The number of blind or severely visually impaired children between 0 and 6 years old is relatively small, but the impact of these first years of visual impairment is critical to establish their future possibilities of inclusion. Multiple studies carried out on children who suffer from mild to severe visual impairment have shown that generating care mechanisms as early as possible is essential for them to reach adequate maturity and achieve full inclusion in their family, school, and social environment.This early attention to the child with visual impairment must begin before age 4 and must be aimed at providing stimuli matching their level of development, and based in each individual case. It must be an enriching and compensating mechanism with the objective of facilitating varied non-improvised situations with specific stimuli that allow development in various areas: motor, cognitive, social, language, and personal autonomy.Historically, this specific training for children with severe visual impairment was mainly carried out in family or controlled environments for specific training, isolated from standard pre-primary schools. Nowadays, however, the social inclusion of students with visual impairment in ordinary schools is a priority.However, this transit is not easy, and it generates serious distress in the student with obstacles, their teacher, their center, and their family, since it is usually based on specific adaptations that are only “patches” that try to overcome these serious barriers, but without generating educational processes that include students with low vision in equity: the inclusive classroom model.With this ambitious objective, in 2018 an intersectorial European network was created, comprised of REDTREE MAKING PROJECTS COOP.V., the federation ANIRIDIA EUROPE, the associations ANIRIDIA ITALIANA, ANIRIDIA NORGE and ALBA, and the company SMALLCODES SRL, with the objective of developing materials and tools to facilitate the inclusion of children with low vision in pre-primary education through the design of applications adapted to their learning, and digital training materials for teachers in formal and non-formal education.We created two highly innovative and ambitious Intellectual Outputs that could answer to the needs identified:- O1. VIRTUAL TRAINING COURSE FOR THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS AND PRE-PRIMARY EDUCATION CENTERS IN THE INCLUSION OF STUDENTS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT IN THEIR CLASSROOM.- O2. VISAPP - ORIGINAL ICT TOOL FOR THE INCLUSION OF STUDENTS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT IN THE CLASSROOM.Along with these two Intellectual Outputs, we have developed multiple tangible and intangible results that complement them and enhance their impact: a methodological guide for the adaptation of a pre-primary schools into inclusive schools for students with low vision, a flexible and innovative methodology to train pre-primary education teachers, a user guide for the APP, and the constitution of an intersectorial network that allows the exchange of experiences and knowledge, and achieves significant improvements and impact on the inclusion of the beneficiaries.This project, framed in the school education sector, was originally planned for two years, but had to ultimately be extended to 36 months, ending on August 31st 2021, in order to be able to overcome the obstacles caused by COVID- 19 and thereby guarantee its quality and expected impact.Throughout the project, 4 Transnational Meetings were held (Spain, Italy, Norway, and a 4th virtual one), various activities for the creation of materials were carried out, periodic meetings, dissemination and evaluation activities, and 3 large Multiplier Events for the presentation of the results.To date, the project has had a high impact on pre-primary education, especially on its students with mild to severe visual impairment, and on the training of teachers at this level. The European Commission and EU Member States (EU “ET 2020 Thematic Working Group on Early Childhood Education and Care (2012-2014)”) have recognized that access to inclusive and high quality ECEC services is beneficial to all. These benefits include a wide range of individual and social improvements, so we hope that the impact of this project will not only be significant but also sustained over time.

<< Objectives >>Low vision, especially if it is the consequence of a rare disease, raises significant barriers to the social and personal inclusion of those young people who suffer from it. Especially in countries with low social coverage and few support structures for people with low vision, it is essential to support youth associations of these patients as a means of raising awareness in society, promoting their inclusion, and fostering their active participation.<< Implementation >>Social networks of young people with low vision will be generated, to contribute to their inclusion while developing more aware and inclusive Latin American societies, exporting successful experiences to Europe while also improving their practices.During 24 months, the following activities will be carried out:- Act. for the creation of results.- Act. for the training and preparation of the participants.- Transnational activities.- Dissemination activitie<< Results >>In order to achieve the inclusion of youth with low vision, especially in countries with high levels of lack of support:-They will be taught how to organize themselves, actively participate for their inclusion, and overcome their barriers, all through the creation of methodological guides, webinars, support networks, tools and materials...-Societies will become more tolerant and aware to support these young people and their associations, through viral video campaigns, awareness documentaries..

<< Background >>According to studies by the WHO (2020) and the participating entities themselves, it is estimated that there are more than 2 million children under 15 years old with severe low vision or blindness in Europe. They are boys and girls with severe visual impairment (usually aggravated by other pathologies which are the cause of the vision loss) of school age who struggle each day to live a full life… but this is not easy. For these young people and children, each day of school is a battle: a battle to arrive at school, a battle to overcome obstacles and learn, a battle to integrate with their peers… a battle for which they usually do not have the tools to fight.This is not easy for their teachers either; when a teacher receives a student with low vision in their classroom, he/she knows that all previous work, all his/her teaching experience, is not enough. That year they will have to start again creating a new adapted classroom planning, new learning methods that include the student with low vision, rework all her educational materials to adapt them to low vision, invest many hours in the creation of curricular adaptations… and they usually don’t know how to do it, feeling helpless and alone, and not knowing who to turn to or ask for help.Primary school teachers usually haven't received general training in attention to diversity, and never one specific to low vision; secondary teachers much less. How much does the child see? Can low vision be the cause of those outbursts of anger? And withdrawal as well? Should I demand from them the same as from others? Is it better to use the electronic board, place them in the front row, or to let them use the tablet on their own? How will the rest of their classmates understand that he/she can use a tablet or smartphone and they are not allowed? Do I create materials only for the student with low vision or do I generalize them to all the students? How do I create these materials? Do I have to buy a specific app?If this was the case before 2020, and nowadays COVID-19 has made this task of the teacher simply unfeasible. The pandemic has accelerated the process of digitization of schools, undoubtedly a step forward in the education of the future, but this advance also entails an increase in the teacher’s workload and a serious risk for students with low vision if carried out incorrectly. The teacher of a student with low vision now has to invest his/her already scarce time in digitizing their teaching, adapting classroom methods to COVID-19, digitizing resources, monitoring their students to see if there is contagion, and all of this fully adapted to low vision and not knowing how to do it.The only opportunity for the teacher not to lose dedication to students with low vision while also adapting teaching methods to the digital field (essential in the post-COVID-19 society) is to unify these two processes, generating innovative digital learning methods adapted to students with low vision, that have not just innovative and adapted tools, but also specific training and the creation of support networks of experts and families that allow them to achieve this.Thus, we propose the project “SEEING THE INVISIBLE: Inclusive digitalization of low vision students in school education” both for teachers and students with low vision; a project that will generate digital and adapted tools to enable any school education student with low vision to achieve full inclusion in the classroom and educational success, regardless of whether teaching is on-site or online.<< Objectives >>The project “SEEING THE INVISIBLE: Inclusive digitization of students with low vision in school education” comes from the joint work of a wide multidisciplinary European network formed by social cooperatives expert in inclusive methodologies (REDTREE MAKING PROJECTS COOP.V.), virtual environment programming companies (SMALLCODES Srl.), associations of low vision experts (the European federation of Aniridia - ANIRIDIA EUROPE, ANIRIDIA NORGE, ANIRIDIA ITALIANA, and the Spanish association to aid persons with Albinism - ALBA), and secondary schools themselves (more than 14 educational centers that comprise the GRETA DU VELAY network) from 4 countries (Spain, France, Italy, and Norway).Through a process of analysis of needs, in which students with low vision of the participating social entities and their teachers identified not only their needs but also made proposals for tools and resources that they would like to have in their classroom, not only the purpose of the project was determined, but also the specific objectives that would satisfy the needs detected.Thus, SEEING THE INVISIBLE was born with the objective of promoting a partnership for cooperation capable of providing teachers of students with low vision with everything necessary to alleviate the needs that they will face when teaching primary or secondary classrooms with students with low vision in the international post-COVID-19 reality. Through a network of impactful organizations capable of operating jointly at a transnational level, promoting the internationalization of their entities, the exchange of experiences at a European level and generating synergies in different areas (training, education, and youth), we want to provide to teachers of students with low vision with everything necessary to alleviate all the needs that they will face when teaching in primary or secondary classrooms with students with low vision in the new international panorama.More specifically, we want to:- Provide specific training about low vision for teachers, to allow them to understand the capabilities of their students, the consequences of their rare diseases and low vision, and learn about effective teaching processes adapted to this beneficiary group.- Promote an inclusive, innovative, adapted, and appealing school education for students, whether or not they have low vision, by turning their smartphone into a powerful tool that teachers can use both to teach lessons (using the users’ own APPs) and to adapt their didactic programming to the beneficiaries and the virtual context in a simple way.- Facilitate the use of adapted digital materials that enable teaching and avoid having to reconstruct all the teaching materials created for on-site teaching throughout years of experience.- Promote the active participation of experts, doctors, and families of students with low vision in the work of the teacher, being a continuous support and avoiding the fear of making mistakes in their educational work.- Raising awareness in the educational community on the importance of adapting schools to persons with low vision (both students and potential teachers with this condition), not only structurally but through their work methods and support.- Generate synergies between school education (both pre-primary and higher education), training, and youth.We want to offer teachers everything they need to ensure that any school education student with low vision achieves full inclusion in the classroom and educational success, regardless of whether the teaching is on-site or online, and give them confidence, security, and tranquility to face the hard times he/she is living as a teacher, but also facilitate the inclusion of students in their local community, making it more inclusive and aware of low vision.<< Implementation >>This project comes from the collaboration of entities from very different sectors that will provide different points of view and an extensive experience in the various areas of work of the project, generating very positive synergies between them. Undoubtedly, the joint work between social entities of persons with rare diseases that cause low vision or blindness, experts in inclusive educational methodologies, computer programmers, and schools themselves is one of the great strengths of this project, which will allow to develop the multiple activities proposed, months before submitting the application, and allowing us to generate results that will be integrated into the usual work of all partner entities.Starting in mid-2020, when the network began planning the project, until its planned end in August 2023, a schedule has been structured into 4 phases, more than 23 stages, 53 types of activities, and more than 150 actions. This structure allows us to achieve three key aspects for the project:1. The implementation of a quality system that establishes specific evaluations for each stage (not only at the end of the phase), allowing to detect non-conformities much more quickly and to establish the most appropriate corrective measures for them.2. The participation of the beneficiaries themselves, establishing specific inclusion and adaptation measures not only according to the type of activity, but also according to the stage in which they are, attending to the digital dimension as a key aspect of the inclusion and diversity of the project when we speak of low vision.3. Establishing processes of sustainability and respect for the environment, using more ecological means of transport and digital working methods that reduce their carbon footprint and of the project itself.The project activities have been organized into:a) PLANNING PHASE, which allowed us to generate the stages for the analysis of needs of both the students with low vision and teachers after the appearance of COVID-19, to design a series of activities aimed at generating the logical framework of the project, and specify the most appropriate activities and results to achieve the objectives and alleviate needs, and the stage for the drafting of the request and the creation of the DISSEMINATION PLAN and the INCLUSION PLAN.b) PREPARATION PHASE, which will allow to carry out the stages for the final concretion of the project and carrying out the logistical aspects for the selection and training of participants and for the presentation and visibility of the project.c) IMPLEMENTATION PHASE, which will include the stages for the coordination of the implementation phase, the creation of the e-Twinning project, internal visibility, external visibility, the development of the results, the creation of tangible results, evaluation of results, preparation of dissemination, evaluation of the implementation phase, and for holding the Transnational Meetings.d) MONITORING PHASE, which groups together the stage for the sustainability of the network, the stage for internal dissemination, the stage for external dissemination, the stage for evaluating the impact on target groups, the stage for evaluating the monitoring phase, and the stage for the final evaluation and sustainability.These stages will allow us to carry out more than 150 activities, including transnational virtual activities, national activities for the creation of results, virtual meetings, transnational meetings, visibility and dissemination activities, evaluation activities, networking activities, bilateral meetings with other entities, participant selection activities, training activities, workshops, conferences, social networks, pilot tests, sustainability activities, and events, among others.<< Results >>In order to achieve the ambitious objectives, tools will be generated adapted to the needs of teachers and students with low vision in the different learning modalities (on-site/ mixed/ distance):- MAIN RESULTS:O1- SEEING THE INVISIBLE: EDUCATIONAL APPLICATION FOR THE INCLUSIVE DIGITALIZATION OF THE CLASSROOM THROUGH THE SMARTPHONE. This will be an innovative and unique application for distance education through the smartphone of any subject in the school environment adapted to low vision thanks to powerful tools for the creation of virtual classrooms and teaching units. This app will help the teacher through innovative and unique tools for the design and creation of adapted study sessions with the collaboration of experts in low vision and tutored processes to guide him/her.O2 - VIRTUAL CURRICULAR PROPOSAL FOR TEACHERS: INCLUSIVE DIGITIZATION IN SCHOOL EDUCATION: a curricular proposal capable of promoting methodologies and pedagogies that allow the participation in equity of students with low vision in their classroom, and show teachers the less obvious consequences of rare diseases and how to deal with them by favoring methods adapted to the three learning modalities. It includes a specific course based on the curricular proposal.O3 - OERs ADAPTED TO STUDENTS WITH LOW VISION: a set of resources that will also reinforce the inclusive digitization of on-site education, especially for visually impaired students. These will be in a flexible format that will allow them to be worked online via PC, tablet, smartphone… and also offline, for those schools that don’t yet have the needed resources or digital devices.- TANGIBLE AND STRUCTURAL RESULTS:Along with these, we intend to create other tangible and structural results to support the impact of the first ones:R1 - SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCES OF EDUCATIONAL INCLUSION OF YOUNG PEOPLE WITH RARE DISEASES AND LOW VISION: a manual with examples of experiences of inclusion of young people with low vision in education.R2 - GUIDE FOR THE ADAPTATION OF A SECONDARY EDUCATION SCHOOL INTO AN INCLUSIVE SCHOOL FOR CHILDREN WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT: a brief guide for the heads of secondary schools with tips and proposals designed by experts, parents of children with visual impairment, and researchers.R3 - ADVISORY SERVICE FOR TEACHERS: a service for teachers of students with low vision where they can consult their doubts or receive the help of experts in the field of rare diseases.R4 - A WEB PLATFORM: an easily accessible space for school heads, students, and teachers to access all results of the project for free, to communicate with low vision experts, and learn more about our project and the Erasmus Plus Programme.R5 - STRENGTHENING THE NETWORK ESTABLISHED IN 2018, IN WHICH NEW PARTNERS WILL PARTICIPATE: a network comprised of expert entities, educational centers, and federations or associations of young people who suffer from rare diseases.R6 - THE EXCHANGE OF EXPERIENCES AND KNOWLEDGE BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED: an exchange that leads to the internationalization of the work of the entities while promoting intersectorial networking and a European-scale impact of the project.We offer a highly impactful project capable of alleviating the needs of any European teacher with students with low vision in the times that we have had to live, allowing them to improve inclusion in their classrooms, the educational achievements of their students (both with and without low vision), and adapting teaching to the digital environment of a post-COVID-19 society. This project is also easily replicable to other educational fields like Vocational Training, Higher Education, or even non-formal education.

Rare Eye Diseases (REDs) are a major cause of visual impairment and blindness in Europe, affecting patients of all ages. The RESTORE VISION Consortium identified a group of 7 REDs all affecting the cornea and ocular surface that cause severe vision impairment and blindness and have inadequate treatment options today. Onset and progression is characterised by overlapping common pathophysiologic mechanisms: defective corneal wound healing, nerve degeneration, stem-cell dysfunction and aberrant vessel ingrowth. The 7 REDs targeted are Aniridia-Associated Keratopathy, Neurotrophic Keratopathy, Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency, Ocular Cicatricial Pemphigoid, EEC Syndrome, Ocular Graft versus Host Disease and Corneal Neovascularisation, affecting over 500k patients in Europe. Current management is often prohibitively expensive, has low efficacy and leads to debilitating side effects, pointing to a critical medical problem and area of unmet medical need. RESTORE VISION brings together actors from across the full value chain: 6 leading research institutions, 3 SMEs and a European patient organisation. We take a ground-breaking approach to improve eye health by verifying disease pathomechanisms, using cutting-edge models for each rare disease to test novel and repurposed compounds and determine drug mechanisms of action, formulating compounds as safe eye drop suspensions or subconjunctival drugs, and performing several first-in-human trials of novel therapies. New therapeutics with game-changing potential will be evaluated for the first time. Our pioneering ‘streams’ approach is based on the repurposing of 6 existing drugs and the development of 3 new compounds, all with solid preliminary data showing remarkable effects in restoring the cell physiology, immune, avascular, neural and signalling environment in the cornea. This innovative approach shortcircuits lengthy and complex regulatory and drug development processes, ensuring rapid translation into the clinic.