During the past three decades, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of persons with visual impairments and additional disabilities (MDVI) within the general population of persons with visual impairments. People with MDVI constitutes a distinct and heterogeneous group with a unique set of needs and every student with MDVI presents a unique educational challenge. The current project concerns the training of teachers regarding how to assess and teach communication skills to children with MDVI. Communication is fundamental in learning, acceptance by peers and meaningful participation in the home and community. Assessing communicative skills in children with MDVI is a challenge. A range of subskills need to be assessed, such as receptive, expressive skills, sensory and motor skills related to communication, collaboration with families is required, conducting structured and unstructured observations are important and also their is a need to request evaluations by specialists. The accurate assessment of communication will enable teachers to set realistic goals, develop appropriate learning exercises and address the educational needs of children with MDVI. PrECIVIM bridges assessment and intervention and underlines the need of assessment of communication skills for the development of individualized educational approaches, the use of appropriate educational material and play activities to promote the communication skills of students with MDVI. Hence, the proposed project aims to address the following objectives: • to develop a screening inventory of the communicative profile of MDVI students, • to create communicative, learning, and social opportunities for students with MDVI, • to promote the collaboration between universities, schools and associations of individuals with visual impairments and multiple disabilities. • to point out the best practices and guidelines for the development of effective communication regarding students with MDVI enhancing their acceptance and promoting their inclusion from a broader social context. The above objectives were identified through an up-to-date literature review. Ten organisations are included in PrECIVIM project and will share their knowledge and experience to address the above objectives (i.e. universities, special educational settings-schools with MDVI, associations of students with MDVI, and IT company and one NGO) which protect their rights and aim to ensure equal participation for individuals with MDVI.
During the past three decades, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of persons with visual impairments and additional disabilities (MDVI) within the general population of persons with visual impairments. People with MDVI constitutes a distinct and heterogeneous group with a unique set of needs and every student with MDVI presents a unique educational challenge. The current project concerns the training of teachers regarding how to assess and teach communication skills to children with MDVI. PrECIVIM attempted to bridge assessment and intervention and underlined the need of assessment of communication skills for the development of individualized educational approaches and the use of appropriate educational material in order to promote the communication skills of students with MDVI. In essence, the PrECIVIM project had the following objectives: • to develop a screening inventory of the communicative profile of MDVI students, • to create communicative, learning, and social opportunities for students with MDVI, • to promote the collaboration between universities, schools and associations of individuals with visual impairments and multiple disabilities. • to point out the best practices and guidelines for the development of effective communication regarding students with MDVI enhancing their acceptance and promoting their inclusion from a broader social context. Ten organisations (i.e. universities, special educational settings-schools with MDVI, associations of students with MDVI, and IT company and one NGO) were included in the PrECIVIM project and shared their knowledge and experience to serve the above objectives. All original objectives of the project were met. The achievements which exceeded the initial expectation of the project was the creation of another intellectual output (i. e. IO8) which was entitled: “Miscellaneous Videos” Intellectual Output 8, consolidated the outcomes of IO1, IO3, IO4, and IO5 through videos. The aim of the videos wat to highlight the basics of complex communication needs through discussions (theory, dialogue, and debate) through a simulation class. Regarding methodological aspects, the training phase consisted of a combined type of training. That is, a face-to-face sessions and on-line meetings. This type of training was characterized as blended or hybrid and was considered to be a formal education program which combined face-to-face sessions and distance reflective meetings based on digital and online media (IT-platform, IO2). Each participating organization was in charge for the training phase, determining an optimal mix of on line and face-to-face instruction. The project portal (IO2) functioned as a platform supporting this multi-dimensional training phase and will allowed all participating organizations to interact and exchange useful information. The training phase (duration 30 days, i. e. 5 days face-to-face instruction and 25 days on-line media) was spread into a time-length of approximately 5 months (M14-M19) so the participating organizations were very flexible to organise them at their disposal. The total number of the participants who participated in the face-to-face trainings was 144, whereas 135 professionals were involved in the synchronous on-line training events delivering 259 reflective logs during the implementation phase of the project. The impact of the project was not limited to the participants in the activities. The proposal involved other stakeholders from the local community as much as possible in the project activities (i.e. national conferences, European conference, development of best practices guide and Police Recommendations and Guidelines Report). Hence, the project is framed within a longer-term perspective, and planned with a view to achieving a multiplier effect and sustainable impact. As a result, it is argued that PrECIVIM had the potential and achieved impact on local, regional, national and European level, through the production of Intellectual Outputs which can be downloaded free from the project website (Intellectual Outputs (precivim.eu). They are flexible, easily transferable and free. Apart from each partner who acted as a dissemination lighthouse on local and regional level, EBU (European Blind Union and participations in European Conferences) ensured the impact on a European level as well. Last but not least, the pivotal role of the collaborative network has to be mentioned regarding the impact of the project at the local and European level. The concept of parallel collaborative networks was adopted in the PrECIVIM project. One network was structured within a partner's country and the other level of activities concerned the collaborative network which was developed among the partners from different countries. In this way the dissemination and the impact was conducted within and between the participating countries and created a fruitful basis for longer-term benefits.