Thalassophile Project

The Thalassophile Project is an Erasmus+ partnership of organisations in accessible pedagogy and marine conservation and research, funded for two years, starting October 2022. We aim to make an introduction to marine science and conservation accessible to all European citizens, especially those who are hearing or visually impaired. The project coordinator is Interchange Non-Profit gUG and our partners are the Turin Institute for the Deaf.

Eliminating the gap in available 'blue' educational material tailored to a D/deaf and/or blind audience will produce more citizens ready and able to change their behaviours for the better. We seek to improve the accessibility of marine education; to encourage all adults to make changes to sustain and improve marine environments and to network organisations and experts in the fields of accessible pedagogy and marine education, so that they understand and can comply with each other’s needs.

We have created a framework to guide others in making their marine science and conservation material more accessible to adult learners. We are yet to create our four original Thalassophile Project episodes in line with this framework, but have begun curating existing accessible material, and making it avaliable to scientific outreach, adult education and conservation educators, via an online database. We will also be consolidating this learning into four factsheets, and disseminating to cross-sector stakeholders.