Programs in
Assistive Technology Education
for End-Users in Europe

Name of the organisation
    ASSOCIATION BRETAGNE MIEUX VIVRE
Address
    1 Square du Chêne Germain
    35510 Cesson Sevigne
    FRANCE
    Telephone: +33 2 99636061
    Fax: +33 2 99875226
Key Person of the organisation
    Patrice Tripoteau

This is a centre offering information and advice on technical aids (CICAT) for persons with disabilities and the elderly; accordingly, the main activities are information and advice, together with participation in a biennial exhibition.

Educational activities, which began less than 5 years ago, are addressed to persons with disabilities, the elderly and professionals; they embrace independent living and coping better with disability, as well as the role of AT.

The educational activities carried out over the past 5 years can be classified as follows:

  • 4 non-residential training courses, addressed to a target of adults comprising professionals (in the social and rehabilitation field) and users (persons with disabilities, the elderly, families);
  • 25 information activities, covering almost all the options represented (conferences, round tables, periodicals, exhibitions and exchange of experiences); these are addressed to the above-mentioned target group, but also involve administrative officers;
  • activities addressed to the individual (2000 per year) in the form of advice and information services, addressed once again to the same target group, but also including the elderly.

The role played by AT in these initiatives is important to very important. The most widely represented AT-related areas are communication, mobility, general accessibility issues, vision, hearing, reading/writing, employment, etc.

TRAINING COURSES AND SEMINARS

This organisation's training and education activities began in 1995 and continued the following year. In 1997 they organised a biennial exhibition. Consequently no training was foreseen but conferences were held as part of exhibition activities.
Title of the initiative
Typology
Year
Duration

(in hrs.)
Number partic.
Target
Number teachers
n/r train. c. pers. with disab., elderly, educ. prof., soc. work., pers. ass., occup. ther.
series of seminars

Selection

The activities were addressed to a selected target of participants, chosen on the basis of their age (adults and the elderly), type of disability (cognitive, motor, hearing, visual), and location in the same territory; most were already in the organisation's address database. The information was widely spread through leaflets, posters, and advertisements on all the considered media. Teachers and tutors (no preference expressed for persons with disabilities) were selected according to their level of expertise and specialisation.

Organisation

The activities were held in different places, chosen as required and with consideration mainly for overall accessibility. Lunch breaks were organised and participants were charged a fee of FF 800-1000 Teachers developed their lesson individually, even though some preparatory meetings were held.

Implementation

The general delivery style adopted was a lecture supported by overhead projection, slides and the distribution of handouts to the participants; discussion groups also played an important role, while hands-on sessions concerned not only presentation and demonstration of products, but also product experimentation under the guidance of a tutor.

The choice of questioning, interactivity and discussion as key words for describing the preferred learning styles suggests that the stress was on the participants' interaction with one another with the teachers; learning by doing was also chosen, and this is likely to be related to the hands-on sessions.

Information on participants was collected through a traditional presentation form and used not only to update the organisation's statistics, but also to readjust the overall contents and methods of the educational activities. Feedback was gathered both through a final questionnaire and collection of the participants' personal impressions; information from the latter source was used for statistical purposes. No follow-up was done.

Further remarks

The main change from the 1995 and 1996 editions has been the shift from training courses to conferences/discussions, in which participation is open. In the future, it will be important to dedicate a larger part of the initiative to the testing of the technical aids presented.