International Exchange Programs Enhancing opportunities for students with disabilities

1. International Exchange Programs Enhancing opportunities for students with disabilities Wednesday 21 July 2010 Innsbruck, Austria Katrien De Munck Meggie Verstichele 7th International Conference on Higher Education and Disability

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 let’s 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. I’m amazed about the amounts of bike in the city. In Canada you don’t 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 didn’t 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@siho.be www.siho.be