TITLE:
Academic and Professional Guidance for Tertiary Students with Disabilities: Gathering Best Practices throughout European Universities
AUTHORS:
Leonardo Santos Amâncio Cabral, Enicéia Gonçalves Mendes, Lucia de Anna, Serge Ebersold
KEYWORDS:
Disability, University, Guidance, Individual Plan, Labor Market
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.3 No.9,
September
18,
2015
ABSTRACT: The exponential increase of students with
disabilities enrolled at universities of different countries has urged these institutions
to enable some services geared to their guidance, both academic and
professional level. However, the international literature shows that these
initiatives, in some realities, are still disconnected from the broader
socio-economic context. In order to find possible solutions to this issue, the
objective of this research was to explore, in an international level, initiatives
related to the academic and professional guidance of students with
disabilities. In this direction this case study has been realized with the
participation of 81 tertiary students with disabilities, 14 academic counselors
and 68 professional mentors from Italy, France, Ireland, Denmark and England.
The overall analysis of the results emerged from this research has allowed identifying,
in an international perspective, the strengths of each reality explored. The
reflections on these elements have directed the proposition of indicators which
can contribute to the scientific and academic communities on the
implementation, evaluation and monitoring of a potential academic and
professional guidance program for tertiary students with disabilities.