In the autumn of 2023, the 3rd. project management meeting with all partners took place from 27th to 30th November, hosted by the partner organization Agency for Cultural Diplomacy (Agentur für Kulturdiplomatie) (Austria) and headed by our partner Tatjana Christelbauer.

https://www.acdvienna.org/

All meetings took place at the BBI Vienna, a school for the blind that provides education for blind or visually impaired students in the European Union.

During this meeting, the tasks already completed, the testing of the modules developed so far, the dissemination events, the planned events, the promotion of the project and the monitoring and quality assurance of the project were evaluated.

As our project aims to provide learning materials to as wide a range of people as possible, this includes ensuring compatibility for blind students and adapting learning materials for easy reading on specialised devices for this kind of disability.

On the first day, a meeting was held during the morning regarding the quality assurance of the project. Estela Dauksiene, a partner from Vytauto Dıdzıojo Unıversıtetas, Lithuania, was in charge of this part.

In the afternoon, we visited the school museum for the development of aids for the blind and had the opportunity to talk to teachers from this school and also to have a glimpse into the teaching process. Dr. Erich Schmidt, a professor at this institute gave us a detailed tour and showed us how the blind navigate around the school corridors.

During the afternoon we also discussed the future schedule and detailed information regarding dissemination events.

On the second day, there was a discussion regarding piloting the IO1, IO2 and IO3 output – modules and in the afternoon an interactive workshop with BBI students.

After the workshop, we attended an event called Dialogue in Darkness Vienna, where we experienced first-hand what it is like not to see

https://www.wien.info/en/sightseeing/museums-exhibitions/dialog-in-the-dark-344412

On the third day of our stay, we organized a retreat at the Hundertwasser SPA Rogner Bad Blumau, where workshops on Health Policy, health for students & teachers, wellness in the natural environment, and adapting infrastructure at schools were held.

On the fourth day, we discussed the structure of module 4, the timeline, and the last mobility of students and partners in Poland where the very first multiplier event will take place. We discussed the conditions of the “orienteering” event, which will also take place during the mobility in Poland.

In the afternoon, BBI students performed their musical act and the presentation of certificates, farewell and closing of the meeting followed.

We would like to thank BBI Vienna for providing us with the meeting space, and we would like to thank Tatjana Christelbauer for her hospitality, her well-planned agenda and the unceasing energy with which she showed us the beauty of Vienna, the artist Hunderwasser and his works.

It was very moving and enlightening to meet the students of the institute, to get a glimpse of how they work, how they are educated and what the institute does for them. Hats off to them.

Lubomír Hájek