Digital education for visually-impaired children in Romania

digital education for visually-impaired children in romania E-sight is a digital education and social integration project for visually impaired children using the latest technology.

E-sight is a digital education and social integration project for visually impaired children using the latest technology. The project was first carried out between May 2014 and June 2015 by the Save the Children Organisation and financed by the Orange Foundation. 400 children from Bucharest, Timisoara, Cluj Napoca, Buzau, Targu Frumos and Arad took part in the project, and a further 1,000 were made aware of the available resources.


The project was based on a survey conducted by the Save the Children Organisation showing that 65% of visually impaired children would like to make the others aware of the challenges they face, whether it's the access to education or to online services. Also, most of the children canvassed said they wanted to share the results of their creative projects with their communities. Teodora Stoica, from Save the Children, says the project demonstrated once again the need for the social integration of the visually impaired children:


"The project's main goal was to support the free expression of children and stimulate their interaction with the others. Our second goal was to increase the public's awareness about the situation of visually impaired children. Last but not least, we would like to ensure the access of these children to educational resources adjusted to their needs. To carry out our first goal, we held a series of non-formal activities. We therefore created a group of 55 volunteers who travelled to Bucharest, Arad, Timisoara, Cluj Napoca, Targu Frumos and Buzau and carried out non-formal activities with the children, such as collages, paintings, etc. We also wanted to increase the awareness of the general public about the situation of visually impaired children so we staged exhibitions featuring the children's works. Between May 29th and June 17th we held a series of exhibitions in the cities of Buzau, Arad, Cluj Napoca, Timisoara and Targu Frumos containing the works made by the children during our non-formal activities."


The E-sight project also entailed the creation of an online platform, which can be accessed at www.esight.ro, containing information and applications needed by the children, such as tutorials, mobile apps, reading programmes, etc. The National Library has also come up with proposals to facilitate the access to information of visually impaired persons and help them integrate into the labour market, says the library's general director Claudia Serbanuta:


"We will provide the public in general and visually impaired people in particular with book lending services in an accessible format. By the end of the year, we would like to be able to provide library permits online and for permit holders to be able to download the book they wish to read using their computers. This is the first service of this kind in Romania, so we would like everyone to tell us what they would like to read. What the National Library is trying to do is facilitate children's encounter with books that boost their confidence and give them the strength to go on."


The E-sight project also includes the production of a documentary film telling the story of Livia Frona, a 10-year old visually impaired girl from Targu Frumos who has taken up the piano:


"I love playing the piano, because I feel I have a connection with this instrument. My favourite composer is Mozart. When I play the piano I feel happy. I want to become a pianist and, if possible, someday I would like to visit Mozart's birthplace in Austria."


Eusebiu Toma is an equally talented boy. He is 17, goes to high school and likes traditional music:


"It was very hard at first, and I didn't expect I would be able to go this far. I had a lot to learn. But our whole life is a race that we have to win. I started playing music at the age of 9, I got a toy organ as a present and I played that. My parents talked to a high school teacher in Botosani, they saw that I liked to play that organ and at first we placed some stickers on each key, each with a different shape so that I could learn properly. And so it began. When I was 11, my mother bought me a flute and I used to learn the songs by heart, because I couldn't read the sheets, it was really difficult. I would learn each tune after I recorded it on my phone. Then I moved on to the clarinet, kaval, ocarina, and I also intend to learn to play the bagpipe and the telenka."


The visually impaired are an underprivileged group in Romanian society, according to recent surveys which put Romania on one of the last places in Europe in terms of the integration of the visually impaired into the labour market. Only 1 in 15 visually impaired youth find employment in this country. Here is Simona Penescu, the interim executive director of Orange Romania:


"In theory, the Romanian legislation is good. There is a law that binds large companies to employ people with disabilities. The problem is that the practical implementation is very poor. There are a lot of examples of employers who would rather pay a fine to the Government than employ visually impaired people, because they are afraid. We should organise roundtables, workshops to explain these things to employers. Ironically, the few employers who hire these people are extremely happy with the work of their visually impaired staff. So we need to make employers understand that people with disabilities also have a lot of skills."


After graduating from high school, visually impaired young people have few options to further their education. Those who manage to integrate well in school rely a lot on the help of their parents, who cover the costs of the equipment needed for the course materials to be adapted to their children's needs. For instance, the license for a piece of text-to-speech software is around 1,000 euros. At the moment, there are around 3,200 children and over 100,000 visually impaired adults in Romania. 


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Publicat: 2015-09-16 13:03:00
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