23 November 2021
November 15-16, 2021, Belarusian State Academy of Communications in cooperation with the ITU Regional Office for CIS Region and with the support of the Ministry of Communications and Informatization of the Republic of Belarus held a regional workshop "Experience of teaching information and communication technologies for persons with hearing impairments".
The ITU Regional Workshop was organized on the basis of the Resource Center for training people with hearing impairments in modern infocommunication technologies. The seminar was aimed at training teachers of people with hearing impairments in teaching ICT.
Two-day workshop covered a complex of theoretical and applied issues related to ensuring the rights to education, employment and social adaptation as persons with hearing impairment.
More than 70 people from 6 countries took part in the workshop (online and offline): Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. Participants of the workshop were representatives from Belarusian and foreign ministries and departments, universities and academies, colleges, lyceums, general education institutions, public organizations.
Within the framework of four sessions, 23 participants made reports on the topic of the workshop and all of the participants discussed the following:
- state policy in the spheres of education, labor and social protection of persons with disabilities;
- methods of teaching people with hearing impairment information and communication technologies;
- technical means of teaching people with hearing impairment information and communication technologies;
- issues of employment and social adaptation in the information society of persons with hearing impairment.
The second day of the workshop, the purpose of which was to show in practice the real experience of teaching and mastering the material by persons with hearing impairment, was held on the basis of the Resource Center for training people with hearing impairments in modern infocommunication technologies.
The Resource Center for training people with hearing impairments in modern infocommunication technologies was opened at the Belarusian State Academy of Communications in September 2016 at the initiative and with the support of the International Telecommunication Union in order to create training opportunities for people with hearing impairments and adapt them to work in the field of ICT.
The resource center is equipped with special noise-absorbing panels, which ensure the quality of sound perception for the hearing impaired, and the necessary modern equipment.
The Resource Center trains students from special general education schools for children with hearing impairments and other educational institutions of the city of Minsk, as well as working youth with hearing impairments in the following areas: "Web-design", "Fundamentals of information technology", "Computer graphics", " Information Technology "," Introduction to the Internet of Things "," Web-design for the Advanced "," Cisco Basic Course ". During the existence of the Resource Center, more than 120 people with hearing impairments have been trained there.
In cooperation with the Kyrgyz State Technical University, a joint scientific international laboratory has been created and is successfully operating, within the framework of which activities are carried out and they are aimed at increasing the level of methodological support for the functioning of resource centers. Thus, a master class on the development of computer games and a teleconference was successfully held to expand the current directions for teaching people with hearing impairment in the ICT field, an international teleconference was organized on the topic "Opportunities and prospects for professional self-realization of young people with hearing impairment."
The Resource Center has developed electronic educational and methodological complexes with sign language interpretation for teaching people with hearing impairment in the following areas: "Information technology", "Web-design". Students of the Resource Center take part in the republican Worldskills competition for the competence Web design and development. In September 2020 in the Worldskills 2020 competition, the student of the Resource Center took 4th place.
In addition, in order to attract young people with hearing impairments to study at the Resource Center, as well as to raise awareness among the population about the problems of people with hearing disabilities, a page on the Instagram platform (@deafnessresource) is being maintained. This makes it possible to make education in the field of ICT more accessible for all young people with hearing impairments in the Republic of Belarus.
On the second day of the workshop, a presentation was made on the experience of the Training Center for Children with Disabilities in Kyrgyzstan, as well as a presentation on the opening of a Center for hearing impaired and deaf children in the field of information technology in Uzbekistan. Both of these centers in Bishkek and Tashkent were also opened with ITU support.
Also, during the second day of the workshop, mother of a young man with a hearing impairment, who is also a volunteer at the social center for serving retirees and a teacher of French and English, shared her life experience. She noted the importance of providing equal learning opportunities for people with disabilities, motivating such people to study, supporting families where such children grow up. Despite all the difficulties she had to face, she always believed in her son, motivated him to constantly study ICT, get a profession, and at the moment she is making every effort for her son to master foreign languages.
Following the results of the two-day workshop "Experience of teaching information and communication technologies for persons with hearing impairment" participants and speakers noted that a system of support for people with disabilities has been created and is successfully functioning in the Republic of Belarus, conditions are being created for employment and social adaptation of this category of persons. Systematic work is being carried out to empower people with disabilities in various spheres of life and improve their quality of life through the widespread use of modern ICT. The significant role of ITU in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals for all people, including those with hearing impairments, was emphasized through the expanded use of modern ICTs in various fields society. The importance of a fruitful exchange of knowledge and practical experience between specialists different in the specifics of their work: teachers of inclusive education (defectologists, typhlopedagogues, speech therapists, etc.) and specialists in the field of infocommunications and communications is highlighted.
In general, the workshop participants noted that modern information and communication technologies make it possible to make the life of people with hearing disabilities much easier, expand the availability of vocational education for this category of people. The introduction of modern ICTs in the learning process of persons with hearing impairment contributes to the improvement of the assimilation of the material, the expansion of opportunities for continuing education in higher education institutions, adaptation to life and work in various spheres of production in the context of the development of the information society.
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