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Loredana: Good morning everyone. My name is Loredana.
I am working at the European Disability forum. Welcome to this event today.
Before we start, let me also welcome all those who have joined online. So, today we are going to have a couple of sessions. 5 longer or shorter ones. We will be here until 4 o'clock normally. With a coffee break and a lunch break. At the end, those who are here in Brussels will join some coffee together. Thank you very much for being with us here in Brussels.
And being with us online.
So, today we are here together to celebrate 3 years of hard work. Of hard work on starting a journey towards inclusion.
In fact, we wanted to bring some improvement and start working with universities. We have a couple of them here and some online.
We are really glad that we have done this whole work. And of course as I said, it is only the start.
And if we are here today, it is thanks to the European Economic and Social Committee who kindly are hosting us and supporting to organising here this event. The European Economic and Social Committee is the house of citizens. So, we are here in our house to celebrate this project.
And we are going to see if our representative of our host has managed to arrive. We must also admit that we are in a more difficult situation today.
Sorry, apparently there are some technical problems.
Anyone from the technical part can help us?
People are not hearing sound. Those who are on Teams.
- One second.
- Thank you so much.
And I don't know on the camera is also some problem. That we see only... The camera is okay. Thank you.
Apologies for the technical issues.
So, I was saying that today in Brussels, it is special. There is national demonstration. And that makes a little bit difficult for certain people to come here. We hope we will be able to follow our program. And we thank you already in advance for your kind understanding. Thank you.
Can you hear? Those speakers who are in Teams? Can you hear me?
- Yes.
- Okay. Thank you so much.
Perfect.
- Yes.
We hear you.
Loredana: Okay.
So, to start, I see that our host has not yet arrived.
So, we will pass on to the floor to Albert Duran from Fundacion ONCE. ONCE is the coordinator of this project and the coordinator of the consortium.
Please, the floor is yours. Thank you for coming today. And I hope you can, you will manage to take the floor. We are listening to you. Why this project, why did you think at Fundacion ONCE you wanted to start all this journey? Why was it important for you? Thank you.
Alberto Duran: Good morning. Today is a celebration. It is not every day that we celebrate the build of a European network of inclusive university. An effort of universities committed to continue working for inclusion. To ensure that students with disabilities who want to study in one of the 27 countries, European Union plus UK, don't have to overcome barriers.
There are 64 universities from 26 countries participating in the eu4All network. That is cause for celebration. The ONCE fundation for people with disabilities, was created by ONCE in February of 1988. The mission of ONCE foundation is to commit to the social inclusion of people with disabilities. ONCE is the main organisation of people with disabilities in Spain and the biggest employer of people with disabilities in the world. We understand ensuring the international mobility of students with disabilities is a step towards maximizing the potential achieview our goals.
That is why we coordinated the project European Network of Universities working for inclusion. Co-funded by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union.
To our good fortune, we are joined by a strategic and very relevant partners in this project. I would like to highlight the European Disability Forum, the EDF. We also partnered with 7 international universities that are making a more inclusive university. University of Triste, university in Italy. A university in Poland. The University of Porto. And the Spanish universities of Murcia and Sevilla and Madrid. The 9 partners are our students with disabilities still underrepresented in mobility programs. This experience helps them to improve their autonomy. Their professional skills and expectations. And their employment opportunities. Having said that I would like to thank the national agency for Erasmus in Spain. For giving us the opportunity to currently in part of the 20th century university in Europe. I would like to thank all our partners and all the universities that are part in this network.
Today is a day of celebration. I want to thank you all for helping to make this network a reality. Thank you very much.
Loredana: Thank you very much Alberto, for your kind words. And for taking this job that is not difficult, and to have behind you a fantastic team that has so much worked to make this happen.
So, we won't take longer. We will continue our program. Today.
And I will pass the floor to Maureen Piggot. Who is EDF executive committee member. She is our treasurer. Maureen is coming from representing Inclusion Europe in our organisation. Inclusion Europe is the organisation of persons with intellectual disability. Maureen has a wide experience as organiser, as standing for the rights of persons with disabilities. So, as an advocator of those with intellectual disabilities. And now in EDF for all disabilities. Since 2017 with EDF.
Maureen is with us from Northern Ireland, I suppose. Maybe further. I don't know where you are Maureen. Thank you so much for accepting and joining us. And yes, Maureen, the floor is yours. Thank you.
Maureen: Thank you very much, Loredana. Good morning everybody.
First of all, today I am here representing the European Disability Forum, EDF.
And as I am sure most of you know, EDF is the umbrella organisation for people with disabilities of people with disabilities in Europe, representing the 100+ million people in Europe who have a disability.
Our members are active in every country in the EU. And also beyond it.
And also, at regional level. Like Inclusion Europe has networks of organisations at the European level. Our job is to make the issues that arise from every day experiences of people with disabilities central. To national and European policy making. And the work you have been doing here in this project is very important. To making that happen.
Projects like this, are important in developing the concepts, the practices and the tools to advance rights and inclusion. To make a reality of what we have in the CRPD.
And EDF is very proud to be part of this project.
Funded, we have to say thank you to the EU's Erasmus+ program for the funding that has supported us and thank you Foundation ONCE who has led the consortium and put it all together to start with. Our longstanding EDF member. Has done an excellent job in coordinating this project.
The objective of the project for those who are taking part in this and have been in the project, is to encourage the inclusion of people with disabilities in higher education. To understanding what it takes to make a university inclusive. And for universities that are inclusive to be a reference point for other universities.
Today we are launching the platform which creates a network of inclusive universities. Sharing knowledge on how to reduce the barriers for persons with disabilities to higher education.
And to raise the standards all together in strategies for universal access to higher education.
The project aims to promote inclusion not only in the academics, but in the university community as a whole. And does it by supporting not only the faculty, by the administrative staff in how they stimulate diversity.
As Alberto mentioned, an important dimension is promoting international mobility among students with disabilities. It is not easy for any student to move countries and continue their study successfully. For people with disabilities there are additional barriers. It is raising awareness within the community how to promote access and social inclusion of young persons with disabilities.
EDF's role in the project has been giving impact on the standards for inclusive universities. Coordinating training for faculty members and administrative staff.
And also helping with the information sharing, dissemination and promoting broader awareness of inclusion of persons with disabilities.
This is the third and last multiplier event of this project.
As I said before, the main output that we are celebrating today is the web platform of universities working for inclusion.
There are more than 60 universities already in the network. And we hope to reach and conclude others that we know are also active in inclusion that are not part of the network.
You will hear more about the training the EDF has produced later in the project. Loredana is going to present that work.
One of the barriers for students wanting to study in another university in a country other than their own is not knowing what to expect. There are so many uncertainties. The platform developed a guide to universities that will be an important tool to help make an informed decision. And having it on a web means it is accessible to students all over Europe and beyond Europe to come and study in Europe.
The right to inclusion in education is an obligation on all member states. We have the standard established by the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, the UNCRPD, to refer to. But awareness of the convention is not yet widespread.
Beyond the governments agencies who have to report on it, we find there is disappointingly low awareness. This will be the case of universities and indeed amongst students with disabilities themselves.
The project is working to clarify that right and encourage students with disabilities to claim their rights and to know how to go about that.
An important program for students with disabilities, all students, is Erasmus+. it makes a huge difference to education in Europe. Especially across borders. And funds demonstrations like this how the barriers can be removed. All the fine concepts and policies come to nothing if we don't have practical implementation.
I am proud to say that EDF was present in co-creating the current program of a new Erasmus+ which runs from 2021 to 2027. We were pleased to see that provisions for people with disabilities were in the program. Pre financing. That reduces one of the biggest barriers students with disabilities face. Who cannot fund the thousands of euro's needed to support the additional disability linked costs. The prefinancing is an important new development. Now it is possible to get that before embarking on the education journey.
This helps to equalize the opportunities and equalize the benefits taking part in an education experience. Like those involved in this euni4all project. Having formed a very important network which we hope will grow and which has shared and identified inspirational practices across Europe, I would like to congratulate the project on this achievement and also set a challenge for a next step. That is in sharing information on the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities who are too often not included in post secondary education at all. I was pleased to see in the list of universities you have a number that have successfully established programs that include people with intellectual disabilities. Living here in Northern Ireland, my closest contacts would be in Ireland and the UK. And the Trinity College Dublin were one of the frontrunners. And the university of Ulster. Perhaps the great grandparent of them all was Syracuse university in New York. I very much recommend as a next step there is specific focus to that. I'm delighted to be part of this event this morning. And watch with interest as the network grows and the practical barriers to inclusion of all persons with disabilities are removed as universities learn how to promote inclusion and see the benefits to the whole academic community. And as Alberto said, to the whole of society from the inclusion of persons with disabilities.
I'm afraid I am not going to be staying for the whole event this morning. I have family commitments which will take me away. I will be following with interest through EDF's executive committee. Thank you very much for asking me to join you briefly.
And good luck for the discussions you have a fruitful conference. Thank you very much.
Loredana: Thank you for your words and support as member of the executive committee. With this work also.
Our next person, speaker, is Fanny Lacroix Desmazes.
Policy officer at the directorate general for education and culture unit dealing with Higher Education.
Fanny is from the European Commission. Today we are here is thanks to a program put forward by the European Commission. I don't know if you are aware, it all started 35 years ago, in 1987. In the beginning there were not all these possibilities. But this evolved and Erasmus is so much today than student exchanges. It is also a project like this.
And Fanny, thank you so much for accepting to come here today. And the floor is yours. Thank you very much.
Fanny: Thank you Loredana.
For your kind words. And so, good morning everyone. Thank you for inviting me to present the position of DG education and culture. My director, Sophia Ericson, is sorry not to be able to attend due to previous commitments. I am pleased to be here with you this morning. Because as you know, 2022 was a very special year for the higher education sector.
First, because we published, the European strategy for universities. Where we have put a strong focus on inclusion in general.
And inclusion of people with disabilities.
And as you said, Loredana, and as Maureen said, we are also celebrating this year the 35th anniversary of Erasmus+. And on Wednesday, we organised the closing event of this special year. Giving us the opportunity to celebrate Erasmus' successes and discuss challenges and the way forward.
What we heard from the participants and beneficiaries was not really new. And apart from the need to continue simplifying the program, the main demand was for more and better inclusion. It is still the main priority of Erasmus+. Erasmus is such a big success, we cannot afford leaving people behind. It will be the sign we have failed. Because exclusion is not due to the difficulty or disability that a person faces. But rather the barriers associated to it.
Indeed, most people feel excluded. Not because of their disability as such. But because of the barriers, the barriers can be institutional, environmental and due to attitudes. And these are the barriers that we need to overcome or remove.
As you know, in designing the new Erasmus program for the period 2021-2027, we decided to make it even more inclusive.
For this we have evaluated the previous Erasmus+ program and consulted all the stakeholders during the 4 years before 2021, to make sure we made a difference. For this, we consulted of course the European Disability Forum and other NGO's. And as a result, we managed to come with a program that now benefits from a budget that has nearly doubled in comparison with the previous periods. More possibilities to reach out more participants and beneficiaries, but also to focus and work on targeted groups, who felt previously Erasmus was not for them.
Second, we have... (noise)
Sorry.
Second, we have expanded the number and the types of barriers that participants might face. To make sure that we do not forget anyone.
And we have defined 8 main barriers. Related to disability of course. Health related problems. Economic and social and cultural and geographical barriers to name a few.
Third, we have made sure to tackle intersectionality. Meaning a participant might face different barriers, when he or she wants to study or train abroad. In addition to the top up that could reach 250 euro's per month, that a participant with opportunities can receive, it is possible to qualify for the inclusion support. Which covers 100% of real costs associated with a disability.
Or a health related problem.
4th, we have made the program more flexible, offering new mobility formats, to cater to different needs, for those who cannot go due to a physical mobility. We have worked hard to make Erasmus+ more inclusive. We can have the best rules on the paper, if they are not known, understood, communicated, they will not be implemented.
And that is why the cooperation we have with national agencies, students organisations and NGO's like the European Disability Forum or ONCE are crucial.
It is a bit too early to measure whether we are reaching our objectives. But what we can see from the national agencies work programs, is a better awareness concerning the objectives and the values. And we are seeing more ambition in terms of targets for the inclusion of people with fewer opportunities over the years.
The national agencies also report to us their efforts in terms of communicating and targeting newcomers or groups that feel far away from Erasmus+.
We are also pleased to see that this priority is taken very seriously by student organisations. For example, the Erasmus student network launched a project and presented the results of a survey on the barriers that prevent students from participating in Erasmus+. It is similar to what Maureen said before about the prefinancing. Of the mobility.
This organisation and other students or university associations helped us to prepare the new Erasmus+ charter for higher education, the entry ticket to the program. With inclusion at the core of the new charter, we now have the tool to remind every university in Europe what it has committed and monitored on inclusion.
We consider also that Erasmus+ can really support the higher education sector in becoming more inclusive through cooperation projects like yours.
With your project, you are paving the way for more awareness i change in mentality and attitudes. Better targeted measures and effective implementation. We are looking forward to hear your experience and what we can improve. I hope we learn a lot and leave this event with fresh ideas and inspiration for further action in organisation of universities and community in general. Thank you very much for organising this event. Individual we may be ordinary, but together we can accomplish extraordinary things. Let's build inclusive universities of the future.
Loredana: Thank you so much Fanny. And thank you so much to the European Commission. Today celebrating with us inclusion today. We really want to emphasize that this is a final event for this project.
But the process of going towards inclusion for universities, it will not stop here. The network has just started. It will develop. It will grow. And it will continue raising awareness. Thank you very much.
And we go to Isabel....
The director of program. And she is also in charge of youth talent at Fundacion ONCE. Isabel, Sylvia will translate you.
No?
Thank you very much. I am sorry. We will not have the privilege to listen to Isabel. But those who are here will have the opportunity to meeting her.
Thank you very much for this then.
So, we have heard until now why this project started, we have heard of the need. We have heard that what this fantastic program Erasmus+ is bringing to each of us, whether we are students, young people, trainees. Or pupils. Simply.
And we have heard the barriers that people are facing. People with disabilities. To be able to be part of the program. And we are going to hear more about this. But we are going to our next panel. And I will invite the moderator of the next panel. Silvia. Silvia Duarte is in fact the heart of this project.
She is the one who is invading us with many emails. With many emails.
But, but also with a lot of support when we need it. She is always there. Present.
And who knows better what is happening and what has happened behind the curtains than Silvia. Silvia, the floor is yours to take us through the next panel.
You can do it from your place. I will close my mic. You open yours.
Maybe just...
Excuse me. Just in the room, practicality. For those in the room, when you take the floor, you just push in front of you on the microphone button. Then you will be able to take the floor. So, that's for people here in the room. Thank you. Silvia?
Silvia Duarte: Thank you so much for that kind and beautiful introduction. I don't deserve it. This project is a joint effort of 9 wonderful partners.
I am so proud of being here at this point. Not ending the project. We are beginning a new phase of the project. We are all so proud of it.
You know the name of the project. The European Network of universities that work for the inclusion of people with disabilities.
In this panel we are going to hear from 2 partners. One is going to explain what the network is about. And the other one will explain how our new platform, that is excited. We are happy to show the new platform, how it works.
We also will hear from our representative of one of the universities that participated in this program. A questionnaire of 38 indicators. For people with disabilities. Who are going to explain this results are other partners.
I am just introducing them.
The first presentation is on Alice Ribeiro from the Porto University. Graduated in Literature and English and German studies.
Both by the faculty of arts and humanities of university of Porto. She works at the inclusion office in University Porto since 1997. She is a human rights activist and active member since 1988.
The floor is yours. Thank you so much for all your work and everything that you have done for the project.
Alice: Good morning everyone.
Thank you for being with us today. And sharing our experience. And what we have accomplished so far. I would like to ask, please to share with the participants online. And also here, the presentation. So, what I am going to try and do in this 10 minutes. I am going to try and be very strict with the time. Is to present you the present and the future of this network. Sorry. Now it is better, right?
The microphone is closer.
So, this is what I am trying to do. Please go to the next slide.
To quick sum up. What I will be talking about today. I will just present generally what we were aiming at, what we were trying to do. And what I am quickly presenting to you is, what we were trying to do. What this project is trying to do is actually aiming at inclusion. As it was said here many times today. I am going to try and sum up a little bit of what we have done. What we have accomplished so far. And I will be talking to you about our hopes and dreams. Our plans for the future. Because it has been said here today, many times, we are not finishing, we are finishing the project, but not finishing our goals. And what we are aiming at. We are just starting today. Please to the next slide.
So, I would like... Thank you.
Aiming at inclusion, as I have said before, when we setup to do this project and when we thought about inclusion, what we feel that is for us, for us partners and of course for all of the participants that embarked with us in this project, what we felt as absolute necessary and important conditions, what it means for us inclusion in higher education setting is to have the voices of the people heard. And in our case, since our project was aiming specifically at a specific group. People with disabilities. We wanted to hear their voices. We wanted to know. We find that inclusion is this, to hear people. To know what they want. What they need. What we need to provide them in order for them to have the necessary conditions to work and to be included within higher education settings.
Of course, it is also the responsibility is recognizing the responsibility of universities. To provide the necessary and specific accommodations and conditions for these people to be with us. To be with in the community.
It is not only specific conditions which are also necessary.
But it is mainly the environment. The entire environment to make sure that we overcome barriers, is the human landscape, is also the physical landscape that we need to change. And to make really big structural changes. In order to build an accessible welcoming environment where everyone feels that they belong. This is the most important bullet points for inclusion as partners that we got to those conclusions.
Please, moving forward with the slide.
So, what is the presence of the network today? What have we accomplished in this project? What we built, and my colleagues will in the next panels talk about this in detail. We built the necessary tools. We have made them available. We built a guide of standards to direct institutions towards an inclusion plan. We have made this information available with the guide. Now with the platform. And my colleagues will talk in detail about this important tools that we have built within this project.
We achieved the participation and cooperation of 64 higher education institutions that have worked with us. It was really important sharing and having all of the experiences within the project.
And we also have achieved to provide concrete information for people with disabilities. Not only students, but also staff and teachers. To be able to go on mobility and for mobility purposes. Could we go on?
Yes.
This is what we have achieved. So far.
We have started a very interesting thing. And what we are hoping to do in the future and of course we are inviting everyone, not only to continue with us, but to disseminate this. We want to be a structure that is really open. This is not closed for the 64 initial participants. We are opened. We wish to have more people involved and more people and more institutions participating.
Could we go back to the slide?
We also want of course to increase, we want this network to grow. We want to provide more information and more accurate information. Because what we have achieved so far, the information that we provide so far, can be more detailed and more accurate. Of course universities change, they are living bodies. This changes. These tools need to reflect these changes and need to reflect the evolution that institutions will, I'm sure, have in what concerns inclusion.
Of course, another thing that I think this network can do or we hope and dream this can be done, is to inspire universities. To support and to increment research and innovation on inclusion within this network.
Because together we can do much more.
So, going to our final slide.
Getting close to the end of this presentation.
How to join? That's an important thing.
You just have to go to the website, to the euni4all website.
And in the menu, intellectual outputs, you will find the web accessibility platform and there a link where you can go fill in the questionnaire, the guide of standards that were created. And send it to us.
Send the information to us and join us in this network. Any questions you have, direct them to info@euni4all-network.Com.
We will be glad to answer anything. Thank you very much for your attention.
And of course, we are building the future now. We hope all of you to embark with us in this wonderful thing. Thank you so much for your attention.
Silvia: Thank you Alice. We are building the future. It is starting now.
So right now, I will ask Celina Handzel and Kamil Pula to present the euni4all platform. Both are from the Lublin university of technology in Poland. They have worked with a lot of effort. And they have helped us to build this new web platform.
Kamil is student computer science. All his technological experience has been crucial for the development of the platform.
And Celina is a PhD, head of the office of international education. And Celina has worked with us since the beginning of this program. I know that she is also really proud and happy to be here presenting what we have done in these 3 years. Thank you Celina and Kamil.
Celina: Hello, good morning.
My name is Celina, like Silvia said.
I am in the project from the very beginning. Actually, I am the proudest thing that I am really proud of, the biggest thing, is first of all the result of the platform itself. Also how much Kamil's intuition, his experience helped us to create the tool.
What we wanted to achieve in the consortium between the partners. First of all was to create the tool that meets the requirements of our guide. Of the guide of standards. To create the tool that is intuitive and welcoming enough for future networking. For universities that will also join the network.
And finally, we wanted to be able to present in the platform the information for the students who will be looking for precise information. How to look for certain service and what particular institution offers to the students.
And to staff.
And now it is going to be Kamil taking over. He will present the platform itself.
He will do it remotely. Because he is with us online. Thank you.
Kamil: Thank you for your kind introduction. Let's get into it.
I am on the Euni4all network. If we go to the bottom of the page and go to university. We will be redirected to our page. We are still in the process of testing it. That's our homepage. Before we describe...
Loredana: This is Loredana. If you can slow down a little bit. This is a reminder to all those who will take the floor. Because we have in the room a captioner. And we are trying to offer subtitling. So, just, if it is possible. Thank you so much.
Kamil: No problem. So, as I said, we are on the homepage. Describing what is in the menu. The about page. A lot of subpages. With the network. The platform. Information for students and universities. Guide, how to search. Our methodology. Blue and Orange badges are. After that, we have the universities page. Guides as well. Guides of standards and guide of universities.
Participation page.
Focusing now on the home page.
We have a description for students. Also information for members of the university committee. This information is important for you. Whether you are a student or university. We have the browser. You can filter out the university pages or universities only on the homepage. As you can see, you can filter by the name of the university, country, region, city.
For example if we go to Poland. If I can find it. Apply.
We will see the universities from Poland. Right now it is 1.
We also have the more browsing possibilities. As well as the accessibility statement.
If we click on that link we will see that most of the page. We will improve it further. If you have feedback, email this email. And we will appreciate it.
Okay. Going to the About page.
We have the information. From the About section. If you want to read all the information. In one page. You can do it there. Not to overwhelm the user, you can go to each specific page. If you go to the network page. This is a description for the network itself and the project. And the outputs that led to the development of the project.
Going next, we have This platform. The description of the platform itself. What we do. What kind of information we present to the user. The information about 64 universities from the EU. The information that they have given us.
Going next. We have Students and universities. This is the information we also have on the homepage. Why is this important for the student. Also the university. And interested in joining the project. Or see how they compare to other universities.
Next How to Search. In the future we will have simple search and advanced search. We are working on it. At the moment we only have simple search. By country and so on.
We will be improving this. Methodology. The description of the methodology. Divided into 3 sections. Universities selection, study and the identification of inspirational practices.
What was the driving ideas and force behind the development of the project and platform.
After that, we have important page for everyone. That is visiting the site. The description of Blue and Orange badges and what does it mean if a university has one.
After that we have the descriptions for the indicators. The page was divided in 2 dimensions. Sub dimensions. And divided in indicators. We decided to include the information. If someone wants to know what stands behind accessible buildings or spaces. They can go see this page and find out.
Going next, we have the universities page. This is the page again explaining what the badges are. And how to use the search function. At the top the link to the corresponding galeries. You have the links. If we click on it. We have the galleries. The same one we have on the home page. But in a separate page. Same for the Orange badge universities. Those are not different. Only thing that differs is the list of universities. They filled in different questionaires.
If we go to the page of our university for example.
We will see that we provide information as the country, region, city, type of the university. We can also provide additional links. The universities can change on their own. They can also provide additional documents.
We also have the contact person details. Such as the name, the phone number and email.
This is John Doe. We have also About us section.
And some links. So this is for the universities, they can edit the text on their own. At the bottom of it, we have a description what it means. Once it is in the standards. Indicators about the standards.
As I mentioned, we have more information on each indicator.
On the previous page.
We have the answers from the questionnaire. The 4 dimensions and sub dimensions. If we click on it, we have an accordeon and the information for the indicators. Accessible buildings and spaces. And supportive resources for students with disabilities.
You can have open all of them at the same time. Close them as well.
We didn't want to overwhelm the user. With everything opened at the same time when the page loads.
The orange badge space. The university of Cyprus. The page is almost the same. We have the country, region, city. The badge is different. At the bottom also the questionnaires is different, the answers.
We have features that university offers. I forgot to mention previously. We only present the indicators that are in the standard or about the standard. We didn't want to present things, indicators that don't meet the standards. We only present that the university provides to the students.
Those will be the pages. For the Orange and Blue badge groups. After that the guides. The main page for the guides. It compiles the Pdf guides in English and Spanish. Something that could be improved in different languages. You can go to the corresponding pages as well.
Browse it on the document. You can click on the top right button. And you will be redirected to Google Drive.
Same goes for Guide of universities. We go to participate page.
We have information about why this might be important for your university. also, how to fill the questionnaire. And if you go there, you will be prompted with information. And how to proceed.
If you click start and choose the version of your questionnaire, it will for the orange and the blue badge group.
This is the part where you choose the language. And where you fill in the data.
This completes my presentation. Thank you for listening.
Silvia: Thank you Kamil. Just for you to know. We are going to have time at the end of the panel. If you have questions, there is going to be the time to bring them to the table.
Right now I want to introduce, I have to confess and I am ashamed of that. I couldn't talk with the next panellist in advance. I am sure I will mispronounce her name. I will pronounce it, in Spanish.
I will ask you, when you are talking, please let us know how you pronounce your name.
Marchita Mangiafico is from the university of Malta. Coordinator for students with disabilities on campus. A position she had for the past 18 years. Social worker by profession she works with the students to guide them with support. During their course of studies. This role requires for us to ally with the staff about matters for accessibility. Her personal level, the expertise of disability issues stems from the fact that she is a parent of a child with severe disability, currently she occupies the role of president of parents of persons with disabilities in Malta. The floor is yours. Thank you for joining us. I have to say, Marchita is representing the universities that have joined the project. One of the universities that have participated in this project.
She is going to let us know how the experience was. I am sure is going to invite other universities. They can have the same experience. Thank you for being with us.
Marchita: Thank you. Can you hear me clearly? Good morning.
- Yes, we can hear you.
Marchita: Thank you very much. Yes, I represent the university of Malta. I filled in the questionnaire myself. And I was asked to kind of provide a little bit my experience with regards to filling in the questionnaire.
To start off with, I think, I would like to make reference both to the positives and negatives. The deadline, I think the period we were asked to fill, it was a good time. Because it was in between semesters. So even for many of us who are with students during the exam period between semesters. It was a good time to carry out this exercise. Because things have gone into place. And prepare it. Students will be during the exam period. As a period, the deadline was 28, the 15th of February. Between the semesters. It was very positive. Discussed it with other members of staff as well. As my bosses, as a tool for students to be able to use to have better understanding about the accessibility in the various universities. It is very important and much needed tool as well.
A bit of the negatives. It came on my lap eventually. We needed to get an extention for the deadline. What happened was, the timeframe didn't allow. The questionnaire could have been filled in ideally, the quality assurance people and related to the role. However, then, at least when it reached us, the timeframe was so short that we had to make whoever was available.
I as the coordinator of the disability on campus, I read through the guidelines and the questionnaires.
And distributed the bits and pieces and areas which concerns when it comes to digital accessibility. This was referred to the communications office.
Digital access referred to our IT services accessibility. On campus. So, on a personal level, it has allowed me to get to know a lot of other people in the different and various sectors.
What I could, what I found difficult. To speak, to discuss even with my bosses, was the fact that the questionnaire could not be printed out. I couldn't. So, I kind of had to take screenshots and work a little bit with screenshots.
Once we have received the results, which we were very glad, a lot of the results were positive. And they were also scored about standards. We would have maybe liked to have with the final report to have a little bit more details. Especially those we didn't score too well. So that we were more aware of what we needed to do.
Basically, as a university, we still have a lot to do. We still have to move forward. With regards to disability. Also a lot of buildings will be changing. And to be able to provide more services to students in general as well as to students with disabilities. All the new buildings will be fully accessible to students with disabilities. We are working on a project financed by the minister of inclusion. At the moment the project will run to 2024. The idea of the project is to have a longitudinal study of students when they are in the secondary education and have access arrangements to move to post secondary university and how they have been implemented and how they will work. And how we can better ourselves.
We are also of course, disability is protagonist in the strategy plan for the 2020-2025.
So, That is it from my end. I don't know if there is anything else.
Silvia: I would like to ask you, my colleague Alice was saying at the beginning.
We are finishing some of the results. Some of the intellectual outputs. We have planned in the beginning of the project.
But, right now we are starting to work with a network of universities.
The idea is that we meet and we work together.
I will ask you, what are your expectations about this network?
Marchita: Yes, the expectations would be, the principle is for the project. For the universities. To have easier access to the information. And the services that they provide.
Better networking amongst colleagues as well.
I think that is very important. Maybe to put others also, the university of Malta is one university on the island. We do have other institutions that provide education. But they provide different programs. As the university of Malta it is the only one. Also for myself, as coordinator of these services. At the moment it makes me unique in my job. However, it is very important that we can create tools. Simple tools for students to use. Definitely.
I think we have experience with the students. They can be, the universities demands of the studies. And also, the anxiety it creates when students want to travel. From one country to the other. And to do the experiences. In Malta, people with disabilities are very much protected. We have a lot of proximity. A lot of the children, adults remain at home for a long time. The parents take care of them. So, there is all this kind of protection. That providing different and various tools to them, that would give them the confidence to take the next steps. Hence travelling experiencing Erasmus. In a simplified manner.
I think it is very good.
Marchiata: Thank you so much. I would like to remember all of you that are seeing us online and everybody that is participating in this event, we are aware how long the process was for the universities. How much effort they put.
We wanted to implify the lives. That's why we created a questionnaire that is shorter. You have 2 choices. The long and short questionnaire version. Both, Kamil showed in the presentation of the web platform. You can go there and decide what is the best for you. We always advice the longer version. Why? It is going to give you a more complete picture of the practices and policies of your universities.
With that, I want to thank all the panellists. I want to thank Alice, Kamil, Celina and Marchita for being with us.
Before to go to the Q&A, I want to ask the partners if one of you want to complete some information, that maybe we forgot. Or you want to add?
If not, we are going to open the floor for Q&A. Should we open the floor?
We open the floor.
Okay. Well, we are yours. We are here to listen to your questions and try to answer.
If someone has a question?
Yes? We have a question there.
State your name. What organisation you represent.
- Pete from Design for All.
One question. While we were listening to Kamil's presentation of the website, my colleague Jasmine and myself, we were busy on our mobile telephones checking the website. We wanted to see the list of universities.
The website we found on the mobile telephone app was not the same as the website shown. Can we have an explication between the 2 websites and where we can find the information about the universities participating. We wanted to study who is in this country. It is the kind of thing you do while listening in a networking meeting. You build your next questions and comments. Are there 2 different versions of the website? One on computer and one available on the app? We couldn't find it. Thank you.
Silvia: I will answer and ask Kamil. Yes, we have the website of the project. That is where we started. Where we list all the intellectual outputs. The first tool to communicate with people. To tell what we are doing. Then we built the platform. You went maybe to the initial website. I'm sure Kamil that is connected is going to show us, going to the initial project website. Going there.
And how from there, you can go to the work platform. Kamil, excuse me, can you help us with that?
Kamil: Yes, hold on.
As I said, we are still using the test domain for this presentation.
When I typed in the link on the phone it was working fine.
Silvia: Yes, we have access.
Kamil: One moment.
My screen is being shared.
Silvia: This is our original website. Where we share all the information of the project.
If you go to intellectual outputs, you can see all the outputs and the links to go to each of the outputs.
In the last one, the IO4, you can go to the web accessible platform.
It is okay, right? Happy to hear that.
Kamil: Yes.
And, how it should look.
Okay...
Should work just fine.
Silvia: They are telling us here that it is working.
Kamil: Thank you.
Silvia: Thank you so much.
Okay, we are eager to hear yourquestions.Thank you so much. I am happy it is working.
Is someone else in the room with a question for us?
2 questions. We will start there. And continue with you.
We have 2 questions here.
- Thank you very much. My name is Anna. From the European association of quality assurance in higher education. You'll forgive me this question I hope. I understood the questionnaire is a self assessment. Is there any external verification of that or just a trust that the university is honest?
Silvia: You know... (microphone)
I was saying that we really appreciate your question. I am sure that in the next panel Cecilia my colleagues is going to explain all that.
But yes, when we were planning all this, we were thinking, of course we trust the universities.
But our main goal was to serve the students. We wanted to make sure the students have a tool that was credible and trustable.
So, that's why at the same time we created the indicators, we created a process for the universities to present evidences in each of the indicators. We had 2 kinds of indicators. One of them mandatory evidence. And an example of evidence they can give us if they have it. When we talk with the universities, they tell us that has been complicated sometimes. They don't have the papers, don't know where to find it. On the other hand it has been useful. Because allow them to see what they need. In order to improve, to demonstrate and of course to serve the students with disabilities. I don't know if the colleagues want to help me in this answer?
Alice has something.
Alice: Yes. The thing about the guide of standards that we created. I find it a very interesting tool. Not only as partner, but as university that participated and filled in the 38 indicators. And I didn't feel it myself.
So, this tool was distributed to all the services and people that were related with these indicators and they had to go through these indicators, go through the evidences requested. And find and confronted it with the practices and policies. It was an interesting experience. When we approached all the tools we developed. In the next panels my colleagues will detail this. What I can say of our experience. It was something that led us to reflect on what we were doing and also to reflect in what we were not doing in a sense. So, for example, there was a lot of services and a lot of practices that we didn't get the feedback from the direct users. That was a very important evidence we requested in all indicators. Sometimes we didn't collect that information. Which was when we started to do that useful.
In that sense, of course we have still a lot to improve.
And we are counting on the enlargement of the network. To do that.
And all the experience that we are going to get in applying these tools to practice.
But it was already something that was useful. And regarding quality assurance it was useful.
Silvia: Here we have the next question. Right?
You need to turn on the mic.
- My name is Isabel. I am here representative of the European Council of Autistic People. And also a Belgian association of autistic people who work with university research on autism.
The question is about, I know it is late, the process here.
Is there an ongoing process for including other type of disabilities, such as autism. Who have specific needs. Maybe have not been already taken up in the process.
Such as one specific example being physically accessible buildings. And cognitively accessible. There is also, as far as autistic people are concerned. Sensorial accessible places. Quiet spaces. Isolated spaces.
That sort. How does it work in this, to enlarge the scope of inclusion.
Silvia: Thank you so much for your question.
So, in this project, as you know, the EDF is there, Fundacion ONCE that works with disabilities too. Is there. And the other 7 universities that joined, we were sure that we were counting with people that are experts in the field. In disabilities.
So when we were having these long, long meetings to decide the indicators. First we started with biographical research. Then, between us, we decided the indicators. Of course one of the biggest concern was to make sure that all the disabilities were represented in this. So, what you were saying. I remember the discussions at the beginning. We are only talking about physical. Of course we have to talk about cognitive. I know there are these 2. What about sensorial. It is included too. This kind of discussions we had all the time. We have a specific indicator about sensorial accessibility. But also when we are talking in all the others. Politics of the university. Or the planning, that they do. Or the mission. We always were thinking, in all the disabilities. But of course, you know how this projects and processes work.
So, we are eager to hear from people of course improve it if necessary. If you can take a look and have something to say. Of course we are going to take it into account.
I don't know if I am forgetting something?
Thank you.
Alice: Could I add something? Sorry.
One other indicator is about methodology and the process of teaching and learning. This is also part of our indicators. Because it is a relevant part. And also training. Training of teachers, training of staff.
Information available. Because one of the hardest aspects that we need to work on is environment, regarding people from the autism spectrum.
Regardless of how characteristics we need to have an environment that is welcoming and suitable for these people.
So, all these aspects were also included in the guide of standards and also tested. People had to go through and see what they were doing. And that's also interesting to revise our practices.
- If I may add?
Marchita online.
I confirm what has been said. Through my experience filling in the questionnaire. The fact that we have to upload the evidence of course.
And I have answered the questionnaire myself.
A lot of other people were involved. So, the evidence provided, the questions answered. Most of our information is also available online. Our standards, procedures, guidelines for access arrangements. So people whoever would like to doublecheck. Sort of everything is available online. I can understand that it is important of course to make sure that the validity of what is being answered is true.
Thank you.
Silvia: Thank you so much, Marchita. I think...
Loredana: Thank you. I just wanted to add one thing. If I am not wrong, you can correct me. This is also part of, you know, in the university the active involvement of students with disabilities. And this is something capital. I have a good example we have now in our youth committee, a young student from Trinity College. He is part of, they have their extraordinary good practice of following up on young students with autism. He is autistic himself. Maureen has underlined that this was also a very good college with good practice on inclusion.
This is of course always like a point to universities, including when they are shaping something. Also young students, staff with disabilities. In whatever they are doing. This is essential. And yes, please, tell us if, go through that questionnaire. Check also the guide with all the indicators. And if you think that something should be added, just let us, the network know. I know Cecilia will also confirm also. But we can still adjust. There is always place for improvement. Thank you.
Silvia: Thank you so much, Loredana. You are completely right.
Something that I forgot to say. Responding the last question. The one before.
Is that, we also validate the tool with students with experts, international experts. One thing was our work as a team, as a consortium. Then we validate this questionnaire. With other experts.
So we were trying at least to bring more voices to the table.
But of course, it is always a way of improving. Thank you.
We have a question there.
- Good morning. My name is Maria. I am a Blue book trainee at the European Commission. And inclusion officer. Conduct a survey on the inclusion amongst the trainees cohort. We have several questions on disabilities, but also on university background. One of the questions is that the university inform you about traineeship in the institutions. The Parliament and Council have programs for trainees with disabilities. My question would be if the network would promote and act as intermediatery to share trainee's opportunities in the European institutions for people with disabilities. And eventual collaboration between the traineeship office and the network would be possible as a stakeholder. Thank you.
Silvia: That's wonderful to hear the possibility of collaboration. We are more than open to collaborate with all organisations. I think what you are saying is crucial. Also for students with disabilities.
Because of course, if it is difficult for them to go to a program. How difficult it would be to find this internship of jobs. One of the questions you will receive is going to be: Tell me about your international experience. Right?
So, of course it is really related. Actually, we also can talk about, we have to talk about it with the partners. It comes to my mind right now. Whether we can talk about the different indicators. Talking about the possibilities of training in the European institutions.
Of traineeship.
So, we are going to be happy to talk afterwards and to see how we can collaborate. I don't know if I responded to everything or missing something?
Okay.
Someone else?
Do we have another question?
This is the time.
Because then you are going to be listening to other things.
If you have questions about the network or if you have questions about the platform, this is a good time to do it.
Well, it seems like not. Loredana, I hope I am right. I think now is the time to have a coffee?
Loredana: Indeed, Silvia, thank you so much. For the moderation. Thank you so much to all of you for your questions.
Don't forget if you still have questions, you are always welcome to send them to the euni4all address. They will be answered. We are for a coffee break. For those who are here in Brussels. Despite the strike and demonstrations. You were very courageous, all of you. You deserve a good coffee and some things next to it.
We will be back at 11.30.
Thank you very much. For those online, don't leave us. Just put it on break.
And come back at 11.30. Because more is coming. Thank you.

(break until 11.30)

test.
Loredana: Thank you for your patience. Those who are following us via the live streaming. And the speakers who join us via Teams.
By the way, for the speakers via Teams. The captioning is working. Not the automatic one in Teams, but the real live captioning. You can enjoy that. Thank you Wim for your help.
Can you hear me?
Thank you very much. We are back. I think more or less. Elena, are you with us?
This is our third panel. For this one may I introduce Elena Bortolotti. From the university of Trieste. You can tell us what you do there. Elena is a fantastic woman. Thank you Elena. The floor is to you to guide us through this panel.
Elena: Good morning everybody. This panel... (mic)
Sorry. The title of this panel is: How to be part of the network.
An important question. Because we are interested in growing, in having a lot of network, in the European universities. And in this case, I have the honor to introduce the colleagues that worked with us. And I introduce Cecilia Simon. She is professor of the university Autonoma of Madrid. Professor of developmental and educational psychology. She is coordinator of a research team in equity, diversity and inclusion in education.
Now she is presenting the guide of standards. Okay.
Cecilia: It is my pleasure to be here with you. And what we prepared in the project. We will present the guide for standards for inclusion for university. General objective is to design a useful tool for students with disabilities, selecting a university for international mobility. The objectives are to have the expectations of students with disabilities...
The objectives are to facilitate the mobility and improve mobility of students. This tool will facilitate the creation of the network betleen European universities.
Therefore the end beneficiaries of this guide and this project are the students with disabilities who through our platform will be able to access quality information that will contribute to improving their decision making in terms of their mobility options and university studies.
The second aim is to encourage European universities to move forward in the process of reviewing their cultures, policies and practices within the framework of the right to inclusive education. This aim is to contribute to the improvement of quality and ultimately of excellence at university. Excellence at university must be accompanied by a concern for equity and the implementation of effective actions to facilitate the inclusion of all people at university without exclusion.
The fundamental reference point for the indicators is the convention of the rights of persons with disabilities and the general comment number 4 regarding article 24 of the convention.
Our aim is therefore to ensure the fulfilment of a human right. In terms of the achievement of other human rights. In addition, the whole process of production has taken into account the 2030 agenda for sustainable agenda. The university must firmly assume its responsibility in this objective. And we hope that this tool will be a contribution in this sense.
A perspective consistent with that of unesco with inclusion as a process that has to overcome barriers limiting the presence, participation and achievements of learners.
Also... (noise)
Ummerdstanding equity as ensuring that there is a concern with fairness, such that the education of all learners is seen as being of equal importance.
The central message is simple. Every learning matters and matters equally.
Loredana: May I ask those in teams to close.
- It is one of the remote contacts. It is not you. Remote contacts need to switch off their microphone.
When we talk about inclusion, we understand it as a concern for all students. Without exclusions. Even though in this document we focus only on students with disabilities. This guide aims to be a self assessment tool for centers. It identifies key dimensions and indicators for inclusion at university.
It aims to reflect on the 3 elements. Cultures, that guide the institution. Policies, organisations, services support coordination between center and services. And its practices. The specific actions carried out at the aims of the students with disabilities.
This means ensuring the presence in all activities. Related to different activities that define campus life for any student. Through this accessibility must be a key element. Also, facilitating the achievement while guaranteeing equal opportunities in the process. As well as the participation. Academic and social participation. It also implies a consent for the personal and social wellbeing.
Inclusive universities, we are talking about a process, a never ending process.
Therefore in this guide when we talk about an inclusive university, we mean a university that is committed to continually improve the institution. To become more and more inclusive. Each university must assume its process of improvement, based on its strengths, resources and priorities.
Therefore, as a result of using this tool, we not only expect that each university will be able to identify its strength. But also its areas for improvement. It is a tool that invites action. The implementation of innovation and improvement projects and this through the involvement of different groups on levels of the university.
Furthermore, institutional leadership is a necessary condition in a sustainable way from the evaluation process itself.
It does not claim to be a mechanism to control universities.
Nor does it entail any form of ranking or evaluation system.
The guide has been developed in 3 phases.
First phase, the objective was identified the fundamental dimensions and indicators of a university that considers itself inclusive.
We carry out 2 tasks. Identification of indicators based on the review of academic literature.
And based on Experts.
At the end of this phase we prepared the first draft of the guide. In the second phase this draft was assessed by European project partners.
The result of this phase was a second draft. This draft was validated by national and international experts in the third phase.
The guide is a structure in 3 parts. Questionnaire with the indicators of inclusion for university students with disabilities. A guide that aims to provide instruction to universities to answer the questions of each indicator. They require information and evidence. Glossary to define in each indicator is properly answered by the institutions using this tool.
The document was organised around 38 indicators. Divided into 4 dimensions.
Key institutional policies, access, university life and graduation.
And 8 subdimensions. Accessibility, normative and operational framework, training and awareness, learning and education, participation, internships, research, international mobility.
Each indicator is structured as follows. What the indicator is intended to access. We have drafted a glossary of terms.
Some indicators identify several related settings. Which will be assessed separately.
A measure that indicate the degree of achievement or development. In each indicator there is a standard. Identifying the minimum expected compliance by the university. A rubric for assessment of the university for each indicator. And which results from the relationship between the score and the standard.
The standard and Rubric don't appear in the questionnaire. They will be necessary to identify good practices or strengths.
The universities can share these good practices with other universities in the network.
The institution is requested to provide evidence such as documents, links. To justify the assessment. Possible forms of evidence that maybe offered by the university. In some cases mandatory documents or links are required.
 They represent information of special relevance for the students with disabilities.
Once the questionnaire has been completed, the university will receive a report with the strengths, good practices and areas for improvement. This report will be for the use for the university only.
We hope that this tool will contribute to excellence at the university.
Not only as a matter of right and of building a fair society. But also because we cannot afford to lose talent. Any talent.
Thank you very much.
Elena: Thank you Cecilia.
Emiliano Diez, are you online?
- Yes.
- Okay. Now, I'll introduce Emiliano Diez. Nice to meet you.
Emiliano works at the department of psychology in the university of Salamanca, Spain. Research on cognitive field. Involved in a project for people with disabilities. Especially focuses on assessment and assistive technology.
Now, Emiliano is speaking about the guide of universities.
Emiliano: Thank you Elena.
Good morning. First thing I must say is for me it is a pleasure to have participated in this exciting project that will mark a milestone in the inclusion of university students with disabilities. Thanks to the entire team of the project, but especially to ONCE foundation for allowing me to collaborate. I will present you the general design ideas of the intellectual output 2 of the Euni4all project. The guide for universities that work for inclusion.
At the beginning of this year, the commissioner responsible for education stated that equity and inclusion are 2 of the key values at the heart of the EU, at the core of our vision. There are a lot of challenges related to these 2 values. Probably, one of the biggest ones is the total assumption of the values of by the universities community. The results of some studies affirm that more than half of the European universities feel the lack of awareness of equity and inclusion in the university community, remains a challenge right now.
For that reason it is important to move forward to share information on how different the European universities are addressing the equity and inclusion for people with disabilities.
This would be useful for mobility for students. Also to provide good examples and practices to other universities.
The guide we are going to present you was constructed following a series of tips that have been proposed. The methodology first. The selection by each partner. Second, conduct a study of the universities. Taking into account the standards in the first phase of the project. Identifying inspiring practices. Analysing the universities in relation to the compliance with the standards. The preparation of the guide itself finally.
The guide includes information on 65 universities from 26 countries. 33 universities completed a form of questions on all of the standards for students with disabilities. And provided some evidence of compliance with those standards.
For those universities this guide includes information on the achieved standards to show their inspirational practices. These universities are identified by the blue badge. Another set of 32 universities completed a more simple form. Providing general information for inclusion. This group is identified by the orange badge. This does not mean that they don't meet the standards. But simply the circumstances have not been analysed by the project.
If we focus on the 33 universities that have the blue badge we can talk about good and bad news. The graph in the slide shows in green colors the percentage of universities that meet or exceed each of the general standards for inclusion. There are a lot of green colors in the graph. This is the good news. As it reflects that most of the indicators show a high level of compliance or even exceeding the standards. The green categories at the left of the figure. For example for most of the universities they have accessible buildings and spaces. Regarding inclusion. Have surveys and protocol to respond to the needs of students with disabilities. Or organise activities specifically for those students.
But, it is also clear that there is room for improvement in other indicators. Such as digital accessibility, accessibility in transportation or the participation of students with disabilities in mobility programs.
The guide has been built with the help of different sources of information. And with the clear focus on the European dimension. At the country level we have used for example the disability online tool of the Commission. That can be sent online. Built from comprehensive database of information on national laws, policies, strategies and initiatives in the member states of the EU. The information for each country on university and accessibility and disability comes from that database. Regarding the number of people with disabilities and the level of dependency as well as the percentage of population with disabilities at risk of poverty or social exclusion, come from the statistical indicator section of the ANED website. We have used a recent report, this report aims to show how effective the commitments of countries are. In improving social justice in higher education. By analysing the current level of alignment with the systems with the principles and guidelines for the social dimension of higher education. The global information on equality and inclusion for each country shown in the guide was obtained from that report.
At the university level we have used the European Tertiary Education Register. It is a database of higher education institutions in Europe. With data on more than 3000 institutions. Hosting more than 17 million students.
General information on the universities in the guide come from this database.
Also we have used data about mobility networks. Of the universities that was obtained from a study of collaborators. We have used data from a university study I described before.
The guide has been built as an accessible PDF document that can be navigated through the bookmarks or from the table of content. There is an initial part with an introduction of people in higher education. Description of the methodology to use the guide. And the information of the universities shorted by country. The information for each country starts with a page showing the name of the country, flag and universities in the guide. For each country there is a section dedicated to provide information in that country. First general data about people with disabilities in the country. It also shows an indicator of the risk of poverty and social exclusion compared to the European average. This information was obtained from sources such as Eurostat and the disability online tool of the European Commission.
Second, for each country there is also a section showing information about higher education and disability. First a comparative graph for strengthening the social dimension of higher education. In this section general information from the tool is also provided. For each country also is provided country level information about accessibility policies in transport, built environment and information communication technologies and websites.
This information can help the potential student to know more about the place where he or she is considered moving in.
For each university the guide shows its logo and general data as the foundation. And the number of students and teachers. General resource section is provided. For blue badge universities, contact information for the disability services is provided.
For orange badge universities, web address or information about relevant issues for students with disabilities, related with mobility, housing, welcoming etc. Also a pair of mobility indicators showing the percentage of students by country and percentage of incoming student by subject. This may be useful for a student to know more about the mobility context of that university. Finally, a section shows a specific information regarding the work done by that university to improve inclusion. The universities analysed, the guide provides information of the standards in 3 main sections. Key institutional policies. Actions and university life standards. In the case of universities with orange badge, the disability related services are provided. This is what you can find in the guide. Surely the guide is not perfect product. But we believe it can be useful in many ways. We think it is the first guide to provide information according to a set of standards. The standards for university students. If you are planning to travel to European university, this guide provides general information that can help you in the decision making. For example it provides useful information about disability policies in destination country. It provides information on the inclusion policies and services offered by some universities in that country. Contact person. Services at each university. For disability related issues. And other information. Expertise of Erasmus students. Hosted by the university. If you are a member of a university community, you can consult this guide to learn how other universities are facing the challenge of improving the equity and inclusion policies. The guide will provide you with specific information about the level of compliance of listed universities with the inclusion standards.
As said before, this is not the end of the project. Of course, the guide is dynamic. And open product. We ask universities to join the network. Thank you for allowing me to participate in the project. Thank you for your attention.
Elena: Thank you for your presentation, Emiliano.
Now I am introducing Loredana. She is membership in international communication and the European disability forum. She is almost blind. Working on Erasmus projects. She started special education in her original country and in Belgium. Where she lives since 25.
Loredana, the floor is yours.
Loredana: Thank you very much Elena.
So, the third intellectual output that we developed during the project were some tools. First of all, we thought it is necessary to give some training. Next slide.
To prepare staff universities, academic and non academic staff to know certain things. And the objectives of this training was first to raise awareness on inclusion. Of these people working at the university.
And to diminish the existing barriers, to help them to become more inclusive.
You can go to the next one.
We developed training. I will explain it. We developed for this training of course certain materials, presentations. To use exercises. And also we prepared 2 videos. We collected resources that we think would be very useful. To those giving the training.
So, and of course a guide. A guide for trainers. Because we wanted to make sure that this doesn't stop here. That the training developed, workshops, they can be given afterwards to the staff. Even though, the project here now ends. As I said, it is just the beginning in fact.
So, in that guide we have guidance to those who would facilitate how to do, what to do. At each step of the training.
You can go to the next.
Concretely, the training. Is developed in 4 modules. I want to remind that this training is just an eye opener. It is an awareness. And we cannot teach everything about disability in 6,5 hours. Is this training.
So, it is impossible. It is just, we want that the discussion starts here. From here on actions are taken.
What we thought is essential, in the first module we want to speak about the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. Because everyone needs to know that there is one. And a convention implies rights. That the students you have in front of you, or you as a student depending who you are now listening. You have rights. Those in front of you have rights. It is not a favor you are making. It is the right to have the possibility to study in good conditions. To have access to everything. Students need.
It is a right. This is essential. And, with a focus on what inclusive education is.
Because we don't need to define it. And make again all kinds of meetings when I am sometimes in a meeting I hear that they want to reinvent again. No. The convention on the rights of persons with disabilities says it clearly. There is a general comment that explains it. What it is. And what you need to do, to ensure inclusive education.
Then, the second module of course, we want to start a discussion on policy. Taking the standards of inclusion. And these, how can you bring into your culture? It is about policy. So, we prepared a video there with one of our colleagues at EDF, head of policy. He explains the importance. How can policy shape inclusion? Then we want to dive into accessibility. There we left optional. We put much more. But depending how you want to start and doing this. We want to say that with small things you can already improve. And here, we give an overview. And then also start a discussion about what students they find about what works in their university. What doesn't work. So, that's in the second module. In the third module, what we want to bring. Because we heard here, and we are with a mobility program here, all of you. Who came to Brussels. You did a mobility. Even though it is a very short term one. And even for that one. To come here, for certain, they need a personal assistant. Alone you don't manage it. Who covers these costs? You need to know that it is possible to do a mobility. In this training, we give what the main program of the European Union, or the most known, put into as measures. And we give the floor to students. To students, to staff who are working on helping students going on a mobility.
And for this one, we prepared also some videos, just in case you don't have any student with disability in your university. But I don't. Go and look for them. The video is there. Don't use it as an excuse. Use it. You can go into your session discussing why that student if he didn't do mobility, doesn't do it. Because there are reasons behind.
Finally, we want to showcase this network. The tools we developed. And also how the platform works. It is important. This is how it was explained the key to make an informed decision about the choice of the place where you are going to do your mobility.
So, you can go to the next slide.
Thank you.
What does each of the modules contain clearly?
We have, first of all, for whom it is designed. The target group.
Which is in each of them the same.
Then, we do have the objectives. Then we have description. What it is about. Then we have a proposal of speakers. Invitees, who can you invite to make sure you give the best of yourself to your participants.
Then, we are giving a running of the training. With timing and concretely how to do it. What to do. With the opening session. Ice breakers. And concretely which presentation when it should be done.
And then, we have the exercises. That will make interactive this training. And will help the participants to achieve the objectives. For each of the modules.
And then, to end with the resources. For that module.
So, we put there all kinds of webpages. Articles. But also toolkits. And so on. Videos.
Finally, we at the end of the guide, we have annexes. All the presentations, scripts of the video and so on. But all those are available also on the euni4all in the 3rd intellectual output. That is it for the training. Elena, back to you. Thank you.
Elena: Thank you Loredana.
Now, I'll introduce Balazs Markos. From the university of Groningen. About the perspective from students.
Balazs: Good afternoon. Let me introduce myself. I am Balazs Markos, a student. Let me thank the organisers for the opportunity to be here.
I am a Hungarian citizen. I have a permanent disability. I am a wheelchair user. But, I always found it important to study and have the opportunity to learn and grow intellectually.
So I have always studied in normal schools. So, not special schools for disabled persons. But normal primary school. And then a normal secondary school. In Hungary.
And then I went to university in 2017. In Hungary. The university of Budapest.
And there I had to face many, many obstacles. Most of it was physical. So, there were many physical barriers for wheelchair users. In the city.
And also on the university campus. Because the school is located in a very old building. It is 19th century building. Which hasn't been really refurbished ever since.
So, the standard of physical accessibility is very low there. In that old building.
The doors are very narrow. The corridors are also narrow.
And the elevators are often not working. Because they are really old.
It is really difficult to navigate around that building.
And on campus. At the university of Budapest.
Due to my disability, I also need personal assistance. Who could help me for example using the toilet and eating. The university, the Hungarian university hasn't provided me with a personal assistant.
So I had to rely entirely on my family.
Because the assistance what I could get from the university was very limited.
It is limited to a few minutes basically per week.
And it is very unpredictable. I had to rely on my family support.
And my mother had to stay there with me on campus during my lectures and seminars.
So, then this was a very negative experience. So, then I sat down together with my family. And we decided that I would continue my studies in the Netherlands.
So, since 2018, for more than 4 years now, I have been a student at the Dutch university of Groningen. It is an old university town located in the north of the Netherlands. There I first followed a bachelor's program in international and European law.
And then, from last year on, I am currently following a Master's program in international human rights law. I have a first hand experience from both universities. Let me briefly compare my experiences. In terms of physical accessibility I think that it goes without saying that the Netherlands takes the lead. And the university of Groningen has been very accessible.
In terms of wheelchair accessibility, I had no problems or no accessibility issues during the those 4 years at the university.
But in terms of personal assistance, it has been a bit difficult.
Because I am Hungarian citizen. And I am not working in the Netherlands.
I don't have as many rights as Dutch citizens in the Netherlands.
And Dutch citizens with disabilities have rights to certain forms of assistance. Due to their disabilities. As a non working Hungarian citizen, as a student, I didn't have the opportunity to enjoy these forms of assistance and help.
So, my family had to make an effort and my mother has to stay with me in the Netherlands as my personal helper.
And I have to say that it has been a difficult choice. It hasn't been an easy period for my family. So far we managed. Now I am on my way to receive my Master's degree very soon. Within a month.
From then on I will be most likely employed as a university researcher at the university of Groningen in the Netherlands. Then I will have equal rights and opportunities as a EU worker. As an employee. I will have the opportunity to experience everything that the Dutch states and municipitality can provide to their citizens. Which I haven't experienced yet.
But nevertheless, I have managed to do everything I wanted and achieve everything I wanted.
My mobility has been a truly rewarding experience so far.
It provided me with an openminded mentality and ability to discover new cultures.
And meet many people from all around the world. It has been a truly rewarding experience. But it is also a challenge.
So I think we should all understand that there are challenges with regards to mobility. And financial and logistical challenges. We should focus at these. Because member states have an issue with what to provide. And who to provide it for. And there is a vacuum according to my experience. Because my home member state and host member state don't want to provide much either. In the Netherlands I am treated as a guest who has a right to stay there. But doesn't have many other rights.
But in Hungary, I was treated as a student. But I haven't had many opportunities to have assistance there either.
I basically have fallen between the 2 systems. I think it is important to talk about it. Whose responsibility is that, to take care of students who go on mobility?
So, I think this is what I wanted to say. And thanks again everyone for the opportunity to participate. And be here. Thank you.
Elena: Thank you so much.
Balazs Markos.
- My first name is Balazs and surname is Markos. It is difficult. I know.
Elena: We are ending this panel.
And I can add that in accordance with the convention of rights of people with disabilities, we must back down barriers. Which are not only physical, but also social. Regulation is important. Improving accessibility to places is important. But, equally important is training academic staff. Raising awareness of needs of students. Because I think social barriers sometimes are the hardest to break down.
Culture and politics need good practices. only this way a positive loop of improvement will be created.
Thank you for your attention.
And then, if you have questions, we are here.
Okay.
- It is another general question. My question was, is about participatory research. Isn't it an important topic in the notion of inclusive education.
So, this will mean, even in the cursus of the university. That students with disabilities with be involved. What we do with my own association where I am in. We collaborate with researchers on autism. And we want to be involved in the university process of participating in what research is done on autism. And also determining the guidelines that are, the direction the research goes to. And of autistic people, but also the same with people with disabilities. It is improving the lives of autistic people, and not so much of finding a cure for autism, which cannot be found. Or making it possible that autistic people would not be born. There is such research. That would improve the life of autistic people. And improve accessibility and so on.
So,...
Elena: Thank you for your thoughts.
I think that you are talking about important topic.
We think, in research, we need to think... About people with autism. We need to talk about the research with people with disabilities. As a part of the research.
In our case, this has been a very important point. To develop a tool, in the voices of people with disabilities. In this case, we are talking about a tool that is a dynamic and open tool. After this day, this is not a tool of this group. This is a tool for everybody. This is a tool for the people that, I agree with the idea to give useful tool for universities at improving step bystep.The voices of the different institutions are important. The thoughts and our ideas.
But about your question. I think there are other important points. We have a lot of knowledge at this moment. We know, what is inclusion and equity. You know, the things that are important. And the indicators. And we have experience. And the question is, what is necessary? This is not only a question of resources. The resources are important. It is not only.
I think, that in this moment, it is the moment to show how we can do it.
We know how to do it. We have tools. And we, the research in our opinion is showing how to do it. In your context, in your strength, with your resources. And analysing barriers. Analysing evidence. Taking into account the university, is very important for us. For that the action at this moment is important. Sharing experiences. Building networks. Because working together is the most important step at this moment. This is a great opportunity.
Alice: Before the next question. Compliment my colleague.
I would like to say, and taking into account also the report of experience from our students. What we realise is that the amount of people with disabilities, within higher education is still so small.
And we actually need, as it was stated by the question. We need more people participating. We think we are contributing to that with this project and this tool. Because their presence is absolutely indispensible. We have our experience, we have realised with those, the people that we are including within our university. And making an environment available for them to participate. They bring so much different perspectives, based on their experience to research, to improve the quality of participation within higher education settings. Not only within those settings. But in others.
And it has been so enriching. We can only conclude that everything that we can all do in order to open our doors to these people to come in. And be able to participate. Not only come in. We are making them coming in. But the problem is, if they can effectively work and live and participate within this environment. This is important. With this that we are doing, with this project, and the hopes to enlarge our network. This is what we are trying to do. To open our doors widely for participation.
- Thank you.
- Thank you Elena.
In fact, I want to follow on what you said.
I will reserve my comments on methodology for my own intervention. What I have seen this morning has been really impressive. The presentations made in this session now show a great deal of thoughtful hard work going into depth. What I want to say at this moment. Solidarity to Balasz. This needs to be put on record. Because there is a limping situation. First of all the situation, the economic situation that he encounters in his home country in Hungary is not upto standard for a member of the EU. That's the first thing. I'm sure Hungary is not the only one. Secondly, what is the European Union all about? If he does not have the right to enjoy the same benefits in the country where he is studying as the country of his nationality. He is European national, not just a Hungarian national. It is time to get over this ridiculous business of treating people as second class citizens. He needs to be treated as a European. Whatever country he is studying in. This must be a fundamental part of Erasmus. This is the kind of thing this project can raise and bring to the headlines. Thank you very much. Your contribution has been invaluable. My compliments to put it across so well. Thank you.
- Thank you.
Yes?
Can you give...
- Now?
Okay.
Thank you very much for all the presentations. And the experience of Balasz. I would like to make 2 notes. First on the first person that talked about not trying to look for medical solutions.
Of course, that is not an academic goal. I think that universities have to, apart from research in any other topic, the main goal of diversity and inclusion you need, or whatever, is not that. Is more academic goal.
And just mentioning some, one assertion of the confederation of the deaf in Spain, do think for us, but with us. Involve us in all that, not only research. But in anything that has to do with us. Right.
So, I think that idea is there. That idea is applied. Sorry. From the university of Madrid.
Second thing I would like to say is, regarding the experience of Balasz. I think that probably not many universities have, well, many universities have that problem. That of not having support for people with physical disabilities. But good news, in the competence that we do. You are welcome, Balasz, any time. We do have that up sport. The way we do it may be a good idea to be implemented in some other universities. Because that support of course is very expensive. But we can do two good things, just with one move. That is, we may, at the university, we get volunteers involved in all these situations. So we have a network of volunteers. Who support people with disabilities. For example cases such as that of Balasz. We provide those volunteers who go and help in whatever is required.
So, I think in this case we are doing 2 things in a good way. First we are supporting students with disabilities. And we are making a lot of people happy who really want to support other people.
So, we are giving them also that chance.
I think that is, it works at the university. And I think that it is a good practice. That may be included within this network.
I don't know. It is a suggestion. Thank you.
- Thank you very much. It is very important hearing human resources. Loredana?
Loredana: Yes. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. We are a little bit over time.
But I think it was worth it. As Elena said, we still have many barriers. Some of them are in the hands of politicians. Here the concrete case of Balasz. I assure you, he is not the only one. I have heard here so many stories coming to EDF. From students. Who wanted to go on a mobility abroad for a longer time. Yes, the disability doesn't disappear when you cross the country. And Balasz here, doesn't have the right of free movement in the EU like any other student or any other person with disabilities. So, the recognition of disability assessment that is done in a country by all the EU countries would solve this problem. That is often assistance for example is linked to you, if you provide your disability assessment. It has to be from that country by one of their doctors. Again we go to that medical approach. This is still in the hands of politicians and I hope and we are standing for at EDF we don't give it up. We want that this becomes reality.
So, thank you. It was a very rich discussion. We have had the opportunity to find out all about the work that was done during these past 3 years. Despite the COVID.
That hindered us to meet in person. This is our third meeting in person only.
And now we are going to lunch. For those who are online and also in the room, we are coming back here at 2 o'clock. 2 pm. 14.00 Brussels time.
We hope you enjoy your break. And please come back online. You will hear many many other interesting things in the afternoon. 2 sessions to go.
One about mobility. Of students with disabilities. Still. We continue.
With other experts. And another one also about things that help mobility of students with disabilities.
Make sure you are back. We are waiting for you. Thank you very much. Enjoy the break.


(break until 14.00)

Lunch is in Atrium 5. 5th floor

(break until 14.00)