Miss Alexandra Kay1, Justin Vandertouw2
1Scope Global, Adelaide, Australia; 2The University of Adelaide
Students with disabilities should have access and opportunities for education like any other student, but across the world, there remains many barriers that stop their equal participation in educational programs and settings.
By involving people with disabilities in decisions that relate to them and including their insights from the design phase of educational programs, we have been able to truly understand the value of integrating the disability inclusion principle ‘nothing about us, without us’ into all of our work. By using this principle, disability inclusion becomes both a process and an outcome, enabling lessons learnt to be continually integrated within the educational program cycle.
What are the barriers and enablers for meaningful inclusion of international students with disabilities within educational programs in Australia and across the Asia-Pacific region? Based on a new initiative we developed a disability inclusion monitoring, evaluation and learning framework that identified the barriers and enablers for disability inclusion across numerous cultures and geographical locations where we facilitate educational programs.
Following this, we developed an Accessibility Action Plan to specifically target and reduce the barriers that were inhibiting the participation of students with disabilities, share lessons learnt and showcase opportunities for people with disabilities to participate in international education programs.
This presentation allows us to understand the disability-inclusive model that can be used across all workplaces and RTO’s, as well as practical strategies and methods to enable disability-inclusive recruitment, pre-departure, in-country and re-integration considerations for international students with disabilities. Finally this presentation will demonstrate how attitudes, knowledge and practices can be changed to achieve mainstreaming of international students with disabilities into educational programs.
Biography:
Alex is a highly regarded advocate and disability-inclusive development practitioner with ten years’ experience working across community health, government, NGO and international development organisations. Alex is currently working as the Disability Inclusion Advisor at Scope Global and is developing policies and practices to enable the full participation of people with disabilities in all education, scholarship and skills development programs managed by Scope Global in Australia and the Asia Pacific region. Alex’s success in facilitating inclusion was recognised at the 2015 National Disability Awards where she received the Joint Minister’s Award for Inclusive Development.
Justin began his career as a nurse at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney but was compelled to change career after a motorcycle accident left him using a wheelchair. His new career in IT took him to the USA and the UK and after a decade working overseas and participating in various wheelchair sports, Justin returned to work in Australia and worked at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. Seeking a career change, Justin returned to university studies, gaining a Bachelor’s degrees in International Studies and Arts. During this time he spent a semester in Indonesia and participated in a student mobility trip in Singapore, organised by Scope Global. Today Justin is completing a Bachelor of Languages and hopes to continue his study with a post graduate degree.