We are pleased to announce our 2023 annual Conference, hosted by Unione Ialiana dei Ciechi e degli Ipovedenti in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, on Wednesday 10th May 2023.

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

We are inviting proposals for paper presentations in the following thematic area:

“Innovation in Education and Rehabilitation for Visually Impaired People”

Proposal ideas that extend beyond these thematic area will be considered by the Board of ENVITER.

Abstracts:

• Deadline for abstracts/proposals: 14th April 2023 (to be sent to:  coordinator@enviter.eu )
• Full papers must be presented in English.
• These papers will be considered for publication on our website.
• The presentation of the papers should be 20-30 minutes (including questions)

We also offer the opportunity for participation to people as presenters, speakers or as members of the audience who are not from ENVITER member organisations, so please inform your colleagues from the VI field about our conference.

We hope you will be able to join us.

For more information, please contact us.

Photo by Pete Linforth from Pixabay.

 

• 28th February 2023, Inclusivity and the Green Deal, Brussels / Online
• February and March 2023, Legislative Amendment Drafting for Persian speakers, Online
• 8th March 2023, EASPD Spring Knowledge Café – Knowledge Hub, Online
• 15th March 2023, EURECO Forum 2023, Brussels
• 23rd-28th April 2023, EASPD training course on Inclusive Education, Athens
• 10th May 2023, Iceland Provider Forum on Independent Living, Reykjavík
• 8th-9th June 2023, Annual Conference: Early Childhood Intervention, Tirana
• 12th-13th October 2023, Annual Conference, Helsinki

The second online conference, was  held on January 26th, 2023. The conference was very confidently moderated by Emanuela Zaimi from the Hilfsgemeinschaft der Blinden und Sehschwachen Österreichs (Austria). Five speakers presented their results about:

– Virtual Reality (VR) in mobility training
– VR in vocational training of technical professions
– Accessible VR

The conference was a big success. We welcomed at times up to 47 guests who participated online, while 12 staff from the project partners attended in person.
The presentations were supported by subtitles and sign language interpreters to improve the accessibility of this event. The presentations were recorded and are now available on the project homepage https://www.vr4vip.net/activities-visually-impaired/presentations-2nd-online-conference/
The last conference of this project will take place on June 27th, 2023 and covers the subject “VR in the medical field of visual impairment”

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.