Good practices

FernUniversität in Hagen offers several support services for students and staff with disabilities. For instance, the Inclusion Concept serves to strategically implement objectives and measures that aim at improving social inclusion (with a focus on students and staff with disabilities and/or chronic illnesses) at the university. 

To avoid students’ discrimination due to financial reasons, UAb has created a subsidy that consists in the reduction or exemption of fees, attributable to students in need (to be requested yearly). Besides, students that have impairments (diagnosed as disabling as 60% or more) can also apply for a governmental subsidy that consists in the payment of fees.

There are several courses that have had live transcription with a person who sits in the lesson and transmits the transcription via shared documents. Immerse distance learning because of Covid-19 pandemic, enabled students with special needs (and others) to have direct access to the course materials and the simultaneous transcription or subtitles for the videos were found as the most successful aid.

Diagnostic tests are available for students to assess their readiness for study and these cover digital skill levels. Those who may need support are directed to Access courses (Access Courses | Preparing for Study | Open University) which assume that students will need guidance to get the right equipment and acquire the necessary skills very early on in the course. Skills development is embedded into the course materials and the learning is scaffolded so that the student should have acquired both equipment and skills to enable them to progress.

At Anadolu University, open education students are offered a wide variety of learning materials. Open education has recently gone through a digital transformation process to enhance self-learning with the help of materials such as textbooks in digital format (PDF. ePUB. MOBI. HTML5), audiobooks, chapter summaries, interactive videos, practice tests, exercises, live online classes, and videos of online classes. 

At Universidade Aberta, every new student is offered an eLearning Familiarization Module that provides the basic training and essential guidelines to be more at ease in an e-learning environment. In this module, students train, not only the most common situations that they will face (e.g., how to participate in a forum; how to do group work) but they are also informed about the pedagogical model adopted at the UAb, and other fundamental issues, such as the existing resources in the library, netiquette and what is plagiarism.

Students who are blind or have severe visual impairments can receive alternative formats of their study materials. The most common alternative forms are braille and large-print materials. While students can still get brailleprinted course materials, they can also receive digital versions of their study materials in the DAISY format. Materials are made available on request, and students have to document their eligibility for disability services and accommodations.

Technical adaptations can be: Lifts, access ramps; Parking access badges; Information desks at wheelchair level; Loan of small electric motorized vehicles; Ergonomic cushions; Dedicated rest rooms. Some universities help students by providing them with suitable materials: Digital pens; Magnifying glasses; Large letter keyboards; 

UAb provides accessible pre-formatted templates to be used by teachers when they produce teaching-learning materials. In addition, guidelines and examples of good practices and tips for problem solutions are provided in a document with recommendations, produced by the teachers that work in the Accessibility Project, aimed at the teaching staff, nonteaching staff, and programme coordinators. This document includes recommendations and hints for adjustments valid for various kinds of special needs. 

JYUOpen with very heterogenous student groups offers alternative study modes for all students. Flexibility and offering alternatives seem to be a very effective way to tackle challenges caused by huge diversity of students. The most common individual arrangements are: 1) extra time for the exam and/or return of written tasks, 2) separate exam mode with e.g. the ability to respond on the computer, 3) alternative study materials.

Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK) has an equality plan that describes the equality situation at TAMK and measures to promote staff and students' equality. Employers and education providers are required to assess and promote equality in their operations in addition to preventing discrimination. The equality plan aims at including the equality viewpoint in the evaluation of education and teaching and student admission as well as supporting students and applicants who want to diverge from the traditional gender roles. 

The Law on Sport (Zakon o športu, 2017) refers to the Law on Gymnasium and the Law on Vocational Education and allows for adjustments to schooling for athletes at the high school level. For example, policies include rules about how often athletes must be present in class - usually they are allowed to miss many more school activities than their peers. They can also usually receive their grades at other times or orally instead of in writing.

Universities have engaged in widening participation in their programs, primarily by offering educational and training opportunities to TCN and investing in capacity building of their staff. For example, most of the main Belgian universities have developed programs to facilitate access to higher education and integration of asylum seekers and refugees. These programs provide a diverse range of support tools such as language courses, social support (housing, transportation, scholarships, etc.), orientation, sponsorship and mentoring of refugee students. 

There are several types of reasonable adjustments in exams such as adjustments in the duration and the spaces of realization, in the presentation of information (e.g., font size) or technological support (paper, digital, Braille, audio).

The UNED provides the flexibility that highlevel athletes need to be able to prepare and participate in international competitions when the official calendar requires it.

In addition, the General Gutiérrez Mellado University Institute, a research and teaching centre, specializes in issues related to the search for peace, security, and defence. It was born in 1997 with an agreement between the Ministry of Defence and UNED to offer studies in military education centres to strengthen ties between the political, military, and academic spheres. 

Most of the university’s services, e.g., the central IT department, library, and student services make their services available to students in prison. Student services are the first point of contact for prospective students and their supervisors in prison. They inform the prospective student and the supervisor whether a study of the desired course of studies is possible under the conditions of the correctional institution. 

We support students in secure environments as below:

Remote Exams – During the pandemic we arranged for prisoners to have extra time to complete their remote exams due to lack of access to the Education Departments being locked down.