They are completely integrated in university life and attend lessons normally. Although they may need some adjustments, to facilties, material or in terms of flexibility in some academic aspects, they have a high level of autonomy. Their motivation and willpower help them to face everyday life successfully.

They are students with disabilities registered UPF, a group which includes people with visual and hearing disabilities, reduced mobility, mental or physical illnesses, learning disorders, or who may have special educational needs while they are at university.

Their motivation and willpower help them to face everyday life successfully

This service currently falls within the responsibilities of the Office of the Vice-rector for Social Responsibility and Promotion, although the University has had an Inclusion Plan for people with disabilities since 2010, in order to guarantee their integration, equal opportunities and lack of discrimination.

According to Mireia Oliver, the head of the Inclusion area (which was established in 1994), the University has a database formed by disabled students receiving a subsidy in their registration fee as stipulated by law, due to being certified as disabled by the Government of Catalonia. This academic year (2013-2014), 100 students with this profile have registered.

The SACU currently deals with around ninety students who have contacted this service because of their special educational needs

The SACU currently deals with around ninety students who have contacted this service because of their special educational needs. Some of them are also being dealt with despite having no official certification. Many Catalan universities receive are help and advice from the Interuniversity Council of Catalonia (CIC) in this area. "Although these databases don't fully match each other, there are always students with disabilities who don't contact our service", Mireia explains.

Studying Business with blindness

Àlex Romera is a third year student on the Bachelor's Degree in Business Sciences-Management who also works in a restaurant where the guests have the experience of eating in total darkness. He is always accompanied by his inseparable Masson, a guide dog provided by the ONCE organization. He has been blind  since birth but as he says, "that's an advantage, as I don't miss anything". Álex is a unique case because he is one of the few completely blind students studying an Economics and Business Sciences degree in Catalonia, because of the limited adaptations in the market for publishing and reading numerical formulae. "The technical conditions to for studying it are met much more frequently, but if I had been born ten years earlier, I would have still chosen this degree". With the same spirit of determination, he says he wants to go on an Erasmus and do a business internship.

He is a unique case because of the limited adaptations in the market for publishing and reading numerical formulae

Like everyone with disabilities at the University, who require a highly personalized level of attention, Àlex has an academic tutor, who works with the SACU on his supervision: Teresa Monllau, vice-dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business Sciences: "Àlex is a very independent person and he is used to overcoming obstacles. My task is to offer my support in cases where some adjustment is necessary", she says. She adds: "Àlex studies most subjects at the same pace as his classmates, but he is obviously slower in the subjects with heavy visual requirements, such as mathematics".

An adapted computer incorporating screen reading software; Braille transcriptions of academic lectures, with support from ONCE; longer library loan returning times, adaptations for the exams, support during registration and flexibility in timetables and group changes are all part of the support Àlex receives.

Around the campus in a wheelchair

Marta Llauradó, a second year student on the Bachelor's Degree in Human Biology, has a motor disability, caused by a severe congenital disease in both her limbs, and she uses an electric wheelchair. Despite her disease, she needs practically no help: she writes clearly and does not use adapted or support material.

Marta is sociable and participative, and talks about aspects of her mobility: "In the classrooms, I can move from my wheelchair to a normal chair so I don't need any adaptations, but in the labs I need a shelf at a lower level than other people so that I can reach things". In her proposal for improvement she says the main problem she comes across is opening doors, which she'd rather were automatic: "Sometimes it's quite difficult, especially if you have to pull them open instead of pushing."

"One of the objectives this year is to adapt Ciutadella auditorium so that it can be 100% info-accessible"

Mónica Figueres, the Vice-rector for Social Responsibility and Promotion, explains that the University has taken care to remove architectural barriers, and this has been possible thanks to grants from the Government of Catalonia, and co-financed by the University. Although there is still a lot of work to do, progress is gradually being made: "One of the objectives this year is to adapt the Ciutadella auditorium so that it can be 100% info-accessible: even though accessibility there is already good, we have to improve some technological issues", she states. When it is ready, it will be one of the few spaces with these characteristics in Catalonia.

Dyslexia, a hidden disability

"I don't think many people know everything that dyslexia involves. Dyslexia is not only about having trouble reading, but also with writing papers, exams and participating in debates. Structuring ideas and writing them clearly is more complicated for us, apart from the many spelling errors we make."

Miriam Cantos, a student of the Bachelor's Degree in Business Sciences-Management, who suffers from reading and writing dyslexia, describes her disability in those terms. She is currently on a gap year: she decided to go to the USA in order to improve her English, because part of the degree she is taking at UPF is being taught in that language.

"Dyslexia is not only about having trouble reading, but also with writing papers, exams and participating in debates. Structuring ideas and writing them clearly is more complicated for us"

According to Miriam, "although fortunately, UPF has luckily helped me a lot in this aspect, it hasn't always been like that: all through school, I only came across two teachers who really knew how to deal with my problem".

The support offered to this student consists of more time to finish exams, papers or tests and distinguishing between occasional and repeated spelling mistakes when homework is corrected, as the latter are a result of her disability (she can use a special computer when she does an exam, and she can use the spell checker).

Report published at upf.edu magazine, number 7 - February 2014

Photograpy: Eva Guillamet