VISION was an Erasmus+ training course hosted by Asociația Clubul Sportiv Forza Junior Costuleni in Iași, Romania — six countries building methods that actually work, together with blind people, not just for them.
For seven days, youth workers from six organisations that work with blind and visually impaired people discussed, tested and built — together with and around blind people themselves — methods and processes that actually work: exchanging knowledge, comparing national practices and pressure-testing every idea for real-life applicability.
Sport, culture, technology and everyday activities were all put through the same question: does this genuinely include a blind young person? This site — and the guide it links to — follows that journey, workshop by workshop.
Before building methods, every team presented how blind and visually impaired people actually live in their country. The picture differs, but the pattern is shared: services exist on paper, independence is won in practice.
Every activity was tested with mixed groups of blind, low-vision and sighted participants. None require sight to take part fully.
The basics of visual impairment, correct language, and the sighted-guide technique — how to offer, and accept, a guiding arm.
Real-world barriers — parked cars, missing announcements — and how AI navigation, tactile paving and good web design help.
A full day of blind sports played blindfolded: Showdown, adaptive climbing, blind football (5-a-side, “voy!”) and goalball.
Climbing by touch and voice: a guide calls the holds while the climber maps the wall by hand. Sighted participants climb blindfolded too.
Fencing adapted for VI athletes on an oriented piste, coached by sound and touch — blind and sighted fencers meet as equals.
Futsal with a rattling ball and boards along the pitch; everyone but the keeper wears eyeshades, and players call “voy!” to avoid collisions.
Sensorial theatre experienced with eyes shut. The Serbian team performed a piece for the whole group, so everyone lived it as a blind spectator would — equal participation, made real.
VI and sighted partners plan and shoot short films — and photograph the city — together, by sound and description.
A shared meal eaten entirely without sight. Conversation replaces eye contact, and everyone shares the describing and serving.
VISION drew on the people building inclusion for blind youth across Europe.
An EU co-funded project where blind and sighted people fence on equal terms, with the declared ambition of reaching the next Paralympic Games. Forza Junior Costuleni is a partner.
feib-erasmus.eu (opens in a new context)
Forza Junior Costuleni's Erasmus+ sensorial-theatre project with partners in Serbia and Cyprus, leaving behind a guidebook in four languages.
eyes-shut.forzajuniorcostuleni.ro (opens in a new context)Organisations that are not project partners but shaped the training course by sharing their work with the group.
Romanian deep-tech glasses that replicate the main features of a guide dog. Every VISION participant tested them, with or without a disability, during the breaks.
dotlumen.com (opens in a new context)Tactile graphics and an encyclopedia that make visual art readable by touch — presented at the course, with a plate credited to tactileimages.org.
tactileimages.org (opens in a new context)The special high school for visually impaired students where the group spent a full day — testing sports, para-fencing and methods together with the students themselves.
Visited after the school day for a conversation on long-term volunteering — and on how, through art, they include people with visual impairments and create work dedicated to them.
Every workshop, method and app from the training course — with described images and a tagged reading order, so it works with screen readers such as VoiceOver, NVDA and JAWS. Built to be an example of the accessibility it teaches.
PDF · tagged for screen readers · English
| Organisation | Country | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Asociația Clubul Sportiv Forza Junior Costuleni | Romania | Host |
| Osvěta z.s. | Czechia | Partner |
| PATOS Youth Theatre | Serbia | Partner |
| SENSE | Moldova | Partner |
| Mariani | Georgia | Partner |
| White Cane | Armenia | Partner |
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.
