30th June 2009 (Otel 2000)

The day started with a question: What is your image of students with disability?

Jan gave a translation of a Dutch newspaper article with some questions about the article.  When people had read the article and thought about the questions individually, they  discussed within their groups.  Each group wrote their ideas on a flip chart.  The flipcharts were put on the board and a participant from each group came and talked about the ideas.

 COFFEE BREAK

After break, participants made new groups: at each table there were students from different countries and at least two disability coordinators.

This role play activity further looks at the attitudes and behaviour of disabled students and advisers. The two disability coordinators are given different roles; one will play the role of the student, and the other will be the adviser who speaks with the student; they are each given complementary role cards.  When they do the role play the others in the group observe and listen, and make notes on the instructions and note sheet. After the role play, the observers take turns to give feedback: negative and positive points of the ‘adviser’ and the ‘student’.  

In the afternoon the roles were swapped/ exchanged, with another situation; the coordinator who had played ‘student’ became the ‘adviser’, and vice versa.  The method was the same, but the situations discussed were more challenging. 

Reflection: This excellent activity involved everyone.  To act the role of ‘student’, coordinators-in-training had emapthise well with someone who many not know how to talk about their situation.  The person play the ‘adviser’ was being observed and would get the critical feedback from disabled students.  The range of disabled students meant that some were experienced at giving feedback, and others could model on them.  For some it was the first time they said more than ‘It was good’; they were beginning to sense finer points (body language, tone of voice), see that things could be even better (for example, a clue that the adviser could have used, but didn’t notice), and find words to say how they felt. 

Arguments for Disclosure (telling someone that you have a disability):

Disclosure is the responsibility of the students. To be able to reduce a hindrance, it is very important to talk about it. If a student doesn’t disclose no one can help. Sometimes a student comes to a counsellor at the beginning of the semester but doesn’t disclose. Whether a student will disclose or not can depends upon the conversation with the counsellor, as in the role play in the morning.

We brainstormed reasons for and against disclosure.  We got the AHEAD Good Practice tips on Disclosure.

TEA BREAK

"The students are responsible for disclosing their disabilities. The institutes are responsible for making everything to make disclosure easy."  The students talked about their experiences and the difficulties they met during their education.   

In another case to understand what an institute/ university can do, we listened to Jeroen:

“Dyslexia affected my life. Dyslexia is black and white thinking.”

We asked him many questions about dyslexia.

J.“There are different types of dyslexia. The support of the university is very important. If the contact person is OK it gives the student the feeling that he/she is cared for. It’s a feeling of security.”

Question: "Which one is more advantageous: a visible or an invisible disability?"

Han: “People with an invisible disability meet more situations which are harder. Everyone can see my disability so there is no problem with my trying to hide it.”

Counsellors/ advisers can only focus on things related to education. They cannot help on medical points because they do not have the necessary background. If there are hindrances about education, the institute should take action because it is their responsibility. The counsellors work for the institute, to remove the hindrances.  

Something effective which is done in Dutch universities: Teachers are invited to a workshop where they are given information about every kind of facility in the university, from the disability support centre to the software equipment, exam adjustments and suitable housing.