2022 General Meeting – Angers, France

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Group photo in GM Angers, 2022

We had a wonderful meeting! After 2,5 years and the serious pandemic times, we had our first General Meeting in person in Angers on 12 to 14 April.

From 14 different European countries,  17 member organisations could attend the meeting with 32 participants. The meeting was organised by the Institute Montéclair of VYV 3 Pays De la Loire.

Our current president and former president, during the celebration of the 20th anniversary

Beyond our general meeting, this occasion was very special, because our network celebrated its 20th anniversary. Thanks to our former president Mr. Francis Guiteau, who is the current deputy mayor in Angers, the members were invited for an official ceremony to the Hotel de Ville d’Angers.

We also had our annual Conference Day. The purpose of our Annual Conference is to create an intellectual platform for professionals to share their theoretical and practical knowledge in the field of vision impairment, focusing especially on innovative methodologies, practices and tools.

This year the main topic was “Positive side effects of covid on inclusion of VI people” – Good Practices, Opportunities, Future Plans, Takeaways”

We had 6 presentations:

  1. Mijke Hartendorp: The impact of the Covid-19 measures on the psychosocial well-being of persons with blindness, low vision and deafblindness: Lessons learnt and solutions (Saxion Hogeschool and Visio, The Netherlands)
  2. Ramona Ionela Mureşan and Elisabeta Pintilie: Tools and Activities for Social Inclusion Examples of Good Practice in the Teaching of Visually Impaired Students in the Context of Covid (Highschool for the Visually Impaired Cluj-Napoca, Romania)
  3. Juergen Huellen: At the crossroads between progress in digitisation and methodological feasibility (BFW Dueren Germany)
  4. Dorthe Marie Degn: Positive side effects of covid on inclusion of VI people (IBOS, Denmark)
  5. Margherita Anselmi: Positive sides of covid situation for people with visual impairment (UICI Ascoli Piceno Italy)
  6. Agnes Somorjai: Bread online – good practices in vocational training during distance learning (School for the Blind Budapest, Hungary)
During the Conference, one of our members presenting their experience

The last day was dedicated to projects and future collaborations. We talked about the new ways of funding, the EU accreditation process and about project proposals and also prepared the upcoming Blue Sky Meeting and the next Summer Course.

All the participants emphasized the importance of personal meetings. Beyond the professional work we had time for informal talks as well, and could really feel the dynamism and strength of our network.

Happy birthday ENVITER!