EPALE Discussie: Wat kunnen we doen om de volwasseneneducatie beter te maken voor mensen met een beperking?
In juni richt EPALE de schijnwerpers op hoe mensen met een beperking kunnen bijleren. We horen graag van jou hoe we volwasseneneducatie voor mensen met een beperking kunnen verbeteren.
De schriftelijke discussie (in het Engels) zal plaatsvinden op 8 juni om 14 uur (CEST). Moderator is EPALE's thematische coördinator 'ondersteuning van cursisten', Gina Ebner.
Deel je ervaring, expertise, mening en vragen met de EPALE community. We kijken uit naar jouw kijk op:
- volwasseneneducatie voor mensen met een beperking in jouw land
- goede strategieën voor volwasseneneducatie voor mensen met een beperking
- goede voorbeelden uit jouw land of organisatie.
Commentaar
Afternoon,Within the higher
Afternoon,
Within the higher education sector, the application of universal design principles offers great scope here. The principles of designing learning and teaching approaches meet the learning needs of all students. We are moving from considering the 'typical student' to recognising diversity in our classroom. Our Access and Lifelong Learning Centre in UCD has just published a series of Case Studies to demonstrate this approach. The free E-book is available at www.tinyurl.com/UCDUniversalDesign,
Bairbre
Thanks
Thank you Bairbre for sharing that great resource!
EPALE Ireland is looking forward to attending your Access Symposium at University College Dublin, tomorrow, 9th June, to learn more about universal design and to hear about your innovative practices in higher ed.
should requirements vary according to the disability?
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) provides the opportunity for all students to access, participate in, and progress in the general-education curriculum by reducing barriers to instruction. With UDL priciples in mind, I am convinced that we can already go a long way and avoid requirements acoording to the disability.
UDL will not solve all issues but I think the 80/20 rule applies here. Let's start with UDL and take it from there.
If UDL would be implemented throughout adult education, that would already make a world of difference.
Methodology
There are also a few trainers around - you're probably less interested in institutional questions! Can I invite you to sjare your experiences / questions / ideas / projects on methodologies? Blended learnign has been mentioned, but also arts. Which methodologies have worked well for you?
Gina
Good practice examples
There have been some good practice examples featured on EPALE:
- Conductive education approach – used for habilitation and rehabilitation for adults and children with neurological motor disorders
- the iSmart app designed for learners with disabilities
Rumen
Other example
I really appreciated the project "Zero Barriers". The approach concerns integration of persons with disabilities in catering professions. The result of this project is the creation of new common langage.
Hélène
co-creation and UDL
Methods to develop inclusive education cannot be achieved without participation of people with disabilities in the development phase. "nothing for us, without us" as was mentioned before. This is not only important because of the principle right but even more because desing thinking rules require it.
It is not possible for an educational designer to fully understand and implement requirements of persons with a disabilty unless the design, by its nature, involves the end-users in the design process.
This is not an easy task but a necessary one in order to avoid failure.
Together with UDL, co-creation and active participation in the design process offers more chances to success.
Funding
In Ireland there are 2 streams of funding in the education Sector for Pepole with disabilities , Rehabilitative Training Funding in Education with is supported by the Health Service Exectutive and also Vocational/Specialist Training (Vocational Training) which comes from the Department of Education.
These funds are approved at National Level and filtered down in to our local areas via Community Healthcare regions and education and Training boards.
We have increased numbers of students with Autism/Intellectual disabilities in recent years and the trends are increasing, is this similar in other countries??
Requirements
Hello everyone,
I couldn´t agree more with your contributions. From our point of view, we have to defend and promote the inclustion of people with disabilities in these kind of organisations. We base our projects on the idea of the ideological movement "nothing for me, without me" that emerged in the 60s in the USA within the independent life movement. I mean, we can not assume that as "experts" we know what their needs are. We must rely on them to build and design inclusive educational projects from this common point.
Some questions from your comments!
You have raised a few interesting questions on the previous page!
We've discussed requirements for adult education providers - do you think that the requirements should vary according to the disability?
Jan has mentioned that adult education lags behind primary/secondary education in terms of offers/funding/strategies for learners with disabilities. Is it the same in your countries?
Finally, once again Gina's question about funding: are there any funds earmarked for people with disabilities at the national level? Or is the funding allocated to adult education in general?
Mainstream funding and requirements
In my opinion, there should be specific funding for adult education of people with disabilities otherwise they will be lost in the mainstream answers and have the support they need. The question about specific requirements for type of disability I understand it as the necessity to have different answers concerning the type of disability and not exactly the requirements that the institution needs to fulfil to provide the training. I agree that the diversity among the disability target-group is such that it is necessary to have different answers or programs for different types of disability, for example I can not run a program for people with psychiatric disorders the same way as to people with cerebral palsy.
Rights + funding
I think Jan has made a very important point, and Sharon has already referred to a related issue - funding. Always difficult in adult education, also (and especially?) for people with disabilities. Can I ask: Are there any funds earmarked for people with disabilities at the national level? Or is the funding allocated to adult education in general?
Gina
here in Iceland the funding
here in Iceland the funding is alocated from a national level to a center for the disabled that then distributes it to other life long learning centers. I don't necessary think that is the right approach.
Mixed system
I think there could be a mixed system. So people from the country side could be supported by the government and they could go to the city and meet other people with the same disability. But should also be offered courses in their home area where they can attend and the money should be allocated to the life long learning centres.
Specific Funding
In Portugal, regarding training, there is specific funding allocated to training programs for people with disabilities. For validation there is not, is the generic funding for validation centres. The problem is that the funding has a huge delay with regard to the expenses of the institutions, i.e, institutions are financing the activities from their budgets with extreme difficulty expecting the money to arrive.
No earmarked funds for adult education in Belgium
In Flanders (Belgium), the M-decree came into execution. This decree sets the legal, financial and organisational basis to support and implement inclusive education in primary and secondary education. There is no mention of adult education. This is striking.
People with disabilties have very little options for continued education. In theory they can enroll (and get a discount on the tuition fee) but in practice, the education is not inclusive as it was not designed to be so.
Our experience with a specific program we organised (co-worker in logistics - now in its second year) was a big succes. All eight students found (assisted) work after graduation. Our next ambition is to make this training inclusive as opposed to a specific training on an adult education campus.
The minister of welfare certainly endorsed our initiative as he came to hand out the certificates to the first graduates.
funding for mobility/training abroad
Dear all,
My name is Romain Baslé, I am the national contact point on the topic of disability for the Erasmus+ French Agency / Education Training.
Requirements
It can be difficult to meet requirements or standards that I belive that should be in the education of people with disabilties. The population here in the Westfjords is small and some have to go long distances to participate in new training or events specific for the disabled. We have a contract with the biggest educational center for the disabled that is based in Reykjavik city and are supposed to provide services for them. The disabled population is also very different from each other so one offer doesn't suit the whole group.
I don't know how it is in the other countries. Any comments. Should the requirements be different depending on disability?
yes
The requirement has to be different for each kind of disability, because the people with physical disability need support to move arond, to write etc. while people with cognitive disability need different kinds of support, as the use of easy language for example, the people with mental disability need to be constantly motivated and a deeper support to stay on the task and work in the group.
Usually we organize learning activities with very mixed group of learners (physical disability, mental disability, people with slight mental desease or just social disadvantage) and it works very good because each of them find the way to be helpful for the other and the work is very productive.
you are right!
you are very right, but how would you meet those requirement in a smaller community. (I know a very difficult question :)
Requirements
Hello to all of you!
Again, thank you for the initiative of promoting a discussion on the topic of people with disabilities and lifelong learning.
My name is Dora and I am the Director of the Training Centre of APCC – Cerebral Palsy Association of Coimbra. APCC promotes training and validation for people with disabilities. The requirements in Portugal for the development of the training answers are: the institution needs to be a certified institution in the area of training by the national institutions in charge; people engaged in vocational training need to have a valid certificate stating their disability and level of incapacity; staff must have training in the area of disability and special needs, not only in educational and training aspects, and it must be a multidisciplinary team including psychologists, social workers, educational sciences, and others; the programs used both in vocational training and in validation are adapted programs that don´t suppress learning contents but include strategies and support equipment that help the learner to acquire the contents.
We can discuss the pertinence of these requirements but on my opinion they are all valid and very important. The training and experience of the staff is one the major aspects for the success of the initiatives, for example. Also the necessity of attesting a disability to engage, we could say it is a bit invasive, but on the other hand we need to be sure that the funding that is aimed for these people are not being used inappropriately by other target groups could possibly be financed by other programs.
Looking forward to an interesting discussion!
Cerebral Palsy Association
Dear Dora,
Thank you for joining us again for one of our discussions.
For those not familiar with the Cerebral Palsy Association, there's a very interesting article about their excellent achievements in validating skills of people with disabilities.
Rumen
Rehab Group
Hi All
My Name is Cormac Woods and my role with Rehab Group is Head of Learning. Rehab Group deliver programmes for students across Ireland for people with disabilities.
We have Centres in almost all parts of the Country and our progrmmes run on a vocational and rehabilitative basis ranging from ages of 17 to 65 and we support all disabilities.
We are continously learning and trying to establish new network links and very interesetd in learning from other organisations so glad to be on the chat.
Cormac
ask for your rigths
I think that a great deal of expertise is already available on how to make (adult) education more inclusive. But countries fail to implement these methods.
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities clearly states the right of persons with disabilities to education.
This right ensures that persons with disabilities are able to access general tertiary education, vocational training, adult education and lifelong learning without discrimination and on an equal basis with others. To this end, States Parties shall ensure that reasonable accommodation is provided to persons with disabilities.
While a lot of effort is already made in many countries to make primary and secondary education more inclusive, adult education is staying behind. (at least in Belgium)
I wonder about the situation in other countries and if any legal action was already undertaken to claim this right.
rights
Interesting blog
Hi Jan, here's another interesting blog: /en/blog/inklusion-der-erwachsenenbildung-wo-bleibt-die-leidenschaft
hello
Cost Barrier
Hi Michelle,
Thank you for flagging cost of assessment as a barrier to accessing learning. It is a real problem when people can't even get a chance to attend a course.
Is there any possible alternative to a full educational psychologist assessment that course providers might use instead?
cost barrier
cost of assessment
Hello Michelle,
Your comments are very interesting and a little worrying. It seems so unfair that assessment are so costly as educational and career opportunities are so dependent on them.
For other EU colleagues, can I clarify that my experiences are within Northern Ireland which is part of the UK and the system is different. Our official disabled student allowances are such a help to learners and the assessments for the most part can be rranged by the colleges and/or national health service and government education service. No doubt, there are many resources and benefits in the Republic of Ireland that are more progressive than the North.
I wonder if it would be a good idea for adult educators from the North and South of Ireland to link up for dialogue on this and many other issues? We could probably benefit from each others' ideas. In addition, collectively we might be stronger in trying to influence positive government policy change. In my home area, I am very aware that the political situation is under strain, and in the past resources for people with disabilities have suffered in such circumstances.
cost of assessment
Hello Michelle,
Your comments are very interesting and a little worrying. It seems so unfair that assessment are so costly as educational and career opportunities are so dependent on them.
For other EU colleagues, can I clarify that my experiences are within Northern Ireland which is part of the UK and the system is different. Our official disabled student allowances are such a help to learners and the assessments for the most part can be rranged by the colleges and/or national health service and government education service. No doubt, there are many resources and benefits in the Republic of Ireland that are more progressive than the North.
I wonder if it would be a good idea for adult educators from the North and South of Ireland to link up for dialogue on this and many other issues? We could probably benefit from each others' ideas. In addition, collectively we might be stronger in trying to influence positive government policy change. In my home area, I am very aware that the political situation is under strain, and in the past resources for people with disabilities have suffered in such circumstances.
cost of assessment
Assessment
Many thanks, Michelle. Apologies by the way if you ave been deluged by multiple copies of my message - not sure what happened - maybe hitting the button more than once!
I have to dig deep into my past to recall the assessment of dyslexic students. There was a similarity to what you describe. The Government education service allowed for the possibility that some school-leavers had entered higher education without any prior assessment. This follow-up service was free, but it was not always quick. As a result of a trip I made to Cal State university, I got funding to employ our own educational psychologist and this service was free to all registered students. This psychologist was also excellent in working with academic staff to raise their awareness. Since my retirement, I understand that a lot of support services have been contracted out and I think these service provider are paid a retainer and provide them free.
p.s. I'll make contact with the RoI EPALE closed group and ask to join you and your colleagues.
Best wishes,
Brian
Requirements
Hello, I'm writing you from Uniamoci Onlus, an organization working with adults with disability (mental and/or physical) in Italy where I'm and educator and project manager. For us the main requirements to offer programmes for people with disabilities are the ability to meet the interests and needs of the learners with disability, keeping in mind that they are "adult", use flexible teaching methods (mostly based on learning by doing, work in agroup setting and the pleasure of discovery), and ability to use a different approach with each learner.
Teaching methods
Hi Eleonora, thank you for your comment! Could you give us a few examples of the flexible teaching methods you use? Especially related to the pleasure of discovery!
Hello from Ireland
Hi Everyone,
My name is Sinead Whitty. I'm the new EPALE officer for Ireland, having spent the past 20 years teaching undergrad and postgrad adult learners.
I'm excited for the discussion and I know that a number of Irish practitioners are here today to share their expertise and insights.Like them, I am looking forward to learning from all contributors.
Requirements
Reflecting on my experiences, the crucial requirements relating to support for learners with disabilities are:
- Avoid stereotypes! Learners with disabilities are all individuals with differing learning needs.
- Blended learning probably suits many such learners. While online participation is great when the learner could not otherwise physically access a course, strategies should also take into account the importance for some of face-to-face peer group contact. Non-verbal communication, facial gestures, postures, are important reinforcers. Feedback and review in one-to-one tutorials may also be essential for some learners to gauge whether the pace, methods and support resources are satisfactory.
- All strategies should make full use of statutory rights. In particular the “Disabled Student’s Allowance” or its equivalent, provides an important self-determination for the learner, for instance by covering the costs of amanuenses, interpreters, essential home-based equipment, software. It is therefore vitally important that the course providers have or find the expertise to carry out individual assessments of need in order to satisfy the funders.
- Marketing of courses is vital, making use of the many excellent voluntary organizations for people with disabilities. Sadly there is a great under-representation of people with disabilities in further and higher education. This can cause a passive belief that there is no point in trying because the odds are stacked against getting third level qualifications. Of course, this then negatively affects career opportunities.
Disabled Students Allowance (DSA)
Thank you for your question.
Higher education students in UK can apply for a DSA if they have long term health conditions; mental health conditions; specific learning dissiculties like dyslexia or dyspraxia; or other form of physical disability. the condition must be assessed s affecting one's ability to study.
From the 1980s, the avai;ability of DSAs led to a massive improvement in our own student support, with the students collaborating with professional assessors or medical staff to establish needs. The students were therefore able to exercise some self-determination and independent action.
RE: Hello
Hi
My name is Sharon Thornton and i work with National Leanring Network providing training and education to a range of people with disabilities within Sligo & Leitrim. We are funded through our local ETB and through the HSE.
Looking forward to learning from the experience of other providers.
Sharon
Strategies to support Learners with Disabilities
Hello everyone,
My name is Brian Caul and my work background for 30 years was as a teacher and manager in higher education. Currently I chair the Board of CRAICNI, a training agency which works with public and private organizations, youth and community groups, and groups from minority ethnic backgrounds, to encourage inclusion and celebrate cultural diversity in Northern Ireland. I am also a volunteer with Action on Hearing Loss, a UK national voluntary organization.
after secondary school
After secondary school in Iceland, where the disabled attend schools like any other but might go in a specific unit within the school, the system doesn't really have a continuum. The courses that are offer are no real training, they are leisure courses. The framework here needs to worked on. What are the requirements or offers that the disabled should be offered after secondary school, whilst other students go to universities.