IMPROVING SOFT SKILLS OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITY BY E-LEARNING

1. 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

2. Models of Disability and Assertiveness Training • The medical model of disability encourages explanations in terms of the features of an individual body. Disabled people’s 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 people’s 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).

3. Strategies in Removing Barriers in Disabled People’s 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. “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 project’s 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.

7. “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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. Projects web-sites • http://www.improve-your-chances.de • http://www.basic-skills-training.org • http://iecuvadvla.ro

11. 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.