“Inclusion in Action”
The Educational Program titled “Inclusion in Action” is fully implemented starting from the 2023–2024 academic year and aims to strengthen a culture of inclusion from an early age through the school community. Students from general and special education schools experience shared and inclusive film screenings together.
The program is realized with the donation of the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation and is hosted by the Greek Film Archive. The design and methodology followed are the result of collaboration with the accessibility and inclusion consultants liminal and TheHappyAct.
All films in the program — short films of both Greek and international production — are accessible through:
- SDH subtitles
- dubbing in Greek
- embedded interpretation in Greek Sign Language (GSL)
- audio description
- sensory-friendly adaptations and social stories
At the same time, educational material has been developed for teachers, including film presentations and key guidelines on how to talk to children about disability and inclusion in an unbiased way.
Informational Educational Workshops
The screenings are preceded by educational workshops held in the classroom, which prepare both groups of students for their shared cinematic experience.
- For general education schools and typically developing children, students are introduced – through games and interactive activities focused on how the senses function – to various accessibility tools such as audio description, social stories, and interpretation in Greek Sign Language (GSL).
- For special education schools, the educational workshops focus on familiarizing students with cinema on equal terms.
Through this process, students from both general and special education come together in the same cinema space and watch the same films together.
Throughout its implementation, the program is evaluated by the professors of the Department of Primary Education of the National University of Athens, Maria Dimaki – Zora, Associate Professor of Theatre Studies, Konstantina Tsoli, Assistant Professor of School Pedagogy and Practical Training, and Elisavet Lazarakou, Assistant Professor of Evaluation of the Learning Process.
