Dia 1

1
International Exchange Programs Enhancing
opportunities for students with disabilities
Wednesday 21 July 2010 Innsbruck, Austria
7th International Conference on Higher Education
and Disability
Katrien De Munck Meggie Verstichele
2
Support Centre for Inclusive Higher Education
(SIHO)

• supports Higher Education Institutions in order
  to realise inclusive higher education.
• takes actions to remove obstacles for equal
  opportunities and full participation.
• 3 main tasks
• Provision of services to higher education
  institutions (consultancy, conferences)
• Networking with (inter)national partners closely
  related to the subject matter
• Research

3
Research and (insiders)perspectives

• Practice oriented
• Bottom-up
• Focus on gathering good practice
• Insidersperspective

3
4
What do students say?

• 2 recurrent subjects
• Structure for inclusion
• Culture for inclusion
• E.g. disclosure

5
The international context

• What happens structurally?
• Art. 24 UN Convention
• Leuven Communiqué, Article 9 Social Dimension
• LINK Learning Inclusively Network Know-how
• EU-Canada project Advocacy and Leadership
  Enhancing Educational and Employment
  Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities

6
The international context (2)

• - Art. 24 UN Convention
• Ratification by Belgium (July, 2, 2009)
• - Leuven Communiqué, Social dimension
  Equitable acces and completion (April 2009)

7
The international context (3)

• - LINK Learning Inclusively Network
  Know-how
• EU-funded project LLL programme
• Six organisations six EU countries
• SKILL, The National Bureau for Students with
  Special Needs in the UK
• AHEAD, the Association for Higher Education
  Access and Disability in Ireland
• Stockholm University in Sweden
• DSIS, the Slovenian Association of Disabled
  Students
• Handicap Studie in the Netherlands
• SIHO in Belgium

8
The international context (4)

• - Eu-Canada Project
• Advocacy and Leadership Enhancing
  Educational and Employment Opportunities
  for Persons with Disabilities
• - 7 principal partners
• Brock University, ON, Canada
• University of Prince Edward Island, PEI, Canada
• Nova Scotia, Community College, NS, Canada
• Ghent University, Belgium
• Kemi-Tomio University of Applied Sciences,
  Finland
• Bedford College of Further Education, United
  Kingdom

9
The perspective of students who had an
international experience

• - Different sources of bottom-up experiences
• Questions and experiences of students in Belgium
• Experiences gathered from different European
  students, You I Together, Conference
  (Slovenia)
• Experiences from an exchange project between
  Canada and Belgium (2009-2010)

10
The perspective of students who had an
international experience (2)

• - Lived experiences barriers
• Lack of information
• Possible support and adjustments from Belgium
• Possible support and adjustments from the host
  country
• Financial implications
• Disclosure?
• Families at home

11
The perspective of students who had an
international experience (3)

• Lived experiences How should it be?
• Quality education is an education system which
  offers equal opportunities for all students in a
  flexible and adaptable learning environment,
  taking into consideration the different measures
  that reflect the needs of students with
  disabilities, without changing the end goals of
  the program
• Students concluded by saying
• United we stand, divided we fall. So lets stay
  LINKed

12
The perspective of students who had an
international experience (4)

• - Another culture
• A saw a lot of people in Gent (Belgium) who
  go to school and work by bike. Im amazed about
  the amounts of bike in the city. In Canada you
  dont see this. If this is such a great part of
  the culture of living, are there also special
  bikes for students with and people with
  disabilities? I didnt see many different bikes
  in the streets
  (Student Brock University, Ontario, Canada)
• - Another culture of disability
• The people of Portugal all said they would
  take me by car. There was also a prof who
  lived nearby and who took me home after the
  class. I also could sleep in their houses. They
  really was a mentality of everything is
  possible. Social security is less than in
  Belgium, so there is a greater support amongst
  people themselves. It was a great luck for
  me!
• (Belgian student on erasmus in Portugal)

13
Concluding

• International context of higher education
• lived experiences of students
• ? Exchange expanding perspective and
  experiences
• ? Experiencing a different culture
  creates reflection on your own culture
  of disability and culture for inclusion

14
Concluding (2)

• There are barriers and needs,
• But! By doing it, we are moving on
• Why?
• Bottom up stimulus
• For breaking barriers
• To change our culture of disability

15
Cloudy faces
Elisabeth Ida (Belgian Photography student) You
I Together conference Ljubljana
(Slovenia) September 2009
16
Sunshine faces

• Elisabeth Ida
• (Belgian Photography student)
• You I Together,
• conference Ljubljana
• (Slovenia)
• September 2009

17
Contact information

• Support Centre for Inclusive Higher
  Education (SIHO), Belgium
• info_at_siho.be
• www.siho.be