Transcript Slajd 1

Annelore Schittecatte & Mei Lan Ng
Erasmushogeschool Brussel
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to
justice everywhere”
Martin Luther King, Letter from Birmingham Jail
April 16, 1963
Why?
We all can have a life-changing experience!
Very low participation of students with special
needs in Erasmus (only 0,12% in 2009-2010)
About the Project
• Erasmus Accompanying Measures
financed by the European Commission
• ExchangeAbility: Fostering Mobility of
Students with Disabilities
• Duration: 1 Nov. 2010 – 31 Oct. 2011
Who?
• A Consortium of 7
– UNICA (BE) - Coordinator
– Erasmus Student Network (BE)
– Erasmushogeschool Brussel (BE)
– University of Cyprus (CY)
– Tallinn University of Technology (EE)
– Eötvös Lorand University Budapest (HU)
– Comenius University Bratislava (SK)
What?
• Increase the participation of students with special
needs in mobility - ‘ExchangeAbility Ambassadors’
• Awareness raising on the need of promoting inclusive
policies and practices at universities involving all
stakeholders, especially students
• Improve the information provision schemes about
mobility programmes for disabled students
• Networking and promotion of active citizenship and
community participation among young people
• Common dialogue, exchange of best practices,
awareness raising & multiplying effect
How?
• Site visit from 1 partner university to another
Budapest NicosiaBrusselsTallinnBratislava Budapest
• Collection of good practices
• Networking among ExchangeAbility
Ambassadors
• Website and Blog connected to social media
and Story Competition
• Accessible promotional material
• Accessible Movies
• Final Café Event
For whom?
• Student special needs‘ExchangeAbility
Ambassadors’
• Former mobile students
• Universities
• City representatives
• Partner institutions
• National and international organizations
• Other stakeholders
Quality matters!
• The consortium is a perfect collaboration among students,
universities and other stakeholders.
• The project had a good background
– ExchangeAbility was started by ESN and the European Disability
Forum (EDF)
– Basic knowledge in the ESN Network: Guidebook on how to make
local ESN sections accessible
– UNICA Working Group on disabilities meeting for 20 years
• The workload was divided among all the partners and the students
brought not only their experiences but took active part in the
organization of the site visits in collaboration with the universities.
• Feedback rounds and surveys for the participants
• External evaluation and support of other organizations, such as EDF
The Ambassadors
Experiencing mobility
Promoting exchanges among other students
with disabilities
‘Done by students for students’
‘Nothing about us without us’
The videos
• Five videos + ‘Making of ExchangeAbility’
• 1 per each site visit
• Team: Lena Dewaegenare and Mathias Ruelle
– Volunteers!
– Students at EhB
• Award winning videos!
– 1st place in the EQUNET COMPETITION 2011
– 3rd place in the Baltic Sea Region – a good place for
living
Main challenges
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Physical barriers at universities
Lack of Accessible learning materials
Limited personal assistance and need of intensive assistance
Lack of information concerning disability policies
Teachers’ mindset
Lack of self-confidence and fear of the unknown
Time-consuming preparation
Freedom of choice
Lack of financial resources and financial support
Accessibility of cities and transports
Language dis-ability
Insufficient supply of study programmes in English
Difficult communication with the hosting university
Lack of information about mobility programmes
Incompatibility of support services in terms of mobility
Employability after studies
Definition of disability!
• Cyprus and Belgium: traditional disability
categories + chronical illness +
psychological/psychiatric disorders
• Slovakia: traditional disabilitiy categories
without learning disabilities (no dyslexia!) and
no chronical illness
• Hungary: traditional disability categories and
no chronical illness
• Estonia: students with special needs cover
traditional disabilities, chronical illness and
gifted students.
Services provided
Quality and quantity of the services different!
• Disability coordinator(s)- most have coordinator at each
faculty
• Support centre
• Technical devices
• Psychological councelling
• Sign language interpretation
• Note taking
• Personal assistants
• Adapted learning material
• Extra time during exams
• Reasonable accommodation and adaptation of the
curriculum
• Extra tutorials
Students with disabilities
• ELTE University, Budapest: 30.000 students,
300 students with disability = 1%
• Tallinn University of Technology: 13.700
students, students with disability 0,1%
• Comenius University, Bratislava: 29.000
students, 130 students with disability = 0,4%
• Erasmushogeschool, Brussel: 5000 students,
100 students with disability= 2%
• University of Cyprus, Nicosia: 6000 students,
210 students with disability = 3,5%
Mobility of students
with disabilities
All partner universities have a very low rate of
outgoing & incoming students with disabilities
Some data of tha last 3 academic years:
• ELTE University, Budapest had 0,17% outgoing
and 0,01 incoming students
• Erasmushogeschool, Brussels had no outgoing
and 1 incoming student
• Comenius University, Bratislava had 0,03%
outgoing and 2 incoming students
What to change?
1) Accessibility of the physical environment – at least make some
steps to the environmental modification of the university
buildings
2) Cooperation of the university with the city administration and
consumer organizations
3) Accessibility of the learning material in foreign languages in
adapted formats
4) Training of sign language interpreters on an academic level in
foreign languages
5) Information on disability policy and accomodation possibilities for
students with different disabilities in foreign languages on the
web site of the university
6) Raising awareness about disabilities among the university staff to
remove human barriers
7) Choosing representatives with disabilities in the
local student associations and in ESN
8) Special language courses for students with
disabilities (especially in the post communist
countries)
9) More intensive councelling for students with
disability
10) Providing trained personal assistants
11) Giving the opportunity to short-term visits for
students with disability before decision making
Future… challenges!
Although certain obstacles and challenges still have to
be overcome, student organisations like ESN or ESU and
universities can collaborate to welcome incoming
students with special needs.
What’s next?
• More cooperation among ESN, UNICA, EDF and other
organisations
• A new edition of the Guidebook «make ESN an
accessible organization» for the ESN sections and HEIs
including the material from the project
• Joint UNICA-ESN Trainings
• Multiplying effect across Europe
• Impact on mobility of students with disabilities
• Effect on policies and services
• Keep new friends and speak up!
We can change things!
Let’s think about the next steps!
… ‘The sky is not the limit!’
Some questions
- How can student organisations support the
ExchangeAbility of students with disabilities?
- How to encourage students to participate in
the local social life?
- How can we make the physical environment
accessible when we lack funds?
- What kind of role should NGOs play?
- How can we make the information and
learning material accessible for visiting
students?
- How to make the attitude of teachers barrierfree?
Thank you for you attention!