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.

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.

Context/background:The complexity of visual impairment with multiple additional disabilities is the reason for often having to choose for a very individualistic approach. A pilot study (Hidden Treasures [Verborgen Schatten], Boessen et al., 2016) showed that there is hardly any literature available on how to work with this target-group. Especially literature about the combination of mental health (psychological and psychiatric) problems combined with visual impairment (VI) is lacking. Within the total population of VI people, this group is relatively small. Therefore it is necessary and unavoidable to cooperate with partners abroad to develop more expertise in supporting the target group in their societal participation, mainly by collecting good practices. Objectives:During six Joint Staff Training Events (JSTE’s) professionals and members of the target group share their knowledge and experience. On completion of the project all collected good practices from the six JSTE’s are brought together in a digital 'Good Practices Book' that will be used for further training of professionals (educators and trainers) in the field of VI adults, aiming to increase societal participation and social inclusion of the target group.Number and profile of participants:Participants will be (on average) three professionals of each project partner (5x3), at least two experience experts (of the target group) connected with the organising project partner and the theme of that specific JSTE, probably added by local, regional and/or national experts and always an external evaluator. The absolute minimum number of participants will therefore be 21 (5x3 + 2 + 1) but more likely there will be about 30 participants per JSTE.Description of activities:Each of the partners will organise a JSTE (the main applicant will organise two: the kick-off conference and the closing conference) on one of the themes that will be selected before the project starts. With input from the preparatory meeting the following themes have already been pre-selected: (1) depression and anxiety; (2) personality disorders and psychoses; (3) autism spectrum disorders; (4) addiction and eating disorders; (5) post traumatic stress disorders; (6) behavioural disorders and aggression. The partners will make use of a guideline for organising the JSTE's that will be developed by the main applicant (with support of the project partners). Results and impact:On an individual level the experience experts (participants of the target group of visually impaired people with mental health problems) will be able to fully participate in the JSTE’s by sharing and co-creating new knowledge en skills to be applied by professionals. The participating professionals will be invited to share their knowledge and experiences and be inspired to apply new information into their daily practice in working with the target group.It is also expected that the problems of the complex target group will become more visible and more recognised by organisations for (i.e. the service providers) and of (i.e. the interest organisations) the target group. So there is definitely an awareness raising goal in this project aimed at increasing social inclusion of the target group.Potential longer term benefits:Though difficult to control and to monitor it is wished that this project will lead to an increased level of social; inclusion and societal participation by people of the target group through an increased level of expertise of the professionals involved. It is also desired, through dissemination activities, to reach awareness in organisations and society that only tailored interventions can be applied for this complex target group (with a lot of diversity), for whom standardised protocols and interventions usually do not work.

<< Background >>Motivated by the overwhelming positive feedback on previous projects achievements that gave blind and visually impaired people access to museums (partner Economica) or to architecture using 3D technology (partner Trnka), we decided to explore and address the needs of a particularly vulnerable group – blind and visually impaired children. Communication with school teachers from four countries in preparation of the project made the need for adequate teaching tools as well as the desire to benefit from common transnational efforts highly evident. The “TaTaBook” project will address the special needs of blind and visually impaired pupils for comprehensive, knowledge-transferring and fun-to-use learning materials by developing tailor-made 3D-based teaching tools supplemented with audio and online learning contents. Their development is a highly interactive process between schools from all countries and engages professionals in all relevant fields – 3D, IT, didactics, natural sciences, science communication. Most importantly, the final beneficiaries – teachers and children – take part in tool development by testing and commenting on intermediate prototypes. Moreover, the participating teachers will not only receive innovative learning materials and methods, but also gain competencies in 3D printing and become interconnected through a dedicated platform for knowledge exchange to encourage further cooperation and exchange.<< Objectives >>We want to set the critical steps that foster a better inclusion of blind and visually impaired children. By supporting teachers with strongly-needed tools, by expanding their digital competencies and by interconnecting them with colleagues abroad who are facing similar challenges, the project aims to strengthen international cooperation between schools with visually impaired and blind people to increase the international cooperation as well as the exchange of knowledge and experiences. We want to make both teaching and learning more enjoyable and fruitful and let children experience and further develop their superior tactile abilities that are among others demanded in their private and professional future, e.g. in the medical field for sensing early-stage cancer tissue.<< Implementation >>We will implement a set of activities, including five transnational meetings that focus on specific result-related topics (e.g. 3D printing, learning contents, etc.). One workshop, which will be coupled with a transnational project meeting, will give an introduction to 3D-printing. Four more workshops (learning and teaching activities) focusing on the target group – teachers of visually impaired pupils – specific development of the teaching contents will take place – one in each school. Finally, the results will be presented in the multiplier event in Vienna at the end of the project. Here the final results (microlearnings, TaTaBook and platform) will be presented to invited representative from target groups and beneficiaries, i.e. teachers and pupils.<< Results >>There are four types of project results: 1) the innovative teaching tools for teachers, i.e. learning materials for blind and (primarily though not exclusively) visually impaired children, 2) in the format of a talking, tactile “book”, 3) the corresponding learning content which will be supported by online micro-learning materials, that are accessible via a platform (which additionally serves to exchange 3D-printing plans, audio files, microlearning contents and day-to-day communication between partners, and 4) a comprehensive report about the lessons learned in the project, which will also be available on the platform for the public (especially for schools that are not part of the project but are interested in the project results). In order to facilitate ongoing cooperation and dissemination, the exchange platform will in the end represent a freely accessible database of teaching topics and subjects. In preparation of the project, participating schools already decided on 4 topics (orientation & mobility, the human body, the journey of Magellan, and geology). For these topics respective teaching contents will be elaborated. Importantly, the outcomes will be strictly tailor-made, since development of learning contents and ways of presentation as tactile book happens in an interactive way. More precisely, input and feedback from teachers and children will be collected at a regular basis. Not only will these contents imply the design of the respective tactile teaching book, but also the selection of additional materials that – where appropriate - support the children's perception, enabling a more explorative learning process, e.g. through addressing their olfactory sense. In the end there will be 4 different tactile books – each with a specific topic, but available as own copy to each participating project partner. These books will be produced via 3D printing as on the one hand this allows a more detailed presentation of topics (detailed, refined surface features) and on the other hand facilitates dissemination and reproduction. Importantly, although the same “hardware” (tactile book) materials are being used for all age groups, audio description and additional materials may vary, depending on age and level of knowledge. Further, the project outcomes encompass: an overall improvement in the education of blind and visually impaired children that strongly promotes their social inclusion and raises their self-esteem; long-lasting teaching competencies that complement current curricula and that make schools and teachers keep pace with novel opportunities arising from digital transformation; a better-connected international community whose individual endeavours on helping blind and visually impaired ones become mutually beneficial and more efficient.