This is an organisation both of persons with disabilities and the elderly which is involved in information/advice, research, pressure group work and public awareness raising. Educational activities began 5-10 years ago and encompass the issue of independent living and coping better with disability, as well as AT; these activities are addressed to a wide public: professionals, persons with disabilities, the elderly and families.

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

• training courses, exclusively in residential form, strictly addressed to a target of users;
• information activities, in the form of conferences, exhibitions, periodicals, exchange of experiences, are addressed to the same target group;
• activities addressed to the individual in all the possible forms considered.

The role played by AT in these initiatives is relevant, while the considered areas related to AT are communication, mobility; cognition, reading/writing.

While the courses and seminars have been listed in the detailed table below, only one general description has been filled in; it would appear that that these activities are similar from the organisational and implementation points of view.

Title of the initiative	Typology	Year	Duration (hrs.)	Number partic.	Target	Number teachers
Landskursus (National course)	res. train. Course	1992-1997	4 days	200	pers. with disab., elderly, fam.	10
Familiekursus (Family course)	res. train. Course	1992-1997	5 days	30	pers. with disab., elderly, fam.	8
Genoptræning og Kommunikation I, II, III (Rehabilitation and communication I, II, III)	res. train. Course	1992-1997	3 days	20	rehab. prof.	5

Selection

Publicised via leaflets and advertisements in specialised journals, information on the event reached as wide a target as possible (the organisation's database, other organisations in the field, user organisations); leaflets were also handed out at congresses and exhibitions. Consequently, a large public was expected, and no special criteria for choosing participants was adopted. Teachers were chosen on the basis of their professional expertise, while no preference for teachers with disabilities was expressed.

Organisation

The initiatives were held at different places, which were selected each time on the basis of criteria that included comfort and overall accessibility aspects, as well as accessibility of bathrooms; organisation was comprehensive and included personal assistance when needed, coffee and lunch breaks, recreational activities, and welcome and farewell sessions. Co--ordination between teachers was ensured by a co-ordinator. Participants were asked to pay only a token enrolment fee of DK 1,000.

Implementation

A mixture of different methods was used to deliver contents to participants, but this observation is probably due to the fact that a lot of different activities were considered in the description, where different methods are singled out and adopted; the same applies to educational aids. On the contrary, the hands-on sessions were based exclusively on presentation and demonstration of products. The importance of participation within these activities is revealed by the choice of pedagogical key-words (more than the two requested), which include questioning, interactivity and discussion, together with good presentation.

Information on participants was collected both through a presentation form and an introductory questionnaire, and then used to readjust contents and methods on the basis of the real target. A final questionnaire, final discussions (guided or non-guided) and personal impressions were the methods used to collect the participants' final impressions, and this information was used to improve subsequent editions of the same initiative. No follow-up was made.

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