Project
The National Council of the Blind of Ireland (NCBI), Ireland’s national sight loss agency, is a not for profit charitable organisation which provides support and services nationwide to people experiencing sight loss. They provide advice and information on a range of issues relating to sight loss including emotional support and counselling, rehabilitation training and assistive technology advice and training.
The project aims to provide training to adult users with vision impairment in the use of accessibility features for people with vision loss on iDevices (i.e. iPhone, iPad, iPod) thereby increasing the user’s independence and ultimately enhancing their quality of life. A key aspect of the project is to empower identified services users to deliver the intervention.
NCBI – People of all ages within the Mid-West region who experience sight loss. An identified service user who will work with students on the intervention
A key objective is to give community groups and organisations the opportunity to access resources in their local university. We support our community partners to effectively engage with faculty and students. Community members are provided with information and resources. Evaluation of their experiences of engaging with UL faculty and students and meeting project expectations is undertaking at specific timelines throughout the practicum. Community Evaluation of the project is designed into the project from start to finish. As part of their assessment, students present a briefing to their community partner setting out the outputs and outcomes of the project.
Learning
The aim of this project is to provide training in the use of the accessibility features on iDevices for people with sight loss and to help people regain some of the abilities they had before losing vision. You will review an existing intervention and deliver a revised one in collaboration with a service user. Activities will include, assessing service users’ needs in their ability to use IDEVICES, in conjunction with NCBI staff, provide an individual/group educational intervention for service users based on their needs assessment and produce a report, including an evaluation of the intervention.11 potential participants have been identified to participate in the educational workshops. All participants will have iDevices (iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone), and will have different levels of familiarity and knowledge of use of same i.e. beginner/ intermediate.
This practical experience enables students to learn how to evaluate the needs of service users with vision impairment and develop an education intervention in collaboration with a service user, on the use of accessibility features for people with vision loss. As such, you will engage in both independent as well as collaborative learning. You will learn from one another to reach creative solutions to practical problems. The module is designed to enable students to develop the capacity to apply curriculum-based knowledge in a real-world setting and self-assess and develop graduate attributes to work effectively as a member of a multi-disciplinary team in collaboration with external community stake-holders. Submission of reflective journals will allow you to reflect on your learning and to identify any difficulties encountered in conducting your project. Presentations will allow you to practice and refine your communication skills.
Practicum students undertaking this project will work NCBI – Working for People with Sight Loss and service users
Both formative and summative assessment methods will be used. Assessments will be designed to complement the interactive teaching and learning approaches. In particular, methods conducive to workplace assessment will be employed. These will include weekly reflection diaries, a group presentation, a reflective assignment and self-assessment activity. Students will be expected to produce a community briefing report and present their project outputs and outcomes to their community partner.