ICEVI East Asia Regional Assembly 2001

Summary Report of the ICEVI East Asia Regional Assembly
Shanghai, China
25 to 27 July, 2001

Sub-theme Session I

With regard to preschool visually impaired children, there is a need for early intervention, parental involvement and use of environmental resources in education in the areas of perceptual, cognitive, and behavioral developments.

There is a need for choices in education to be made available for parents and children.

Early educational placement for children is better than placement being made at a later stage of schooling. Presenters stressed that there were significant improvements in visually impaired children after enrolling in preschool program.

Sub-theme Session II

Concerning advanced technology, it was reported that equipment is expensive. Local system development is essential. For example in Thailand and Indonesia there is a need to develop a system in their own language. There was a suggestion for China to investigate the possibility of affordable localized braille translation programs and braille display devices.

Countries in the region should support each other. For example, Cambodia learned from Thailand in developing braille translating software that can be used by Cambodian children with visual impairment.

Another possibility is for International Companies, such as Freedom Scientific, who are very experienced in software development, to be involved. For example, Freedom Scientific has already developed software for a few languages and the company has qualified experts in such system development. If we could initiate the involvement of such companies, it would be more practical and cost effective.

It was also suggested that a database should be developed so that people who are interested could exchange information on education and employment for the visually impaired on the web. Communication on the web highly encouraged.

Sub-theme Session III

During the sub-theme session on Professional Development for teachers, four questions emerged as the major concerns of participants. They were:

It was noted that teachers mainly possess skills to cater for one disability group. In order to minimize the problems of segregation, there should be more collaboration among different specialization studies.

It was reported that the different backgrounds of teachers created difficulties in the evaluation of training courses for teachers.

There was a suggestion for including elements of team collaboration, good social skills, management skills and leadership in teacher preparation in order that teachers would be able to initiate strong support from regular teachers for inclusion.

There was also suggestion from participants in China to increase the ratio of teacher with visual impairment to teachers with normal sight in China.

Sub-theme Session IV

There was a suggestion for choices to be made available for parents and children in education, especially in integrated setting. Early placement is again emphasized.

Parents should be regarded as a partner of teachers and schools. The participation and cooperation of parents need to be sought and necessary training should be given. Parent education and involvement in school activities were highly supported.

Sub-theme Session V

It was noted nowadays that there is increasing evidence that the visually impaired are increasingly successful in higher education. More effort and resources support for visually impaired in higher education is needed.

Access to tertiary education is still extremely difficult in China and other places, for example in Thailand, visually impaired students were accepted for enrollment in college, but were not accepted in certain faculties, such as maths and physics. University education should be made accessible to qualified persons with visual impairment. The visually impaired can also become scientists.

Parents often do not allow visually impaired students to have the choice of further education.

Sub-theme Session VI

Inclusive education needs support from the Government, general public, educators, parents and students. The three basic elements for successful inclusion are: accepting attitude of teachers and school administrators, trained teachers, and supportive services available for visually impaired students in mainstream setting.

Visually impaired students should have a choice to attend mainstream school.

Early placement in inclusive setting is better than placement in later years.

Inclusive teachers need to develop knowledge of visual impairment, knowledge of social adaptation and learning in a regular classroom. It is necessary that the gap between education for the visually impaired and ordinary sighted students should be narrowed.

There is a need for the regions to develop appropriate inclusion in local scene. There is also a need for collaboration and cooperation between the Government and related organizations.

Education Resource Centres should be made available to support students and teachers for successful inclusion.

There is a need for some sort of structured meeting where there can be free flow of information and knowledge among the ICEVI delegates in sharing with one another, especially practical ideas and information on inclusive education.

Sub-theme Session VII

A large number of multiply disabled children are not being served, although there are some very good programs going on for these children. Web-site can post information on such programs.

Children with multiple disabilities require a functional curriculum, which is a curriculum that prepares them for daily living, the work environment and recreation.

These programs should be child-oriented and opportunities should be provided for choice making.

The importance of family involvement should not be underestimated.

Sub-theme Session VIII

Good collaboration between the teachers, ophthalmologists and optometrists was reported. It is worthwhile to initiate cooperation between the different professions, and organize services for the visually impaired as a structured system. There needs to be a network of collaboration being established among the different professionals. The better the cooperation, the better the chance that a service plan for the visually impaired would be formulated. Professionals might not be able to see from the perspective of the visually impaired. They might only see from their own perspective and from their own professional training.

Recommendations made by delegates and chairpersons of the sub-theme sessions had been summarized in the concluding remarks. May I invite Mrs. Grace Chan, Chair of the East Asia Regional Assembly to present the final conclusion of the Assembly.