Description
"The project seeks to improve civic awareness of 180 students in 12 schools by 30 April, 2016. 'Audio volunteering' groups will be set up in schools and 180 trained audio volunteers will spend 12 months making descriptions of magazine illustrations for 2,300 blind people, with a regular support of professionals. Audio volunteers will work with people with disabilities to identify the root causes and spots of discrimination in schools and local community. In 2015, they will organise General School Debates for Lifting the Barriers that will take place on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities with the aim of jointly identifying barriers and taking corrective action. Matters beyond students' control will be subject of a petition to government - students will collect signatures and monitor follow-up. Partners: University of Barcelona will provide technical support to training and audio description effort in the local middle school in Pawonków; it will establish a model Audio Volunteering Incubator to promote project outcomes following its completion."
Summary of project results
"The research conducted by the Association ""De Facto"" in 25 secondary schools in Poland in 2013 showed that over 70 per cent of the students never contacted people with disabilities and 84 per cent never attempted to help them. At the same time, 80 per cent of the respondents said that people with disabilities are discriminated, particularly because they have very limited possibilities of using the public space and services. According to the surveyed students, the reason for not eliminating the barriers that such people encounter is lack of knowledge about disabilities. Teachers and principals of the surveyed schools said that the physical and architectural barriers that the disabled face in schools and around them should be identified and then the corrective actions should be undertaken together with the students. The aim of the project was to increase the civic awareness among students of secondary schools through making it possible for them to do voluntary work. Thanks to the project implementation, 331 young people aged 13-19 from schools all over Poland got involved in special kind of voluntary work for blind people. 18 schools participated in the project. Each participant took part in a training course and acquired knowledge on how to prevent practically discrimination of persons with disabilities. Audio volunteers made 4,320 audio descriptions of magazine illustrations and over 2,000 blind people used it already. Workshops on active citizenship and school debates on eliminating barriers were organized. The project participants were secondary schools students from small towns and villages from all over Poland. The project partner - Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona - is a European leader in developing methods for providing access to multimedia content for people with visual of hearing disabilities. They were responsible for preparing audio volunteers and took care of preparing audio illustrations properly. Another partner was a secondary school in Pawonkowo responsible for adjusting the project activities to the school curriculum and functioning of Polish schools."
Summary of bilateral results