A network of European universities to work on inclusion of students with disabilities

On 16 December, the European Social and Economic Committee hosted the closing conference of the EUni4All project, aimed at creating a network of European universities actively engaged in reducing the barriers for persons with disabilities to higher education. The consortium members of this project are: the European Disability Forum (EDF), the ONCE Foundation for the inclusion of people with disabilities in Spain and universities of five countries: University of Eastern Finland, the University of Trieste (Italy), the Polytechnic University of Lublin (Poland), the University of Porto (Portugal), and the Spanish universities of Murcia, Autonomous of Madrid and Seville.

Those disability organisations and main European universities joined forces in this three-year project to draft standards to make university studies more inclusive, a guide and a web platform to get information about universities engaged in inclusion and a training to provide university staff and teachers with knowledge about the right to inclusive education and how this can be implemented in concrete terms by adopting standards in inclusivity and specific support measures to promote international mobility programmes for students with disabilities. Therefore the beneficiaries of this project are both universities, that will improve their inclusive provisions and staff training, and students with disabilities, who will have access to quality information through the web platform to better decision-making when choosing their university and mobility options.

The project work carried out in these years was presented at the closing conference, sharing the hope that the synergy will continue and bring in new network members, more information sharing and further research and innovation in inclusive education.

A comprehensive description of the EUni4All project and its output is available.