ICEVI - Projects and Collaborative Activities

ICEVI and WBU Proudly Announce

A GLOBAL CAMPAIGN ON EDUCATION FOR ALL CHILDREN WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT

The Education for All Children with Visual Impairment (EFA-VI) is a global campaign and program of the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI) acting in partnership with the World Blind Union (WBU) to ensure that all girls and boys with blindness and low vision enjoy the right to education. The Campaign, launched on July 16, 2006 will focus on children in the developing world where currently it is estimated that less than ten-percent have access to education.

The Campaign addresses three key Millennium Development Goals: -achieving universal primary education, -promoting gender equality and -developing global partnerships for development.

The Campaign will work within the framework of the general and special education system of countries and will initially focus attention on awareness and demand creation for education of children with visual impairment. Provision of appropriate support in educational settings and creation of alternative settings to reach out to the un-reached will be key aspects of the campaign.

The Campaign will be implemented at two levels. A Global Task Force (GTF), chaired by the President of ICEVI and consisting of leading umbrella organisations and international non-governmental development organisations will be involved in formulating policies whereas the day-to-day implementation of the campaign will be the responsibility of the National Task Forces (NTF).

Capacity building of teachers and others, development of literature, production of assistive devices and operational research are important elements that will be developed through the "centres of excellence" that the Campaign will identify and develop. International funding organisations, inter-governmental organisations, corporations and foundations will be partners in this global effort to create educational equity for all children with visual impairment.

The success of the campaign will be measured by:

1. increased enrolment rates,
2. reduced dropout rates,
3. improved access to support services, and
4. educational achievement for children with visual impairment, on par with non-disabled children. The Global Campaign presents a unique opportunity for collaboration between the education and eye-health care communities in assuring that all children with visual impairment have access to the basic human right of "education for all".

HIGHER EDUCATION PROJECT - INDONESIA

INTRODUCTION
The year 2009 is the third year of higher education pioneering project in Indonesia. In the last three years, Pertuni with the support of the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI) and The Nippon Foundation had pioneered two schemes for supporting university blind students (resource centered based and university based). This project had been conducted in four cities of Indonesia (Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya and Makassar).

After being successful in supporting the students, knowing the outcome and the impact, some issues still came up during the final evaluation process in late 2008. The three most priority ones, that urgently to be addressed are as follows:

• The provision of portable technology devices - mini laptop computer
• The provision of accessible statistic references
• The provision of awareness campaign tool kit

PROJECT ACTIVITIES
I. Provision of portable assistive devices - mini laptop computers
This for the cities where students are enrolling in several different universities, where higher education project implement resource center based approach, and most of the universities are far from the resource center where the project provide them with assistive technology service. The provision of mini laptop computers could help the students being able to do assignment in the campus including exam.

This project activity has been done in Makasar, where there are now 10 students who are enrolled in three different universities. In 2008, through higher education project, Pertuni had cooperated with YAPTI - a special school for the blind that also functioned as a resource center. For implementing the project, Pertuni headquarters also made use of the organization branch in Makasar, to work together with YAPTI.

The provision of portable assistive devices would be executed with the usage of "loan based scheme" that has been done successfully in Jakarta by Mitra Netra during the first year of Indonesian Higher Education project 2006-2007.

In Makasar, Pertuni provided 10 units of mini laptop computer; one computer for each student. Local Pertuni Chapter in Makasar has managed the project in 2008 together with YAPTI Resource Center which was responsible to manage those devices.

Steps that had been done to execute this project activity are as follows:

• Meeting with local Pertuni Chapter, YAPTI and all the students:
  To make sure that all the parties understand this concept, Pertuni Higher Education project Coordinator had conducted a meeting in Makasar; to explain in detail how local Pertuni in Makasar should manage the devices, and to make sure that all the students understand the "loan based scheme" of the provision of the portable devices. This meeting has been done in early April. The 10 units of mini laptop computers were also handed over to the Makasar Pertuni Chapter during the early April meeting.
• Training how to use mini laptop computer:
  To make all the students familiar with the portable devices, training was organized by Pertuni Chapter in Makasar.
• Agreement and handing over the devices:
  Before lending the computers to all the students, Pertuni Chapter has signed agreement with all the students. On the agreement, there have been regulation and the procedure how to utilize the mini laptop. After signing the agreement, student may start using the computer, under the supervision of the person in charge from Pertuni.

After being about three months of utilizing those mini laptop computers:

• Students are getting to used utilizing the mini laptop computers
• They start using the devices to do assignments and exams in the campus
• Pertuni chapter in Makasar has no difficulty in managing the loan-based scheme computers

II. The Provision of Accessible references for Statistic
Statistic is one of the most challenging subjects for blind students in university. There are some issues concerning statistic that Pertuni and ICEVI found during the evaluations process of higher education pioneering project as follows:

• The provision of accessible references on statistic
  After two years of the project implementation - with the usage of assistive technology, access to statistic references is still a big issue, since there have been graphics, particular statistic symbols, formulas, that could not be coped with the usage of the available assistive technology - talking computers and scanners. In another word, blind students are still not yet independent in learning statistic.
• Statistic learning method that used by Lecturers in universities is still not yet accessible for blind students as well

To cope with the number one issue that mentioned above, the project decided to start providing blind students in university with accessible references. And in order to execute this activity, Pertuni has worked together with Mitra Netra, that is used to providing accessible reading material for blind students in Indonesia, and that has also aware that statistic is the most challenging subject for blind students in university, included for doing researches.

To make it accessible for blind students, references on statistic should be made in both talking book and Braille book as well (combination). The narrative part of the book should be made in talking book (less cost), and the other part such as table, graphics and formulas should be made in Braille; those would be in one package.

Steps that have been done in this activity are as follows :
Doing ordinary survey:
Before start producing, Pertuni had to do an ordinary survey, asking input from the students in the four cities (Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya and Makasar) what kind of statistic books that generally be used for university students.

Discussion:
After compiling the result of the survey, Pertuni Higher Education Project Coordinator then would conduct meeting / discussion with Mitra Netra, to decide which books that would be produced; this need to be done since some universities use particular references - written by the lecturers who teach statistic there, and are not available in books stores; the result is that The Project decide to select three books that are used to using by university students. Beside that, through this project, Pertuni also is willing to distribute the references, both to the cities where higher education project have been pioneered, and also to other cities where special library for the blind have been there and there have been blind students who are enrolling in universities or potential blind students who would go to universities in the future. For the second group, Pertuni ask Mitra Netra advice; all together we have 10 institutions that obtain the books. Project also provides five exemplars to be kept in Pertuni head office.

Book production:
After making decision, Mitra Netra then start producing the book, both in digital talking books and Braille books. During the production process, Mitra Netra finally found that the Braille pages are more that they predicted before; this is because the converting of tables and graphics needs more pages. Therefore, with the available budget, the Braille - that are the supplement of the digital talking book could only be produced half from the amount of the talking books. To utilize it, the students need to do it in group. The talking books have been copied into 97 copies; the Braille has been copied into 48 copies.

Book distribution:
After finishing the production, Mitra Netra then distributes the books to 11 selected organizations, with Pertuni cover letter explaining the purpose of the provision of accessible statistic references. Among them are:

• Paya Kumbuh resource center
• Mitra Netra library
• Jakarta State university
• Indonesia Education University - Bandung
• Mitra Netra branch in Bandung
• State Islamic University in Jogjakarta
• Dria Manunggal - Jogjakarta
• Yaketinis Jogjakarta
• Pertuni Chapter in Semarang, Center Java
• Surabaya State University
• YapTI Makasar
• Fajar Harapan Resource Center in Martapura Kalimantan

III. Campaign Tool Kit Media
In order to build understanding towards university communities that they should make their campuses become accessible and welcoming environment, Pertuni has created campaign media, both in the form of audio visual and printed as well. Both have been packaged into a campaign tool kit media, and would be distributed to:

• All universities through out Indonesia
• Related government agencies
• All Pertuni Chapters
• All resource centers that serve blind students in Indonesia
• Disabled People organizations who have concern on higher education for students with visual impairment
• Other related parties

To create this campaign media, Pertuni has been working together with professionals who are used to doing this work.

Up till this reporting period, the editing process of the audio visual is still not yet finish. This because we found it is not easy to convey some thing that is still not yet happened visually; beside that, it takes time to similarize perception between the producer and the project coordinator; therefore, further discussions is still needed to be done between the project coordinator with the producer.

Since Indonesia is such a huge country, it must be needed more time to distribute the campaign tool kit through out the country. Therefore, finishing of this project has still been done after the end of the project period.

CLOSING

• Building the awareness of accessible campus must require long period of time. There must be simultaneous and continuous effort done by all related parties concerning issues on higher education for students with visual impairment
• We all realize that basic education is still a huge problem for Indonesia, but campaign and program on higher education is still need to be continued. This could build the awareness of families who have children with visual impairment, to bring their children to basic and middle education.
• To do more promotion and campaign for higher education in Indonesia, there should be some activities that could be done as follows:
  - Continuing to implement the success in serving blind university students to other selected cities, both in Java and out of Java.
  - Doing campaign events to promote accessible campus for the blind; this could be done such as seminar / open discussion, talk show both in radio and TV stations, meeting with the higher education government agencies, etc

ICEVI's International Collaboration

ICEVI is strengthening its network with various international agencies such as the IABP, WBU, IBSA, and DbI to augment services for persons with visual impairment