Developing Blind Females' Skills in the Field of Clothes and Textile Through a Training Program

This study was conducted on a sample of 45 blind females at the age group from 12 – 24 years who are affiliated to one of the institutions which cares for blinds, this institution namely Ressala Association, Alexandria. The study aims to train the blind females on some handmade works related to clothes and textile which help them acquire technical skills and enable them to practice work which provides them with an opportunity of new jobs in the field of clothes and textile.
The blind females were trained and gained different knowledge, handcraft, and economical skills in the field of clothes and textile such as knitting etc…
A questionnaire was used to identify and perform the propensity of the students towards the skills they need to learn and applying the training program to develop their knowledge and handcraft skills.
The blind females' skills were evaluated by a pre-post test form besides an evaluation card which includes questions in knowledge and skills related to clothes and textile. The evaluation tools were reviewed and commended by specialist arbitrators.
The results of the field study indicated that all the blind females have no knowledge about the different skills related to clothes and textile. After applying the training program, the results revealed that 88.89% of blind females acquired sufficient knowledge about the clothes and textile skills.
The study also revealed sound attraction of the blind females towards the combined textile handcraft by using the sensation of touch. The rough and smooth silk strips are used to produce different technical parts which were sold at exhibitions.
Some of the handmade skills were called off such as knitting, because of non-acceptance from the blinds as well as unsuitability to the case of handicapped.
The pre-post test for the conductive parts were measured, besides the evaluation card for the blinds handcraft skills which was reviewed by the specialist arbitrators in the field of clothes and textile.