Braille Challenge – Views International

Third Learning Training Teaching Activity in Skopje

OfficeViews — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 05:18:12 +0000

The Braille Challenge project is an initiative coordinated by three partner organizations from Belgium, Republic of North Macedonia and Romania. The primary aim of the project is to create awareness about the importance of Braille code in the communities of the partner countries with theoretical discussions and hands-on demonstrations of practical tools that Visually impaired Braille readers use. The project is open to all concerned people including but not limited to educators, youth workers and parents of visually impaired children.

The third learning training teaching activity of the project took place in Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia between 09-13 May 2022. A group of youth workers also participated from Belgium representing VIEWS International and contributed to the fruitful discussions related to the importance of Braille.

During their experience, the participants got the chance to visit a school for the blind in Skopje and learned the methods of education received by the Visually impaired pupils. The educators of the school demonstrated how they teach Braille and other skills to visually impaired students and talked about the inclusive environment that they provide to the students.

Following the visit of the school, the participants attended a Workshop on approaches and useful methods in education while working with visually impaired students and expressed their opinions about inclusivity. There was a productive discussion about whether visually impaired students should go to special schools or be integrated with their sighted peers in regular schools with an inclusive education approach. Some participants argued that visually impaired children should be educated at special schools so that they can learn the specific skills such as Braille and mobility while the majority of the participants was of the opinion that inclusivity is important and visually impaired children should go to the same schools as their sighted peers. However, both sides fully agreed that visually impaired children should be taught Braille, mobility and other independent living skills however they receive their education.

During three days of training, both visually impaired and non-visually impaired youth workers got their hands on reading and writing with Braille code and discussed Challenges, obstacles and opportunities while teaching visually impaired children. Throughout the whole training, there were roundtable discussions about new technologies related to Braille and how to take advantage of those technologies while teaching visually impaired students.

The participants also explored the capital Skopje, a vibrant and multicultural city where the LTTA took place with a guided tour organized by the coordinator. There were numerous statues dotting the city landscape including the statue of Alexander the Great or Alexander Macedon as Macedonians call him and quarters that are full of history.

This LTTA was the last training of the project and contributed to the goals of the project with activities that emphasized the importance of Braille, created awareness and promoted a platform to discuss methods of education to teach Braille.

Braille challenge Training in Cluj-Napoca Romania

OfficeViews — Fri, 06 May 2022 08:09:58 +0000

Between the 11th April and the 15th April, we got the opportunity to participate at an LTTA project (Learning teaching training activities) in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. It is a training for teachers, social workers and families of visually impaired and blind people to learn more about the braille alphabet. The activities that we took part included ways to teach and learn Braille and Braille related technologies.

We were four volunteers from VIEWS International. There were also people from Romania and Macedonia. Regardless of where we are from, we were all amazed and impressed by how much we discovered and learned in this project.

The training got to a fast start with a very knowledgeable person who has a lot of experience in non-formal education methods and we had the opportunity to benefit from his experiences. Following this informative session, we attended an extensive presentation on what is braille. In this presentation, we learned more about the history of Braille and reading and writing rules. People who were just introduced to Braille tried to read the Braille letters and realized how challenging it may be to read and write in Braille.

In the afternoon, we all went to visit a high-school for visually impaired people. There were tactile lines everywhere on the floor. All the rooms were very accessible with strong colors. There were even a multi-sensorial room to develop other senses such as tactility, balance and proprioception. On top of that, the school had a gym of Torball and a climbing wall where we got to attend a match demonstration and some of us tried to play. We also tried to climb. We didn’t know that the day would be filled with so many sports activities and we would get our daily exercise. We were very impressed by this adapted school in the center of Cluj.

After that, we were invited to have a drink in an unusual bar with a heavy metal concept. It was not the calmest and quietest place but nonetheless it was a once in a time experience.

The day after was more relaxed but no less busy or interesting. We explored various different gadgets such as Braille machines, braille watches and glasses with synthesis vocals. we got the chance to try some of those Braille tech gadgets. For instance, some of us wrote our names in braille, others tried to read and understand the braille writings of their groups but the most incredible technology was these talking glasses which describes the surroundings of visually impaired people. We also got to meet a blind radio animator who explained to us the significance of Braille in her daily work and life.

The afternoon was reserved for a visit of the university of psychology in Cluj, Disability Service. We met the director of the facility who presented us all the accessibility tools they have such as adapted computers with software’s like Jaws or ZoomText Fusion installed on. They even had 3D printer to print tactile objects. At the end of the presentation, the director invited those who continue their university education to Cluj for an Erasmus study. We now have his contact information and can give it to young visually impaired and blind students who are interested in having an Erasmus exchange in Cluj, Romania.

The last day, Diana, who is a teacher for visually impaired students in elementary school for blind people, showed us the different tactile tools which she uses with children with visual impairment. She demonstrated different objects with different textures and welcomed us to create an easter postal card in relief and with smell.

To conclude, these three intense days were very interesting and everyone learned a lot about braille and education. We are happy to have these experiences and feel more armed to teach visually impaired and blind students.

First Training of the Braille Challenge Project

OfficeViews — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 22:53:06 +0000

By Loredana Dicsi

From December 13 to 17th a small group of people from Belgium and Romania came together in Liège Belgium to discover the beauty and challenges of the well-known and so little known Braille alphabet. The group from the Republic of North Macedonia was unfortunately not able to join. People from outside the EU coming to Belgium had to quarantine for ten days. The training duration was less then 10 days.

The training was designed for teachers and other staff in school working with children and those who could potentially work with blind and partially sighted children in inclusive education.

The first day we had the opportunity to get to know each other and get into dynamic of the group. The second day we had the chance to meet also our third partner who is in fact the coordinator of the project, the North Macedonian organisation, and we learnt all about the project. Then we went to show our partners our local association for the Blind that has also a department that is in charge of assisting blind and partially sighted following education in mainstream classes.

The third day we started with some session where two guest joined us online. The president of the Dutch Braille Authority, who explained us their work in the Dutch Speaking area of Belgium and the Netherlands, to ensure that the Braille is the same in each school and that those using in other contexts are using the correct one. Then the chair of the Braille working group of the European Blind Union explained the aims and the work of the recently formed group. The Braille Working Group aims to promote Braille at European level and ensure its place in the lives of blind and partially sighted children young people adults and elderly.

Then we started to really work to get to know braille, until the end of the training. We discovered different writing tools and how to write Braille, how to read it and all kind of braille and tactile books for children and adults. And of course, very important a session was dedicated to pre-braille activities. These activities aim to help the tactile sense and the motoric sense to facilitate writing and reading. We could not end the project without a very nice activity, making Greeting cards that were tactile. And of course, there was also a session about what means to be blind or partially sighted and our sighted colleagues had to count on us blind and partially sighted to be guided around the youth hostel were we stayed.

During the Breaks and other free moments, we had also the opportunity to exchange, ideas, thoughts and get to know better each other.

I personally found it a very successful training despite the last-minute changes we needed to do because of the pandemic. I’m looking forward for the next steps.

Kick off meeting of the Braille Challenge Project

OfficeViews — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 09:53:20 +0000

Publications Office

The ‘Braille Challenge’ project kick off meeting took place in Tetovo, North Macedonia on the 16th and 17th of June. The partners from Belgium [VIEWS International, Romania {Babilon Travel} and the host organisation {Lifelong Learning Network Macedonia} education] met for the first time in person in order to talk about the project’s aims, assess the progress of the first stage of the project and plan for the next steps. Future events and meetings were arranged as well. Additionally, the partners had the opportunity to visit the school for the blind in Skopje during the second day of their meeting.

Braille is the system blind people and people with vision loss use to read and write. The need for further collaboration and share of good practises in order to rase awareness around Braille is very present and through the project ‘Braille Chalenge’ the partners are hoping to contribute to this cause.