The project “Ensuring Access and Quality Education for Students with Disabilities in Indonesian Universities” (INDOEDUC4ALL) is co-financed by the European Commission through the Erasmus + programme.
INDOEDUC4ALL is a capacity building project aimed at supporting Indonesian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the development of capacities of its members in addressing the educational need of students with disabilities. The project will also help partner universities to ensure education accessibility for students with disabilities, building up Disability Support Units equipped with assistive technologies.
Background
In 2011, Indonesia ratified the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons with disabilities (UN CRPD). However, currently, people with special needs are still facing significant structural and cultural barriers to participate in the society. In addition, their social, economical and political rights are still denied. These barriers are even more important in the field of education; at Higher Education level, their enrolment rate is really low, around 1%. Due to the crucial role Higher Education plays on the Indonesian economic context and development, having a university degree is essential to have access to a qualified employment; however, persons with disabilities continue to be marginalized in the society.
Given this context and needs, the Indonesian Ministry of Education passed the Ministerial Decree (year 2012) nº 46 on the inclusion for people with disabilities in Higher Education, which mandates universities to provide accessibility in all educational aspects. However, most of Higher Education communities are not aware of this decree or do not have a solid and systematic strategies to tackle the abovementioned challenges. Therefore, disable students are still facing barriers that hinder their participation.
The INDOEDU4ALL project will contribute towards bringing a solution to such challenges by means of developing the capacities of the partners Universities staff and accompanying HEIs in the modernization of their Disability Support Units.
Objective
The project overall objective is to improve access, ensure learning conditions and develop employment opportunities for Higher Education Institutions’ students with disabilities in Indonesia via modern inclusion practices and networking.
This will be achieved by means of the following specific objectives:
• to create a modern inclusive framework through the creation/improvement of Disability Support Units and long-term strategies for the access and retention of disabled students in the Indonesian Higher Education system.
• to establish a National Network to increase inter-institutional relations and sharing of best practices while responding to society’s equity demand.
The INDOEDUC4ALL consortium is coordinated by the University of Alicante and composed by six Universities from Indonesia, both from East Java and South Kalimantan, plus two EU partners: the University of Piraeus (Greece) and Glasgow Caledonian University (UK). The Indonesian non-governmental organization SIGAB, which promotes access to justice for persons with disabilities is also included in the consortium as partner and as a key actor in the creation of significant project results and also main stakeholder.
Outcomes & Outputs
In order to improve the inequality situation faced by disabled students, the INDOEDUC4ALL project will:
• Increase inter-institutional cooperation and sharing of good practices via an in-depth needs analysis and transfer of know-how between EU and Indonesian partners
• Enhance the managerial and administrative staff capacities of Indonesian HEIs dealing with and implementing inclusive education practices
• Create institutional support structures to enable access to Higher Education and foster the consolidation of a social integration culture within partner universities
• Equip the Disability Support Units with effective and relevant assistive technology
• Increase external relations cooperation to improve Higher Education access and employment of disabled students
• Increase public and students’ awareness and understanding on the importance of inclusive education within Higher Education for the society
Activities
They will be developed during 36 months and are organized in a logical sequence, where the different outputs will provide the basis to develop the following activities with strong views on their relevance, impact and sustainability.
The project supports the Disabled People’s Organizations motto “Nothing About Us Without Us”, that’s why project actions are designed in a way to attract the participation and input from students with disabilities, the main INDOEDU4ALLtarget group.
The project will implement the following activities.
Needs Analysis
The focus of this action is to overcome the lack of information and generation of specific knowledge related to disabled students in Indonesian HEI’s. An in-depth research, the Methodological Analysis of Accessibility situation, will be conducted to determine the current accessibility status quo and practices within each partner institution. A focus group with disabled students will be created in order to understand their specific needs and requirements. The results of this analysis will provide information about the level of university accessibility conditions and practices, level of disability awareness and subsequent training needs.
Site Visits
The INDOEDUC4ALL project includes the organization of site visits focused on sharing experiences, good practices and lessons learnt between EU and Indonesian partners. These visits Indonesian partners will carry out at EU partner universities will focus on the disability practices offered in order to reveal relevant information to Indonesian partners (Vice-rector for Students Affairs or equivalent, academic and administrative staff) so that they can adapt such practices and apply them into their own institutions.
Capacity Building
• Modernization and strengthening of human capital: EU will provide a targeted training programme for Indonesian HEIs staff in the framework of the provision of relevant services (also available online). Workshops will be developed with a Train the Trainer approach and thus, they will provide trainees with the ability to replicate the training activities within their institutions with views on incrementing the benefit for partner institutions. The purpose of this activity is to build knowledge concerning practices, methods and strategies to effectively deal with several aspects of students with disabilities. Training will be targeted to the whole spectrum of administrative and academic staff dealing with disabled students, also ensuring teh participation of Universities management to ensure the endorsement of the project development and results being obtained.
• Institutional strengthening: this activity will consist in the creation or improvement of Disability Support Units. at Indonesian universities and the design of a clear mission, action plan and list of services provided. The Disability Support Units will be strongly supported by HEIs management staff. The Units will be equipped with relevant Assistive Technology key for the provision of an effective service. The units staff will be also trained on how to effectively use such Assistive Technology.
Networking & External Relations Framework
This project activity consists in the creation of a National Network for the inclusion of disabled students in Higher Education in Indonesia. The purpose is to extend the membership of the network of other relevant stakeholders in the region and thus, to increase the awareness and impact on the topic and on the action at National level.
Networking activities will provide a collective voice for institutions to foster the dialogue with Ministries and political-level actors. This will have a better impact and weight since activities and proposal will come from an organized group of institutions and no more from an individual basis.
INDOEDUC4ALL will also establish a new External Relations Framework that will open up Universities towards the private sector and will increase collaboration in terms of disabled students’ support; it will be an effective and quality channel to provide adequate work placements for them.