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1. project „Experiences of Adult Education in Europe for blind or visually impaired people“
LLP Grundtvig partnership project
Good Practice example based on experiences from the Czech Republic
Martin Hyvnar, Centrum vizualizace a interaktivity vzdělávání, s.r.o.
The title: Visually impaired masseur named Peter
Brief summary:
Peter is now 39. At the age of 18 they discovered he had vision problems. During his studies
at the School of agriculture, Systems of crop production, he visited an ophthalmologist. At
that time he was already a holder of a driving licence for agricultural vehicles, but he needed
to extend it to a licence for driving a truck. In order to start the driving school he needed to
obtain a medical certificate issued by his ophthalmologist. That was the moment when his
vision problems were discovered for the first time and he was told these might continue
worsen over time. After he had left the school he worked for many different employers, and
due to his visual and other health problems, most of the time these were only short-term job
opportunities. His last job was at the automobile factory Autopal. But his sight had kept
getting worse and for that reason he eventually had to leave this employment too. From his
ophthalmologist he obtained a contact for a local branch of The United organization of the
blind and partially sighted, where he received a necessary help and advice on how to cope
with the situation. Including the resolution to his financial difficulties (claiming disability
support pension) we had gradually got to the point where in 2011 Peter took part in training
course at the Rehabilitation and retraining centre Dědina in Prague and started his career as a
masseur.
Good practice example general information
This example of good practice took place in Nový Jičín as a part of the basic consulting
services provided by Social counselling organization SONS ČR, and the counselling sessions
with the client occurred between September 2010 and June 2011.
Detailed illustration of good practice example:
The first time I met Peter was in September 2010, when he came to our centre based on the
recommendation from his ophthalmologist. He did not have any special requirements of help
me to find a job kind. Rather he needed some information regarding the options that were
available to him in order to solve the problems that occurred due to his visual impairment.
During the interview Peter told me he learned about his visual defect while visiting his
ophthalmologist for basic check up in order to obtain medical certificate for a driving school.
When asked whether he had been having troubles with the night vision, he confidently replied
“NO”. The doctor then asked him to follow him to a darkened room and what happened next
Peter described in these words: “I staggered around like a frog in a blender and on top of that I
also knocked down a few chairs that were there.“
Peter finished his school successfully but he couldn’t find a stable employment and worked at
different places such as a bakery or a dairy. Due to constantly worsening eyesight and
scoliosis these were always only temporary job opportunities for 3 to 4 months after which he
had to register at the Job centre. The longest employment he had was as a security guard for

2. project „Experiences of Adult Education in Europe for blind or visually impaired people“
LLP Grundtvig partnership project
the company Autopal. But he had to eventually leave this job too as his eyesight kept getting
worse. “ In the end I was quite happy to leave, as walking around the area with a still
growing traffic density during a day or at night wasn’t really pleasant experience and
especially for the blind person working as a watchman, that’s just crazy!“
At the first meeting we discussed mainly the general issues related to the visual impairment,
but also different social and other services that were available to him and the basic
information on mobility aids. Because Peter was registered at the Job Centre as the job seeker
and the social benefits were the only income he had at that time, we spent the following
meetings discussing the issues regarding a disability support pension. At the end we got to
matters related to job retraining. But before the start of the retraining program we needed to
acquire some aid such as a Dictaphone and apply for grants to purchase a computer
specifically designed for visually impaired people.
The most appealing to Peter was the retraining opportunity in the Rehabilitation and
retraining centre Ďedina in Prague. Specifically the Blind and visually impaired masseur
field. Retraining course for masseurs prepares the blind and visually impaired people to work
in health facilities under the guidance of medical staff with a higher qualification. They then
have the choice to work as employees for different fitness centres, but also as an independent
contractors. The visually impaired masseurs are highly rated by the public in the Czech
Republic, especially for the quality of the work done by them. In our country the position of
masseur is still regarded as a traditional job suitable for the blind and partially sighted. The
retraining courses for the blind carried out at Dědina have very high theoretical and practical
quality level almost as high as the quality level of qualification at a high school. That is the
reason the visually impaired masseurs are highly desirable employees.
We provided Peter with all basic information and the rest of matters, regarding the retraining,
he negotiated with the local Job Centre that was covering the costs for the course. Before the
beginning of the course at Dědina he dedicated lots of time to self-studying of fundamentals
of human biology. All this time, he’s been receiving a lot of support from his parents that he
currently lives with. “I knew from the start that I would really enjoy the job of a masseur and
that it was going to be the right choice for me”, says Peter today.
In the spring 2011 Peter began the course for the visually impaired masseurs at the
Rehabilitation centre Dědina in Prague. The six-month stay at Dědina helped Peter not only to
build his career path but also to grow as a person. Suddenly he begun to see his problems in
different light as he was surrounded by the blind people, who had been learning new things –
to move around inside a building, learn to walk with a white cane, to cook and be self-
sufficient and etc. He was the only participant with the ability to “see”. “That was the first
time I met with the blind people and it was such a new experience for me. At first I had no
idea how to approach them or how to help them. Thanks to this experience I started looking at
my problem from a different angle. Before I used to feel very sorry for myself, but today I
would rather slap my face for that,” he remembers. Peter also appreciates the warm family
atmosphere that prevailed throughout the whole facility, helpful approach to clients from the
staff and also friendliness among all residents. “These few months there was the most
beautiful time of my life, I felt like I was at home!“, he adds.
At that time Peter was 35 and he found it really difficult to study at this age. Not only that, he
had to gain much knowledge in such a small amount of time of 5 months and each subject had

3. project „Experiences of Adult Education in Europe for blind or visually impaired people“
LLP Grundtvig partnership project
to be completed by taking the final exam. The biggest challenge for him was to learn all Latin
words for muscles, tendons and other body parts. “Sometimes I felt like my brain just wouldn’t
take in more.“ But Peter managed to successfully overcome all these obstacles and even
more. Thanks to his stay at Dědina he made lots of friends and has even stayed in touch with
the facility staff. Also the Centre regularly sends him job offers for visually impaired
masseurs.
After completing the course Peter worked for 3 months as a substitute masseur to his blind
colleague, who had been incapable of work for a longer period of time. He also decided to
start his own business. Together with his colleague they established their own studio and
started offering massage services.
To set up and run the sheltered workshop
Peter obtained a grant from the Job
Centre. As the Social service association
we provided him mainly with a law and
employment advice services and helped
him with the matters related to active
labour market policy regarding the grants
acquisition to set up and run the sheltered
workshop. Based on the advice on how to
proceed in this case he then handled all the
related matters himself.
Since June 2013 the client has been in
full-time employment as a massage therapist working in the Rehabilitation centre of Dr.
Přemysl Norský in Nový Jičín. He is very happy at his current job. According to what he has
said, in the future he would love to become a professional physiotherapist. This is the reason
why he had applied for the distance studies at the Secondary medical school in Nový Jičín,
but unfortunately he had to interrupt the studies due to being busy with his own business and
starting a new job. However later he would like to continue and finish the school. Since the
retraining course he has taken part in many other courses in massage techniques and continues
running his own business along with his job at the rehabilitation centre.

4. project „Experiences of Adult Education in Europe for blind or visually impaired people“
LLP Grundtvig partnership project
Since 2010 Peter has been a member of the local branch of the United organization of the
blind and visually impaired in Nový Jičín. As a masseur he joins us on recondition and
rehabilitation stay programs, where physiotherapy takes place as the part of the whole
program. Recently he’s started learning to walk with a white cane and exercising the spatial
orientation. But beside his work he also enjoys photography. At present he is working for
Orthopaedic and rehabilitation centre of Dr. Přemysl Norský at Jugoslávská 30, 741 01
Nový Jičín. Phone: 556 703 903.