Poland, the Netherlands, and Neighbouring Countries” in 3 language versions (PL, EN, NL) available on the project website https://project.euromath.eu under free Creative Commons open license.IO2 - EuroMath technology model - assumptions (EN, PL) and technical and functional concept in Technical Documentation (EN, PL).IO3 - implemented EuroMath model (PL, EN), including: the EuroMath web application with functional documentation and documentation dedicated for blind users; 2 Windows applications CUBARITHMS and CALCULATOR with manuals; portal (https://www.euromath.eu) supporting the OER repository and communication with the EuroMath web application. The applications are available on the portal, free of charge under the GNU LGPL 2.1 open license, along with the documentation under Creative Commons open license.IO4 – OER repository on the portal with 350 mathematical educational resources, including 340 didactic materials and 10 interactive mathematics lessons (PL, EN); 42 instructional videos on the YouTube channel (EN, PL); report on the comparative analysis of mathematical education of braille readers in 3 countries of the Partnership (EN). OER are available free of charge under the Creative Commons open license. IO5 – set of 5 Quick Start Guide brochures for EuroMath tools (PL, EN) available on the portal in the Catalogue menu, free of charge under the Creative Commons open license.

MDVI students (Multiple Disabled and Visually Impaired) face major challenges in expressing themselves, in communication and learning. Using ICT can support them greatly and make them feel more socially included. We aimed to support professionals to test, train and monitor the ICT skills of their students in a standardized, effective and easy way and make them more aware of the possibilities for making learning easier for the target group with one comprehensible tool. And to give MDVI students opportunities to increase their capabilities to communicate and interact through the use of ICT to make them more self-reliant and improve their overall wellbeing. Also we expected parents to have more options to train and support their children. We can confidently say these aims were reached. A parent said: “Communication options [by use of ICT] offer him more opportunities to show us what he wants. This makes him happier.” A professional: “He has severe motor, speech and visual problems, but his cognitive skills are probably better then we know. With the ICT options we can now find out better what he really understands and wants to tell us.” In iExpress I a screening instrument for using ICT and assistive devices for MDVI children was developed and validated. Now the partners made a toolkit containing an innovative standardized digital tool to measure, train and monitor their students’ progress. The software is accessible for professionals working with MDVI students to increase their ICT skills and capabilities with assistive devices. It is downloadable for free (Play Store, iTunes and Web for desktop app).The solution includes an individual ICT plan to plan next steps after assessment and to monitor progress. We also developed guidelines on how to use the software and screening correctly. They also contain specifics on how to work with the target group and use of devices and provisions on the problems and possibilities of MDVI children in relation to ICT skills and assistive devices. It finally includes recommendations for different target groups and requirements for professionals. The complete toolkit can be found on the iExpress web platform. Here, one can also access the secured database and view screening results.In a 6 month pilot we tested the functionality and usability of the applications to apply and facilitate working with the screening instrument in the daily work of the MDVI teachers/professionals. 10 professionals from the iExpress team were trained to train 31 other professionals in 3 partner organisations INIB (Iceland), Budapest School for the Blind (Hungary) and Royal Dutch Visio (Netherlands) to use the iExpress toolkit. During the pilot the trainees screened 32 students. After the pilot, we made final improvements to the toolkit.It turned out that using the toolkit makes professionals more effective and efficient in their research and training of ICT skills with the target group. They spend less time setting goals and monitoring the progress of the students. Also students are screened in a more objective way and their evolution can be easily and closely monitored, allowing professionals to have a clear plan for following up of the abilities of the users. All staff members of the multi-disciplinary team and parents now have the opportunity to work in the same way by using the toolkit while working on the same objectives.The iExpress tool offers MDVI students opportunities to increase their capabilities to interact through the use of ICT which will make them more self-reliant and improve their wellbeing. Parents have improved options to support the students' development and progress. While in the pilot data we sometimes noticed only little improvement, parents indicate that they experience these little steps as a big achievement for their children. And this is the core. The steps might seem small, but they have a huge impact on the students’ quality of life. As we can see in the iExpress animation movie: Kate's siblings can now play games with her because she can control the dice using a touchscreen. Isn’t that what we want for all students? While the project was originally focused on MDVI students (developmental age 0-4), it can be applied to a much wider target group. Also children and adults with the same developmental age but no visual impairment can be screened and trained in their ICT skills, as well as MDVI children and adults with moderate to severe motor disabilities, but with a higher developmental age and young children (calendar age between 0-8) with severe motor disabilities and severe visual impairment or other physical impairments, but without intellectual disabilities. At the start of the project we stated: the group of MDVI students is relatively small and rather complex, however we may expect that in the long term over a hundred professionals and over a thousand children and family members will benefit. Now, we expect these numbers to be higher.

Persons with MDVI are facing major challenges in expressing themselves, in communication and learning. Experience and knowledge in how assistive devices could help this target group is starting to grow slowly. Only a small number of institutes in Europe are trying to gather their knowledge and experience to create a practice based methodology. The MDVI target group is relatively small (although 70% of all persons with a mental disability have a visual impairment too) but complex. To get a good perspective and create a qualitative good curriculum from different perspectives, international exchange of existing experience has great added value. Using assistive devices is a way of making learning easier for this target group. iExpress has contributed to this enormously by the exchange of already existing knowledge and by developing a validated curriculum and a practice-based methodology for using assistive devices for (MDVI). The following three objectives of the project were reached:1. Exchange of existing curricula in Europe for training MDVI with assistive devices.2. Design and validate a screening instrument for training MDVI persons with ICT.3. Exchange of knowledge and expertise in learning strategies of MDVI and assistive devices.During the project 4 transnational meetings took place. The meetings included: start-up, evaluation, project-management, instruction of experts, construction of the EU curriculum, dissemination, sustainability, coordination of the validation-process. The first phase of the project was the construction phase in which a EU curriculum was set up: creation of a common curriculum. During this phase (August 2016 - April 2017) amongst others existing curricula were researched. It turned out that these were basically non-existent. During this same phase, as a next step the partnership developed, designed and validated a screening instrument which allowed to know how the existing curricula could be used in MDVI. What followed was the validation phase (April 2017 - November 2017 ): During this period the screening instruments were designed (one for Blind and one for Low Vision), their content validity was proved by experts of different countries, data was collected from 29 MDVI students of the Netherlands, Hungary and Iceland, and construct validity and reliability were proved too.The final products of the project are two screening instruments (for blind or low vision students) that allows to know the degree in which ICT could be used by MDVI in their learning process. After the assessment provided for these instruments, the common European curriculum proposed could be used or adapted for these students. This product can be used by professionals working with MDVI children. To make the product a more sustainable and more efficient tool the partnership is working on the continuation of this project by proposing a follow up project in which a comprehensive toolkit is developed that provides MDVI professionals with guidelines and innovative tools and elearning instructions to use the validated screening instrument to test and train MDVI children and to increase children's ICT skills and capabilities with assistive devices. The solution will include the function of an individual ICT plan which allows the professional to determine the next steps after assessment and to monitor the child’s progress over time. The applications will be, as much as possible, language free so it will enable the use by any professional.During the whole process the work done under the iExpress project by the partners was disseminated (August 2016 - January 2018) amongst others (not limited) by information through presentations at conferences, websites, flyers, to all existing networks (ENVITER, EASPD, EBU, etc.). These networks have spread the word about the work done and are very eager to contribute to the follow up of iExpress. The group of MDVI children is relatively small and rather complex, however we may expect that in the longer term, in the years after the this project and ultimately a follow up project has ended, over a hundred professionals and over a thousand children and family members will benefit.

<< Objectives >>VI children lack access to a wide range of literature needed in order to be able to build awareness of the world around them and thus achieve emotional, linguistic and intellectual levels. Tacticos aims to provide high quality and well tested guidelines for designing and producing cost–effective tactile books and tactile illustrations and improve (inter)national cooperation in this field. By doing so we aim to foster the development of literacy and concept building skills of VI children.<< Implementation >>The 3 essential project activities are:1. Writing of guidelines for producing high quality, cost-effective tactile books and illustrations, preceded by preliminary research and setting up of methodology and terminology2. Testing the guidelines. A set of tactile books and illustrations will be produced according to the guidelines and will be tested with VI children. 3. Dissemination activities including training program for VI professionals and caretakers for ‘reading’ tactile materials<< Results >>The main results of this project are:-Desktop research -Glossary of terms -Guidelines for designing and producing tactile illustrations and books-Recommendation report for cooperation VI experts and printing houses-Testing plan and evaluation report-1-3 tactile book -20-30 tactile illustrations for concept development -Dissemination plan, project website-Training programme and tools for VI professionals and parents/caretakers of VI children-Network campaign-Promotion events