Academic Support for Disabled Students as an Example of Social

Responsibility of University

Ireneusz Bialek Małgorzata Perdeus

Dagmara Nowak-Adamczyk

Jagiellonian University

Founded in 1364

Disability Support Service

academic center providing educational support for disabled students of the Jagiellonian University, candidates, university staff, people supporting the idea of inclusive education to the mainstream

mission: ensuring equal educational opportunities, equal rights, equal responsibilities

Disability Support Service’s offert is focused on:

students with visual impairment students withhearing impairment students with mobility impairment students with mental health diffficulties students with dyslexia, dysgraphia students with other disabilities university candidates university academic staff and administration

Statistics 2010/2011:44 813 all students at the Jagiellonian University/667

disabled students

Responsible university

Academic model of students’ support

Support in a process of learning/teaching

Disability awareness

student

Disability SupportService

academic staff

The Constellation Leo:

The educational support

programme for Jagiellonian

University students with mental

health difficulties

www.LeoProject.eu

Why the project?

Significant increase in the number of students with mental health difficulties

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

2007/2008 2009/2010

10 x

Statistics in detail: 2009/2010

28 % of students with depression

23 % of students with schizophrenia

12 % of students with drug addiction

About the Project

Duration time: January 2010 – August 2011

Participants: 40 Jagiellonian University students

Criteria:

- motivation,

- need of psychological support

Prorities

to offer wide-ranging psychological support to students with mental health difficulties

to offer such students bespoke training programmes focusing on maximum use of their potential related to the educational process and their functioning in knowledge-based society

to open the website, facilitating a better understanding of problems faced by students with mental health difficulties and promoting solid knowledge on mental illnesses and their consequences, and

combating stereotypes related to mental health difficulties in the academic community.

Actions:

First stage: psychological support

Second stage: personalized training programmes supporting a learning process

Parallel: educational platforme

student with mental health difficulties

inclusionacademic community

Results

inclusion of 40 students with mental health difficulties in a comprehensive programme of psychological support and personalised training programmes on social competences;

in justified cases, referring the students to high-quality

specialists in psychiatry offering consultation;

launching a debate in the academic community on mental health difficulties and their consequences for the teaching process, and

equipping the broadly understood academic community

with the ability to respond to problems and challenges related to the presence of persons with mental health dificulties at university.

‘My Journey’- reflections on mental health

and university education

„These are my two biggest dreams in life: to be healthy and to graduate from the university”.

Ewa Kowalska, My Journey