We had a successful Blue Sky Meeting in Düren (Germany) on 17-18 September.
21 members discussed 10 different new project proposals, preparing our new EU project applications.
Thank to our host, the BFW Düren for their warm welcome!
Registration Now Open for Tactile Reading Conference 2025!
We are thrilled to announce the opening of the registration for the Tactile Reading Conference 2025, taking place in Amsterdam on 2-4 June 2025. This prestigious international event is dedicated to advancing tactile solutions for individuals with visual impairments, showcasing innovations in braille, tactile images, 3D printing, and more.
Join us for three days of insightful discussions, workshops, and networking opportunities with over 400 experts and professionals from around the world. The conference, co-hosted by leading Dutch organizations such as Visio, Bartiméus, Dedicon, Christian Blind Library, and the Library Service for Accessible Reading promises to be a cornerstone event in the field of tactile reading. Secure your spot today and be part of shaping the future of tactile literacy.
Are your insights worth centre stage? The call for abstracts for the Tactile Reading Conference 2025 is also open already! Do you have innovative ideas and insights on tactile reading, braille, and accessibility? This is your chance to share them with many international experts. Submit your abstract here and be part of this inspiring conference. Together, we make reading and learning accessible for everyone! The deadline is 18 October 2024.
The first keynote speakers for the Tactile Reading Conference 2025 have also been announced. Prof. Astrid Kappers and Dr. Ans Withagen will discuss how the sense of touch can be subject to illusions, from both a scientific and practical perspective. Don’t miss out—register now for this unique and engaging conference on tactile solutions for people with visual impairments.
https://tactilereading.yellenge.nl/registration/#/tickets
We really hope to see you there!
Next ENVITER Webinar will be about “SmartAIs – Digital Assistant for Outdoors” and will be on July 25th, starting at 3:00pm (CET – Central European Time), using Zoom.
The presentation by Sascha Preget, from the SmartAIs development team, will be focusing on:
- Presenting the digital assistant that will support blind and visually impaired people to avoid obstacles outdoors;
- Discussing the product and approach with people from the community and getting valuable feedback;
- Making connections with institutions from the blind community in other European countries than Germany.
SmartAIs is developing a digital AI-supported assistant that helps blind and severely visually impaired people move around outdoors and get them from one place to another more safely and quickly. The trick: instead of developing an additional device, SmartAIs is trying to implement the digital assistant as a smartphone app. The first step is to develop an obstacle detection app that provides information about obstacles in the walking route. The information currently reaches the user via bone-sound headphones; later, it will also be possible to transmit information via vibration.
About SmartAIs:
The four-member team has been pursuing its vision for a year now, has its origins at the Technical University in Munich and is in constant exchange with important organizations such as the Bavarian Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, PRO RETINA Deutschland e.V. and the Federal Association of Rehabilitation Teachers for the Blind and Visually Impaired e.V. The first prototype tests are currently taking place in Munich and the surrounding area.
If you wish to participate, please use the link below to send us your information.
https://forms.gle/pVEe8C6V5XcidjHM8
On the day before the Webinar, the link to access the Zoom meeting will be send to you by email.
Our 2024 annual meeting took place, this in year, from 16 to 18th of April in the fabulous Halle, by the river Saale, in Germany, hosted by our member BFW from the city.
With almost 60 participants from 25 of our members coming from 16 different European countries, this was one of the most attended General Meetings off all timer, for ENVITER.
The usual 3 full days dedicated to following your network goals had a balanced program that included presentations about ideas for future projects, our formal General Meeting and this year Conference on Wednesday subject to the theme “Moving and Being Moved Towards Social Inclusion”, during which we had the following presentations:
- LOC.id, a Key to the Next Generation of Mobility, by Thomas Krämer (Berlin, Germany)
- EMVI app, by Henri De Vroey (Belgium)
- Project DIG.I.T.ABLE, by Alexandrina Kostova (Plovdiv, Bulgaria)
- Objectification of Subjective Visual Stress – New Dynamic Measurement Methods in Optometry, by Anja Müller and Karina Jendrischik (Halle, Germany)
- People with Neurological Visual Impairments: An Insufficiently Cared For Group of Visually Impaired People, by André Kunnig (Halle, Germany)
- Increasing Knowledge among Caregivers about Providing Support to Persons with Autism and Vision Impairment, by Annie van den Heuvel (Vught, The Netherlands)
- Moving Towards Inclusion through European Mobility Projects, by Ramona Ionela Muresan and Elisabeta Pintilie (Cluj-Napoca, Romania)
During these 3 there was also time to experience BFW Halle’s “Sensory World” (a space specially prepared to promote information and awareness regarding visual impairment) and the Halle Planetarium, with its very interesting and innovative work towards making Astronomy accessible to everyone.
Mathematics is a fundamental part of our daily lives. While maths is abstract, it is also a very visual subject. For people who are blind or visually impaired, numbers, equations, shapes, graphs and tables pose special challenges. With the right teaching methods, and given some extra time, many blind and visually impaired students are capable of doing mathematics at a level comparable to sighted students. A team of ou member Visio – and international experts, worked 3 years on this online document. It was coordinated by Visio International, part of the Knowledge and Expertise development department of Royal Dutch Visio.
The manual aims to provide maths – and other teachers who work with blind and visually impaired students with the skills and knowledge needed to help these learners achieve fluency in maths. It gives guidelines for how to adapt the curriculum and teaching methods for the blind or visually impaired students in the class. The manual focuses on the mathematics taught in secondary schools. It assumes that the students already have a knowledge of primary maths: numbers, arithmetic, clocks, 2- and 3-dimensional shapes, etc. For blind students, it assumes that they have already mastered the basics of braille. The book is based on Unified English Braille. It includes many links, practical examples and pays attention to different materials that can be used to teach mathematics to students with a visual impairment.
The manual can be downloaded using the link https://www.visio.org/visio.org/media/Visio/Afbeeldingen/Visio%20International/Teaching-Mathematics(print).pdf
More information: international@visio.org or petrawijen@visio.org
On 5th of April, our President and the network Coordinator visited our recent member organisation Valteri Center, in Helsinki (Finland).
Although the weather was very cold and frosty, their welcome was absolutely warm.
Thank you for your hospitality and looking forward to our future cooperation!
Our General Meeting, hosted by our member BFW Halle (Germany), is coming very soon. Only a few more days to have our network gathered for 3 working days, from April 15th to 18th.
As usual, the second day will be Conference Day, and this year the theme is “Moving and Being Moved Towards Social Inclusion”
Are you coming?
Once in every four years a European Conference in the field of people with visual impairments is organized by the International Council for Education and Rehabilitation of People with Visual Impairment, Europe Region (ICEVI-Europe), in cooperation with a host committee and local partners.
ICEVI-Europe in cooperation with ENVITER member Robert Hollman Foundation proudly announce the milestone tenth European Conference in 2025. The 10th ICEVI-European Conference will be held from May 15 to May 17, 2025 at the Town Hall and University of Padova in Italy, thanks to the hospitality and collaboration of the Municipality of Padova and the University of Padova.
Join to actively take part in the exchange of knowledge and expertise and sharing of best practices within a network of people and institutions promoting the inclusion of people with visual impairment, as we explore this year’s theme: “Supporting children and young adults with visual impairment: What can we do? What can be done?”
The Conference, which will bring together hundreds of professionals from all over Europe, will focus on how support, using a multidisciplinary approach, can foster a better quality of life for children and young adults with visual impairment. Presentations will be an opportunity to share experiences on four important areas of interest: individual development and assessment; education and learning; habilitation and rehabilitation; access, participation, engagement in society. The final goal of the conference is the presentation of a Key Principles document provided to professionals who wish to offer a global approach which will support their work with children and young adults with visual impairment and their families.
For further information, you can access the Save the Date Flyer about this event and please regularly visit the official conference website: https://icevieurope2025-hollman.it/ which is now live and the website of ICEVI-Europe at www.icevi-europe.org
We had a great meeting, visiting our recent member from Ireland, ChildVision. According to the hosts, they were delighted to receive the ENVITER President and Co-ordinator, Ms Elena Weber and Ms Agnes Somorjai for a two-day visit.
ChildVision joined ENVITER last year and is looking forward to continuing the co-operation with other European partners.
Photo above shows, from left to right:
- Katharine Howe, Reading Services Manager, ChildVision
- Elena Weber, ENVITER president
- Geraldine Neill, Vision Services Development Manager, ChildVision
- Agnes Somorjai, ENVITER co-ordinator
- Ilka Stäglin, Director of Education, ChildVision
We are pleased to announce our 2024 annual Conference, hosted by the BFW Halle in Germany, on Wednesday 17th April 2024.
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:
“Moving and Being Moved Towards Social Inclusion”
Proposal ideas that extend beyond these thematic area will be considered by the Board of ENVITER.
Abstracts:
- Deadline for abstracts/proposals: 25th March 2024 (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.