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Description
In 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many businesses switched the educational process to learning and working from a distance. In this situation, people with disabilities (including children) were virtually left out of this process, mainly due to the lack of access and skills to use the used platforms for online learning and work. The project aims to contribute to the more effective involvement of visually impaired people in the process of online training and work of visually impaired people in Bulgaria by developing additional, adapted tools, conducting trainings and consultations. To achieve this goal, experts of the foundation will develop guides for the use of online work and training platforms Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom and another platform selected according to the results of a study that will be conducted at the beginning of the implementation. The three guides for using the platforms will be published in Braille, in electronic text format and as an audio book. Based on these guides, audio clips will be developed and published, which will clearly demonstrate the implementation of the most common actions performed in each of the selected platforms. The manuals will be used mainly for conducting trainings on working with the respective platforms, the audio clips will be able to be listened to and performed independently by blind users with the appropriate level of computer literacy.
Summary of project results
The main objective of the project was to create conditions for inclusion of people with visual disabilities in Bulgaria into the process of online learning and work.
Link to the publications of the project:
https://horizonti.bg/proekti-digitalno-priobshchavane
To achieve this objective, two main approaches were implemented:
- development of training aids for self-study; and
- conducting training in groups and individual consultations for people with visual disabilities.
The project developed and released in accessible formats training aids with content adapted for blind people for three of the most popular platforms for online learning, meetings, and work - Google Classroom, Zoom Cloud Meetings and Microsoft Teams. Twelve self-study videos were developed and published on Youtube, demonstrating how blind people use the three selected platforms via screen reader.
Training was conducted in 5 groups of 6 people with visual disabilities. The training included a basic knowledge of working with the three platforms selected using a screen reader. Students, teachers, and representatives of NGOs from different cities took part in the training.
Receiving individual consultations from three key experts, people with visual disabilities from all over the country had the opportunity to get the specific knowledge they needed, answers to their questions and individual help in and about using their computers and mobile devices to work with the platforms for online meetings, training, and work.
The manuals for the blind developed under the project make it possible to conduct trainings with other groups of the blind, and from other organizations or educational institutions.
More than 30 persons with visual disabilities trained acquired additional skills that enable them to fulfill their commitments more successfully in education and their professional life.
More than 130 blind people from all over the country, representatives of schools and NGOs directly benefited from the project. Moreover, the published and distributed guides and videos via the Internet can reach an unlimited number of users worldwide. We believe this way the project really contributes to the digital inclusion of people with visual disabilities in Bulgaria and leads to the more effective exercise of their basic human rights - the right to education and the right to work.