Students with disabilities feel discriminated against by the University of Southeast Norway – news Buskerud – Local news, TV and radio

The case in summary Several students with disabilities say that they experience discrimination and a lack of accommodation at the University of Southeast Norway. Ingelin Steen, who is deaf, has been refused an interpreter during the exam. Silje Solvang, who has 3% vision, feels that the university does not have a sufficiently universal design of its premises. Martine Therece Værlien, who has limited hearing, cannot follow the lectures due to a lack of equipment. Værlien has written a warning letter to the management at USN, signed by 130 students and lecturers, about the lack of facilitation and universal design. USN recognizes that they have a potential for improvement when it comes to universal design and facilitation. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAI. The content is quality assured by news’s ​​journalists before publication. – I feel completely alone, and I don’t understand anything, says Ingelin Steen. She started this autumn on the master’s in economics and management at USN’s campus in Hønefoss. The hope is that the master’s degree will help her land a permanent job. As a deaf person, she is used to having to work for the opportunities she gets. But the meeting with USN has been particularly demanding. – I have fought all the time to have the same rights and the same opportunities as everyone else. But I have never faced as much opposition as I have at USN, says Steen. She is not alone. Several students have contacted news recently wrote about Frode Stenrud. He is about to lose his study place at the University of Southeast Norway because he is blind. The University of Southeast Norway believed they had done everything they could to give Frode equal training and educational opportunities. In the wake of the case, news has received several inquiries from students with disabilities at USN. Students at other universities have also contacted news. Terje André Olsen, the leader of the Association for the Blind. Photo: Tom-Egil Jensen / Tom-Egil Jensen – We think it is hopeless, and see that this is the situation that many people face. You don’t get the places of study organized well enough, says Terje André Olsen. The head of the Association for the Blind believes that the universities do not have enough guidance and resources to facilitate this. – I think that the university in south-east Norway and other colleges and universities are aware that they have no one to help them in the whole thing, says Olsen. Several students end up having to fight for their right to study. One of them is Ingelin Steen. Rejection from USN She has sign language as her first language, Norwegian as her second language and English as her third language. That is why she has applied to have an interpreter with her for the written exam and an interpreter for the oral exam. Ingelin Steen understood nothing when USN refused her the preparation she needs for the exam. Photo: Ingelin Steen She got this approved without any problems during her bachelor’s degree at BI in Bergen. The resources for interpreters come from Nav and not from the school. Nevertheless, USN initially refused the arrangement Steen had applied for. – I am at a loss for words. I really thought it would be easier to get a collaboration going, and I have asked for meetings several times about my situation, says Steen. She is not alone. Feels less valuable Student Silje Solvang also experiences poor accommodation at USN. She has 3% vision and uses a mobility stick to get around. She can’t do that at school. – I often have to send a message to fellow students and ask “hello, can you meet me at the reception and show me the way to today’s lecture hall?”, says Solvang. Silje Solvang thinks it’s no wonder that many more young people become disabled, when they don’t get an education on the same level as everyone else. Photo: Dana Khalouf / news Despite the fact that USN is required by law to ensure universal design of its premises, the campus in Drammen only has guiding lines up to the reception area. There are also no tactile signs for the classrooms. – It makes you feel much less valuable than your fellow students when everyone else manages to find the lecture hall, says Solvang. The 24-year-old is in the fifth and final year of a master’s in pedagogy. She describes her studies at USN as a struggle from day one. Solvang had to go through several rounds to be granted basic accommodation, such as extra time at the exam. – This means that from day one we are worse off than our fellow students, she says. She cannot follow what is happening on the board. Videos used in teaching, and what takes place on the blackboard, are not visually interpreted. Student Silje Solvang cannot get around the campus on her own, because the building does not meet the requirements for universal design. Photo: Dana Khalouf / news It’s an eternal battle Martine Therece Værlien is deaf in one ear and has impaired hearing in the other. – If you read USN’s website, everything sounds so nice and wonderful. It says something like “USN should be for everyone. No matter what disabilities you have, we will make arrangements.” She is in the fifth and final year of her master’s in pedagogy at USN’s campus in Drammen. – But it’s an eternal struggle to actually get accommodation. It has been difficult all along, and I don’t feel that it will get any easier, she continues. Værlien and her fellow students have sent a warning letter to the school, showing 13 breaches of clauses on universal design and deviations from USN’s own strategic plan. Photo: Dana Khalouf / news In order to follow the lectures, she depends on the use of a microphone, speaker and subtitles for the lectures. On the campus in Drammen, the microphones that are already in the classrooms do not work, and there is only one additional microphone case for sharing in the building. – It will be distributed among thousands of students, and there are many of us who need it. The consequence is that I don’t get anything in the lectures, says Værlien. Martine Therece Værlien believes that USN has had enough chances to include functional diversity. Photo: Dana Khalouf / news Violation of 13 paragraphs Værlien is a shop steward at the coal. Together, they have written a warning letter to the management at USN, signed by 130 students and lecturers. Sonia Muñoz Llort, Senior Lecturer in Special Education at USN. Photo: Sonia Muñoz Llort – Universal design associated with buildings and technical equipment is still often missing. And facilitation is far too dependent on employees’ competence in facilitation. That’s what Sonia Muñoz Llort, senior lecturer in special education at USN, tells us. Muñoz has expertise in the facilitation of functional impairments within studies and work. Hen says that this is a problem that extends across study centres. – My impression is that universities and colleges may have good intentions, but that the concrete actions needed for universal design and facilitation to come about are not carried out with sufficient institutional anchoring, he says. The warning letter contains 13 violations of paragraphs on universal design and deviations from the USN’s own strategic plan. – In a meeting with the head of the department, we described what we saw of violations of the legislation. We were told that we should get an answer the following week, says Værlien. It took four weeks before they received an answer from the school. The answer was an invitation to a new conversation. Martine Therece Værlien is disappointed that after several years she still does not have the facilities she needs at USN. Photo: Dana Khalouf / news – It’s a nice school, with nice teachers and good academic content. But I feel that they are reluctant to facilitate. They have been given the opportunity many times, says Værlien. Here you can read what the USN itself writes about universal design on its website. The warning letter summarized • USN violates the Equality and Discrimination Act §1 by not offering sufficient equipment and accommodation for students with disabilities.• There is a lack of equipment such as microphones and speakers, and the equipment that is available is often in poor condition.• Attitudes among staff at USN, especially lecturers, contribute to the exclusion of students with disabilities.• USN does not meet the requirements for universal design laid down in the CRPD, which the university itself refers to in its strategies and publications.• Rector Petter Aasen’s statement that USN has as ambition to be an open and inclusive university does not match the students’ experience.• USN also breaks the law on universal design by not having accessible access for everyone to the teaching place and by not ensuring that everyone can see or hear the content of the subject being taught. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAI. The content is quality assured by news’s ​​journalists before publication. “USN should be accessible to everyone” The University of South-Eastern Norway sees that they have a potential for improvement when it comes to universal design and facilitation. They do not wish to comment on individual cases. Vice Chancellor at the University of Southeast Norway, Stephan Hamberg. Photo: NN, University of Southeast Norway – We have high ambitions and work on this all the time, and we are aware that we are not as good as we would like in several areas, says Vice Chancellor of the University of Southeast Norway, Stephan Hamberg . – We take the students seriously. We look at the documentation and facilitate to the extent we think it is right, without this giving any particular advantage, says the vice-chancellor. He believes it is regrettable that the students experience a struggle to get the accommodation they are applying for, but that they are also focused on securing the academic requirements. – Then it is probably sometimes that the students feel that they should get more accommodation than what the university thinks, and then you also have access to appeal. It can probably be experienced as a huge battle for those involved, he says. The university says that it is expensive to ensure universal design of its buildings, and that it will therefore take time. Read the full response from USN here The University of South-Eastern Norway wants to remove barriers and contribute to new student groups gaining access to higher education. Both the campus and teaching aids must be universally designed, and the university is working towards this goal. In August, USN appointed a deputy rector for education, diversity and internationalization for the first time. – We have high ambitions and work on this all the time, and we are aware that we are not as good as we would like in several areas, says Stephan Hamberg, who has been in the position for almost three months. USN has already carried out a large number of measures on the campuses and will continue to survey the situation in order to gain a better overview. A group of students on the Drammen campus who have approached USN with this type of problem will be invited to a meeting later this autumn where they can put forward their views, and together we will look at solutions. Students who need more extensive adaptation than what is covered by universal design can apply for individual adaptation. Each case is dealt with individually, and the individual student’s needs must be assessed against the academic requirements set for all students. Individual facilitation cannot come at the expense of the professional level. – Unfortunately, we cannot go into individual cases, but it seems sad to hear that the students experience the interaction with the university as a struggle. It shouldn’t be like that. We want to meet each student with appropriate measures, and want there to be a great diversity at the study sites and in our study programmes, says vice-rector Stephan Hamberg. Universal design of buildings is a big job and a responsibility that the university takes seriously. USN does not own the buildings, but is a tenant, and collaborates with the building owner on continuous improvements. Some measures are costly and may therefore take longer than desired. – We also recognize that we have a way to go to give our teachers adequate support. There is a need to implement measures that improve conditions for them as well, says vice-principal Stephan Hamberg. Hi!Thanks for reading the whole thing.Do you have any thoughts to share? Do you have similar experiences? Perhaps you are burning with a story you want to tell? Send me an e-mail, I would love to hear from you. In the past, I have worked on cases such as: Published 05.11.2024, at 07.23



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