CONQUERING FOREIGN COUNTRIES !!!!

Nowadays more and more students have to stay abroad, as part of a language curriculum, an internship or the Erasmus Programme, etc. Organizing such a trip may quickly prove to be a daunting task.

Handisup Haute-Normandie, with the financial support of the Crédit Agricole Normandie-Seine bank (www.ca-normandie-seine.fr/particuliers/gestion-de-comptes/e-releve.html), has drawn up a plan of action to help students with disabilities to move easily during their trips abroad.

Click on Handisup Prepare your trip abroad

This project will give birth to partnerships with businesses, universities and outposts for students with disabilities. These partnerships will allow students with disabilities to take short trips before their actual stay in order to prepare their arrival at the university, to find quality work experiences in businesses and to get information about accessibility more easily.

Handisup Chairman M. Malandain and Crédit Agricole Normandie-Seine Assistant general manager M. Lefebvre are signing a partnership.
 

A first trip to England was organized. Our volunteers David and Lilian, along with permanent Handisup worker Anne-Emilie Ravache, met some of the University College London staff and people working for Stylus (a wholesale office supplies business).

Anne-Emilie, David and Lilian took this opportunity to inquire about accessibility in the city of London. Thus they visited two free museums : the British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.

Projects are being prepared regarding trips to Belgium or Republic of Ireland to be taken before the end of 2010 and to other countries in 2011. Any student interested in a trip abroad may contact Handisup right now to take part in this new plan of action.

A guide has just been published online by Higher Education Accessibility Guide (HEAG). This guide shows how the universities of the member countries of the European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education welcome students with disabilities.

Giving people with disabilities the opportunity to travel and/or to study abroad is regarded as a personal right issue at the international and European level.

The HEAG project began in 2009 with the participation of 26 member countries of the Agency, along with the Republic of Croatia and the Slovak Republic. The general purpose of the project is to deliver the best information available to students with disabilities who think of studying abroad. The idea is to provide information that will help both students with disabilities and the business workers who support them to choose among curriculums and possible exchange activities.

Find all the information in the HEAG guide
 

Thanks to the financial support of Crédit Agricole Normandie-Seine, HANDISUP develops its actions in order to help students with disabilities to move easily during their trips abroad.

After going to England in May, HANDISUP students and permanent workers went to Ireland from 26 to 29 October 2010. There they met the disability managers working at the Dublin Institute of Technology, the University College Dublin and the National University of Ireland Maynooth.
Our HANDISUP group also met professionals from AHEAD (Association on Higher Education And Disability) who coordinate the disability support assistants working in all Irish universities. This association questions the efficiency of quotas regarding the employment of people with disabilities. While in France both businesses and Public Service administrations have to employ people with disabilities as 6% of their workforce, only public businesses have to follow this rule to the lesser rate of 3% in Ireland. Economic issues lead to unemployment in Ireland and businesses do not seem really eager to act without quotas.
These people seemed enthusiastic about welcoming French students as part of the Erasums Programme.

Ireland sets a good example in terms of accessibility : most of the traffic lights are equipped with hearing aids and people in wheelchairs can travel on trains without prior reservation – unlike France where reservation is required 48 hours in advance.

Do not hesitate : let yourself take a trip to Ireland, as part of an internship or the Erasmus Programme !

Belgium, Spain and Germany are the next countries that will be visited. Contact us if you want to take part in short trips to those countries or if you wish to help us with the translation of documents and our website.