BORDERS OF TANGIBLE

With this project, we aimed to connect professionals from Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, and Romania who implement adapted education programs for blind and visually impaired students—those who teach blind students and adapt materials for them. The main goal was to create a manual—a standardized guide for producing tactile images for blind students. By creating a collection of pre-made tactile images, a manual, and user instructions, we sought to make teaching easier for educators in mainstream primary schools. With the development of inclusive education, blind and visually impaired students in all partner countries have increasingly been integrated into inclusive schools. This has led to a growing need for the adaptation of various teaching materia Since future teachers are not trained during their studies to teach blind and visually impaired students, they often face challenges in adapting teaching materials in a way that enables these students to achieve learning objectives and be equally included in the educational process. Through this project, we also aimed to build professional and friendly connections among partners for future collaboration.

The main goal of the project was to enhance the professional competencies of educators teaching blind and visually impaired students and to improve the skills of professionals adapting visual didactic materials for the blind among all participating partners. Through teamwork, seminars, meetings, and the creation of all project outcomes, we not only achieved but exceeded this goal. We established an international network of professionals who adapt materials for blind and visually impaired individuals. At international meetings with schools from Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Slovenia, and other countries, interest in continued collaboration and the inclusion of new professionals was expressed. The project results have been and will continue to be incorporated into seminars for teachers working in mainstream primary schools. This will enable blind students in inclusive education to receive higher-quality and more equitable education. At the same time, it will ease the teaching process for mainstream school teachers and streamline their preparation for the educational process. The standardized guidelines result in richer and higher-quality adaptations while offering the possibility of sharing adapted visual materials among partners.

We held 5 project meetings (one via the ZOOM platform and four in person). Additionally, we carried out two learning/teaching/training activities aimed at deepening existing knowledge and acquiring new skills. Through the ZOOM platform, project team leaders met regularly to review past work and plan future activities. Using the WhatsApp application, we resolved smaller issues and dilemmas on an ongoing basis and strengthened our informal relationships. We regularly posted updates about our work on the project’s Facebook page. All partners also conducted training for teachers in mainstream primary schools and held final conferences. We also established a website where all project information, contacts, and access to the final project results are gathered. We implemented a range of activities designed to meet the specific needs of blind and visually impaired students, as well as to promote inclusive education practices. These activities were carefully planned to ensure the development and dissemination of adapted educational materials, as well as to support the professional development of educators. One of the primary activities was the creation of accessible, adapted educational materials, including images and instructional content, specifically designed for blind and visually impaired students. These materials were developed using the expertise of the project team, who have years of experience in creating resources for inclusive education. LTT1 aimed to equip educators from partner organizations with the skills to adapt educational materials effectively for blind and visually impaired students. It included the presentation of various adaptation techniques, the use of assistive tools, and examples of best practices. LTT2 focused on providing participants with the skills to create audio descriptions for visual educational content. This was particularly relevant for making learning materials more accessible and helping blind students to better understand the visual aspects of their education. A website was developed to house all the project’s intellectual outputs, including the adapted educational materials, guidelines for their use, and video tutorials. This platform ensures that all the project’s resources remain publicly accessible and can be easily shared by educators, parents, and other stakeholders in inclusive education. We organized and participated in international meetings and training sessions with project partners from different countries. These meetings served as a platform for discussing the progress of the project, exchanging ideas and experiences, and strengthening the cooperation between partner organizations. These meetings also allowed the team to review and refine the project's outputs, ensuring the quality and relevance of the materials developed. Each partner organization organized a national multiplicative event to disseminate the project results to a wider audience, including educators, parents, and other relevant stakeholders in the field of inclusive education. These events were designed to raise awareness about the importance of adapted educational materials for blind and visually impaired students and to share the results of the project. These activities were all designed to address the challenges faced by blind and visually impaired students in accessing quality education and to promote sustainable practices that can continue beyond the project's lifetime.

We accomplished everything we set out to do in the project planning. We created the handbook Unified Recommendations for Adapting Visual Didactic Materials for the Blind. The handbook has been translated into all the languages used by the project partners, as well as into English. It is publicly available on the website https://bot.center-iris.si/index.php/intelektual-outputs/. The second output of the project is the Collection of Adapted Visual Didactic Materials for the Blind and Visually Impaired. The collection is publicly available and includes more than 200 images. The goal for the future is to continue adding to the collection even after the project’s completion, which all project partners agree on. We also created the Instructions for Using Adapted Visual Didactic Materials for the Blind and Visually Impaired, which will be supported by video demonstrations for teachers of blind and visually impaired students. Since all materials created during the project are freely accessible, we hope that teachers of blind and visually impaired students will use the adapted visual didactic materials in their teaching process, freely access the collection of adapted visual materials, and become more confident in carrying out the educational process. In the future, we aim for active collaboration between project partners and teachers in mainstream schools. We also hope to connect with partners from other countries through future projects to expand the materials and knowledge we gained in this project