Topical Workshops

Parallel to the main conference, workshops, seminars and round tables will be held. They will offer an opportunity to do complementary methodological demonstrations of your didactic work or communication as well as practical services, or to discuss special topics outside of the basic topical sections. These events can be conceived either as a follow-up to a conference paper or as an independent session. The recommended length of the workshop is 90 minutes or 3 hours and registered participants of the conference can automatically participate in the workshops as well; registration for participation in workshops only is free of charge.

Workshop rooms will be equipped with the usual presentation and information technology including common assistive technologies. Please inform us on your specific technical requirements when registering your workshop.

Further information:

• recommended length of the workshop: 90 minutes or 3 hours (can be adjusted if arranged in advance)
• all workshop leaders are kindly asked to register as authors; co-leaders should register as conference participants
• deadline for workshop registration: 1 December 2012 1 January 2013
• participation in the workshops is free of charge for registered participants of the conference
• interpretation into International Sign System (or Czech Sign Language) and text reporting will only be provided if arranged in advance

Exhibition and Posters

The public conference area will not only be the place of meetings, informal discussions and coffee breaks, but will also host presentations in the form of exhibition stalls and posters, where developers and producers of technological solutions, hardware, software and didactic materials will demonstrate their solutions and production. In addition, various activities, institutions and projects will be presented.

The exhibition stall provided includes basic furniture (a table 60 cm by 120 cm, two chairs), technical basics (internet and electricity connection), presentation equipment (such as poster boards) and decorative elements. Please inform us on your specific technical requirements when registering your stall.

Further information on exhibition stalls:

• please register your stall via the conference registration form; the fee is 4000 CZK, approx. 160 €; it includes the rent for all the above-mentioned equipment and services as well as full conference registration for one member of the presenting organization, i.e. participation in the main conference, information materials in accessible form, 3× lunch, snacks, participation in the Welcome Evening, internet access, printing, scanning and services ensuring the universal design of the conference, unlimited fare on public transport in the time of the event, and online conference proceedings (available shortly after the conference).
• deadline for stall registration: 1 January 2013 25 January 2013

Further information on posters:

• max. size of the poster: A0 (please inform us on the orientation of your poster – portrait or landscape)
• please register your poster in your personal area of the conference website
• deadline for poster registration: 1 January 2013 25 January 2013
• you can deliver the poster to the organizers:
  • by mail (on 8 February 2013 at the latest), or
  • in person at the registration desk (on 11 February, 11:00 a.m. at the latest)

Social Programme

Monday, 11 February 2013 at 7 p.m.

Tuesday, 12 February 2013 at 7 p.m.

Open evening: Presentation of activities of the Teiresias Centre

In the course of the evening, the participants will be able to have a look at the premises of the Centre, to meet its staff and students, as well as to observe some of its activities and offices (students’ office, tactile and digital publishing, technical facilities, etc.).

The evening will include a performance by students of Drama Education for the Deaf at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno. They will present extracts from their currently staged performance Songs, Poems and Ballads.

The Teiresias Centre (its full name is Support Centre for Students with Special Needs at Masaryk University) has in its 15 years of existence grown into one of the largest university service centres of its kind. It is one of the key institutions of the European network of service providers focusing on universal accessibility of higher education. With its six sections, forty members of internal staff and over a hundred external employees and partners, it is currently:

• a counseling centre with regard to disabilities
• an institution of education with its own courses and programmes
• a publishing house of tactile publications with an academic library for the visually impaired (with both electronic and tactile publications)
• a service centre of sign language interpretation and translation
• a centre of speech-to-text reporting for the hearing impaired
• a technical centre responsible for physical accessibility of university buildings
• an IT centre responsible for accessibility of the virtual academic environment
• a pedagogical-psychological counseling centre for persons with learning difficulties
• a research centre developing its own applications for providing practical services.

The 2012 statistics show that the services provided by the Centre enable approximately 50 % of students with sensory impairments to study in one of the study programmes offered by Masaryk University.

During the conference, please register for this event at the registration desk by 12 February, 2013, 1 p.m. at the latest.

The address of the Teiresias Centre is Šumavská 416/15, Brno and it is located on the elevated ground floor of the building. We are going to accompany a group of participants on their way to the Centre, using public transport. We are meeting at the registration desk in the foyer of the Hotel International at 6:30 p.m. If you wish to travel independently, you can get to the Centre by tram no. 6 (get on at the Česká tram stop, get off at the Hrnčířská stop) or by trolleybus no. 32 (get on at the Česká trolleybus stop, get off at the Botanická stop).

Thursday, 14 February 2013 at 7 p.m.

Gala dinner

The Gala Dinner is going to take place in the Hansen Restaurant in Brno’s Besední dům (roughly translatable as Community Hall). It is not by chance that the restaurant is named after the famous Austrian architect Theophil von Hansen, who designed the Besední dům as well as the neighbouring Pražák Palace. Namely, the restaurant consciously draws on the cultural traditions of Austria-Hungary and the need for cultural clubs (beseda in Czech, Verein in German), such as the former Umělecká beseda in Prague or Slovanská beseda in Vienna. It was precisely this phenomenon of clubs that in the 19th century gave rise to Czech national revival, the need for Czech national music and theatre, and later the need for Czech universities. Brno’s Besední dům as a centre of Czech culture in an otherwise German-speaking city saw both the happy and the sad moments of this dramatic clash of two cultures. The Hansen Restaurant consciously tries to take up the good moments: to highlight the valuable aspects of culinary art that the nations of the former Habsburg monarchy have naturally in common. In this setting, Masaryk University presents a cultural event involving the performance of a blind mezzo-soprano singer Kateřina A. Šťastná (excerpts from classical music) and a blind musician Tomáš Vrtek (jazz variations); the music will be accessible to the deaf through the sign system.

Costs: 750 CZK / 30 €

During the conference, you can register for this event at the registration desk by 13 February, 1 p.m. at the latest.

The Hansen Restaurant (address: Besední dům, Husova 534/20, Brno) is located only 100 meters away from the Hotel International. Turn right on the main street in front of the hotel and the Besední dům is the second building on the right-hand side of the street.

Friday, 15 February 2013 at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. (two groups will be arranged)

Conference Trip to the Villa Tugendhat

The Villa of Greta and Fritz Tugendhat from the years 1929–1930, designed by the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is a fine example of early functionalist architecture, recorded on the UNESCO List of World Cultural Heritage as a groundbreaking new vision in building design. Villa Tugendhat underwent monumental renewal and restoration work over the years 2010–2012. Both the structure along with the adjoining garden were restored to their original appearance after the completion of the Villa in 1930; the interiors are equipped with exact replicas of the original furnishings (the virtual visit is available here). The technical equipment for the Villa (the air technology rooms, the boiler room, the engine room for the retractable windows, the so-called “moth” room) was restored in the basement and is newly accessible to the public as part of the guided tours. This area also houses an exhibition presenting the architect, the owners and the family life in the Villa up to 1938 when the Tugendhat’s as Jews were forced to emigrate in connection with the threat of German invasion in the former Czechoslovakia.

Costs: 300 CZK / 12 €

During the conference, you can register for this event at the registration desk by 14 February, 1 p.m. at the latest.

Transport to the Villa Tugendhat will be organized by buses (accessible to mobility impaired participants). We are meeting at the registration desk in the foyer of the Hotel International at 9:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., respectively.

If you prefer individual transport, the address of the Villa Tugendhat is: Černopolní 45, 613 00 Brno.