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  • I would describe this week with the words unique fun good feeling challenging

  • a lot of energy good network amazing unforgettable encouraging

  • Hi I am Olga My name is Dario

  • And I am from Berlin I am Italian I was born in Padova, near Venice

  • So Dario came up with the idea of Noisyvision and to do something beyond Noisyvision to connect people more to Noisyvision

  • I am one of the organizer of the workshop

  • together with my friend and colleague Olga I am visually impaired and hearing impaired

  • I have Usher Syndrome

  • I saw this program of the European Union which is called Grundtvig Program, a program of the Lifelong Learning to try to find a partner

  • organization which was ProRetina, which is a self help organization of people with Retinitis Pigmentosa

  • My role in this week is part of the organization

  • and the decision of what we were going to do and the generation of the idea behind and

  • why we wanted to do this workshop and what we wanted to do

  • We were reaching out different self help organizations and different NGO in all European Countries

  • to find the participants The selection process was extremely difficult

  • because of all the people that wanted to participate and we also wanted to give the chance to participate

  • Another role during the week is that I am trying to get people involved and offer my support

  • as a visually impaired myself

  • We developed the program together and it took one and half year to come up with a good structure actually it was a pretty long road to go

  • We have four trainers and some other volunteers

  • My name is Karina Chupina I originally come from Saint Petersburg, in Russia

  • In my training work I am a specialist focused on exploring and developing the accessible

  • and inclusive approaches with young people from minorities, including young people with

  • different types of disabilities This is what I like to do

  • I am also here to help with the educational methods that help all participants to work

  • together, to have a good teamwork for the entire week, to learn from each other,

  • to share the experiences This is the first time that I work with an

  • entire group of partially sighted young people

  • So, we have 16 people from over 8 countries From Romania, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Great Britain, Germany, ...

  • They all are partially sighted, for different reasons

  • and for different length of time Somebody since two years, somebody since birth

  • And they are all very motivated which is something we found out already in the process of communicating

  • with them A pretty energetic group

  • We all come from different countries, different educational backgrounds, different cultures,

  • different levels of disabilities as well, and since we are so different there is so much to learn from each other

  • I was already very happy from the very beginning

  • and I have seen that people are really motivated I have seen that so far everything went very well

  • The responses are extremely well until now

  • It seems like people cherish and like the opportunity to be here, meet other people

  • from other countries and exchange and share the experiences

  • I think the feedback so far was really nice

  • Create some new ways, some different ways, of informing and involving, even people that are not partially sighted

  • Of course we hope that it will be participants that will help us to disseminate this wider

  • and that they will never give up

  • I discovered my condition two years ago and it was really hard, but I really feel good

  • when the eye doctor said "you have retinitis pigmentosa" because I think immediately

  • Oohhh I am not crazy, I have something!!!

  • I discovered it three years ago and so I am not used to be a visually impaired person

  • This happened to me two years ago and I had to change my life in an instant like that

  • I have only been partially sighted for like four years And this is the first time I travelled on

  • my own to another country

  • I had really high expectations First when I saw the advertisement of this

  • workshop I was really happy and I knew that I will apply and that it would be a great

  • thing for me so when I got selected I was really happy and I was partying in my flat alone

  • I didn't know ... at the beginning I thought

  • it is not a big deal, but actually it has been really great meeting people in similarsituations

  • To see the opportunity that other people are

  • dealing with this and what other people can do it kind of inspires me

  • You learn from their experiences. They may have come across the same problems as I have

  • but since they come from different backgrounds they are able to see it in a different way

  • and maybe have tackled it successfully in a way they seem fit and if i can go and talk

  • to them, get ideas from them how to tackle certain problems because of their different

  • perspectives, it leads to different solutions which is amazing

  • To share the information of course and to learn and meet other people from differentcountries

  • To get a better network

  • Getting people together, who have disabilities, trying to find a way on how to get along with

  • this, make a community which could improve the living quality of people like us

  • And then its just to have fun and meet good people, like minded people, and maybe have

  • some blind guides when I go to their cities. Which is always a good thing

  • It is just an experiment for now but, who knows, maybe it will grow bigger

  • The main thing is to enjoy, have fun and also have a bit of hope

  • So I would like that me and the rest of the team at the end of this workshop will have

  • a true experience to share back in their home countries and with their own friends and people

  • Sometimes the main restrictions they are still behind your mind or sometimes is the attitude

  • of the other people and you need to have responsibility, you need to have good skills, and your own

  • motivation and confidence to overcome those, maybe, stereotypical attitudes from the other people, or prejudices, from the other people

  • We are now trying to put together our minds

  • and experiences in order to improve the idea that we don't need to see necessarily with

  • the eyes, but more with the mind and the hearth Which is also the bottom line and the mission of Noisyvision

  • Any workshop with and for young people with

  • disabilities is about looking more at the ability rather than at your disability

  • To investigate some new possibilities of dealing with low vision and raising awareness

  • Especially in the last days I realized that the main thing is to enjoy and have a space

  • and an opportunity to put together people to share information and possibilities for

  • actually a better life

  • Thank you You welcome

  • We joint this place, we are now in Kreuzberg Berlin is a fantastic city

  • Yesterday it was the best day, I really liked walking around

  • It is the first time I didn't get lost even though we all have visual impairment

  • We all had to look at the map and it helped me to try more because I wasn't embarrassed

  • about holding the map right up to my face or taking a long time because people were

  • very good at waiting and being patient which was great, really great

  • We were getting confidence by exploring the city on our won, we were given the chance

  • to choose our own path instead of being told you go to this street and there

  • We were just told go from point A to point B however you want

  • ... and not rush, just take our time and we got to really enjoy Berlin, only seeing

  • tiny bit of it but it just made me angry to come back for more

  • 14:52 VIP CITY According to the exploration that we had,

  • the exploration of Berlin, this week, there were a lot of interesting conclusions about

  • what can be actually improved in terms of accessibility

  • We were able to go around and learn more and then we had discussions about how the system works in other countries

  • We were discussing about the services for

  • visually impaired people in our home countries Also we had a visitor from Germany who was telling about the system here

  • To compare the different realities in different countries

  • To share good examples of accessibility and inclusion

  • To share not so good examples of accessibility

  • And to draw conclusions which then can be used for the creation of the model of

  • ideal accessible city, but still realistic, suggestions, on how the things can be improved

  • We were given the chance to speak our minds and be creative and think about how we can

  • improve that city how we can change the system

  • what we can do to improve it

  • share experiences and all. It is a great moment. And a lot of the time you will find you have

  • similar experiences Like today Patrick was talking about the ballards

  • and one of the other groups was talking about the glass doors. Every blind person knows

  • what it is like to walk through a glass door. It just goes with the territory, glass door don't see.

  • BANG!

  • No more glass door! No more glass door!

  • The city is not easy for me Because I need to take care

  • Every day it is hard for me to go to the job and fall down because there is something in

  • the middle of the street

  • We can learn so much from each other Everyone had great ideas and we all found

  • a way to make it come together in a sense that

  • We found compromise in a way that people without disability can live and people with disability can live, comfortably

  • Yesterday we had a brainstorm session to create

  • crazy ideas, so fantasy ideas

  • To dream about a more Visually Impaired Friendly City

  • So guys, how is it going We had great great great idea

  • We want to drive We want to drive a car

  • It is a good example of crossing the qualities because we are solving with the sound the

  • problem of the contrast and of the shape, so really good

  • Let's have fun guys It is time to have fun really

  • Sit down and dream of something ...funny

  • Forget about everyone, it is your city This is good black and white because for eighty

  • per cent of people that combination of contrast is good

  • If the screen is bad for you, forget the screen Because it is your city

  • Imagine a city like this Why it has to be grey?

  • Look...it is fun!

  • You don't have to think about all of the conditions and disability, we cannot, we want to make

  • a city that is yours It is not a city for everybody which is partially

  • sighted, it is a city where you feel good Finally we feel good

  • When you go to the toilet you can choose yourlight

  • Bravo, wow, this is amazing Also because,great ... ahahah, ... I love it

  • It is time from brainstorming, and get ideas, ...so...enjoy, cool!

  • The wall is all about public facilities inside buildings. One of our favourites here is this

  • Visually Impaired People have access to the front at concerts

  • This is us and this is everybody else This is our city our way

  • My city my way The yellow bins and no glass doors

  • Cars can drive themselves so we can go wherever we want when we want

  • Logical Building layouts When you come into a building you know where

  • the lift the stairs everything is going to be in the building

  • Outside can be all different and beautiful but inside all the same so you know from post

  • office to government building its all the same

  • where else Dario's sun glasses

  • Oh of course the best one Discount for Visually Impaired People's on all alcohol

  • Price scanners. When you go to a shop and the price is away

  • down there, you can't see it. so you have a scanner, you just go Beep... Ah 2.99.. two dear

  • Whats next

  • Ah Braille tells location when you are in a building, yeah gridlines on the floor when

  • you come to a corner, just here braille sign and large letters. also at an office

  • Just here braille here so you can read name of office also large letters

  • Cool, Bye!

  • They are really into the topic and also they are really willing to get the tools and

  • the information and the possibilities that we have, that we are providing to really get

  • involved into the process of creating the model of the visually impaired friendly city

  • which is the aim of the workshop

  • We really wanted to go a bit deeper into measuring or rather feeling accessibility trough the senses

  • which is very important for partially sighted people

  • Today we started to build from different materials, not only paper and pens but we had little pieces of wood or paperboard, metal strings

  • or whatever We started to build the model

  • visually impaired friendly city And this is something that should be disseminated

  • We had the imagination to think in a more artist sense but then on the last day we were

  • given the chance to really think If we change the colors of the benches to

  • orange, for example, you can see them better, especially for people who have problem with contrast,

  • but then it will also make you think how it could be artistically for other people

  • To see the other teams proposed was very funny because they were creative and they were

  • also ironic and self ironic

  • We concrete some ideas, the more important ideas to present to the politicians people to really make this into reality

  • We really had to think critically about whether it was a good investment or not, if it is

  • a possible investment Or if it is just an idea that can be proposed

  • And with all those ideas we had to ... our ideas are going to be pitch to some people

  • in the government, and they are going to think about it

  • We are going to prepare an awareness raising product

  • That could be a multimedia, or a video presentation, or an exposition about the

  • across various organizations working on cities accessibility in different countries of Europe

  • (only music)

  • The expectation is to really be able to create a network, to start creating a network of

  • people that are really willing to spread the information and the knowledge

  • I was hoping to do so many things and learn so many new information about how to connect

  • with people What can I do if I want to start my own organization

  • and... yeah, it came to life

  • The first thing is that I have a lot of connections all over Europe now and the second thing all the moments and stories and knowledge about

  • life of visaully impaired people in other countries

  • I am looking forward to go to different kind of countries and...yeah, I liked it

  • I like the people and the staff is great

  • I applied because I have got to a stage where I am more used to my visual impairment and

  • I am happier now then I was at first

  • The whole week has been really good, the workshop has been very inspiring to help people bring out

  • there Ideas and encourage

  • The workshop was amazing everyone has a lot of energy

  • everyone has a lot of dreams

  • everything has gone so well I couldn't be happier It is great when you are with similar people And you can just laugh and joke and have fun

  • you can gain a lot of confidence for people, it builds confidence because people can show

  • you how to do it this way you don't have to go down so much they are always positive

  • Everyone here was helping each other and telling each other stories like, for me, I couldn't

  • see a certain thing at night, but some people that cannot see so well during the day they

  • can see at night You kind of have an idea that it is not just

  • that a certain disease is going to affect everyone in the same way

  • It changes, everyone can have a different effect

  • I have never trusted people so quickly to help me and I feel comfortable enough to ask

  • at all when normally I wouldn't and I might want to help myself

  • Now I am feeling really good because I can see the other conditions can be stronger than

  • my condition and they have a normal life

  • I'm really enjoying this whole thing having the craic

  • having a few nice beers, here in Germany

  • I was a really good idea to rediscover things I learnt a lot from these persons

  • Now I am more comfortable because I know every limitation that I have

  • And so I wanted to push the boundaries to teach myself that it is not gonna stop me

  • and I can still do everything A safe way to learn how to do it

  • I hope this happens more, there are a lot of other people who need these experiences,

  • not just 16 people

  • I want to do another one Get inspired

  • We hope that those of them who are not involved into organizations right now, that they will be

  • or that perhaps they will form a group of partially sighted people or a NGO that

  • will move forward and protect the rights and the needs of partially sighted people

  • Get some new ideas and take them back to Holland so they can improve some things

  • What I can bring home is ..actually a lot of things, how things were organized and how

  • different offices and governments offices can actually help

  • I am also studying social work so this kind of workshop could be a thing that I will be

  • working on, not only because I have a eye problem myself, but this is really useful

  • for my professional career

  • I want to make a book for self defence for people who can't see

  • ...how I can organize it, how I can make it happen, instead of just wondering

  • Can I do this by myself? Will I be able to do it?

  • I'd like to bring back confidence in my own ability, that I might get lost or scared but

  • that's ok and I can do it

  • Now I received a lot of inputs that I have to re-elaborate I think that I will change my approach

  • You don't know what the future holds but if you just limit what you can do for the future

  • then future won't really change so you have to keep on opening paths, bringing in more

  • people and letting people know

  • They come back and they say here, we have this collection of recommendations for improving accessibility for partially sighted people

  • and here we have this innovative product that we need to share and we have this innovative

  • method for understanding what accessibility should be and measuring it for partially sighted people

  • So my expectation is that they come back home

  • and make some change because every change starts with a small step

  • It doesn't matter whether it is big or it is a tiny step but something should be done

I would describe this week with the words unique fun good feeling challenging

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