By Ahmet Abdulaziz….
The Eastern Mediterranean University earned a distinct appreciation by presenting “Woodle” at the Festival for Visually Impaired Children held for the first time in İzmir.
Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) Faculty of Communication, Department of Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Chairman Assoc. Prof. Dr. Senih Çavuşoğlu and lecturer Hare Eminoğlu introduced “WOODLE”, designed for children with visual impairment.
WOODLE prototypes prepared by the Folk Arts Institute (HASDER) allows kindergarten children, visually impaired or not, to play together without discrimination. Designed for children over three years, each set of WOODLE includes two animals. By its design, when the pieces are arranged in the correct order, the player gets the correct shape of the animal. Being a simultaneously entertaining and educative toy, WOODLE is believed to aid in children’s cognitive, affective, lingual and motor development and activate their ability to see through playing, touching, reading and writing.
With the support of volunteers, the visually impaired children, who receive special education, had a lot 
of fun at the Festival for Visually Impaired Children by participating at events full of music and art. Organised by the collaboration of İzmir Atatürk Province Public Library and Aşık Veysel Primary School for Visually Impaired Children, the visually impaired students also had the opportunity to participate in different workshops of the festival. The festival began with the concert of Pop Orchestra of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality. Also, various events such as voiced descriptive movie screening and special yoga for visually impaired children took place at the festival. Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) Faculty of Communication, Department of Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Chairman Assoc. Prof. Dr. Senih Çavuşoğlu and lecturer Hare Eminoğlu also organised an event with the “A Design Award” receiving and educating toy named WOODLE which they designed for visually impaired children. At this event, the children learned the Turkish names of animals, as well as in English.
