New Vision — Giving Blind and Visually Impaired Macedonians a Way into the Digital Workforce
A second NATO Charity Bazaar grant secured by GAUSS Institute, converted into an accessible computer classroom and ICT training for blind and visually impaired members of the Union of the Blind — Bitola.
NATO Charity Bazaar ASBL · Brussels, BelgiumProject at a Glance
Objective & Summary
Across Europe, unemployment among blind and visually impaired people of working age runs above 75%. In Macedonia, with no official statistics ever compiled, GAUSS’s own application estimated the real figure at 80–90%. Even where legislation subsidises the employment of disabled persons, blind people are frequently placed in “protective companies” — sometimes on jobs that exist mainly so the employer can claim the subsidy — doing traditional work like switchboard operation, a profession that was disappearing from the market entirely.
New Vision’s premise was that the same technology making some traditional blind occupations obsolete could open new ones: modern assistive ICT — screen readers, screen magnification, Braille output — turns a computer into a genuine tool for work, learning and independence, provided someone actually has access to it and the training to use it.
New Vision’s own logic, as set out in the funding application: equip, then train and certify, then open real opportunities
Role & Activities of the GAUSS Institute
- Prepared and submitted the NATO Charity Bazaar application under the project name “New Vision” — with Gen. Miroslav Stojanovski as the mandatory NATO contact point — including the organisation’s financial statements, statutes and an itemised €10,000 equipment budget.
- Designed the assistive-technology classroom specification: computers with JAWS (Job Access With Speech) screen readers and large-print keyboards, screen-magnification software licences, networking equipment, and a Braille printer, with the accompanying software adapted to the Macedonian language.
- Procured and installed the equipment at the Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired Persons — Bitola, at the Home for Social Work in the Karpoš neighbourhood.
- Committed its own staff to deliver the training pro bono — running ICT courses for members of the Union up to the internationally recognised ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence) certification standard.
- Organised the public donation ceremony (16 September 2017) at the Union’s premises, securing coverage from the Macedonian Ministry of Defence’s own web portal as well as national media.
Outputs (Deliverables)
- An accessible computer classroom for the Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired Persons — Bitola, delivered as ten laptop computers, a printer, and networking equipment, together with specialised assistive software adapted to the Macedonian language.
- A pro bono ICT training and ECDL certification programme, designed and delivered by GAUSS Institute staff, targeting at least 50 blind and visually impaired participants.
- A public donation ceremony at the Union’s premises, raising the visibility of blind and visually impaired Macedonians’ employment barriers among military, institutional and media audiences.
Outcomes
The donation gave the Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired Persons — Bitola a resource it had never had: a dedicated, properly adapted computer classroom, rather than a general-purpose room its members could not actually use unassisted. Coverage by the Ministry of Defence’s own web portal and national media echoed the visibility strategy GAUSS had used successfully in 2014 — putting a concrete example in front of the same domestic institutions and businesses it hoped would eventually invest in disability inclusion themselves.
Significance
The name “New Vision” captures the project’s real argument: the same wave of technology that had already made a traditional blind occupation like switchboard operation obsolete could, if the access and training were actually provided, open entirely new ones. An accessible classroom without instruction is a room full of expensive equipment nobody can use; GAUSS closed that gap itself, committing its own staff’s time to deliver internationally certified training rather than treating the hardware donation as the whole project.
Winning a second NATO Charity Bazaar grant, for a different beneficiary and a different disability community, suggests GAUSS’s 2014 donation was seen by the Bazaar’s members as a credible, well-executed use of their funds — exactly the kind of track record that makes a small, competitively selected annual grant programme choose to back the same applicant again.
Funded by the NATO Charity Bazaar ASBL, Brussels.