On 17 April 2019, the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO IITE) held an expert meeting with a view to determine the overriding priorities for creating a web portal for visually impaired persons.
UNESCO IITE presented plans for developing in partnership with the “Cultural and Sport Rehabilitation Centre” of the All Russia Association of the Blind (CSRK VOS) a web portal, which would enable blind and visually impaired people, and also specialists working in the field of rehabilitation of people with visual impairments, gain access to educational materials and courses for the purposes of advanced training, professional communication, and establishment of business connections. The portal’s operating objectives, additionally, presuppose enhancement of ICT-competency, judicial, financial and psychological literacy, competency assessment and users’ career transition.
The meeting directly involved specialists of UNESCO IITE Unit of Teacher Professional Development and Networking and representatives of CSRK VOS, whilst experts from the CSRK VOS regional centres in Yaroslavl, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Vladimir, Birobidzhan, the Stavropol Territory and Bashkortostan contributed to the meeting via videoconferencing.
The participants discussed current problems of creating a web portal for visually impaired persons and agreed to continue work on defining its structure and content. Within the meeting, it was resolved to set up a Working Group on the development of the web portal and to hold regular expert meetings with the participation of members of the Working Group.