The projects will have a huge impact on accessibility to education for people who are visually impaired and transform the way learners with sight loss can access graphical information.
The AHVIIT – ACCESS (Audio Haptics for Visually Impaired Information Technology) project, aims to develop pilot materials and an online training programme that uses multi-sensory learning to deliver vocational training to people who are visually impaired. RNC is leading this two-year project with partners in Germany, Greece, Ireland and the Netherlands. The project which has been granted £328,000 from the European Union’s Leonardo fund. www.ahviit.org
The second project, AHVITED (Audio Haptics for Visually Impaired Training and Education at a Distance), aims to research and evaluate the problems associated with delivering graphical materials to visually impaired learners studying through distance learning. Systems currently used in the classroom are to be investigated and improved for wider application in distance learning; and then, pilot course materials and accessible software can be developed to deliver visual graphics through touch and sound in a distance learning environment. This three-year research project has been granted £520,000 funding and again brings together many of Europe’s leading researchers, trainers and educators of people with a visual impairment including Dublin City University, IBOS in Denmark, SREP Effective Inclusion: A Practical Guidein Romania, BFI in Austria and the University of Pavia, Italy. www.ahvited.org
Chris Stevenson, Business Development Manager at RNC, says: “The need for research into these areas is clear…practically every academic and vocational subject taught contains a varying degree of graphical data, from maps and pictures, to graphs and charts. For a sighted person this creates no problem, for someone without sight these graphical images are simply not accessible. This imbalance needs to be addressed and through this funding we aim to be able to achieve this.”
