HORIZON-FORUM

Deaf Studies on the Agenda

A Project funded under the Employment Initiative of the ESF

Transnational Final Report

 Prepared by The Centre for Deaf Studies, University of Bristol

In partnership with Colleagues in 9 EU Member States

 February 1998

Acknowledgement

This work was carried out by partners in 9 countries, on behalf of the HORIZON-FORUM project funded by ESF. The work involved a very large number of people over a two year period and a great many deaf beneficiaries. Special mention should be given to Sharon Brookes whose work and commitment has been exceptional throughout. She acted as FORUM secretary and was the contact point for much of the work. Joe Collins filmed and edited the HORIZON FORUM video which is available to all partners, as a vehicle for dissemination of the aims and achievements of the project. The team in Hamburg created a database and managed the input of data, which arrived at odd times and in large bulk. Their work was essential to the final reporting. Many trainees and staff were involved in placement with European partners and we would like to thank co-ordinators in each country, who accepted our trainees for work experience, according to the chosen strands. We would also like to thank the hosts of all the meetings - ie most of the partners and to all those who engaged in transnational support work. Their time was invaluable and their contribution irreplaceable. We believe this work was of great value to hearing and to deaf, beneficiaries to enable them to improve their job prospects and mobility.

 Thanks to all

 Jim Kyle Centre for Deaf Studies, University of Bristol, February 1998

Contents

 1. Project Aims and Objectives

The agreed project summary is shown in Appendix 1. The Transnational Workplan, which evolved and the various reports which make up the work of the partners are collected in a separate volume of transnational work. This includes several of the national reports and as a result this report will concentrate on the transnational actions.

As a grossly under-employed yet normally intelligent, minority within the EU, deaf people in employment require positive action if they are to break out of the cycle of deprivation. To do so, they need accessible training delivered by trainers who have been given the communication tools and the necessary awareness. To achieve this, interpreters, counsellors, sign teachers, education support workers, technologists were trained in this project. To achieve their potential in employment, deaf people need support in applying for jobs, in convincing employers of their suitability and in participating fully in the workplace. To open up the communication channel and to allow deaf people to interact effectively, there is a need for various services - a high priority in this is interpreting.

HORIZON-FORUM has been involved in all of these, individually as national entities and collectively as the FORUM partnership.

Practically, the FORUM project was designed to

• form European partnership groups centred on training goals within Deaf Studies and linked by delivery format; these groups had responsibility for course deliverables as set out by the project management
• arrange meetings twice yearly of all partners and regular "distance" meetings through video conferencing and by e-mail
• exchange trainers, trainees and training packages
• apply new media (computer, video) to delivery of training and will offer training in new media
• collaborate on multilingual distance packages
• carry out pilot work on interactive distance training through video conferencing and
• work towards a European common approach to training and certification for deaf people and those who work with them. This approach will establish the basis for convergence of training in the area within the three areas of academic, vocational and occupational qualifications
• take initiative in job creation and in the placement of deaf people in the workplace
• offer training for deaf people in personal development, assertiveness and identity to reconstruct their poor self image in a way which will allow them to enter employment

Partners succeeded in being active in all these areas. Further details on the actions are set out below.

The project innovations were:

• The use of sign language as the vehicle of the curriculum in the training of trainers and in the direct training of deaf people - at all levels - such that deaf people can enter the training on an equal footing to the hearing trainees.
• The creation of a positive model of deafness and deaf people's potential achievements, to counteract the deficit model widely offered in the past by medicine and education, and which has coloured employment practices.
• The use of the new media and technology to offer training at a distance i.e. multilingual, multimedia materials for distance tuition throughout the EU. This means involvement of the creation of computer-based, interaction, and self-direct training packages, computer disk circulation and production of CDs.
• Pilot delivery of courses in video-conference format - a means of instruction which is entirely sign language appropriate, and which can utilise ISDN telecommunications.
• Provision and promotion of transnational actions for and by deaf participants.

2. Project Targets - The Workplan

All targets for beneficiary recruitment and course delivery were attempted. All project products were easily exceeded in extent and level. The output in beneficiary terms is elaborated below.

2.1 Transnational Activities

The project linked partners in 9 countries from Universities, training institutions and from deaf organisations - ie providers and users. To achieve the aims (achievements indicated in brackets) and to realise the innovations there was:

• Joint training of trainers in central locations (in Hamburg, Lisbon, Bristol)
• Joint creation of materials for further training of deaf and hearing people and for distance learning ( in Bristol, La Coruña, Valencia, Ghent, and Thessaloniki)
• Distributed courses where trainers from central locations travelled to partners to deliver the training (in Valencia, Lisbon, Thessaloniki, Graz, Paris)
• True transnational training where deaf people from different countries worked alongside one another using international sign, in central locations (in Hamburg, Bristol, Graz)
• Joint work on evaluation of training and on dissemination of information and outcomes (in Valencia, Lisbon, Hamburg, La Coruña, Thessaloniki)
• Twice yearly meetings of all partners (Main meetings in Bristol (2), La Coruña, Graz, Thessaloniki, Lisbon)
• Frequent interactions of the co-ordinators through PC-based video conference links established to ensure deaf appropriate communication (from Hamburg, Ghent, La Coruña, Bristol)
• Sub-group meetings as appropriate in each of the priority areas (in Ghent, Hamburg, Thessaloniki, Valencia, Lisbon)
• Partner visits and collaborative work (all partners engaged in this and all sites were visited by more than one partner - further detail on traffic appears below).

2.2: Preparatory Activities

A series of activities laid the basis for this project:

• Transnational co-operation between partners in Ireland, Greece, Portugal and the UK in HORIZON 1 (1991-4) and separately by German and Spanish partners in the same programme
• Meetings of partners in Greece (September 1994), in Brussels (March 1995) and in Bristol - all partners (March 1995)
• Exchange of priorities for training and clarification of the provision of each partner (March-April 1995)
• Preparation of course delivery formats and tools (Bristol, Hamburg)
• Live demonstration of video conferencing, translation software, multimedia authoring, sign language writing, to all partners (March 1995)
• Description of initial proposal on a European Certificate in terms of training hours and course types - to all partners (March 1995)
• Agreement on the overall framework for FORUM in the first joint planning meeting, (March 1995)

2.3 Work Packages

The work to be carried out was set out in terms of packages that were consistent with the overall project aims and are described in the table below. Some activities were preliminary to the overall working of the project; others were central to its functioning.:

Transnational Tasks

All activities were attempted and most were achieved.

3. Distribution of Tasks

3.1: Overall Management

Through the project, CDS (Bristol) acted as co-ordinator. The project meetings from November 1995 onwards determined working practices. Separate responsibilities were undertaken in relation to the various aspects of the work - for example, Network Building (all Partners in turn by hosting and chairing meetings and creation of sub-groups) , Course Plan Validation (Bristol, Hamburg), Course Delivery (most partners), Evaluation ( La Coruña, Hamburg), Job creation and Counselling (Granada).

Management was to be guided by the goals as set in 2.1. The management role was therefore to update and to support national efforts, to work towards the common European framework in training and by doing so, to provide an accessible route to training in Deaf Studies. Because of the national/transnational nature of HORIZON, the management role is to focus the mosaic of training opportunities and to ensure that deliverables as set out in section 3.2 were achieved.

3.2: Arrangements for each task

Each of the tasks implied by the specification above, were assigned to partners and in many cases these produced reports and deliverables which have been collected in the volume on transnational activity.

The table below shows the lead partner only. Further discussions in the second and third plenary sessions, have formalised the responsibilities. The tasks were carried out and reported on by the lead partner.

4. Traffic in FORUM

This section was prepared by Hamburg

In order to track the movement of staff and trainees in FORUM, a database was set up by partners in Hamburg. In conjunction with La Coruña, an analysis was carried out on all returns. From the partners, a total of 1,575 evaluation sheets were received. These referred mainly to activities in 1996 and 1997. There was one sheet per person per event. In total, 164 events were registered in the database, which included 4 FORUM co-ordination meetings and 7 FORUM sub group meetings.

Not all the possible questionnaires from all partners were received. Relatively small numbers were received from Granada and University of Lisbon, which was less than expected. Also the questionnaires were not always answered in the same manner. For instance, the British partner used anonymous numbers instead of names for the participants, and did not indicate the nationality of the participants. So we could not find out how many foreign participants attended courses with the CDS. However, we do know that a substantial number of participants from our Spanish partners attended courses in Germany and Britain. We also know, without having the data, that a group of Greek trainees attended a course in Britain.

Twelve partners plus FORUM itself offered 164 events. The events were categorised as follows:

Courses (122) Workshops(4) Meetings (11) Conferences (12) Study Visits (15)

Some of the events were courses or conferences with a short duration (1 to 11 days), some were long term training events (up to one and a half years or 422 days). In total, 119 events were under 14 days long, 9 events were between 11 and 90 days long, 36 events were between 121 and 422 days long, of which some lasted whole days whereas others were only part-time, so that participants could attend two of three different courses a day. Long term training took place mainly in Austria, Britain, Denmark and Greece. Courses of a medium duration (14 to 28 days) were offered in Germany, most short term training took place in Spain. More than 417 persons have participated in these 164 events, i.e. a number of persons participated in several events. The number of participants from each partner is also shown below. A number of participants attended several courses. That is, most participants attended between 2 and 4 courses while some individuals attended up to 20 courses or conferences.

5.1 Extended Interpreter Trainees

Training for interpreters was offered in Graz, Thessaloniki and in Bristol.

5.2 Deaf Trainees

Training was offered in all four projected forms: centralised, distributed, distance and interactive. The first centralised training was offered at the beginning of September 1996. All forms of training continued throughout.

5.3 Advanced Sign Teaching, Advanced Sign Language Interpreting, Technology courses

Most partners offered transnational short course training for deaf and hearing trainees. Main focal points were Hamburg and Bristol.

5.4 Work Placement and Job Creation

Most job creation initiative was placed in a local and national context, but there was some work experience offered to trainees from other countries. By the end of 1997, a large number of deaf trainees had been placed in courses or work experience in other countries.

5.5 Products

Details were not available on all of the outputs, which were produced by each partner. Despite an attempt to collect this information, it proved to be impossible to equate all the tangible outcomes in each country. Examples of output are provided in the Transnational volume in the report from Germany and the Technology reports from the UK and Ghent. The Sub-group report prepared by Hamburg is also illustrative of the products. A report on the Certificate Sub-group was produced by Valencia and is included in the materials.

As a general guide there were considerable areas of progress in the UK and from this perspective, a considerable number of products could be claimed. The outputs planned in 1995, were equalled or exceeded. Twenty-nine packages were produced (as against 20) in the UK; new qualifications were offered in New Technology, Management and Counselling for deaf trainees (3). Mutual recognition was attempted in Spain and Greece, and comparable training units were provided in Austria, Portugal, Denmark and Germany. However, after consultations with CEDEFOP (the European Vocational Training Agency based in Greece) and extended discussions in the Certificate sub-group, it proved impossible to achieve a formal EU-wide recognition system other than what was available by the ECTS system (see the Certificate sub-group final report).

The Network was established and traffic statistics were compiled. Publicity material was prepared in paper form (Appendix A) and on the WWW.

A publicity video was made and is now available; an interpreter manual was produced for provision of information to employers, deaf people and to interpreters themselves.

6. Transnationality

On the whole the extent of transnational activity was high. This was due to the nature of the field and the fact that deaf people can communicate effectively with other deaf people in transnational meetings. The projects were also based on the same principles and there was a coherent transnational plan from the outset which gave each partner responsibilities in one or more areas. Their transnational involvement can be summarised below and has been mentioned in Section 4.

Although there were some problems of communication of agreements and details of working plans, the overall impression of joint action was very favourable and a great deal of joint work was achieved. There were 6 surveys carried out and this helped to bind the partnership in the period intervening between the main meetings.

Misunderstandings were minimised by using a fixed workplan and then by regular faxes and travel to each country. All countries were visited by CDS trainees, and staff visited all partners except one.

8. Reports

There are a number of supporting volumes of work by partners including the

1. Interim reports; 2. Transnational Reports and Reports of Subgroups; 3. Final Reports from individual partners 4. Notes from FORUM meetings

9. Implications and Forward Plans

FORUM has been able to build on a range of outcomes from the training and job creation initiative of the first phase. The extensive discussion in the next transnational Workplan shows this. The new transnational workplan in appended to the Transnational volume for this project.

The key feature is the combination of the major elements which have been discovered in this project. These have become part of the new FORUM and are indicative of the way forward for deaf people in this initiative.

The new FORUM consists of 4 separate but interwoven components: technological support, training, support infrastructure and employment. The workings of FORUM requires these elements in order that partners can draw on expertise across the employment spectrum. Deaf people can be served best by the comprehensive framework presented by FORUM. However, the size of FORUM requires that the work will be divided into the four domains. Partners will interact most within a single domain but will work across domains at each of the transnational meetings. These meetings will have a tight agenda and set of actions that will be followed through rigorously. Actions will occur within domain and across domain. For example, these might be:

Technology: production of CD for distance teaching; use of video conferencing for discussions between partners

Training: preparation for interpreting, sign language teaching, vocational aspects, IT training

Employment: creation of a team in video work, setting up of a co-operative in engineering

Support infrastructure: European Certificate, Employment charter, vocational assessment

Examples of cross-domain work would be the work experience, job counselling, technology used explicitly for training as centralised or distance, and exchange of trainers.

In each domain there can be a task force whose job will be to define their roles and implement a series of actions. In each domain there will be agreed deliverables.

The overall outcome will be a strengthening of the relationship between training and employment. There will be a clearer route for deaf people to move from unemployment through to employment. In the process, all aspects of the partnership can be invoked and the innovations in multimedia application, remote access and international work placement will be activated. From each domain there will be a report at each transnational meeting and there will be also a clarification of the inter-connectivity between the work plans. Overall progress will be measured within domain and across domain.

Employment placement, job counselling, common certification will all be valuable in this process underpinnings of the work. These insights and new practices are the direct outcome of the experiences and findings of the HORIZON-FORUM project 1995-7. You can read the earlier reports for 1995 and 1996.

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