1 The socio-economic situation of students with disabilities Elisabeth Unterfrauner

2 Overview 1.Project EU4ALL 2.The socio-economic situation of people with disabilities with special focus on educational attainment

3 1. General project information Contract nº.  Priority - Strategic Objective  Sixth Framework Programme -- Priority 2 Information Society Technologies Total project Cost.  ,60 € EC funding  € Duration  48 Months Start  1st. October 2006 Project Full Title  European Unified Approach for Accessible Lifelong Learning EU4ALL Project Acronym  Project Website 

4 2. Partner Stakeholder from different areas Education: Open University UK, UNED, University of York, University Rome „La Sapienza“, EADTU, CTAD Technological Development : Atos, Indra, Giunti, Fraunhofer FIT User Representatives/ Interest Groups: Disabled People International Italy, disabled students of universities Social Science: Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI)

5 3. EU4ALL target group Target groups  Students with visual, hearing, mobile and cognitive disabilities and mature students  Lecturers, counsellors, and tutors  Technical support staff (LMS, Content and Services)  Administrative staff

6 4. EU4ALL aims Aims and gains EU4ALL is anchored in the tertiary and distance education sector, but might be interesting for all institutions which have a substantial number of students with disabilities and which offer technical enhanced courses (e-learning). Research & Development project Development of open, flexible, standards oriented architecture complementing functionalities of platforms. Moodle and.lrn will be used in the EU4ALL project. Human Focus Based on users’ needs -> user requirements Adaptability and accessibility for individual students (personalisation) Adaptability for institutions

7 5. Project activities  Surveys and interviews with students with disabilities and with university staff: needs and challenges (individual perspective)  Analysis of offered services at different institutions from enrolment until graduation (institutional perspective)  Development of first prototypes (Guidance for All Package, ePortfolio, Content Personalisation..)  Evaluation of prototypes with experts and end-users  Results feed back into design process (usability and accessibility) -> eventual redesign of prototypes  Large scale evaluation of implemented services at UNED and OUUK

8 6. UNED Scenario This Scenario is drawn from the Spanish distance university UNED. It serves as Good Practice example, which makes the potential of EU4ALL visible. The pontential of EU4ALL comes true when accessibility at an institution is of strategic relevance. Scenario Martha is a deaf student. It would be helpful to her to have visual alternatives to acoustic material, to get support in text comprehension und written assignments, to have more time disposable at exams and have access to glossaries and online dictionaries.

9 7. UNED Scenario At UNED lecturers are responsible for their courses. They receive support in planning accessible courses. Special attention is paid to accessible learning materials. PROCESS  Martha registers for a course, and  receives an account for a programme explaining to her how to use the platform,  Lecturers are supported in course planning,  provision of accessible course and assessment.

10 8. UNED Scenario REALISATION IN DETAIL Lector have access to a list of accommodations which the registered students require Lector checks the availability of accessible learning materials that meet all requirements (UNED e-spacio tool). In case of unavailability of accessible materials sends a request to transformation-service –Through Guidance for ALL (G4ALL) tool lector gets all the needed information related to deaf students (Martha) in learning situations –Search for alternative materials in database (e-Spacio) –Request to transformation-service –Material can be provided on platform and course is realised. Martha receives a video with subtitles to achieve the aimed learning outcome.

11 The socio-economic situation of people with disabilities with special focus on educational attainment

12 9. Analysis of socio-economic situation of people with disabilities Aim: Are there differences between persons with and without disabilities concerning education, living standard and employment? Are there differences between students with and without disabilities in tertiary education? EU-SILC

Analysis of socio-economic situation of people with disabilities Proportion of people with and without disability by highest ISCED level

Analysis of socio-economic situation of people with disabilities Proportion of attained ISCED level by gender and disability

Analysis of socio-economic situation of people with disabilities Proportion of attained ISCED levels of persons with LSHPD by age

Analysis of socio-economic situation of people with disabilities Tertiary education: Students with disabilities are in average 4 years older than their peers (!)

Analysis of socio-economic situation of people with disabilities Education as protecting factor …the unemployment rates of persons with and without disabilities do not differ significantly if they acquired a tertiary education degree but differ in all other levels …the higher the attained ISCED level, the lower the risk of poverty …the higher the attained ISCED level, the higher the income

Analysis of socio-economic situation of people with disabilities Median gross income in Euro of persons with (blue) and without LSHPD (red) working 40 hours by gender

Analysis of socio-economic situation of people with disabilities Österreich spezifisch

Analysis of socio-economic situation of people with disabilities Differences concerning education between persons with and without LSHPD (despite improvements) No gender differences in persons with and without LSHPD in higher education Students with disabilities older than their peers Tertiary education serves as protceting factor

Contact information Elisabeth Unterfrauner | Centre for Social Innovation, Vienna Phone  Fax  Address  Linke Wienzeile 246 A Vienna  Project Web 