Use Sound to Watch Around II During the TC, the participants will be introduced to the possibilities of audio stock and provided the description of audio stock as a possible employment source: Stock websites are platforms for selling personal works which are used for commercial purposes. The users registered on stock websites can be individuals not only legal entities. Another employment possibility for the blind will be designing adverts and other radio marketing devices for various radio stations. The blind without musical background will be able to find employment opportunities in this area as this work requires creativity and technical skills related to sound rather than talent. Also, this type of work requires almost no financial investment nor professional studies, but simply an average computer, a sound card, and audio software. Such jobs can be done online and from home. In the TC, the participants will be shown a simulation of this process, and they will also learn the basics of recording, editing, and media sound design. The works will be presented publicly and later used in the future project of a Greek partner organization on the topic of sound stimulation. The blind participants will bring to attention both the advantages and disadvantages of this process so all the participants will know what to expect in their further work with the blind and how to develop their ideas. The participants will together shape the idea about building the platform and its name, where the blind will not only be able to distribute their works but also to create their profiles and offer various types of work related to audio production (such as Fiver). We recognized the need for building the platform given that, at present, there are no platforms on the market adapted for the blind users. Further, the platform will be presented to socially responsible businesses so as to make a contribution in terms of inclusion, as well as to the companies legally required to hire persons with disabilities. The blind will create their own profile, portfolio, and offer, after which clients worldwide will be able to hire them as freelancers. To attract clients, service costs will be slightly lower than the average on other stock websites. The platform will be self-sustainable as 20% of the entire income will be used for maintenance. The platform will be developed by a team of programmers. The participants and partner organizations will be in contact during the entire time to discuss the elements and contents of the platform, and to test the platform.
Project “Use sound to watch around II” consisted of educational activities and produced a new platform (www.soundsy.net) for enabling youth with visual impairment to become self-employed/entrepreneurs. Idea of the project was to work on strengths of youth with visual impairment. Persons with visual impairment have better hearing sense than persons without visual impairment. New technologies enable visually impaired people to work in a field of music production, sound design and music.Educational activities:During Project Activity 1 – Training course, 9 days in Serbia, Participants (Youth workers and youth with visual impairment) were improving learning, skills, knowledge and experiences through creative methods of non-formal education and sound design with aim to improve self-employment of youth with visual impairment. Sound recorders that we have been using during this activity have been given to the partner organizations to keep and to use in helping young with learning sound design as well as to support their work, in their own country. Each partner organization also received free software for sound design such as: Ripper, Audacity and others.Participants were educated about and improved:-Ideas for self-employment-Skills, knowledges for enabling sound design (recording, postproduction)-Opportunities for selling sounds / sound design online -Skills, knowledge and experiences of youth workers that can help and support youth with visual impairment.-Participants learned about Erasmus+ possibilities for youth with fewer opportunities – how participants can develop their project ideas together into new projects, and also how to apply.-list of requirements for making web audio platform that is adapted for the use of blind youth-Plan for developing web stock audio platform (design and code)-Plan for future activities in their local communities-Plan for marketing and dissemination of project resultsDuring Project Activity 2 - Participants initiatives, started after the Training Course. In this activity participants worked on sharing learned knowledge form our TC to youth with visual impairment in their local communities. Also, during this activity participants cooperated and started working on creating an audio stock platform. Creation of the platform was started during Activity 2, but improvement was during the whole project lifetime and the work on it will be continued after project lifetime.Producing platform:This new platform was built by standards for persons with visual impairment, so our platform (www.soundsy.net) enables persons with visual impairment to use it and to get jobs and to work as freelancers or to sell audio files online. This platform is the first of its kind, it enables working without using the screen. It is made in a way that enables the screen reader software to read everything, and the whole platform can be used without a mouse – using only a keyboard. Youth with visual impairment can work using this platform and can get jobs or can put files for sale online. During Project Activity 3 – Evaluation Meeting, 5 days in Bulgaria, participants (youth workers and 1 person with visual impairment per partner organization) evaluated effects and results of Project Activity 1. Project Activiti 2 and Project Activity 3. During this Activity platform was presented and participants also evaluated the quality and functionality of the web platform for selling audio stock, and they gave feedback, new ideas and suggestions for improvements.Participants suggested ideas for promotion of platform and project results. During this activity participants also created new project proposals.