On 11-22 August 2003 we organised a teacher-training seminar combined with a Model School for the blind and visually impaired to address the EU initiative to declare 2003 the European Year of People with Disabilities and assist Lithuanian special education institutions in the increase of the number and quality of trained Lithuanian ELT professionals, teaching English to visually impaired and blind students.

14 teachers of English (including two Latvian and one Ethiopian) were introduced to the materials and tools for teaching the blind and visually impaired and tried them out during the second week, which was organised as a Model School. 60 blind and visually impaired students attended the course, which was opened by the British Ambassador to Lithuania Jeremy Hill.

Professor Boguslaw Marek (Catholic University of Lublin, Poland) delivered the seminar and helped the teachers during the Model School. It is thanks to his enthusiasm and expertise that the event was successful and well received by the participants who left sharing his vision and determination that assistance to the blind and visually impaired in language learning should be taken seriously. ‘The blind students' eagerness to learn is striking’, says one of the teachers.

The seminar certainly raised awareness of special education among the participants and generated a lot of interest among ELTeCS members from wide range of countries including Pakistan, Malaysia, Israel, Ethiopia, Hungary and Bulgaria.

Just a few quotes shared by Prof. Boguslaw Marek with the seminar participants introducing them to the world of blindness:

• ‘The grapefruit is louder than the orange.’
• ‘I can hear that I’ve lost my way, but I don’t know where I am.’
• ‘If I could read, I would read until my hands fall off.’
• ‘How can you see a big mountain through a small window?.’

For more information, please contact Vilma Backiute, English Language Projects Manager.