Programs in
Assistive Technology Education
for End-Users in Europe

Name of the organisation
    GIHP - GROUPEMENT POUR L'INSERTION DES
    PERSONNES HANDICAPÉES PHYSIQUES MIDI-PYRENÉES
    Soutien à domicile - Vie autonome
Address
    10, rue Jean Gilles
    31100 Toulouse
    FRANCE
    Telephone: +33 5 62261212
    Fax: +33 5 61558259
Key Person of the organisation
    Catherine Cousergue, administrator

An organisation of persons with disabilities, engaged in information/advice, pressure group activities and public awareness raising. Educational activities, which also cover independent living, coping better with disability and the role of AT, are mainly addressed to persons with disabilities, personal assistants and professionals.

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

  • training courses (3 exclusively non-residential courses per year) addressed exclusively to a target of social workers;
  • information activities, in the form of conferences (11 per year) and periodicals (4 per year), addressed both to a target of users (persons with disabilities, the elderly and families) and to professionals (from the social and the rehabilitation field) as well as to personal assistants;
  • activities addressed to the individual, where almost all the possible options are represented (advice, peer counselling, information services, advocacy); these are addressed exclusively to a target of persons with disabilities.

The role played by AT in these initiatives is important for the activities addressed to the individual and relevant for the training courses. The AT-related areas considered are general accessibility issues, mobility, communication and vision.

TRAINING COURSES AND SEMINARS
Title of the initiative
Typology
Year
Duration

(in hrs.)
Number partic.
Target
Number teachers
Nouvelles technologies: vecteurs d'insertion pour les personnes handicapées

(New technologies: a vector for the inclusion of persons with disabilities)

series of seminars
1995
6
120
 pers. with disab., fam., educ. prof., pers. assist., technol.
5

Selection

The initiative was publicised by means of leaflets and posters, together with advertisements on mass media and targeted mailing; information was sent out to the organisation's own database, but also to other user organisations and rehabilitation centres, as well as being handed out at congresses and exhibitions. This wide distribution is linked to the fact that no special criteria were adopted for selecting participants. Teachers and tutors were originally chosen on the basis of their pedagogical approach, which had to be innovative. A very strong preference for teachers with disabilities was expressed, and the selection criteria included the type of handicap, their popularity, and (added in a note) their capacity to interact well with participants.

Organisation

The initiative was free of charge for participants; it was held in a place found especially for the occasion and chosen on the basis of overall accessibility. Coffee-breaks and welcome sessions organised. A co-ordinator was appointed to handle exchanges between teachers.

Implementation

The impression given is of a very lively initiative: lectures and group discussions, with the accent on the latter, supported by overhead projection, slides, video, software for content presentation and followed by hands-on sessions comprising presentation and demonstration of products. Accordingly, interactivity and discussion are the key-words chosen to describe the adopted learning styles. Information on participants was collected via a presentation form and used to readjust the contents and methods of the activity. Feedback came from a final group discussion and a collection of personal impressions, the information being used to readjust contents and methods of the next edition of the same initiative. Follow-up was carried out by direct contact.