Interpretation of Invisible Heritage – a programme to improve competences in the field of non-formal education for the blind and visually impaired.
Interpretation of Invisible Heritage is a new project implemented within the framework of the Erasmus + – Education Mobility, Mobility of Adult Education Staff. The Villa Decius Association will have the pleasure of carrying out a project aimed at involving and activating blind and visually impaired people in educational and cultural activities using new methodologies.
Over the past year, we have been exploring a new field of actions aimed at activating blind people in non-formal education. Using culture and its perception as an external stimulus, we have included blind and visually impaired people in activities related to the interpretation and accessibility of cultural heritage. Under the guidance of their mentors, these people gained not only historical but also spatial knowledge about a particular historical object. Then they became “guides” to the seeing public in order to show them a completely different perspective on the perception of cultural heritage. This programme is still a new point of the educational offer of the VDA, which is in the testing and improvement phase, and it is also necessary to expand knowledge and learn new tools and methodologies in this area.
Within the framework of the “Invisible Heritage…” programme, language courses and training courses will be held, as well as job shadowing trips, which will be aimed at observing the work of foreign institutions that have knowledge and many years of experience in activating blind and visually impaired people. Such trips will allow to improve the quality, merit and attractiveness of future programmes implemented by the VDA. In order to achieve all the planned objectives, we will cooperate with three organisations:
- Rijksmuseum, The Netherlands – projects for the blinds, ways of accessing spaces for the blinds, heritage education;
- The National Institute for the Blind, Visually Impaired and Deafblind, Iceland – perception of art by blind people, seniors, educational tools, methods of working with blind people, institutional solutions;
- European Cultural Centre of Delphi, Greece – activating blind people to participate in culture and education.
The above programme also includes the participation of the blind person, who is a volunteer in the structures of VDA. During the final visit to a foreign institution, it will participate in the development of new activities addressed to a mixed group of recipients. The implementation of this programme will not only improve the competences of the VDA staff, but will also lead to real educational projects that will include people at risk of being socially excluded because of visual impairment.
This project is co-financed by the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme
