Together with the director of Positive Eye, Gwyn McCormack, a UK company that specialises in training professionals working with children with VI, our Icelandic member (the Icelandic National Institute for the Blind, Visually Impaired and Deafblind) is hosting, on October 27-28th 2023, the first Positive Looking Conf-Shop (combination of a conference and workshop).

The Positive Looking Visual Skills Programme is widely used across the UK, the USA and other countries, including Iceland. This event brings together professionals who are successfully using the programme or are interested in using it, to promote and include the development of visual skills across the curriculum with children and young people with VI / CVI / complex learning needs.

The purpose of the Conf-Shop is to share best practice, ideas and approaches linked to the delivery of the Positive Looking programme.

To participate in this event and learn more about how Positive Looking is working so successfully to make a difference to children and young people with VI, visit this link:

https://positiveeye.co.uk/our-products/positive-looking-international-conf-shop/

We can contribute!
The University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and Ghent (Belgium) are collaborating in the development of a tool to map the functioning of people with visual loss. They are conducting a worldwide research that can make a big difference in the near future for blind and visually impaired people around the globe.
And they need our help!
Their online survey is part of a broader research into the development of an International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) core set for people with vision loss. A core set tries to map the factors that influence the quality of life and describe what is relevant for functioning.
Blind and visually impaired people experience problems in different areas of daily life. In particular, they face a reduction in activities associated with participation in society, religion, mobility, recreation and visual tasks. How a person experiences vision loss varies depending on personal and environmental factors and will be interpreted differently for everyone. It will negatively affect the degree of independence, the ability to participate in daily life and the quality of life. In addition, this target group has an increased risk of social isolation, depression and falls.
That is why they would like to receive input from persons with vision loss as well as from professionals, so they have two different online questionnaires:
– Persons with vision loss can participate by clicking on this link: https://lnkd.in/g3vccvma
– And professionals by using this link: https://lnkd.in/gVKjbgQb
The entered data will be processed anonymously and can never be linked to you as person.

This year, the theme was 3D, on October 25 and 26.

Over the two days, the Berufsförderungswerk Düren was the location of an advanced training course for nine colleagues from seven European countries. These colleagues are trainers from seven European educational institutions for people with visual impairments. The topic of the training was the production of tactile teaching materials for blind students using 3D printing . The highly condensed course, focused on the operation of 3D printers, as well as the basics of design using CAD software.

All participants were surprised that the operation of a 3D printer is relatively simple. The motivation of the participants to use this technology in their companies was correspondingly high.

The 3D printing technology is regularly covered in the media. The possible applications of this technology seem limitless and are increasingly finding their way into the private sphere, e.g. for upcycling of everyday objects or the production of spare parts that are no longer available. 3D printers are becoming more and more powerful and user-friendly and are now affordable for everyone. In fact, 3D printing offers many advantages for many creative home- and model makers. In the field of education for people with visual impairments, tactile teaching materials can be produced easily and affordably.

However, there is still a prevailing opinion that 3D printing can only be done by IT specialists and technicians.

This introductory course aimed to provide answers to these very questions. Contents of the course were:

• • Private application areas of 3D printing
  • Different 3D printing processes and materials
  • Costs and effort
  • Advantages of 3D printing compared to conventional manufacturing methods
  • Obtaining parts from databases, 3D scanning and design
  • Demonstration of various printing processes
  • Practical operation of a 3D printer
  • Basic construction with Autodesk Fusion360

This trainng event was held by our member BFW Düren (Germany) with the support of ENVITER. To have a 360° view on the training area, where the course is taking place: Click here

Once a year, we wish our member’s professionals to meet so they can have a training experience usually focusing on content about new and innovative methodologies, practices and tools that often resulte from our projects. It is a perfect time to exchange ideas, train our professionals, create some links between them and develop smaller internal networks of specific professionals working in the same areas.

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.

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)

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!