VIENDO LO INVISIBLE: Digitalización inclusiva de estudiantes con baja visión en la educación escolar

Low vision is a serious problem with a significant impact on education. It is estimated that it affects more than 19 million school-age children, 7 million of which (more than 2 million in Europe) are as a result of sequelae from diseases, according to the WHO 2020 report. These children are integrated (in 99% of cases) into non-specific schools, and despite the many benefits this has, it also generates major challenges to ensure that the educational development of the classroom as a whole isn’t impacted, generating the concern of parents and students themselves. Also, achieving the educational success of young people with low vision (something that is rarely achieved) requires providing teachers of specific training on low vision and its consequences, which they usually don’t have, as well as a titanic effort for the creation of new adapted materials and the use of learning methods based on ICTs. The unbearable workload required for teachers, added to the appearance of COVID-19, made the situation for teachers and students worsen considerably since 2020.

The purpose of this project has been to support both students with low vision who come into new classrooms, and teachers without specific training who receive them in theirs. This is NOT an easy situation for the student (for whom every-day attendance to school is a struggle already: getting there, overcoming obstacles and learning, integrating with their peers…). It is not easy for their teachers either, because they know that all their previous work, all their teaching experience, will not be enough. They will have to start anew that year, by creating a new adapted classroom planning, new learning methods that include the student with low vision, remaking all the educational materials to adapt them to low vision, invest many hours in the creation of curricular adaptations… and they usually don’t know how to do it. With “SEEING THE INVISIBLE” we wanted to contribute to the survival of teachers and to the educational and social success of students with low vision through an innovative point of view that unifies the general training processes for standard vision with the adapted teaching methods and in the digital field (essential in a post-COVID-19 society).

Over the course of 28 months we carried out a large number of activities: ‒ SELECTION, TRAINING, PLANNING AND COORDINATION ACTIVITIES, where the 4 on-site Transnational Meetings and 28 virtual meetings stand out. ‒ ACTIVITIES FOR THE CREATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF RESULTS, where the following stand out: -- Hundreds of activities for the development of the results that have involved teachers, students, and experts in aniridia and albinism. -- Bilateral meetings with officials from CEFIRE, the G.R.E.T.A. network, the French Ministry of Education, the Norwegian Ministry of Education, ONCE, and FEDER. -- 170 pilot tests. -- Bilateral meetings with low-vision entities for the implementation of the results in Latin America (“Albinos Chile” and Fundación Nacional de Albinismo “Simplemente Amigos”). ‒ EVALUATION AND MONITORING ACTIVITIES, including 342 evaluation actions, external evaluations with 189 evaluators, participation in congresses, and 170 pilot tests. ‒ COMMUNICATION ACTIVITIES, with 65 actions involving 1443 people from 64 countries, 3 international congresses, the publication of 2 scientific papers, and 3 major Multiplier Events involving 247 participants.

We have developed 3 main results: O1 – “SEEING THE INVISIBLE: EDUCATIONAL APPLICATION FOR THE INCLUSIVE DIGITIZATION OF THE CLASSROOM THROUGH THE SMARTPHONE”: a software for Android and iOS that provides secondary school teachers with the necessary tools to generate materials fully adapted to low vision for any course, create virtual classrooms with their students, and generate a process of reflection and learning among them and with low vision experts. O2 – VIRTUAL TRAINING COURSE FOR TEACHERS: INCLUSIVE DIGITIZATION IN SCHOOL EDUCATION: an e-learning course implemented on the Virtual Inclusive Education (VIE) platform that, through an innovative methodology, complements the training of secondary school teachers for the inclusion in the classroom of students with low vision due to albinism or aniridia. O3 – OERs ADAPTED TO STUDENTS WITH LOW VISION: 42 unique digital resources support the teacher's work in the classroom and the adapted training of high school students with low vision. We have also created 4 tangible results (see: www.schoolforall.eu/seeingtheinvisible/main-outputs/).