ENVITER Conference 2019 to be held at Vinko Bek, Zagreb, Croatia

Wednesday 2nd October 2019

The ENVITER Network is very pleased to announce our 2019 Annual Conference in Zagreb, Croatia.

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.

We are inviting proposals for paper presentations and/or for workshops, interactive sessions in the following thematic area:

Transformations and innovations in our organisations -The Times They Are a-Changin’…-

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

Abstracts:

• Deadline for abstracts/proposals: 9th September 2019
• 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 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.

The Centre de Rééducation pour Déficients Visuels (CRDV) hosted the General Meeting & Conference of ENVITER in Clermont-Ferrand (France), September 2018.

The theme of the conference: Changing client population, challenges and opportunities.

More to come…

A recent update about the SENSNET project.

The SENSNET project is aimed at creating a European Academy that will design, develop, collect, test and valorise an innovative training pathway that will be tailored to the specific needs of professionals who work with ageing people with sensory impairment (vision and/or hearing).

Sensnet is a two-year project in the framework of the Erasmus+ Programme. Composed by 7 partners from Italy, Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, France, United Kingdom and The Netherlands.

The largest cause of sensory impairments is the ageing process with over 60s. Rising life expectancy and increasing numbers of older people in the population in Europe means a growing number of individuals are affected by visual and hearing impairments. A key challenge related to the quality of life of older people with impairments is the training and skills of the professionals working in care services addressed for this specific target group.

The organizations participating in Sensnet belong to any of the European networks Enviter and Hipen and have collected information about the concrete learning needs of the professionals working with ageing people with sensory impairments.

On September 29th the Sensnet project group presented the intellectual outcomes so far, to Enviter in Düren, Germany. Sensnet has made a methodological guide which describes how the modules are assembled. In addition to the methodological guide to online courses, there is also a how-to guide for writing a guide for the modules.

In the project, Sensnet is building a platform on the internet, where the modules will come. During the presentation of Sensnet in Düren they’ve showed a part of the platform. Hopefully, in the future, the modules originate from Sensnet will be on the EASI platform, The European Academy for Sensory Impairments.

From the 25th – 29th June 2017 Vision2017, the 12th International Conference by the International Society for Low Vision Research and Rehabilitation (ISLRR) was to be held in The Hague – The Netherlands. The congress theme: Low vision rehabilitation, a global right. Enviter member Bláithín Gallagher was attending the conference on behalf of Enviter.

Ruben Koman (Royal Dutch Visio) interviewing Bláithín Gallagher at Vision2017 (YouTube):

Bláithín: “Vision2017 was a fantastic conference attended by about 1000 people, researchers and practitioners in the field of vision science and rehabilitation from all over the world. Many had never heard of Enviter and were very interested in what we do.” The presentation of Enviter member Bláithín Gallagher at the InZicht symposium (a Dutch program to stimulate scientific research on health care, labor, education and rehabilitation for people with a visual impairment) gave her a wonderful opportunity to share information about Enviter to a packed audience. Bláithín: “There wasn’t even standing room left!” Coffee breaks and lunch times each day gave ample opportunities for networking. The prominent display of the Enviter banner in the exhibition area, together with the insert in participant packs placed knowledge about Enviter into the forefronts of the minds of all conference participants. For details about the symposium please go to the website of Vision2017.