The International Camp on Communication and Computers (ICC) is a non-profit organisation organising annual camps for partially sighted and blind youth in Europe. Every year, the camp is hosted by a different institution (typically schools for the blind or universities) in a European country.
Contents
Concept
The idea behind the camp is very simple. It focuses on enhancing the participants' technical and social skills, both of which are of great importance to enable the students being integrated into mainstream education. The usage of IT and AT is highly encouraged and taught in workshops driven by participants' choice. Also, the participants are supported in the process of choosing their future study and get information how to organise it. Besides that, the participants get to build up and strengthen an international network, which serves as a platform for exchange and advice.
Programme
The day typically starts with breakfast at 7.30 am. Workshops are held in the morning (9.00 am - 12.00 pm) and afternoon (2.00 pm - 5.00 pm). During the workshops, there are small coffee breaks. In the evening, there are different leisure time activities, as well as the opportunity to go to the city. The participants are basically responsible for themselves, although there are always staff members and volunteers ready to help. There's always an excursion day, on which all the participants can discover a special place near the host.
The workshops deal with every aspect of the participants' lives. While there workshops dealing with general life skills, social issues and culture, there are others dealing with specific software (e.g. JAWS).
Leisure time activities may differ on the host and it's environment. They can again range from crafting to sightseeing.
History
The efforts to support blind and partially sighted students at the universities of Linz and Karlsruhe led to considerations on how to support the transition from school to university. These considerations encouraged founders Klaus Miesenberger and Joachim Klaus to make up a concept to get in touch with possible students at an early stage. To get some experiences, there was a national computer camp in Austria in 1993.
Camps and locations
Since 1993, the camp took place in various European countries and brought together about 1700 participants and 1300 staff members.
In 2017, the ICC takes place in Leuven, Belgium.