The project aims to develop a training course on "Diverse coding", enabling people with specific disabilities: Adults (Age 18-60 years) with hearing disorders to increase their digital skills and programming, with a methodology that applies European recommendations to validate non-formal and informal learning to facilitate recognition and transfer of results. Furthermore, implementing a specific design of the training path and the development of contents. The project is aimed at people who work or who are unemployed with hearing disorders to improve their social integration and improve the informal educational path in such an innovative and formative context. CONTEXT The European context is quite new on the subject. According to the EC, DG EAC, the adult education function should be to support economic growth and competitiveness, ensure inclusive and fair development, provide socio-economic benefits, but also individual benefits, in terms of personal and professional development, empowerment, adaptability, employability and active participation in society. With a specific reference to the world of people with disabilities who can face the labor market, for example, according to the International Center for Learning Disorders, "Many people with LD (learning disability) suffer from low self-esteem". confidence in their ability to learn and create, as well as the pride of actually creating something, as opposed to other types of learning, which can cause confusion and frustration in learning disabled students. This builds general trust; many code learning platforms are accessible and easy to start for everyone. The coding offers LD students "real-world skills", some industry experts said, "transforms them into digital culture producers". It also interests them and makes them more available and "inclined to socialize", building the important skills of group work and socialization, often lacking in the disabled student population of learning. Technological learning also appeals to many people with learning disabilities, including those with autism, who are particularly receptive to concrete and non-abstract concepts. In addition, the challenges and opportunities for students with disabilities The teaching of accessible computer programs presents some unique challenges as well as extraordinary opportunities for students with disabilities. With technology that is changing so fast, accessibility has always been a game to recover, which makes using the most advanced technology for inclusive teaching. In a StackOverflow survey in 2017, 2.7% of professional software developers identified as disabled (StackOverflow, 2017) and non-profit like Teach Kids Unlimited have found that an increasing number of students with disabilities such as autism have a propensity towards engineering .. AIMS General: - The project aims to develop an innovative coding training program for learners with disabilities, particularly deaf people who naturally tend to have ease in coding as they are doing it every day with lip reading and decoding and deciphering every noise and sound. With the aim of encouraging the development of their special digital skills for adults and, in turn, their transversal skills, in particular problem solving .. specific: - The project aims at transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications; application of the European recommendations to validate non-formal and informal learning for experts in DIVERSILY CODING with the improvement of their digital skills and programming in an informal and formal learning environment, - Increase skills in vocational training and adults, helping to improve support for adults with disabilities across the full spectrum of their digital skills, by intervening in improving social inclusion, as stated in the Europe 2020 objectives, - Implement the European recommendations methodology to validate non-formal and informal learning for adult education in the fields of social assistance. PARTICIPANTS AND NUMBERS-PROFILES The participants in the various project activities will be selected directly by the project partners, through their own contacts and internal networks. In the phase of updating data on training needs (survey) 40 respondents will be contacted per country involved, 30 deaf and 10 representatives of associations for the disabled with hearing impaired, through internal partners' channels, useful selection to identify then the participants
diversamente coding is an Erasmus+ project to develop a training course enabling people with disabilities to learn digital skills + programming competences. Our target group is people aged between 18-55 who are deaf or hard of hearing. Why have we chosen this target group? Deaf or hard of hearing persons have additional skills in communication, perception and visualisation. They are used to using alternative and creative means to communicate and interact with hearing people. The project built on this valuable skill set. diversamente coding enabled the target group to augment their real-world skills, training them to become producers of digital culture. In fact, the project simply applied the skills the target group already possesses. Inclusive teamwork was a vital element, encouraging great social interaction and building intercultural bridges. A transnational survey on the digital competencies and skills of our target group was carried out. To be more specific, some of the most important findings from the survey at transnational level are the following: - 170 deaf people from 5 European countries took part; - 50 organisations and associations working with Deaf communities participated; - Interest in further training in digital skills and programming was high. - Learning with a mentor or learning with partners or friends was resulted as the best learning method to be implemented. - Quizzes and competitions were the most popular interactive exercises. From the survey it was also pointed out that people who are deaf and hearing-impaired see the need to improve their digital literacy skills and are looking for training opportunities that are tailored to their specific requirements (i.e. accessible training methods and materials with a particular focus on visual strengths and bilingualism – in Sign Language and written language). With these skills, the survey participants hope to put themselves in a better position to overcome barriers to employment, and find skilled and well-paid jobs. Being a part of the digital world will facilitate greater societal inclusion of people who are Deaf or hearing-impaired. Thus, the findings of the survey provided an analysis of training needs. These were used to develop a training methodology and training content. Using a blended learning format, training content was incorporated into an e-learning platform. More specifically, the platform content includes educational materials such as tutorials, videos, documents, links, articles and useful tips – which areavailable in English,in German, in Greek and in Spanish.The diversamente coding Consortium decided to use Scratch to introduce coding to the target group. Scratch is a programming language, developed by the MIT Media Lab and released in 2007. Scratch 3.0 is a great tool for introducing coding to all ages. Scratch can be used when developing various multimedia projects such as: video games, interactive storytelling, animations, and graphical artwork. Scratch is particularly good for working with Deaf learners because it uses visual tools (graphic coding blocks) which represent commands. The learner simply snaps the blocks together in order to create various effects. Scratch is a fun way to introduce learners to basic coding, and at the same time, playing to the visual strengths of Deaf learners. Finally, training course was piloted by selected participants.