Financial support from the Education and Culture DG of the European Commission will make it possible for Blind and partially sighted adults to learn new languages.

Education, skills and the ability to make a positive contribution to civil society are central to social inclusion. It is therefore crucial that teaching and training techniques adequately address the specific needs of blind and partially sighted people.

Two-year project
With the financial support of the Education and Culture DG of the European
Commission, the EBU led a two-year project looking into how languages can be taught most effectively to visually impaired adults.

The project, which has just reached its conclusion, involved three other partners from countries of the EBU network: the Pan-cyprian Organisation of the Blind, Czech Blind United, and the Slovak Blind and Partially Sighted Union. All of them agreed on the fact that their national teaching infrastructures were not adapted to the specific needs of VI adults wishing to learn a foreign language. Existing non-adaptive approaches, techniques and teaching tools (interactivity, visual-based modules, pictograms, lack of materials in Braille and other accessible formats…) actually deter VI adults from choosing courses involving the development of this key skill.

From 2008 to 2010 the project enabled the partners to work together on the central issue of the social and professional integration of VI adults through the improvement of their accessibility to language education. In particular, partners focused their work on how to reinforce the competences of language teachers in mainstream settings.

Learn or update language skills

The final document “Good Practice For Improving Language Learning For Visually Impaired Adults” looks in detail at the situation of vision impaired adults in their countries, the curricula of language teachers, the existing teaching approaches and tools for language learning and the extent to which these are adapted to the specific needs of VI adults wishing to learn or update their foreign language skills, and presents practical solutions and advice. It is available in Czech, English, French, Greek and Slovak on the EBU website at the address below.

Received positive Feedback

EBU and its partners are very pleased with the outcome of this project, which has already received positive feedback. We encourage all those working in the field of adult language learning and teaching to download, use and disseminate the pedagogical tools developed during the project.

Visit the project page on the EBU website here:
http:/www.euroblind.org/ projects-and-activities/projects/finished-projects/
nr/39.