Author: Libor Novosad, PhD. – Technical University of Liberec

Notes regarding a care of competences of counselors working with the students with a disability and special educational needs Author: Libor Novosad, PhD. – Technical University of Liberec Co-authors: Kateřina Hádková, PhD.– Charles University Prague Barbora Čalkovská, MEd. – Czech Technical University in Prague Translation: Soňa Šimečková – Technical University in Ostrava “I have a dream....” M. L. King

Health or functional disablement can limit self-sufficiency, mobility, sensorial perception, communication and physical efficiency and can build many barriers making university study very difficult to the handicapped people as well as their social-educational and social-professional integration. „Philosophy“ of the handicapped (disabled) students´ support reflects the trend being characterized as “from help to addressed support and empowerment, e.g. from needless dependence and passivity to solving real issues being beyond the handicapped students ability and their self-determining support. This tends to make the students be able to specify area they need help in and step by step learn to handle their problems as much as they can. In this process an empathic and erudite university counselor can be an effectual support or guide to the student.

Whether the student should study at the University his talent, education qualification, abilities and will should be deciding. Nothing can be changed about it neither bad health condition nor functional limit or disorder. The work with the students is not oriented to their diagnosis or disorder but to the barriers coming from this disablement during the study e.g. their ability to handle the activities needed to good study process and graduation !!!

University counseling focuses on: • informative-educational counseling, • pedagogical and studyadaptation counseling, • psychological counseling, • counseling for the students with the disability and special educational needs – usually aimed at particular types of disorder (physical, sensorial, communicative) including specific educational disorders (dyslexia, dysgraphia etc.), • professional and career counseling, • social-(law)legal consultations.

Iinclusive/accessiblehigher education: Inclusive education includes the conditions and process of common education both the students without disorder and with disorder. The functional collection of system arrangements is presumed enabling education of students with disorder or special educational needs (SEN) in the main stream of study and their active and as much as non-reduced participation in academical life. Inclusive education at the university is based on accepting the fact that dispositions, knowledge, motivation and eventually special knowledge and skills for chosen study programme are the basis for the study and academicals career. This as well as access to basic human and civil rights applies to the study applicants and the students without any different. In this respect the disability/handicap and its consequences cannot play any role.

….but on the other hand: The key role in building and providing accessible educational (inclusive) environment plays a success in eliminating barriers during the study related to the handicap thus dimension and coherence of a compensation of the consequences of different handicap types and forms. & Endeavor to respect the specifics of the student´s handicap and openness to understand his/her problem as well as will to find possible solutions is a good presumption of sensible, unprejudiced approach adapted to particular circumstances.

What the university counselors should know as for the students with the handicap and SEN? I. • be open, respecting and unprejudiced, • understand specific needs and rules of communication when meeting the students with functional deficit in the field of locomotion disorder, orientation and communication, • perceive the student as an individuality not as “the handicapped” and to realize that both the healthy student and the handicapped students leads their own lives and study and that they are responsible for their study obligations fulfillment, • support the student to handle difficult situations, work with his/her motivation and help to develop his/her self-sufficiency,

What the university counselors should know as for the students with the handicap and SEN? II. • help the student to define his/her possibilities and needs, thus those he is able to handle and those to be compensated by alternative or modified means of education, training and examination, • support realization of arrangements eliminating consequences the handicap can have on study, • help to harmonize mutual expectations and reliability according to the students as well as the school possibilities, • be quality mediators, cooperate with teachers and other academicals staff being able to explain to them “what, when, why and how”.

Do all counselors know how to do it?How to help them to acquire and develop needed competences. Following can help: • individual consultations for the counselors without special professional education and experiences in the field of the handicapped, • personalized (lifelong learning) education of the university counselors, • adventure or self-experienced courses, trainings, • different forms of work under the supervision, Bálint groups, application of VTI method (video-training of interactions), • (self)reflection of personality as well as process and effectiveness of own work with the handicapped students, • analyse the suggestions coming from common meetings of teachers counselors and handicapped students.

Notice: In the Czech Republic is education of academical staff provided focused on awareness improvement and optimalization of their attitude towards the disadvantaged students and communication with them. Most of universities have instructions or standards related to the support of the handicapped students or students with special educational needs (SEN). Specific competences are not acquired once !!! - Likewise other counseling skills also these must be further developed in order have them correspond with changing situations, possibilities and needs of the clients – students. - The common aim of our work in the field of support of university students with handicap and special educational needs is help these students to reduce barriers they can face by optimized forms of help, conditions and study and social activities.

Questions and topics for workshop and discussion: I. Is your university prepared for inclusive education of the handicapped students? ØYES – what arrangements are implemented? ØNO - why? ØHOW WHEN – what does it depend on? Do you meet the handicapped students in your life? ØYES - what do you feel like? ØNOT YET – would you feel insecure?

Questions and topics for workshop and discussion: II. Do you think that students are ready to coexist with students with disabilities? Do you think that teachers are ready to contact, communicate and work-teach with students with disabilities? How can you, as university counselors to contribute to the academic preparedness • teachers and other workers • students and per groups for inclusive public education and the harmonization of relations between people with and without disabilities?

Questions and topics for workshop and discussion: III. Would you agree with a thesis the handicapped students´ needs are legitimate and when providing them it is not unreasoning relief and favouritism but it is adequate form of compensation of particular disadvantage or disorder reflecting its impacts and functional limits? ØYES – why? ØNO – why? ØWITH EXCEPTION – what? Do you have any interesting experience within the field of the handicapped students you would like to share or discuss? Thank you for your attention 

Author: Libor Novosad, PhD. – Technical University of Liberec