The Agency eBulletin presents updates and news on projects from the European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education.
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AGENCY eBULLETIN SEPTEMBER 2013

 

Dear Readers,

 
 
This eBulletin presents news on the work towards developing guidelines for the use of ICT in learning (in the framework of the ICT for Information Accessibility in Learning project). It also presents updates on the Organisation of Provision to Support Inclusive Education project, and a call for further examples of inclusive education ‘in action’ (IEA project).
On 18 November 2013 the Agency will host the ‘Inclusive Education in Europe’ conference, presenting past and future Agency work.
Finally, the Agency has published a call for tender for printing services. Information on this call is available in this bulletin and also on the Agency website.
Thank you for your interest in the Agency’s work. For more information visit the project web areas and follow our news on http://www.european-agency.org/news
 

Sincerely,
Cor J.W. Meijer
 
Director
European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education

Developing Guidelines for ICT for Information Accessibility in Learning 


The ICT4IAL project is a multi-partner network of European and international organisations that represent both the learning and the ICT communities. The Agency is the project co-ordinator for the network and is working together with European Schoolnet, the International Association of Universities, UNESCO, the DAISY Consortium and the Global Initiative of Inclusive ICTs on all activities.

The Guideline Development Workshop took place as the first major event for the ICT4IAL project on 20–21 June in Lisbon, Portugal. The workshop was co-hosted by the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science.  Following the opening of the Workshop by the Director General of Education of the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science, Mr. Fernando Egídio Reis, 56 experts from 26 countries met in a sequence of workshops to discuss the development of guidelines to support the accessibility of learning materials. The experts represented a diverse multi-stakeholder group involved in providing learning opportunities for learners with and without disabilities, including experts for special needs education, inclusion, accessibility and students’ rights in primary to higher education.

The input of the experts will be included to shape the Guidelines to be developed through the ICT4IAL project, supporting the objectives of:
  • improving the accessibility of the information resources of all partners for them to become role models of accessibility, and
  • providing practical resources and knowledge to support both the partners and their country networks in their efforts to improve accessibility practice within their organisations and countries.
Following the drafting and development of the Guidelines, the network partners, European Schoolnet, International Association of Universities and the Agency will trial and validate these within their organisations. 

Inclusive Education in Europe conference
Putting theory into practice: a key theme for the Inclusive Education on Europe conference taking place in Brussels on 18 November.

The aim of the conference is to present the past and future work of the Agency, considering how it has been supporting countries in establishing and implementing inclusive education systems.

In the first part of the conference, the summary of the work conducted and the main results achieved by the Agency up to now will be presented via keynote presentations. In the second part of the conference, five key messages will be presented and debated in groups. The purpose will to present and discuss, from different points of view, the following five key transversal messages for supporting inclusive education that can be found in different projects conducted by the Agency:

- As early as possible
- Inclusive education benefits all
- Highly qualified professionals
- Support systems and funding mechanisms
- Reliable data

Examples of Inclusive Education in Action

Encouraging new methods and ways of learning; improving pre- and in-service training, mentorship and team-building; ensuring that policies reflect rights-based approaches and target disadvantaged children – these are some of the suggested actions in UNESCO’s Policy Guidelines on Inclusion in Education.

The Inclusive Education in Action (IEA) Agency project, in collaboration with UNESCO, aims to provide a resource for policy makers by exemplifying these policy guidelines and see how they work in different contexts. 

Since 2009, 64 examples from all over the world have been collected on the IEA website. Examples include information in multimedia format on the aims, challenges, implementation, outcomes and evaluation of each project. 

image of IEA flyer
The Agency now welcomes new examples from member countries – and beyond. An updated project flyer is available to download and further information on how to submit an example is available on the project website: http://www.inclusive-education-in-action.org/iea/

Last steps of the Organisation of Provision to Support Inclusive Education project


The Organisation of Provision to Support Inclusive Education project is now approaching its final phase. Following successful visits to Ljubljana, Slovenia; Essunga, Sweden; Flensburg, Germany;  Valetta, Malta and Vienna, Austria, a series of thematic seminars will be held in these countries between October and December 2013 to discuss key issues in providing support for learners with disabilities in mainstream schools including:
  • ways to strengthen the capacity of the regular school system;
  • collaboration and networking within and between schools and services;
  • developing the role of special schools as resource centres;
  • organising in-class support and multi-agency input;
  • quality management in inclusive settings.
The project Literature Review is now available on the project web area. 
Reports on the 5 study visits will be available soon, with further outputs (seminar reports) towards the end of 2013. The project will also provide a synthesis report and a change management tool in spring 2014.

Call for tender for printing services

www.european-agency.org

The European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education (the Agency) is an independent, self-governing organisation, established by our member countries to act as their platform for collaboration in the field of special needs and inclusive education. English is the Agency’s working language, but publications and key national documents are translated into all official languages of the Agency member countries (Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish). These texts are made available in hard-copy and/or electronic format.

The Agency is seeking a printing company to carry out all paper prints, including print proofs in all the above-mentioned languages.

Read all specifications of this call for tender on the Agency website: www.europeanagency.org/admin/news/call-for-tender-for-printing-services

Formal expressions of interest should be emailed to information-dissemination@european-agency.org by 7 October 2013.

Recent Agency publications available online
  • Ensuring accessible ICT tools is an important aspect of inclusion. Over time, the initial ethical arguments for accessible ICTs have gained a more economic focus, influenced by the current economic climate. An in-depth review and analysis of the past 13 years’ policies is now available in the European and International Policy Supporting ICT for Inclusion report. The policy review is an outcome of the ICT for Inclusion Agency project. Country reports providing an overview of key policy and practice issues relating to ICT for Inclusion in participating countries are now available as well.
  • The Agency Annual report 2012 presents Agency activities throughout 2012 as well as future short and long term plans. To download the report and for more information visit the About us web area.
  • Read more news from our member countries and Agency project updates in the latest newsletter - EuroNews 22 is available in the News section.
For questions and feedback on the eBulletin contact us on ebulletin@european-agency.org
 
The European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education is an independent and self-governing organisation, supported by Agency member countries and the European Institutions (Commission and Parliament). The production of this document has been made possible through support from the Agency member countries as well as the DG Education and Culture of the European Commission http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/index_en.htm

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