According to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU) at the start of 2019, 101.1 million people in the EU had reached the age of 65 – 20% of the total population. By 2050, this share is projected to increase to 29%. The ageing is mainly due to a long-term fall in fertility rates and increased life expectancy. The needs of these people have changed over the years. There are significant differences between the seniors at present and in previous years. Together with the global phenomenon of ageing of societies (decreasing birth rate and prolonging life expectancy), increased migration of population, growing number of breakdowns of unions, lack of offspring, etc., a growing number of environments in which seniors run single-person households are observed, especially for Deaf senior. The "Deaf Senior Education for Active Living" project aims to : - PROMOTE ERASMUS + AMONG ALL CITIZENS AND GENERATIONS BY OFFERING ACTIVITIES OF EDUCATION AND EXCHANGES OF EXPERIENCES TO SENIORS. The project was designed to meet the growing demand for support for deaf elderly people, with particular reference to their access to the information and actions required by the digital world, first of all, the financial, banking and social security operations that today require increasing digital skills. Deaf people, especially older ones, are often forgotten by public services and cannot access most routes for people of their age because of the communication difficulties they may encounter and the absence of interpreting services, for example in CPIAs or UNITRE (in Italy), but also on mainstream occasions, such as conferences in a library or a guided tour of a museum. There are significant differences between the elderly of today and those of the past, the current ones are in fact active, attentive to their physical appearance and the environment, follow the needs of fashion, engage in various activities promoting health, physical and mental. They require a high-quality training offer, taking into account both the range of issues suitable for their needs and the possibility of being involved in various activities with a function of socialisation and active employment of leisure. Thanks to this active lifestyle, the current senior enhances his time and consciously selects the activities in which he participates, paying attention to the quality, attractiveness, and usefulness of the offer in everyday life. Increasingly, older citizens are showing an interest in broadening their knowledge of the latest technological developments (ICT) to be active in the digital world; they want to pursue passions/interests that, for various reasons (lack of time, over-responsibility), could not afford at an earlier stage of their lives. However, this process of selection and free choice is in fact prevented for deaf elderly people, who struggle to find the right information on training courses and even when they find them, they are faced with activities that are not accessible to them and lack adequate support. Since current elders are a group with specific individual needs, with different professional, family, social, educational, health and cognitive experiences (such as memory, attention, etc.), and that this significantly affects the educational opportunities of each person, the methods and forms of education used should be universal enough to meet the needs of a diverse group and at the same time individually adapted to the specific needs and abilities of the individual. For this reason, the consortium of this project wants to implement its training offer, enhancing the sector related to the education of senior people. - EXTENDING AND DEVELOPING THE COMPETENCIES OF EDUCATORS AND OTHER PERSONNEL WHO SUPPORT ADULT LEARNERS. Few adult educators/ trainers have been trained in the specific needs of older students and those with a formation in working with elderly people with disabilities. At the same, training materials are frequently designed to appeal to a younger audience and are not only not relevant but may be rejected as such by discerning seniors. Moreover, intergenerational training requires different methods and adaptation of existing materials and techniques especially when the target group are senior with disabilities (D/deaf Senior). - SOCIAL INCLUSION: According to Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, we must recognize the equal right of all people with disabilities to live in the community, with the same freedom of choice as other people, and take measures effective and appropriate in order to facilitate the full enjoyment by people with disabilities of this right and full inclusion and participation within the community, so the project wants to improve social inclusion for older generations of deaf people through their stay active through learning, volunteering and contributing to the well-being of society.
With our project, the goals we were trying to achieve are the following - Exchange of experiences and good practices in the field of education of deaf older people between professionals from both the deaf sector and professionals from the field of care and protection of older people. - The creation of universal educational and activation tools in international cooperation, supporting the psychophysical functioning of deaf older people and their active participation in social life. - The creation of accessible material with sign language, subtitles, and animation for the deaf elderly by giving them tools in their mother tongue (sign language). - The development and enrichment of educational offerings for deaf elderly people in their localities. - Making educational and guardianship organizations reflect on the intersectionality of being disabled and being elderly. - The training of educators and/or practitioners who are able to work with the double intersection of being disabled and elderly, according to the principles established by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
We applied for this project after seeing that according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU), at the beginning of 2019, approximately 101.1 million people in the EU had reached the age of 65 - which is 20% of the total population. And that by 2050, this share was expected to increase to 29%. We also realized that aging was mainly due to the long-term decline in fertility rates and the increase in life expectancy in our countries. This has led over the years to a change in the needs of older people. In our daily work with this group, we realized that there are significant differences between the elderly of today and those of previous years. Together with the global phenomenon of aging societies (decreasing birth rate and prolonging life expectancy), increasing population migration, increasing the number of marital breakdowns, lack of offspring, etc., there is an increasing number of environments in which seniors run single-person households, especially for deaf seniors, hence the need to create instruments to fill this gap.