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Looking out for a school for all: early educational inclusion for students with low vision

Funder: European CommissionProject code: 2018-1-ES01-KA201-050769
Funded under: ERASMUS+ | Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices | Strategic Partnerships for school education Funder Contribution: 144,318 EUR

Looking out for a school for all: early educational inclusion for students with low vision

Description

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.

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