Students with disabilities and other special needs in the process of higher education: inclusion issues

摘要

Nowadays, there is an increasing number of persons with disabilities eager to pursue their education in higher education institutions as well as of students with some specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, etc. A lot of institutional resources at different levels enable the inclusion of persons with disabilities and learning difficulties into higher education. This primarily refers to organisational resources and professional staff resources, including services and student counselling within universities or particular faculties, educational assistants, current legislation (development strategies), financial support, environmental support, ICT support and others. This paper presents initial experiences in organising a supportive/effective academic environment for students with disabilities by means of contemporary information and communications technology. Although the described experiences have arisen from the early stage of establishing an effective learning environment for students with disabilities, they can be valuable in future implementation of such an environment.