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Initiative

Fairy Tale without boundaries

Fairy Tale without boundaries
SUBMITTED FROM:

AMIMONI

AMIMONI is a Panhellenic Association of Parents of Visually Impaired Children with Additional Handicaps. Today it operates 4 programs for blind people with additional handicap.

 

Read more: www.amimoni.gr 


Contact

Objective Action

"Fairy Tale Without Boundaries" is the first electronic/digital library of fairy tales in Greece, for preschool and primary school children with visual impairment. It consists of 20 audio / visualized fairy tales, 19 of which are by Kaleidoscope Publications and one by Aparsis Publications. The fairy tales are narrated by writers, actors and volunteers of the organization "I read for Others" and Amimoni. The visualization was carried out under the instructions of the Early Intervention Program of Amimoni, so that each fairy tale can have a different level of visual adaptation, to be perceived by children with a corresponding level of vision.

"Fairy Tale Without Boundaries" overcomes exclusions and obstacles, offering visually impaired children the opportunity to enjoy beloved fairy tales - a very common activity that until now they were deprived of, due to lack of properly designed material.

The main goal of the action is to increase the participation of visually impaired children in activities that are crucial for their development, their social integration and the protection of their fundamental right to entertainment and education.

In particular, through the development of the electronic fairy tale library, we seek to secure children’s direct free access to the visual narration of 20 qualitative fairy tales, in order to entertain themselves, to "travel" through the books and, additionally, to give the parents the opportunity to expand the means of interactive communication with their children, to acquire creative, enjoyable daily routines by "reading fairy tales" just like other families and to improve the emotional bonds among the family members.

Expected results:

Recreation time, education, joy for children through the "reading" of a fairy tale, just like for any other child and use of their free time (at home, vacation, school, etc.) creatively.
Quality leisure time for all the family members (siblings, parents, grandparents) and the child, which will alleviate their burdened daily schedule and strengthen their bonds.
Social integration of children and their families through:

- the experiential awareness-raising activities carried out in an educational context, with the participation of children together with their classmates, , in "reading" and fun activities.

- the participation of the whole family in the social presentation event focusing on the child.

 

Target Audience

Our action directly targets pre-school and primary school children with visual impairment and their families. Our aim is to raise awareness of institutions and social structures to expand leisure, education and integration opportunities for visually impaired children. It also addresses to a wider audience, including neurotypical children, as well as their families, with the ultimate goal of our library to include visually impaired children in activities common to all children.

Direct and indirect beneficiaries of the action are:

• The beneficiaries of Amimoni (over 100 families).

• Families with children (with or without visual impairment), who will visit the online fairy tale library and will raise awareness of the topic, through the relevant material of the website.

• Publishers who will perceive the need to adapt material for people with visual impairment.

• Teachers and students of the schools that will participate in the experiential integration activities and students who will use the fairy tales.

• Subscribers of the e-library channel (over 830).

 

Duration

The implementation of the action started in November 2018 and was completed in July 2021.


Description

For the first time, an electronic library for all visually impaired children and their families is developed, with fairy tales in Greek, immediately available and free of charge. The fact that the library is easily accessible online, expands the beneficiary population nationally.

Also, the visualization addresses to children with residual vision and has three stages (for very low, less low or slightly low vision). It is always based on the original illustration of each book and, in collaboration with the graphic designer, we end up with sharp shapes, strong color contrasts, clear shapes or even more abstract if the vision is very low. The goal is that the child will be able to have visual contact with the fairy tale in parallel with the narration, which is already familiar to children with visual impairments.

Our action is inspired by the general principles of the UN Convention for the Rights of Impaired People, and in particular Article 3 ed. b', c', f 'and i', on non-discrimination, full and effective participation and integration in society, accessibility and respect of the evolving potential of children with disabilities.

In particular, our action embodies the essence of article 7 par. 1 of the Convention, ensuring that children with disabilities fully enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms, on equal basis with other children, as well as of article 30 par. 1 ed. a', c' and par. 5 ed. d‘ providing access to cultural material in accessible formats, in particular libraries, as well as ensuring that children with disabilities have equal access to game, entertainment and leisure as other children.


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Impact on Society

Measurable results:

Youtube Channel "Amimoni_Fairy tale without limits":

831 registered, 81,155 views

Electronic fairy tale library (website): 27,067 views

Fairy tales seem to be already widely accepted by our children and their parents, as well as by teachers in the field of special education. According to a recent research we conducted in collaboration with the parents of Early Intervention Program, it is characteristic that the dominant emotion of children during the projection is joy and after the projection, the desire for another fairy tale.



Initiative Location

The action took place in Athens, at the premises of Amimoni in Elliniko, at the premises of "Kaleidoscope Publications", at the recording studio of "I read for others" and Thodoris Damourakis's recording studio. The action was piloted at the Model Kindergarten "Marie Rentzepi" in Kallithea, Attica.

The events took place at the premises of the organization "Open Door" as well as at the "Coffee in the garden of the Numismatic Museum".


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Working with Organization

For the implementation of the action, we collaborated with the organization "I read for the others", with "Kaleidoscope Publications" and "Aparsis Publications". We also collaborated with the organization "Open Door" for one of the two presentation events, which took place at its facilities, as well as with the Model Kindergarten "Marie Rentzepi" where the Action was piloted with the participation of children who listened to the fairy tales with their eyes closed.

The action "Fairy tale without limits", implemented in 2019, was funded by the Public Benefit Foundation Ioannis S. Latsis in the framework of the 3rd Cycle of the program "Support Points" and its continuation, "Fairy tale without limits II", implemented in 2021, was funded by the Ministry of Culture under the project "Projects and actions of Digital Culture 2020".

We have also started " the implementation of the action "Giving life to images" in collaboration with "e-Nable Greece, which aims to create a digital library of fairy tales with files printable on a 3D printer. The action aims to offer children with visual impairment, through 3D imaging (for tactile stimulation), a better understanding of fairy tales and consequently of their natural environment and world. Tactile representations have great application and value for people with visual impairment, however,the creation of a 2D image conversion guide to 3D model, which will offer the possibility of tactile perception of the original image, will have significant additional pedagogical and social value, contributing to integration, education and self-confidence of the individual.

By the end of 2021 our goal is to complete a digital library with a total of 13 fairy tales which, following the visualization of the fairy tales of the "Fairy tale without Limits" library, will be printable on a 3D printer. The action has already received funding from the program "Support Points", as well as from the Ministry of Culture under the program "Projects and actions of Digital Culture 2021".


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Workers Participation

In the implementation of the action, the participants were:

Working group of Amimoni, "Kaleidoscope Publications" and "Aparsis Publications", consisting of 8 employees

8 External partners/associates and

16 Volunteers and narrators of "I read for the Others" and Amimoni.


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Photos Videos

Benefits for Οrganization

1. Increasing extroversion:

Through the 2 presentation events that we organized we managed to promote our action to an audience of over 200 people in total, consisting of children with and without disabilities and their families, organizations that provide services to people with disabilities as well as representatives of the State.

2. Increasing the traffic of our website and our social networks:

The views of the page of our electronic library constitute a percentage of 22.94% of the total views of our website. At the same time, the increasing views and subscriptions to our Youtube channel expand the audience we are addressing.




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