On 16-17 December 2019, the Italian partners CENTRO MACHIAVELLI and IRIFOR Regionale Toscano ONLUS hosted the Kick Off Meeting of RADAR Project - Vocational Guidance and Employability for Blind and Partially Sighted People (ERASMUS+ K.A 2, Strategic Partnerships for VET, Development of Innovation).
The RADAR project involves several European institutions working within employment and social inclusion policies for people with visual impairments and it aims to spread the good practices that contribute to enhance their employability. The project will focus especially the role played by the most advanced assistive ICTs in expanding the job and training opportunities today available for this specific category of user as well as on the need to renew and promote the culture of accessibility within the work place. During the kick-off meeting the Partners jointly analyzed project's main goals and actions and discussed all the preliminary aspects to start with the work on the project’s first Intellectual Output: the T.E.A.F. -Training, Employablity and Accessibility Framework. It will consist in a general European framework for the work placement and social inclusion procedures for blind and visually impaired people, describing – for each involved country - weaknesses, strengths and development lines of accessibility and VET Services through a detailed study of Employers and Labor Services Operators peculiar needs and the more requested professional profiles (or competences) coverable also by blind and VI job-seekers with the last assistive ICTs.
All the European partners took part to the first project’s meeting: the Applicant I.Ri.Fo.R. Regionale Toscano ONLUS and Centro Machiavelli (Florence, IT); JOHANNES KEPLER Universitat with its Department “Institute Integriert Studieren” specialized in ICTs research and technological innovation for accessibility (Linz, AT); the Polish Association of the Blind (Warsaw, PL) and Stichting Bartiméus Sonneheerdt, the professional organisation for education, services and care for visually impaired people in the Netherlands (Dorn, NL)
