by Irina Stratila, AIPD Romania

Within ALL DIGITAL Week, implemented in Romania by EOS Foundation, we make Romania digital, and we make blind kids digital, too.

They are Alexia and Alexix, two wonderful  twins from Bocsa city, Caras county, Romania. They are blind, but they are in the 5th grade of their local school. Estera Visan, their mother, was ambitious to create all the needed conditions so that her kids could go to a regular school, not to a school for students with visual impairments.

Starting with this academic year, Computer Science has became a mandatory subject for all the middle school students. So, Alexia and Alexix had to begin studying the computer. It is an educational challenge for them, but more for their teacher, Daiana Ilie, who is an educator by vocation, with a high level of professionalism and wisdom. She treats them on an equal basis with other pupils in the class and ensures they are achieving the educational objectives. At the same time, the teacher realised that these children need adapted conditions to be able to perform at school.

Mrs Daiana contacted AIPD (Association for Integration of People with Disabilities) asking for help to find an appropriate screen reader, that could be used by her blind students during the lessons, as well as while doing homework. Keeping in mind their technical aspects, we identified and recommended the appropriate software and guided her to adjust the programme settings. From then, Alexia and Alexix began to discover the world of technology, being helped by the synthetic voice of the screen reader. This software is very useful also in studying other school subjects.

This is a nice example of the implementation of the legal provisions regarding the rights of persons with disabilities. For teacher Daiana Ilie, these provisions are not simple letters of law, but are normal, natural and healthy attitudes.

Dear Mrs. Ilie, thank you for your openness, courage, and initiative, and we hope that your example will inspire other IT teachers, who have or probably will have blind or partially sighted students in their classes.

Best wishes! AIPD Team are here to support and help you.

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Association for Integration of Persons with Disabilities (AIPD), founded in 2010, supports persons with physical disabilities, helping them integrate in society as smoothly as possible. The final purpose is to break the barrier between this vulnerable group and the rest of society.

AIPD Objectives

• assist special schools by offering necessary equipment and special facilities;
• assist pupils from families with low income for continuing their studies;
• create resource centres properly equipped and employing staff trained for aiding students with disabilities who encounter problems with their studies;
• facilitate special access ways in academic institutions;
• equip student campuses with signs, rails, handrails in order to improve traffic;
• organize qualification/requalification courses for professional training (integration in the labour field);
• found an entrepreneurial school.
  
  More on the AIPD website