From March, 14^th-16^th 2013 the federal state referees of both Vision and Hearing departments met at the “Centre for Counselling and Promotion regarding schools with SNE foci on Hearing and Vision” in Homberg/Efze. 

In addition to hearing the federal states’ reports, the main topic was the preparation of the National Symposium on Hearing and Vision taking place in November 2014.

The federal states’ referees depicted the following topics:

Vocational education and advanced occupational training is the centre of attention all-around.

Keywords such as certified inclusive schools, peer reviewed pilot schools for inclusion, and SNE pedagogues acting as advisors on inclusion    outlined the broad area of conflict within the discussion.

Various state specific paths regarding the topic of “diagnostics” were outlined; a topic which – within the framework of an acknowledgement of the SNE focus on vision - is on the rise.

After a brief introduction to the objective of a National Symposium, a brainstorming process took place with participants of both departments.

A first accumulation of topics led to the proposition of having Friday’s and Saturday’s talks developed by referees of both departments, in order to deepen the specific consequences of sensual impairments in respective workshops.

Subsequently, possible contents and aims of the workshops were discussed in separate groups of the respective SNE fields. Thereby the current state of research was linked to current topics in practice. Referees were nominated and appointed to the National Board.

Seen as significant topics were the changed role of the SNE pedagogue as well as the necessity of including a specific curriculum into learning and support plans in the process of inclusion.

Afterwards a joint exchange took place in order to inform the colleagues of the respective fields of study and to promote discussion and insight into particular topics.

The standards of the SNE focus on vision are available online.

The Dept. of Vision’s suggestion to phrase a comprehensive preamble for all SNE departments, was accepted and forwarded to the task group “Inclusion” which will work out a proposal. The Department of Vocational education and advanced occupational training presented its design “On the SNE pedagogue’s job profile”. It was well received, only a small addendum was suggested.

Translation: Ruth Stang