Projects

https://ebooks.brailcom.org/

Visually impaired pupils will be able to use the same textbooks as other pupils in the classroom. They may choose one of three forms (e-book, internet, Braille), which best fits their abilities and kind of impairment. Blind pupils will be able to use Braille, which significantly improves their language skills in both mother and foreign tongue.

Low-vision pupils will be able to enlarge the text as they need on their tablets, change color combinations of the text and background, etc. Blind students will read the text using a synthetic voice or Braille by simply moving a cursor across the text.

The project "E-books for blind and visually impaired pupils" (reg. č. CZ.1.07/1.2.27/01.0004) is co-financed by the European Social Fund and the Czech Republic.

This project was meant for blind and visually impaired pupils, their parents, assistants and also teachers at elementary and high schools. They were familiarized with computer assistive aids and taught for free how to use them to access and process information.

In the center we carried out analyses and trainings for blind and severely visually impaired pupils, their assistants and special education teachers. This always took 2+4 days. At the beginning of the introductory analysis, we defined a study plan. Based on that, the second part involved an intense training during which we tried to help the clients greatly improve their skills in using special screen readers and screen magnifiers but also in using their assistive aids for useful purposes, such as office software, e-mail, and the internet. The clients were provided with a general knowledge in the broad area of modern assistive technologies. They were also taught to use special educational software for blind and visually impaired pupils.

The project (reg. No. CZ.1.07/1.2.00/14.0111) was co-funded by the European Social Fund and from the budget of the Czech Republic.

http://www.langschool.eu

The goal of these international projects was to decrease the unemployment rate of blind and visually impaired people by improving their qualification. We developed Digital Language School and digital language textbooks that are also suitable for self-study. They include several levels of proficiency.

In Eurochance, we developed textbooks for intermediate and advanced students of English and German. The textbooks are fully accessible to visually impaired people. Within the project, they were translated into 5 languages: English, German, Spanish, Czech, and Slovak.

In Eurochance 2, we extended the range of languages. The English and German textbooks were complemented by Italian and Spanish textbooks. At the end of the projects, all the textbooks were available in 12 languages: English, German, Czech, Norwegian, Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, French, and Romanian. We also developed an e-learning Digital Language School platform for teachers to deliver online courses to visually impaired students.

The projects Eurochance & Eurochance 2 (reg. No. CZ/07/LLP-LdV/TOI/134011) was co-funded from the European funding program Leonardo da Vinci.

These projects were later followed by other projects such as Olomoucká Šance, Step towards the Light, and MOVILISE, which contributed to broadening the collection of textbooks as well as to improving the technology.

All the textbooks are available at https://www.langschool.eu/textbooks.

The international project "ICT as a gateway to scientific education of blind people and people with visual disabilities" led by our organization helped make particular branches of science accessible to blind and visually impaired people, e.g. chemistry, a discipline where a great deal of information is traditionally presented by 2D pictures or charts that are completely inaccessible for the blind. The goal of the project was to create a software framework and a methodology for making such information accessible to the blind and for educating them in this particular branch of science.

The project (reg. No. CZ/06/B/F/FP-168025) was co-funded from the European funding program Leonardo da Vinci.

BRAILCOM, o.p.s. appeared as a partner in an international project whose goal was to use the technology developed in Eurochance & Eurochance 2 to enhance language proficiency of sportspeople.

The main implementer of the project was Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Youth and Sports Directorate. The project was co-funded from the European funding program Leonardo da Vinci.

The newly created textbooks are available at https://www.langschool.eu/textbooks.

This project put into practice the new opportunities of using the digital signature for communication of blind and visually impaired people with state offices.

Signature is one the great problems in a blind person's life. Being common for a "healthy" person, signature may become an insurmountable obstacle for a blind person. Even though a blind person may learn to sign documents, they do not possess direct control over the document that is being signed. New technologies offer again a solution. The blind person can use a specially adjusted computer to read, write, and sign digital documents thanks to digital signature.

The project focused on improving the insufficient knowledge and technological base of schools in Olomouc region needed for high-quality and modern education for blind and visually impaired pupils. The goal was to modernize the teaching strategies for these pupils, in particular by using special computer-based assistive technology. Apart from hardware, the computers needed to be equipped with software adjusted in a way that made it possible for blind and visually impaired children to use them. The partner in this project was V. Vejdovský School in Litovel.

The project (reg. No. CZ.1.07/1.2.12/02.0015) was co-funded by the European Social Fund and from the budget of the Czech Republic.

In this project, a textbook of basic English was created for the members and clients of the Turkish association of the blind. BRAILCOM,o.p.s. appeared as a partner in the project. The project was co-funded from the European funding program Leonardo da Vinci.

The newly created textbooks are available at https://www.langschool.eu/textbooks.

Trafika – magazines and newspapers for the blind – was terminated on May 25, 2018. From July 1, 2018 the service has been available within the new application Camelot which is part of the Digital Library Biblio maintained by the company OUI Technology Ltd. for K. E. Macan Library and Printing House for the Blind.

This project gave visually impaired people a chance to read for free daily newspapers and magazines in a digital form. The most interesting features of Trafika were: newspaper clipping, search engine, newspapers archive, and RSS. The project was supported by the Endowment Fund of Český rozhlas (Czech Radio) and its project Světluška. The data was provided for free by NEWTON Media, a.s.

The project provided blind and visually impaired musicians (be it amateur or professional) with a tool to create music score and lyrics. The tool also featured a synchronization check by synthetic singing voice to see if the lyrics and score correspond. The project was supported by the Endowment Fund of Český rozhlas (Czech Radio) and its project Světluška.

https://freebsoft.org/

Free(b)soft Laboratory is a development platform which helps make computers accessible to blind and severely visually impaired people. The solutions are primarily based on free software.