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Project Aim

The main objective of this ERASMUS+ project is to  collect and exchange information  concerning Virtual Reality (abbreviated: VR) and Augmented Reality (abbreviation: AR) in context of education and training of people with visual impairments. The increasing use of VR and AR systems in education and vocational training, will become an important factor in the process of digitisation. It is therefore essential, that this technology quickly finds its way into the education and vocational training of visually impaired people, to avoid any disadvantages for this group.

Especially the integration into the labour market is difficult for visually impaired people. It is therefore imperative that this target group will be introduced to the new digital technology in order to be competitive on the labour market.  However, in order to educate and train the target group adequately, the educational staff must be qualified accordingly.

In the context of vocational training and education of people with visual impairments, VR and AR systems are not in the focus yet. The VR4VIP project aims to change this situation by exploring suggestions for the meaningful and effective use of these technologies in the education of visually impaired people. Existing systems and solutions as well as best practice examples will be investigated. At the end of the project, all partners evaluate a further cooperation according possible implementation strategies of VR in the education of visually impaired people.

Why VR for people with visual impairment?

At first glance, the use of a visual system such as VR for people with a visual impairment  seems paradoxical. However, on a closer look, VR systems offer some advantages for this target group:

1. The visual distance between the eyes and the display is small and thus enables visual perception even with severely reduced visual acuity.
2. The field of vision that can be displayed on commercially available systems is between 100 and 110° and thus offers a usable display range even in the case of failures in the central or peripheral field of vision.
3. By virtually zooming in and out on objects, they can be enlarged and reduced according to individual needs.
4. Interferences from scattered light, reflections and glare are avoided by the design of the devices.

These factors indicate that VR  systems can be used for education and the vocational training of people with visual impairments. Here it is of particular interest to use the technical capabilities of these systems as assistive, diagnostic  and training device.

Project consortium

	Berufsförderungswerk Düren gGmbH (Project co-ordination) Karl-Arnold-Str. 132-134, D52349 Düren http://www.bfw-dueren.de	DE
	Aachener Centrum für Technologietransfer in der Ophthalmologie e.V. Karlsburgweg 9, 52070 Aachen https://www.acto.de	DE
	Hilfsgemeinschaft der Blinden und Sehschwachen Österreichs Jägerstrasse 36, 1200 Wien https://www.hilfsgemeinschaft.at/	AT
	Instituttet for Blinde og Svagsynede, IBOS Rymarksvej 1 – 2900, Hellerup https://www.ibos.dk	DK
	Istituto Regionale Rittmeyer per i ciechi di Trieste Viale Miramare 119, 34136 Trieste http://www.istitutorittmeyer.it/	IT
	Fondazione Istituto dei Sordi di Torino Viale San Pancrazio 65, 10044 Pianezza https://istitutosorditorino.org	IT
	National Rehabilitation Centre for the Blind, NRCB 24 Landos Str., Plovdiv, 4006, P. Box 11 http://www.rehcenter.org	BG

 

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Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.