Web Accessibility and other initiatives for persons with disabilities in EU in pandemic and other crisis times project meeting held in Ruma

26. 06. 2021. / Project

In Ruma, 23-26 June 2021, the initial meeting of the "Web Accessibility and other initiatives for persons with disabilities in EU in pandemic and other crisis times" – WAI4PwDs was held. The aim of the project is to promote the right of persons with disabilities to access public, entertainment, tourism and educational facilities in Europe during the COVID 19 pandemic and in other crisis situations.

The Faculty of Organization and Informatics was presented through the results of previous national and international projects aimed at supporting the education of students with disabilities. A model of teaching adjustment through peer support, digitization of teaching content, removal of architectural barriers and psychological counseling was presented.

As part of the initial project activities, workshops were held in a hybrid form - members of the project team and representatives for FOI that participated via Zoom were: Asst. Prof. Mario Konecki, PhD – who is also the project team leader at FOI, Asst.Prof. Mladen Konecki, Ph.D. Laura Strupar, Bacc. Inf., Asst.Prof. Nikola Ivković, Ph.D., Luka Milić, Mag. Ing. Comp., Antonela Čižmešija, M. Inf. and Maja Kućar, M.Sc. Psych., while Prof. Violeta Vidaček-Hainš, Ph.D. attented the event physically in Ruma and presented the activities of the Office for Students with Disabilities from FOI and adaptation procedures in education for underrepresented and vulnerable groups of students.

The kind hosts prepared many surprises for the participants - examinations of tourist locations and their accessibility in the form of universal design in Sremska Mitrovica and the Zasavica Special Nature Reserve.

The project leader is the Regional Development Agency Srem (SER), and the project coordinator is Bojana Lanc. FOI is a project partner together with Městská část Praha 9 (Prague, CZE), the Association CHANCE - Association for People with Intellectual Disabilities (Reason, BUL), TMP Association for the Employment of Blind and Visually Impaired Persons (Sarajevo, BiH), Red Cross S. Mitrovica (S. Mitrovica, SER), Brčko District of BiH (Brčko, BiH), Roma Economic Improvement Centre - CEUR (S. Mitrovica, SER) and the Tomislav Špoljar Center for Education (Varaždin, CRO).

The total value of the project is € 136,080.00 funded from the Europe for Citizens programme, the Network of Towns sub-programme. One of the following project meetings will be held at the beginning of the academic year 2021/2022. in Varaždin.

Thank you to everyone who made it possible to propose and implement this socially useful project. The results od the project will be disseminated to all interested institutions and individuals.