According to Turkish Statistical Institute; • In Turkey, the population rate of the disabled individuals is 13,45 %, and 14,59 % in Marmara region, where our city is located. • In Turkey 61,8 % of disabled population is 23 years and older. • 41,6 % of disabled individuals are illiterate. • 96,69% of them are hopeless about educational oppotunities for them. • 25,6 of them expects increase in educational opportunities. Thus, we aim to create educational opportunities for adults with disabilities by means of our project. There are 2780 special needs students identified in our institution, 871 of them are adults. The target group of the project is adults with special needs. As an institution we place adults with special needs to different adult education courses specialized for adults for special needs like ceramic, athletics, music, voice training, knitting, jewelry design, folk dance, and plain weave. Adults with special needs attend courses with the aim of gaining knowledge, improving their manipulative skills or acquiring a profession. At this point placing them to the most appropriate course is very important because the courses will prepare them for life and at one point the courses will determine the quality of their lives and their families' lives. Therefore, with this project we aim to develop an assessment tool to place the students to the most appropriate course by taking into consideration their needs, interests and talents. With this tool, special needs adults will discover their interests and talents, their self awareness,self efficacy and self confidence will increase and as a result, they will be more content with their lives All the partners of the project are institutions dealing with adults with special needs. SC Psihoforworld from Romania develops cooperation and communication activities for young people with disabilities and they implement sports activities, playful activities, theater and art therapy and they contribute to the development of friendship, communication and cooperation relations between young people with disabilities and young people without deficiencies. IIAPHS from Italy includes experts in psychology and social sciences: social psychology, psychometrics, cultural psychology. They have expertise about competencies models: Their group is working at the definition of a competency model for intelligence analysts. Association for Education and Development of Disabled People from Greece organizes courses of computers, accountancy, language etc. In addition they aim through their activities to provide disabled with skills so as to ensure employment. The association supports disable by offering advisory and psychological support to trainees and their families, socialization and education circulation programmes, pedagogical programmes, computer and accounting courses, domestic economy programmes, gymnastics and athletics programmes, entertainment and creative occupation. ARDA from Germany offers courses with certifications and contribute to the expertise in a wide range of fields such as management, electricity, job security, disabled care and the education of people with disabilities, food preparation etc. They have successfully completed more than 50 projects consisting of a wide range of the fields including the education of people with disabilities and inclusive education. They have also successfully completed Erasmus projects " Investigation of the Methods, Materials and Techniques used in the Education of People with Disabilities", "Trainers Changing Roles in Inclusive Education". There will be 4 transational meetings during the project. First transnational meeting will be held in Turkey in the second month. This will be acquaintance meeting and introduction of the Project and timeline will be made. The second meeting will be held in Greece and the third one in Italy. The target of these meetings is to coordinate the process of the application of inventory. The last meeting will be held in Germany to make general evaluation of the project, inventory and dissemination activities. There will be 5 learning and training activities with 20 psychological counselors, special needs teachers and special needs specialists from 5 participant countries. These meetings wil be held in Germany, Italy, Greece, Romania and Turkey respectively. In these meetings, we will make workshops to develop the invetory, attain trainings to learn how to develop an inventory, and make observations in special needs institutions. The intellectual output of our project will be an international assessment tool in English, Turkish, Italian, German, Greek and Romanian. Pre-test, post-test and questionnaire applications and statistical analysis will be used to assess the validity, reliability and applicability of the inventory. At the regional, national and international levels, creating innovation and raising awareness in the field of education of the adults with special needs is the ultimate goal.
According to Turkish Statistical Institute; • In Turkey, the population rate of the disabled individuals is 13,45 %, and 14,59 % in Marmara region, where our city is located. • In Turkey 61,8 % of disabled population is 23 years and older. • 41,6 % of disabled individuals are illiterate. • 96,69% of them are hopeless about educational oppotunities for them. • 25,6 of them expects increase in educational opportunities. Thus, we aimed to create educational opportunities for adults with disabilities by means of our project. There are 2780 special needs students identified in our institution, 871 of them are adults. The target group of the project was disabled adults. As an institution we place disabled adults to different adult education courses specialized for them like ceramic, athletics, music, voice training, knitting, jewelry design, folk dance, and plain weave. Disabled adults attended courses with the aim of gaining knowledge, improving their manipulative skills or acquiring a profession. At this point placing them to the most appropriate course is very important because the courses will prepare them for life and at one point the courses determine the quality of their lives and their families' lives. Therefore, with this project we aimed to develop an assessment tool to place disabled adults to the most appropriate course by taking into consideration their needs, interests and talents. With this tool, disabled adults have discovered their interests and talents, their self awareness,self efficacy and self confidence have increased and as a result, they have been more content with their lives All the partners of the project are institutions dealing with disabled adults. SC Psihoforworld from Romania develops cooperation and communication activities for young people with disabilities and they implement sports activities, playful activities, theater and art therapy and they contribute to the development of friendship, communication and cooperation relations between young people with disabilities and young people without deficiencies. IIAPHS from Italy includes experts in psychology and social sciences: social psychology, psychometrics. They have expertise about competencies models. Association for Education and Development of Disabled People from Greece aims to provide disabled with skills so as to ensure employment. The association supports disable by offering advisory and psychological support to trainees and their families, socialization and education circulation programmes, pedagogical programmes, computer and accounting courses etc. ARDA from Germany offers courses in a wide range of fields such as management, job security, disabled care and the education of people with disabilities, food preparation etc. They have successfully completed more than 50 projects consisting of a wide range of the fields including the education of people with disabilities and inclusive education. There were 4 transational meetings during the project. The target of these meetings were to coordinate the process of the application of the assessment tool. There were 5 learning and training activities with 20 psychological counselors, special needs teachers and special needs specialists from 5 participant countries. In these meetings, we made workshops to develop the assessment tool, attain trainings to learn how to develop an assessment tool, and make observations in special needs institutions. Within the scope of our project, an international measurement tool has been developed that enable disabled adults in 5 countries to discover their interests and talents. Validity and reliability studies of the measurement tool have been conducted in English, Turkish, Romanian, Greek, Italian and German languages. In Turkey, Germany, Italy, Greece and Romania, a total of 741 disabled adults have discovered their talent areas. According to the results of the assessmen tool, 741 adults with disabilities were directed and placed in public education courses and vocational courses in line with their abilities. Disabled adults who have discovered their talents have successfully completed these courses in fields such as sports, painting, photography, gardening, theater, music, dance, handicrafts, cooking and computers. As a result of the post tests, it has been determined that there is an increase in life satisfaction of disabled adults. Disabled adults, who exist in social and productive life with their abilities have started to get more satisfaction from life. The assessment tool has been named as “Disabled Adults Talent and Interest Identificatıon Tool”. This measurement tool can be used when recommending vocational courses for disabled adults or when directing them to courses for hobby or educational purposes. Measurement tool consists of the excel file which has automatic calculation feature, a video and manual explaining how the measurement tool is applied and evaluated.