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The UAM in the media

Comprehensive project to cater for students with disabilities and remove barriers

The aim of the UAM is to position itself as a university of reference for students with disabilities, adding to existing university services so that they can cater adequately for these students.

The Special Needs Area of the Office for Solidarity and Co-operation has three objectives:

• To guarantee full integration in academic university life and equal opportunities for students with disabilities, enabling them to gain access to and study in the university with no greater obstacles than those endured by any other student.
• To make the other members of the university community sensitive to and aware of the situation of students with disabilities.
• To be the University point of contact for disability issues.

The sphere of activity includes students with disabilities in the UAM, teachers with disabled students, and in general, the university community as a whole.

The Comprehensive Plan for Disabled Students is permanently in operation and adheres a logical order of actions based on the needs arising and the academic calendar to achieve its proposed goals along the following lines, any one of which can be developed into a complete action programme: contact with secondary education centres; providing information and guidance to, and catering for, students with disabilities; actions leading to equal opportunities; advice on universal accessibility; job guidance and advice; advice for the university community, and general actions related to disabilities.

The Universidad Autónoma de Madrid service for students with disabilities started during the 1998-99 course when a Spanish sign language interpreter (ILS) was provided for deaf students attending classes. This was the start of the “Programme for the Integration and Care of the Deaf”, available on request as an individual aid for any person involved in higher education suffering from auditory impairment. This initiative positioned the UAM as the first university within the Madrid Region, and one of the first in Spain, to allow, and include, an ILS in classrooms. Two years later, during the 2000-01 year, the service for students with auditory disabilities was made extensive to other disabilities, and the “Special Needs Programme” was created to respond to the demands of students suffering from disabilities who applied to the different deputy vice-chancellor's offices involved following the first sign of difficulty in the classroom and on campus, an initiative which tended to improve the surroundings and well-being of the community.Both programmes were active until October 2002. The creation of the Office for Solidarity and Co-operation absorbed the work done by the aforementioned special needs programmes within one of its current fields of activity: the Special Needs Area.

Nevertheless, there are still relatively few students with disabilities in the university compared to the total number of students studying, and because of this Spanish universities are gradually making greater efforts to meet the challenge of providing equal higher education opportunities. Although most universities have programmes and/or services for students with disabilities which work towards guaranteeing the access and integration of this group into higher education, these services are still heterogeneous, incomplete and disorganised and are not evenly distributed among universities.