English and German for Visually Impaired people

EUROCHANCE

EUROCHANCE

In a time when traditional job opportunities for the blind and visually impaired are rapidly disappearing, it is paramount that organisations working in that area are trying to locate so-called niche opportunities in the job market to be opened for the target group. The internet as a whole and web-based services in particular play an ever increasing role in todays labour market. It is therefore of the utmost importance that we demand equal access to these facilities. We have to consider new approaches to employment of the visually impaired. Reasonable computer access, relatively good optical character recognition (reading systems) and a number of telecommunications facilities are no longer revolutionary items in most of the industrialised countries. They have been around for some time. It is true, they still need improvement, and, fortunately, they keep improving. But we are looking at a relatively small percentage of the total population, so we will always have to catch up to the mainstream. At some point in the future a design for all philosophy may reduce the necessity for this constant chase. But maybe even more important than the technological aspect of our endeavours is the creation of awareness among potential employers. We will have to explain to them that their future employees are not only technologically savvy but also mentally and physically prepared to face new challenges and succeed in a highly competitive work environment.

English and german for Visually Impaired People

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Further technologies for new career opportunities in Europe

1. Information Technology / Web-Designer, Program mer, Network instructor 2. Social Management / Services to companies / Advisory activities / Information work / Teaching 3. Customer Care / Call Center Agent (instead of switchboard operator) 4. Handcraft / Tele-working 5. Agricultural work / due to the automation of technical processes on the territories of botany cultivation and animal care) 6. Industrial Management / Tele-sales 7. Health / Masseurs / Physiotherapists 8. Wellness / Tourism 9. Council / Consulting / Real estate / Back-ofce 10. Financing / supporting environment / Telemarketing / Customer service It appears from the survey that the employment situation of the blind and partially-sighted people in Europe has not evolved dramatically over the last ten years. Statistics on disabled people in general, let alone special disability groups, are still tremendously difcult to gather. Blindness organisations do not have the nancial resources, nor do they have the expertise, to perform quality investigations in this area. There have been no major innovations in terms of incentives to employment of disabled/blind people. Traditional recipes (e.g. job quotas) are still with us, but this may be because they have

English and german for Visually Impaired People

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yielded good results in the past. As we can see the blind and partially-sighted people are much worse off in terms of unemployment than the general population. This infers that positive discrimination measures are needed to curb the unemployment of the target group. It may sound odd to speak of positive discrimination, whereas the disability movement played an active role in the adoption of an EU Non-Discrimination Directive on Employment. In fact, non discrimination and positive discrimination are not opposed; on the contrary, they should be seen as complementary. Unfortunately, it is much too early to try and assess the impact of the directive. A few more years will be needed before a good assessment can be made. The results contained in the document provide a diverse picture of the employment situation of visually impaired people in Europe. Although there is some kind of variation regarding the criteria for registration as a blind or partially-sighted person in the different countries, it does seem probable that many European countries are underestimating the prevalence of visual impairment in the population. This remains a key issue that needs addressing urgently, as service planning by governmental and non-governmental organisations needs to be based on reliable population estimates. It is interesting to note the extent to which visually impaired people in EBU member countries are increasingly accessing mainstream employment opportunities. It is the general aim of the EUROCHANCE project to decrease the unemployment rate among the blind and partially-sighted people. Increasing qualication of the target group and making the professional community aware of the blind and visually impaired peoples skills and competences should achieve the goal. Specically, our partnership aims at developing modules for English

English and german for Visually Impaired People

EUROCHANCE

and German language courses for blind and partially-sighted people and making them available on an Internet platform, increasing language and cultural competences of blind employees, widening their awareness regarding employment possibilities and further personal development. The new age of information technologies has brought up wider opportunities for blind and visually impaired job seekers. Rising qualication of the target group in the foreign languages will increase their chance on the labour market and also improve their social situation while blind and visually impaired people will be able to nd better positions and well-paid jobs.

United Kingdom
Name: Liz Yates female, 40 visually impaired acquired/ she began to lose her sight three years ago due to Diabetic Retinopathy Present employment: Line of business: Informations System Advisor Company for supplier of specialty medical de vices for the pharmaceuti cal, healthcare and diagnostics industries)

Liz began to lose her sight three years ago due to Diabetic Retinopathy. She worked as a systems analyst for 9 years. She uses PC daily and CCTV magnier and scanners, zoom text magnication program and computerised speech system.

English and german for Visually Impaired People

EUROCHANCE

Name: Roy Gray male, 65+ visually impaired acquired/ in 1994 Roy was registered partially sighted. He discovered he had macular degene ration, and his eyesight has been gradually dete riorating ever since. Present employment: Former engineer, retired

Roy Gray is a retired engineer from Galashiels, in Scotland. Throughout his engineering life he was interested in teaching, and when he was 59 he was invited to work in special education.

Norway
Name: Marianne Tollefsen female, 39 blind impaired inborn Present employment: Line of business: Physiotherapist Public health service

School for the blind 4 years, thereafter standard school. 2 children, blind spouse. Worked several years in a private institute. Worked for 10 years at a home for elderly. Higher education, 3 years physiotherapist.

English and german for Visually Impaired People

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Name: Hans Anton lien male, 47 blind Severely visually impaired from birth, totally blind from around the age of 8 Present employment: Line of business: IT Software Engineer/Advisor Public sector

Czech Republic
Name: Katerina Bauerov female, 25 visualy impaired acquired Present employment:
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Social helper

Spain
Name: Ana Belen Fernandez Arbesu female, 32 visualy impaired inborn Present employment: Line of business: ofce worker Service company: cleaning, security, estate agents etc....

English and german for Visually Impaired People

EUROCHANCE

Name: Maria Diaz Alonso female, 30 blind inborn Present employment: Line of business: Social worker O.N.C.E. SOCIAL SERVICES FOR MEMBERS

Graduate in Social Work Studies - Oviedo University

Austria
Name: Mario Lang male, 26 blind acquired (professional error at the age of 16 years) Present employment: Line of business: programmer Central informatic ofce

In July 1998 the EU funded Employment / HORIZON project BiQ Blind and visually impaired people in IT Qualication started. The goal where to make the participants get the ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence) and a certied IT qualication like MCP (Microsoft Certied Professional), MCSE (Microsoft Certied System Engineer), CNE (Certied Novell Engineer) etc. The methods of teaching the target group in these elds of IT qualication had to be developed and evaluated in pilot

English and german for Visually Impaired People

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courses. Mr. Mario Lang was one of the participants. After this vocational training he works at Technical University of Graz. The new age of information technologies has brought up wider opportunities for blind and visually impaired job seekers on the basic of his vocational training Mr. Lang is employed as programmer at the Technical University of Graz now. Name: Martha Verboschek female, 44 blind Present employment: Line of business: CallCenter Agent and Service Center Health Consulting

She completed lower secondary school and masseur training. After school she completed a masseur education in Vienna Mrs. Verboschek worked as masseur in Bad Gleichenberg, then got 2 children and stayed at home from 1984 to 2003. Then her children left home as adults and she wanted to start working again. In her profession as masseur she couldnt get a job, so she collected information about working possibilities and trainings, and heard about the training for call center agents. One week before the assessment center for this training started, her eyes got worse and she had an surgery, where her eyelens was removed and she lost sight completely. During her stay at the hospital she attended the assessment

English and german for Visually Impaired People

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center and was selected for the training. Mrs Verboschek had visual impairements from birth on (glaucoma) and became nearly blind in 1994 because of the Axenfeld Rieger Syndrom. In 2003 it got worse, now she is totally blind. In 2003 she completed the ECDL and the training for Call Center Agents and Customer Care successfully. After this exams she applied for a job as call center agent in a project called TeleTrading House for blind and visually impaired people. Since 2005 she is employed in the rst labour market in a provincial health consulting in Graz. She is doing in- and outbound calls and administrate the Business Center. She is working very precise and correct, with high commitment to her job.

Slovak Republic
Name: Lucia female, 28 blind acquired, visual disease, high visual tension (glaukom) Present employment: Law ofcer Line of business: Slovak Disability Council I attended special primary school for visually impaired children and ordinary secondary grammar school. I studied at the Faculty of law at Comenius university in Bratislava. I have been learning English for a long time. I started to learn during the study at secondary grammar school. I attended the basic course at Academy of Education during my study at university. Last year I

English and german for Visually Impaired People

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passed the general English state exam. I am interested in learning languages (French, spanish), issues of running non-governmental organizations and legal advice mainly in the area of discrimination on the ground of disability. . Graduated as magister of law, I am currently employed. I am independently living in tenement. I have got a certicate of general state exam of English language. Name: Vladimir male, 50 blind acquired (accident) Present employment: Teacher, history, PhDr. Line of business: Comenius University in Bra tislava Teacher of history, Braille and special computers for the blind. Interests: literature, numismatics, tourism.

English and german for Visually Impaired People

Brailcom, o.p.s. Vysehradska 3/255 128 00 Prague 28 Czech Republic Phone: +420 24 24 86 008 E-Mail. kontakt@brailcom.org

Leabank Management Services E-Mail: Ims@leabank.fsbusiness.co.uk

Eurovision Ltd. Husova 6 (2.oor) 602 00 Brno Czech Republic Phone: +420 54323 7286 E-Mail: info@eurovision-eu.com

Slovak Blind and Partially Sighted Union Sekulska 1 842 50 Bratislava Slovak Republic Phone: +421-2-65 420 853, 844; E-Mail: unss@unss.sk

Berufsfrderungsinstitut Steiermark Mariengasse 24 8020 Graz Austria Phone: +43 316 7270 E-Mail: info@b-stmk.at

The Faculty of Economics VSB-TU Ostrava Sokolsk trida 33 701 21 Ostarava 1 Czech Republic Phone: +420-59699 E-Mail: www@vsb.cz
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Media LT Tevlingveien 15 1081 Oslo Norway Phone: +47 21 53 80 10 E-Mail: info@medialt.no

Lawton School L.S. Plaza San Mingue / Calle Cura Sama 7 33202 Gijn Spain Phone: +34 985 352 123 E-Mail: info@lawtonschool.com