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.

The background of this project is that several professionals were working together on an EU project and identified the need for development of training and materials of educators of children with cerebral visual impairment. Since then the project idea has developed and the group became bigger because it's necessary to connect health care and education professionals together to address this area of need. Therefore the group behind this project comes from a cross sector of professionals that are all connected to the vision field in some way. The objectives of this project are to produce training and teaching materials for teachers, a scanning tool and guidelines for health care and educational professionals. The project group has seen that this kind of training, tools and guidelines are lacking in the European environment of vision. The number of project partners are seven and the profile of them are various. The National Institute for the Blind is experienced in participating in projects nationally and internationally and will be responsible for leading the project. Positive Eye is a training company that will be responsible for developing the seminars (where we train the teacher advisor) it is to be held for professionals across Europe and the partnership organizations. The Royal Blind School - Edinburgh . will be used as a pilot school to try out the resources. This allows the products developed by the partnership to be tried and tested with the teachers and the students with cerebral visual impairment. SPSM - the National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools is a Research Centre for children with vision loss due to brain damage. SPSM conducts special needs vision assessments and educational advice. They will be responsible for gathering information for the project and pilot the screening and guidelines and other resources that will be put forward. The University of LEUVEN is to be involved in the project and will be represented by Prof Dr Els Ortibus. Dr. Els Ortibus who is a leading specialist in CVI within Europe and will be responsible for creating a screening tool for cerebral visual impairment. ChildVision, Dublin, is Ireland’s National Education Centre for Blind and Visually Impaired children and young people. ChildVision will fulfil the internal moderation function, ensuring through specific methodological means that the ongoing evaluation ensures the project remains on target, in terms of generating an end result with the potential to improve teaching strategies and benefit learners. The Icelandic Diagnostic Center is known for their extensive knowledge of children with disabilities. A paediatrician from the centre who is one of the most experienced doctors in the field in Iceland at working with children with visual impairment will have on their responsible for developing guidelines for health and educational professionals in partnership with University of Leuven. The activities that are going to be supported by this project is intellectual output of knowledge of cerebral vision impairment. This is done by making a educational resources, training materials and seminar for teachers. The methodology used in carrying out the project will be a typical project management methodology. 1. Initiation, 2. planning and design, 3. execution, 4. monitoring and control and 5. closing. We have already begun in the first steps of the project where we have already initiated the idea and started to plan it with budget control, scope and responsibilities. It's not until we have our first meeting where the execution of the project begins where we will over a three year period work on the resource material, web site, develop the screening and the guidelines, host a multiplier event and workshops in our own countries. We envisage that through our project there will be awareness raising in Europe that we can help to fulfill a need for special training for teachers working with students with cerebral visual impairment and that we can help to fulfill that need with our training material, screening and guidelines. Through our work we hope health care and educational professionals will be more interested and have increased knowledge in cerebral visual impairment and more children will be identified and receive the help they need for their disability. It is well known that children that don't recognize their fellow students because of things like face blindness experience barriers.The potential longer term benefits of the project is that the knowledge of CVI will be included in the training of teachers that work with students with CVI and they will no longer be thought to not have the ability to read or write, their right for literacy will be the same as fellow students in the school system.

"The ""Visually Impaired youth with Vested Autonomy – Social inclusion via social entrepreneurship"" /V.I.V.A./ was a project targeting young people with visual impairments” and in particular to facilitate their social inclusion and empowerment through the development of their leadership, entrepreneurial, and intercultural skills. The consortium is led by Ofensiva Tinerilor which has been working for and with v.i. children and young people since 2014. Part of the consortium is 1 social enterprise organization The International Council for Cultural Centers (I3C), BG, a National rehabilitation center for the blind (BG), two unions of the blind – in Iceland and Florence, a youth organization with excellent experience in working with v.i. youths – Ofensiva (RO), as well as one universities EL with experience in entrepreneurship and inter-cultural skills. The bouquet of partner organizations processes specific knowledge and expertise in the field of social inclusion, peer learning, theatre training, youth empowerment, entrepreneurship, leadership, and inter-cultural communication skills, applying different methods to combat unemployment and social exclusion of the visually impaired (v.i.) young people. The key objective of the project was to encourage v.i. young people’s active participation in society by designing, testing, and implementing a tailor-made training program for developing their social entrepreneurship, leadership, and inter-cultural communication skills. Thus, project partners created a sophisticated product to address the two main target groups’ needs (v.i. young people to become social entrepreneurs and youth workers to be provided with an innovative tool for supporting them). The project had specific interrelated objectives to be achieved: - to create an innovative social entrepreneurship training program for v.i. youths (Intellectual output) for development of their leadership, social entrepreneurship, and inter-cultural skills; - conduct one joint staff training event (C1) in order to train youth workers (a minimum of 2 representatives of each involved institution visiting Bulgaria for a shared training activity) in using the training program – to test a pilot version of the training program with a local group of v.i. young people in Bulgaria; - conduct one blended training event for groups of v.i. young people (C2) from the partner countries (a minimum of 5 v.i. participants from each country visiting Romania for 5 effective days and continuing the training with additional virtual mobility – six synchronous online sessions). This particular objective was adapted to the restrictions imposed by the COVID 19 pandemic and the C2 training took place as blended mobility. The participants in C2 becoming the V.I.V.A. pilot group of v.i. young entrepreneurs who have been trained and have tested their skills in a multicultural environment; - organize substantial multiplier events in BG, TK, IS, EL, RO, BE, and IT used for dissemination, multiplication and validation of the training programme, they all took place at the end of the project. The central tangible output of the project is the training programme on social entrepreneurship for v.i. youth including practical activities related to three main pillars: - Leadership skills – important for any young person, willing to undertake an entrepreneurial path. Leadership skills are important if a person is about to manage and empower others in connection with shared social and professional endeavors. Among other things they cover communicating, motivating, delegating, being positive, being trustworthy, being creative, providing adequate feedback, being responsible, being committed, being flexible); - Social entrepreneurship – a general set of rules, related to the development and sustaining of a social enterprise, including the practical adoption and use of the “bread in the dark” entrepreneurial experience, together with the v.i. adapted “bakers without borders game”, which provides a highly innovative and attractive view on social entrepreneurship for v.i. youths; - Inter-cultural skills – being successful in the global village requires awareness of and acquiring intercultural skills. The developed methodology is empowering young v.i. people to be autonomous and independent members of society; develop leadership, inter-cultural and social entrepreneurial skills; to support the development of young people-centred youth work and to foster active participation in society of young people. The project long term results are to raise the awareness of society towards the challenges of young visually impaired people. A network of V.I.V.A. supporters developed at the local, national and international levels to further apply and disseminate the V.I.V.A. methodology and offer youth with VI the opportunity to develop entrepreneurial models to be implemented by themselves in their communities."

"This project main goal is to influence and conduct the modernization of the education and training system used in organizations working in the field of visual impairment directly focusing on their professional bodies, bridging a deficiency of available specific training in this area in many of the participating countries, while, at the same time, promoting the exchange of experience and know-how between different types of organizations involved in education, training and youth in common subjects, transversal to all types of interventions with blind and low vision people. The project aims to widen the knowledge of these professionals by using digital technologies in rehabilitation services, educational training programs and vocational education and training (VET) of blind and visually impaired people. This goal is to be achieved through the organization of every aspect implied in the development of two online training courses, about “Coaching Orientation and Mobility” and ""Developing Visually Impaired People Soft Skills"", from the use of the LMS, curricula, content, certification, methods of administration and training support, etc - creating a Virtual Academy. The participant organizations all work in rehabilitation, education and vocational training of visually impaired people of all ages, except the partner providing the Learning Management System. The aim of the partnership is to create a standard resource on the various rehabilitation services for people with vision impairment in Europe and to propose a model of education, training and rehabilitation services for visually impaired people in all EU countries. During the project life, the next activities will be performed:1. Observing existed curricula both on national and EU level; Appointing working groups for developing Raw curricula; Evaluating and improving raw curricula; Conforming to ECVET terminology criteria. 2. Developing two Curricula based on raw curricula.3. Evaluating the Curricula.4. Selection and consolidation of available course modules from partners.5. Methodology guidance for Web-Based Training will be developed and presented focusing also on the needs of visually impaired trainers.6. Setup of the E-Learning courses using Web-Based Training; Develop course modules in EN.7. Executing of pilot course; Evaluating pilot course and introduce improvements to the developed courses accordingly.8. Online publishing course materials in English.9. Translation of the course material into the languages of the partner countries.10. Web-page, leaflet, poster and DVD with all intellectual outputs will be developed.11. 7 international meetings will be held.12. Multiplier events will be held: an International Conference and 7 internal national workshops in partner countries, for professionals and organizations working in this area, and a raising awareness event (""Dinner in the Dark""), for media and other fields professionals, outside of visual impairment area.13. The project envisages a lot of dissemination activities, e.g. press-releases, broadcasts, social media presence (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter).14. Internal evaluation of meetings, events, training materials, the pilot course will be constantly held. The new curricula on the e-learning platform and training courses are expected to have a strong impact both in the short and in the long run: participants will be able to try this new learning tool, all of them being professionals working in rehabilitation and vocational training centres for Visual Impaired People. In the long run, since seven of the partners are members of ENVITER network where 27 service providers for the focus group from 17 countries of the EU are represented, the proposed project will enable organizations to maximize the impact of lifelong learning developments and the use of e-learning methods to provide for the need for special training for their staff. All results are to be shared through a project website and through EUNESIS (EUropean NEtworking for Sensory Impairment Solutions) Knowledge Base. Better Training for professionals allows us to better support people with disabilities: children, adults or elderly people, in taking into account the specificities of the visual impairment and also the impact of the visual impairment on the person depending on his/her age."