Fostering Mobility of Students with Disabilities

1. FosteringMobility of StudentswithDisabilities Annelore Schittecatte & Mei Lan Ng Erasmushogeschool Brussel

2. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” Martin Luther King, Letter from Birmingham Jail April 16, 1963

3. Why? Weall can have a life-changingexperience! Very low participation of students with special needs in Erasmus (only 0,12% in 2009-2010)

4. 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

5. 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)

6. 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

7. 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

8. For whom? • Student special needs‘ExchangeAbility Ambassadors’ • Former mobile students • Universities • City representatives • Partner institutions • National and international organizations • Other stakeholders

9. Quality matters! • The consortium is a perfect collaborationamong students, universities and otherstakeholders. • 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 partnersand 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

10. The Ambassadors Experiencing mobility Promoting exchanges among other students with disabilities ‘Done by students for students’ ‘Nothing about us without us’

11. 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

12. Main challenges • Physical barriers at universities • Lack of Accessible learning materials • Limited personal assistance and need of intensive assistance • Lack of informationconcerning 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

13. 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.

14. 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

15. 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%

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. Future… challenges! Althoughcertainobstaclesand challengesstillhave to be overcome, studentorganisationslike ESN or ESU and universitiescan collaborate to welcome incoming students with special needs.

20. What’s next? • More cooperationamong 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!

21. We can change things! Let’s think about the next steps! … ‘The sky is not the limit!’

22. 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 barrier-free?

23. Thank you for you attention!