IMPROVING SOFT SKILLS OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITY BY E-LEARNING

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IMPROVING SOFT SKILLS OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITY
BY E-LEARNING

• Ileana Hamburg
• Institute Arbeit und Technik, Germany
• Adina Ionescu
• Octav Onicescu National College, Romania
• Mihnea Marin
• University of Craiova, Romania

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Models of Disability and Assertiveness Training

• The medical model of disability encourages
  explanations in terms of the features of an
  individual body. Disabled peoples inability to
  join society is considered as a direct result of
  having impairment and not as a result of some
  features of our society that can be changed
• The social model of disability shows that most of
  the disabled peoples problems are not caused by
  their impairments, but by the way in which the
  society is organized and by some barriers which
  stop disabled people joining every day life
  (e.g., prejudices, inflexible organizational
  procedures, inaccessible information,
  inaccessible buildings, inaccessible transport).

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Strategies in Removing Barriers in Disabled
Peoples Lives

• One strategy is to help disabled people to be
  able to interact and develop relationships, to
  recognize their own needs and their own
  abilities, and to make real use of them
• Assertiveness training represents a major
  strategy not only for removing barriers but also
  for rehabilitation. Such training helps the
  development of a gentle assertive behavior,
  founded on tolerance and respect for others.

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The Use of E-Learning in Training Disabled People

• E-learning offers opportunities for disabled to
  overcome certain handicaps by
• Facilitating access to new services, new
  knowledge, and new forms of work without having
  to travel
• By breaking the isolation that disabled people
  feel in life and learning through their
  integration into a virtual learning community
• By restoring a social identity for them, giving
  them access to work or helping them to maintain a
  job by improved qualification.

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The Use of E-Learning in Training Disabled People

• E-learning techniques can be the main teaching
  approach or the supplementary one to the
  traditional course
• E-learning allows students to choose the learning
  approach that they prefer and to study materials
  in different ways, which generally increases
  understanding and learning
• The combination of E-learning and traditional
  classes gives the students who can not attend
  classes the opportunity to complement missed
  study material.

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Improvement of Employment Chances of the
Unemployed and the Visual and Auditive Disabled
by Using Virtual Learning Applications -
IECUVADVLA

• The main aim of the project is to increase the
  chances of employment of the senior unemployed
  and of the people with hearing and visual
  impairments who have a moderate level of
  education.
• Some of the projects activities and results
• The unemployment situation in the countries
  represented in the partnership, the learners
  needs, and the assisting and supportive
  technologies necessary for training people with
  visual and hearing impairments were identified
• Training modules on basic computer skills and
  Internet use, Soft Skills and Assertiveness
  Training and Communication Techniques for Getting
  Employed were developed in different forms
  accessible for the target group.

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Improvement of Employment Chances of the
Unemployed and the Visual and Auditive Disabled
by Using Virtual Learning Applications -
IECUVADVLA

• The topic of Soft Skills and Assertiveness
  Training course is focused on the difference
  between aggressive, passive and assertive
  behaviour, on particular characteristics of each
  person including body language, on increasing
  self-confidence of communication in difficult
  situation, on the importance that the use of
  assertiveness evaluation has in planning the
  achievement of the goals
• Assertiveness training course and workshops help
  people with disabilities to deal with other
  people, to increase their work effectiveness and
  productivity, to achieve greater control of their
  daily activities and to overcome work stressors.

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Improvement of Employment Chances of the
Unemployed and the Visual and Auditive Disabled
by Using Virtual Learning Applications -
IECUVADVLA

• Some exercises that consider typical situation,
  which require assertive behavior (such as giving
  criticism to a close colleague or having to
  refuse to accept additional work) are presented
  and discussed.
• The training module Communication Techniques for
  Getting Employed offers information about
  writing an Application Letter and Curriculum
  Vitae about decision making considerations.

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Conclusions

• Assertiveness training for improving social
  skills plays a very important role in the people
  lives who are marginalized by the society
• National and European initiatives could motivate
  learners who belong to a marginalized category of
  people to improve their social skills by using
  e-learning, being at the same time actively
  involved in the training process.

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Projects web-sites

• http//www.improve-your-chances.de
• http//www.basic-skills-training.org
• http//iecuvadvla.ro

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• Projects presented in this paper are funded with
  support from the European Commission through
  Socrates / Grundtvig 2 program. This publication
  reflects the views only of the authors, and the
  Commission cannot be held responsible for any use
  which may be made of the information contained
  therein.

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