ELBA - E-Learning - Chancen und Barrieren für Sehgeschädigte

Project duration:

01.05.2002 - 31.12.2003

The objective of ELBA is to inform lecturers and visually-impaired students - and also planners designers and developers - and to increase their awareness of the barriers and opportunities involved. Lecturers are informed of how visually-impaired students work, the tools available to help them to study and their special needs. This information helps them to reduce and eliminate the barriers the students encounter. The students are encouraged to be more willing to accept multi-media learning tools. On both sides the objective is to remove barriers and to increase awareness of opportunities - and limitations.

The project aims to contribute towards promoting the integration of visually-impaired students at university and in their professional lives and to improve equality of opportunity. Linking the project to other living and working situations and other types of disability is a further aspect of the project.

ELBA is a sub-project of the Notebook-Universität Karlsruhe (TH) project and investigates the application potential of multi-media teaching and learning techniques during the courses of visually-impaired students at Universität Karlsruhe (TH). The advantages and disadvantages of E-Learning from the perspective of visually-impaired students are demonstrated using concrete examples. Appropriate teaching and learning scenarios are tested, and then scientifically monitored and evaluated, focussing on mobility, information transfer and the lasting learning effect.

• What are the special needs of blind and partially-sighted students?
• How are their learning opportunities changing?
• What steps are required to remove barriers?