The situation of handicapped students studyin at german universities from Margit Schaßberger

Introduction

This essay concerns the situation of handicapped students studying at universitites in Germany. The terms “disability” and “handicap” are first defined. Laws which ensure the rights of the disabled are then indicated. Furthermore, the current situation at universities is investigated. For this purpose a questionnaire was developed and given to disabled students and students suffering from chronic illness. The results indicate that they do not have equal opportunities. Two possible ways of achieving greater equality are therefore pointed out. Many handicapped students try to improve their situation and are organised in self-support groups. At the end of this essay, local and national self-support groups and their demands are introduced. Finally I would like to comment on this topic.

Views on disability and handicap

In this section, the terms disability and handicap are defined. In order to understand the handicapped, the differences between handicap and disability are pointed out. At the end of this passage some examples of laws considering the disabled are given.

Definitions

The definitions are provided by the United Nations standard rules. The term “disability” accommodates a great variety of different impairments of function. This impairment can be caused by physical or mental damage, sickness, a deficit in the senses or mental illness. The expression “handicap” refers to the relationship between disabled persons and the environment, and will be used to highlight the shortfalls in the surroundings and at many organised activities which prevent the equal participation of the disabled (for example stairs in front of a cinema, the absence of braille books in the libraries, the lack of sign language translation of public speeches).

In this essay, the terms “disability” and “handicap” are to be understood in this context. Laws dealing with the situation of the disabled are described in the following paragraphs.

Basic laws

Several laws are concerned with the needs of the disabled. Only a few of them can be mentioned in this paragraph. The European Social Charter of 1961 already states that every disabled person has the right of integration and re-integration in the job market and the right to participate in social life regardless of the nature and source of the disability.

The Corporate European Social Civil Rights Charter of Employees, 1989, extends these rights. It says that the disabled must receive the support required for their integration process and te improvement of their living circumstances. Professional job training should be provided and the areas of accessibility, mobility, public transport and housing should be worked on. The Contract of Amsterdam in 1997 states that the needs of the disabled are to be taken into account.

The German Constitution states that no-one may be disadvantaged because of his or her disability. The “Hochschulrahmengesetz” which is compulsory for every university in Germany states that the special needs of disabled students must be taken into account.

With these laws in mind, one might think that studying with a disability would not be a problem. In order to analyse the current situation, a questionnaire was developed exclusively for students with limited abilities and with chronic illness. A closer look at the situation revealed, however, that the actual situation is quite different.

Current situation at German universities on the basis of a questionnaire

This description of the current situation of handicapped students is not based on official reports. Official reports tend to view the situation too positively. For this essay it was important to obtain information from students who are affected.

Questionnaire

The questionnaire contains two parts. Part One looks at certain kinds of problems such as financial requirements to obtain special aids and devices.

Four categories were evaluated: :

  • Category 0: No difficulties experienced; no extraordinary stress was caused by the disability.
  • Category 1: Difficulties experienced; a solution could be found without too much extra effort.
  • Category 2: Difficulties experienced; a solution could be found only with great extra effort.
  • Category 3: Difficulties experienced; no solution at all could be found.

Part Two concerned the help provided by universities to disabled students, and student self-support groups. Here the evaluation was as follows:

  • Category v+: Help does exist; good quality.
  • Category v-: Help does exist; the quality needs to be improved.
  • Category nv: Help does not exist.
  • Category new: Help should be made available.

Part One contains five topics:

  1. Financial support (to offset some drastic disadvantages caused by the disability)
    1. For special devices
    2. For personal assistance
    3. For sign language translation
  2. Buildings and campus
    1. Accessibility of all rooms
    2. Orientation aids such as signs in braille
    3. Acoustics
    4. Equipment such as adjustable table hight
    5. Parking possibilities especially for students with walking difficulties
  3. Didactics
    1. Material in large print and braille available at the same time as regular print
    2. Verbalisation of pictures, graphics and tables
  4. Modifications of tests and exams
    1. Extension of the time limit
    2. More time for multiple exams which contain different tests within a given time period
    3. Alternative ways of testing, such as oral exams for the blind, written exams for those with a speech impairment
  5. Working atmospher
    1. Understanding for the special needs of handicapped students by academic staff
    2. Understanding by fellow students

Part Two contains two topics:

  1. What universities offer to disabled students
    1. Counselling service for disabled students
    2. Representative for disabled students
    3. Rooms with special aids available, such as large monitors on computers
    4. Small rooms where the disabled can work with theirassistants
    5. Services to adapt material for visually impaired and blind students
    6. Quiet rooms where special medical needs can be met (medication, lie-down break)
    7. Special tutorials (see 4.1)
    8. Staff training
    9. 1.9. Assisting self-support groups
  2. Self-support groups
    1. Interest groups
    2. Committee of the disabled

Results

Ninety questionnaires were handed out of which twenty-nine were filled in. The students who answered the questions study in different cities and universities (Hamburg, Kassel, Oldenburg, Mainz, Koblenz, Hagen, Kassel, Frankfurt/Main, Tübingen, Dortmund, Marburg, Gießen, Bochum), at each of which a self-support group already exists. Handicapped students have worked on improving their own situation. The situation at those universities looked at is better than the situation at most other German universities. It stands to reason that universities which take into account the needs of the disabled are more frequented by them. Several questionnaires were returned from some universities, e.g. Dortmund and Bochum, which shows that the questionnaire results are not representative for all universities in Germany. The results of the questionnaire describes the situation of those universities where work has been done to improve the situation for handicapped students. Generally speaking, the situation at the other universities is even worse.

The results of the questionnaire can be briefly summarised:

  • It was difficult to get financial support to offset certain disadvantages caused by the disability. Students needing financial help to pay for a sign language translator had the most difficulties.
  • Many universities are inaccessible to wheelchair users and are also badly equipped (special aids).
  • Only one university had a translation service for visually impaired and blind students. Braille material and large-print copies were not therefore available in time.
  • Most handicapped students were able to perform tests and exams in an alternative form, but only after considerable effort.
  • Major difficulties with fellow students were not experienced. However, 40 percent experienced difficulties with the teaching staff.
  • Universities offer very few services geared to cater for the special needs of the disabled.
  • Advisers and representatives of handicapped students are needed.
  • There are too few working rooms equipped with special devices which enable handicapped students to work there.
  • There= is almost no staff training to sensitise academic staff to the needs of handicapped persons - see 4.1.
  • There are no special tutorials.
  • Too few interest and self-support groups exist

The questionnaire shows that handicapped students experience many difficulties. At most universities, students have to overcome these problems without professional help. In conclusion it can be stated that handicapped students do not have equal opportunites. There are very few services at the universities. Because of these unsatisfactory circumstances, the handicapped are dissuaded from attempting to enrol at a university.

Possible solutions

Everybody who has the qualification to study at a university must have the opportunity to study. Disabled students must be given the same opportunities to study as the non-disabled. This means that everyone should be able to study the subject he or she wishes at any university, irrespective of his or her disability. How can this be put into practice? The following paragraphs suggest a solution.

Considering the needs of disabled students

Considering the needs of disabled students is not a new idea. It has already been stated in the “Hochschulrahmengesetz”. In the area of didactics, consideration of these students first of all involves training staff members to give them a general understanding of disabilities. The relationship between a disability and its effects on learning strategies has to be taken into account. Only then can didactic methods be properly adapted. It is the responsibility of teachers and professors to present their lectures and courses in such a way that everybody can participate. This includes for example the verbalisation of pictures and other visual material.

Alongside the training of staff members, disabled students need special training too. Such training could be achieved within tutorials.

Three basic kinds of tutorials are needed:

  • Computer tutorials
    During these lessons, the handicapped student learns how to work with special devices such as braille displays, speech synthesisers, large-print software and adapted keyboards.
  • Personal tutorials
    Personal tutorials should be given in those subjects where the handicapped student suffers disadvantages because of his or her disability.
    Example 1: A blind student needs to be given extra descriptions and explanations when drawings and graphs are concerned.
    Example 2: A deaf student who is dependent on sign language needs special grammar courses, since the grammar structure of sign language is very different from German language grammar.
  • Assistance tutorials
    Most handicapped students need personal assistance. Therefore it is important that they are given the opportunity to learn how to organise this.

If staff training and the training of disabled students are provided as described, most of the disadvantages suffered by handicapped students would be reduced.

Personal assistance

Disabled persons need assistance in order to be able to live a self-determined life. Personal assistance includes all kinds of individual help which allows them to arrange their lives independently. This assistance can for example take the form of translation work for someone using sign language, taking a book down from the shelf for a wheelchair user or reading for someone who is blind. In order to guarantee the self-determination of the person receiving assistance, his or her competence in the four following issues have to be ensured:

  • The disabled student chooses the assisting person.
  • The disabled student gives instructions on how the assistance is to be provided. The disabled person knows best what kind of help he or she needs and how it can be properly provided.
  • The disabled student organises the assistance provided, and decides when such assistance is needed.
  • The disabled student is responsible for paying his or her assistants. Special financial resources are rherefore required. Payment is important to guard against a one-sided power base.

Results

The higher the quality and quantity of services of the university and the more skilled the teaching staff, the less personal assistance is needed. This makes it easier for disabled students to study because the disadvantages of their handicap are reduced. More disabled persons would then study at university.

Self-support groups

Self-support groups have been founded by handicapped students in order to achieve equal opportunities at their university. These groups have been established at different universities. In order to learn from each other, to share experiences and to work more effectively, some members of local groups have founded groups which operate at a national level.

Local and national groups

The first local groups were founded in Erlangen and Dortmund in 1977. The interest group of handicapped students in Dortmund, for example, was successful in making the university accessible to wheelchair users. Beside that, lifts and many toilets for disabled persons were installed. Furthermore, the working conditions of blind students were much improved. Today there is a translating service for converting printed material into braille and large print. Material used in classes can be made available in braille and large print at the same time as regular print. The interest group also worked to improve the situation for students with chronic illnesses. In order to improve the situation, the work of self-support groups ranges from cooperation with the university administration and teaching staff to demonstrations and the seating arrangements of lecture theatres.

The degree of financial support for special individual devices (such as a braille display for blind students) differed greatly. It was therefore necessary to organise working groups at a national level to compare the financial support provided in the different cities. This formed the basis for reducing the injustice implicit in different treatments and was the beginning of the “Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Sozialhilfe der Interessengemeinschaften behinderter / chronisch kranker und nichtbehinderter Studierender”.

The “Bundesweite Netzwerk der Selbsthilfegruppen und Interessengemeinschaften behinderter / chronisch kranker und nichtbehinderter Studierender sowie studen­tischer Behindertenreferate” is concerned with all non-financial topics. Its tasks include the support of existing groups and support in setting up new local groups.

In order to fulfil legal requirements, the association of the ”Bundesarbeitsgemein­schaft behinderter / chronisch kranker und nichtbehinderter Studierender und Absol­ventInnen e.V.” was founded. This was necessary to obtain state support for the work of the “Netzwerk” and for public relations purposes. The local and national groups have the same basic aims of achieving equal opportunities for handicapped students and students with chronic illnesses.

Demands

Although the situation has improved at some universities in the past, much work must still be done. The groups are at present working on the following demands:

  • The necessity of anti-discrimination laws to ensure equal opportunities for handicapped students. There must sanctions against universities which exclude handicapped students.
  • Extra working rooms with special devices for the handicapped must be set up. This is not a substitute for individually-owned technical aids.
  • Experience has shown that institutions designated to advise on or to provide special devices often do so in an unsatisfactory manner. This is largely due to the fact that they are employed by a government agency which is instructed to reduce costs. Independent advisory services should therefore be set up with in easy reach of every handicapped person.
  • Technical aids are often prerequisites for disabled students. Financing such devices must be assured before studies begin. If it is unclear who will pay, the State must advance the money. These devices must be issued in good time prior to commencement of studies, in order to allow the disabled student to become properly familiarised.
  • When seeking employment nowadays, it is often a requirement to have studied in a foreign country. Disabled students must be given the opportunity to do so. Handicapped persons must be guaranteed financial support so that they can pay for the assistance needed.
  • Sign language must be acknowledged.
  • In order to put these demands into practice, it is important that handicapped persons work together and receive support from the non-disabled.

Comments

The integration of handicapped persons is a social aim. Several laws take account of their integration into society. Although the laws state this, daily life is different. This is the case because the existing laws contain no more general statements which are neither sufficiently concrete nor compulsory. Furthermore, there are no regulations concerning financial support.

When studying at university level, integration becomes even more complicated. The reason is that the different states are responsible for educational training, so that there is no compulsory and uniform law. When searching for a solution, it might be helpful to look at other countries such as the United States. In the U.S.A. the anti-discrimination act proclaims the rights of handicapped persons. Universities which do not take into account the special needs of disabled persons receive no state support. Although the situation of disabled persons at university may be better, there are no social guarantees for the individual in the U.S.A.. Unfortunately, the difficulties of collecting data did not allow the situation of handicapped students in Germany to be compared with other European countries such as the Netherlands and Great Britain.

It is hoped that a study will be undertaken in the near future which will examine how some of the issues emphasised in this document are handled in other countries, for the benefit of handicapped students stuying at German universities. In the end, it is the attitudes and value systems in people’s thinking which determine the definitions of ”life?”, ”normality”, ”disability” and ”worth” in general.