In an atmosphere of great excitement and professional discussion, the 10th ICEVI-Europe International Conference, held in collaboration with the Robert Hollman Foundation, was held in Padua, Italy, from May 15-17, 2025. At the center was the theme “Children and young adults with visual impairment: What can we do? what can be done?”
Bringing together more than 300 professionals from different disciplinary areas and more than 130 institutions and associations from all over Europe and beyond (25 European countries and 12 non-European countries represented by participants, for a total of 37 countries), the Conference focused on 4 major disciplinary areas: diagnostic framing and development; education and learning; habilitation and rehabilitation; and accessibility, participation, and involvement in society.
Other significant numbers of the ICEVI-Europe Conference were 2 keynote speakers, 13 main speakers, 235 abstracts received, 145 oral presentations and 43 posters.
The articulated format of the meeting, consisting of plenary sessions and parallel sessions that took place in the historic halls of the University and City of Padua and in the modern Altinate San Gaetano Cultural Center, and a calendar of social and cultural events, which involved the entire city of Padua with the SensoriAbile Padua Days, helped to create networking opportunities for everyone and in multiple directions.
The Conference, therefore, offered many opportunities to share knowledge and experiences, discuss professional practices, with the sharing also of an important document: Key Principles Visual Impairment with the goal of inspiring and guiding those who work with children and young adults with visual impairment.
The idea for the document, which contains 10 pillars conceived as deeply interconnected and circularly linked to each other, grew out of the reflective practice of the Robert Hollman Foundation, working in Italy since 1979 to support the growth and development of children with visual impairment and their families.
ICEVI-Europe and the involvement of various European professionals made possible the drafting of the text, which was thus enriched in content, thanks also to the sharing of knowledge with the scientific community in order to reach a European consensus.
After this important relaunch that the ICEVI-Europe Conference wanted to focus on in Italy eight years after its previous edition, now the appointment will be in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2029. In the meantime, relationships, contacts and professional knowledge will continue for other, important and daily avenues of application and development.
