Concretely, the Thalassophile Project activities were designed to: • Make marine science and ocean literacy more accessible, especially to d/Deaf, blind and partially sighted. • Increase awareness within adult education institutions that large groups of citizens are unable to gain access to information related to the Ocean. Similarly, to increase awareness within marine research that there are groups of adult learners physically unable to access the research and resources they provide. • Create a ‘door’ into the scientific concepts behind marine conservation, one which was accessible to all European citizens, including those who are d/Deaf and/or visually impaired. • Network our target groups of cross-sector practitioners in marine research and adult education and create a basis for mutual understanding to facilitate practical implementation of multisensorial marine science and conservation adult education. • Create original, engaging and high quality information and curate existing accessible educational material to increase and strengthen the target groups awareness of the importance of marine ecosystems.
The Thalassophile Project is based on the knowledge that the climate and ocean conservation movement needs people from all backgrounds, abilities, places, and walks of life to be successful. We identified a gap in the accessible marine science and conservation material in adult education environments for d/Deaf, blind and partially sighted. In our target groups of adult educators communicating with d/Deaf and visually impaired people, and adults producing marine outreach or conservation material, we identified a corresponding gap of understanding what ‘making accessible educational material’ means in practice, and how to make educational content more accessible in practice. Therefore, to universal accessibility we needed both to raise awareness of what that is and how to achieve it, but also to create our own examples of inclusive ocean science resources. The Thalassophile Project activities are our partnership’s response to the challenge of increasing ALL stakeholders understanding the science behind marine environments, and was designed to embed Ocean Decade Challenges, particularly Challenge 9 (Skills, knowledge, technology and participation for all) and Challenge 10 (Restore society’s relationship with the ocean).