- Published: September 11, 2022
- Updated: September 11, 2022
- University / College: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- Language: English
- Downloads: 37
INTRODUCTIONWithin a year thousandsof students enter to the university.
With lots of hopes. They come here tocontinue their learning, to learn essential skills to pursue a particularcareer to find a better job with a good salary, to meet new friends, to havemore independence, to experience the university life etc. So each and everystudents that comes to our university, “ University of Sri Jayewardenepura” alsohave the same hope and university too help them to a certain extend toaccomplish their goals. But the problem is allthe students here do not have the ability to get the use of these opportunitieseasily as others. We have some students with different disabilities. Such asphysical disabilities, intellectual disabilities, vision impairments, hearingproblems, mental disabilities, arms or leg handicapped etc. These studentsshould not be discriminated and disadvantaged by the university.
Universityneed to ensure some adjustments to facilitates those students. So our mainconcern through this report is to help those students with disabilities, whocould not make their voice to the society and suffering a lot because of thisproblems. In order to help thisproblem, we first gathered information about the students with disabilities bytalking with them, and also we gathered information about the facilitiesavailable here in our university by providing a questioner to some faculties. By doing all these what we hope is to point out the missing facilitiesavailable and to provide some recommendations to help these students. So theywill get the some opportunities. As all the other students in the university.
LiteraturereviewTo get the base to ourreport we went through some past researches and past paper articles about theissue. When referring to the work of previous researchers. We first found theresearch done by· UvKiran, Babasaheb Bhimroo University, Lucknow. On infrastructure facilities fordifferently abled students. A comparative study of government andNon-Government institutions. The primary goal of thatresearch was to identify the differences in infrastructure facilities andstudent’s level of satisfaction. The result show that Non-Government institutionswere providing more infrastructure in comparison to government students fordisable students. According to their research none of the institutions havewalking aids, internal phones and two-way radio remitter facilities.
Majority ofthe Government institutions have very low level 0f satisfaction regarding theavailability of facilities for disable students. Next we referred the,· Protectionof the rights of person with disabilities. Act no: 28 of 1996. Thatact was establish for the establishment of a national council for person with disabilities, for the promotion advancement and protection of rights of persons with disabilitiesin Sri Lanka.· Researchon managing the transition to university for disabled students; by Mark Taylor, Mike Baskett and Chris Wren. Purpose of that research is to examine mechanism for managing thetransition for school to university for disabled students. There they haveoutline a number of areas that need of students with a disability.
They recommendthat education infrastructure are required to make reasonable adjustment forwith a disability. · Articleon the differently abled community of Sri Lanka by Jayani Balasubramanium Thereshe has given her review and opinion about developing the facilities fordisabled people in Sri Lanka to create a positive change in the world. Through all these pastresearches what we found in conclusion is that facilities available fordisabled is lack. And need to be improved. So through our research we aim tohighlight those issues and provide recommendation for those issues, with thehelp of these past researches.
Dataanalysis and recommendation Main aim of our researchis to increase the facilities in our university for disabled students. So thatthey can also achieve a great success it they are given enough support and opportunities. Since disabled people are actually differently abled people, they should alsobe given enough facilities within the university to improve their skills. So theywill also get the opportunity and pleasure of enjoying a normal life as all theother students.
We should not look at them as a burden. Instead we shouldencourage them to face their life challenges with courage. There can be differentlytypes of disabilities. Mainly we can categories in to 13 arears such as, 1.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)2. Blind or low vision (BLV)3. Cognitive disabilities (CD)4. Deaf or hard of hearings (DHH)5. Deaf-Blind (DB)6.
Development delays (DD) Early childhoodonly7. Emotional disabilities 8. Language or speech impairment (LSI) 9. Multiple disabilities (MD)10. Other health impairments (OHI)11. Orthopedicimpairment (OI)12. Specific learning disabilities (SLD) 13. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) Belonging to one of thesewould be consider as disabled.
The main thing is we should understand thatstudents with disabilities are not different from others. But they have somespecial needs that need to be addressed carefully. According Jackie Concley(We referred google documents) there are many ways in which you can helpdisabled people. He has mainly highlighted some general rules for helpingdisables. 1.
Treat them as equals We should also treat these students as equalto other because they are no exceptions. They also like to have friends, havefun and to engage in university activities as others. So we should not hesitate, and be afraid to make them participated in all the activities. We should alwaysencourage them. 2. Ask before you help Youshould not always jump in and help those people.
Because without knowing theirneed we could make a harm to them than good. So should politely ask whetherthey need any help and especially we should not offer any medical advices tothem without proper knowledge. 3. Never assume someone does or does not havea disability. Withoutknowing the correct incident we should not call they disable. Because with the disabilitiesthey could act and feel different. Those kinds of behaviors can have an adverseeffect on them. 4.
Do not stare at the disabled We not should just stare at the disabledstudents. So then they will feel embarrassed. They also live a life as others. Simplylook at them as the way you look at others. 5. Respects and understand confidentially Wheninteracting with such people, we should be respectful in both act and words. Andwe should always protect their privacy.
All these rules areapplied when dealing with such students. In general when it comes to auniversity other than all these we should ensure some special facilities forthem to help their studies. According to our research some students tend todrop university due to lack of facilities, which is not a good sign anyway. Unless universities talksnecessary steps to improve facilities the rate of disable students dropping outthe university will increase drastically. Universities welcoming theapplication of disable students also make them responsible for adjusting. Necessaryfacilities to access the course.
If you cannot facilitate you should not admit them. If you admit you should fulfill their needs. Dataanalysis and recommendation Dataanalysis Number of disables andavailable facilities in each faculty To find the number ofdisable students in each faculty and how they treat them and to find theavailable special facilities. We did a small research by providing a questionerto each faculty. Given below are the results. 1. Facultyof Humanities and Social Science –· There are about 30 disabled students outof which 5 have bearing aids. · One important issue we got to know is thatthose five students are learning the lecture through the gestures of thelecture.
And because of using microphones they could not see the movements ofthe lips of lecturer. And they tend to lectures because of this issue. · No special arrangement have being taken tohelp those students· Some students have reported their issueswith the department office, but they said that there is nothing to do withthat. And we could not consider it as an responsible answer. Mainissues identified Through the wholeresearch, we could identify some major issues faced by disable as follows.
1. Lack of elevatorsThereis only four or five elevators for the entire university. There is a difficultyfor them to reach. The lectures hall atleast there must be sloped staire causesto take wheel chairs easily. 2. Transportation problems Thereis a problem them to travel from one placeto another, for that they always need ahelp from a another student. So it is better to have a special kind oftransportation systm if possible to help them.
3. lack of human supportforsome students they always need a support person. Always their friend can notfulfill this need. Their should be some person at special places like canteen, library, administrative building to help them to reach their needs. 4. Accommodation problemsThesestudents should be provided with special accommodation facilities. Such asspecial hostel rooms in ground floor with attached bathrooms. 5.
Lack of sanitary facilityThereis only one washroom for the disable in the entire university. While improvingthe facilities for other students, we think that their facilities should alsobe improved. 6. Library facilitiesOneissue in the library is that, there is no elevator for the library. They alsohave an issue to access the books they want.
It is good to have a libraryassistance to help the students to find the book they want. What they requestis to increase the technology in a way to support them, increase the number ofbraille books, apply voice recognition software etc. 7. Lack of counseling facilitiesDisabledmeans not only physical disabilities, mental disorders can also be taken intothis category. So there must be a proper counselling service specially designedfor the needs of disabled students.
Then they can share their ideas with themwithout hesitating.
