Annelore Schittecatte & Mei Lan NgErasmushogeschool Brussel

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”

Martin Luther King, Letter from Birmingham Jail April 16, 1963

Why?

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 anotherBudapest NicosiaBrusselsTallinnBratislava 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 AmbassadorsExperiencing 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 • 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 providedQuality 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 assistants11) 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 barrier-

free?

Thank you for you attention!