Project Goal
To improve the educational experience of the visually impaired students of the Special School # 14 and promise them the same academic readiness as their seeing peers.
Project Background
In Armenia, there is only one special school for visually impaired children, Special School # 14. The school is home to 92 children with varying degrees of disability, from slightly impaired to completely blind.
The main educational tools used in the school are Braille textbooks. Through the years of tactile reading, many of them have become irreparably worn out, so much so that entire words and even passages are missing from the textbooks. Many books have also become outdated as the curriculum is updated constantly by the Ministry of Education and Science.
As the Braille textbooks, and even worksheets, are also expensive to produce, the children are often left with the old, worn out textbooks. As a result, visually impaired students in Armenia have fallen behind seeing students because of constant changes to the curriculum and the educators’ inability to easily incorporate current events and developments into the curriculum in a simple worksheet, which is vital for the education of well-rounded citizens.
A Braille printer will allow Special School # 14 to keep up with all updates in the curriculum by printing Braille eversions of updated textbooks in-house. Its 92 students will receive valuable and up-to-date education that will promise them the same academic readiness that is rightfully provided for their seeing peers.
Mikayel Sharafyan
Verzhine Nikoghosyan
Nelli S. Martirosyan
Sofia Manukyan
Ervand Kristosturyan
Matthew Ash
Armen Anmeghikyan
Laura Love
Vahe Abkarian
Meganoush
Tatevik Khoja-Eynatyan
Victoria Babikian
Tatevik Ayazyan
Meline Toufayan
Agavni P. Yeramyan
Dennis Tarzian
Adam Rosenblatt
Garnik Nanagoulian
Irina Nanagoulian
Ara Hacet
Supporters
21
Partner
Special School No. 14
Created on:
$4,790
goal
93
beneficiary
Yerevan
region
2013
implementation year