Dědina is a rehabilitation center for blind and visually impaired adults.

The objective of the center is to help blind people to keep their current jobs or support them as they search for new employment opportunities. Dědina offers both blindness skills courses and professional training. Courses are conducted either on a one-to-one basis or in small client groups.

Blindness Skills Program

The Blindness Skills Program includes the following courses:

• Orientation and mobility training with the long cane
• Reading and writing using Braille
• Functional and sensory vision
• Physical fitness
• Social communication
• Typing
• Electronic adaptive equipment training
• Tactile training in ergo therapy workshops.

Professional Training

Professional training is tailored to match the client’s individual needs to the requirements of the prospective employer. Training courses include:

• Switchboard operator (5 months)
• Physiotherapy-masseur (5 months)
• Medical worker (5 months)
• Ceramics craft (2 months)
• Basketwork (4 months)
• Basics of personal computer work (1 month)
• Windows (5 weeks).

Each year the center strives to identify and run a new professional training scheme. Most courses are accredited by the Education Ministry. The physiotherapy program is accredited by the Health Ministry.

Training for Blind People with Additional Impairments

Blind people who have additional impairments people are mostly trained in simple manual activities.

The training takes place in Dědina’s workshop that is designed to simulates a specific workplace environment.

Employment

Dědina considers the rehabilitation and training process successful when its clients graduate and gain employment.

The center collaborates closely with both the Labour Office and prospective employers. It provides counselling in the following fields:

• Designing a work place for a visually-impaired individual
• Purchasing adaptive equipment
• Elimination of physical barriers
• Job design
• Tax benefits
• Social integration.

Charity Gala Funding

Our donations have contributed to the development of a sensory stimulation garden and the development of the professional training program.

Thanks to Dědina, blind people are not on their own when they are seeking employment, retraining and integrating into the community.

For more information on the work of Dědina please go to www.dedina.cz.