Ues Network. States for the Inclusion of students with disabilities meets at the ULS

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With the presence of the Academic Vice-Rector of the ULS, Dr. Alejandra Torrejón, the Executive Director of CUECH, Marcela Letelier, the Regional Director of SENADIS, Jorge Juárez, and authorities from different institutions, the work day around to disability and its problems.

With the active participation of representatives from more than 13 universities in the country, the meeting of the Inclusion Network of State Universities of Chile began, with a clear objective: to unite the criteria to work on the issue at the national level and show the work carried out by the University of La Serena, in a sustained project, called ULS1799 “Comprehensive support for ULS students within the framework of inclusion and universal accessibility.”cuech7 network

The Academic Vice-Rector, Dr. Alejandra Torrejón, was present at the event, representing the Rector of the ULS, who assured that “these instances of collaboration support the sense of responsibility that the State universities have, and aware of this, our maxim is continue the democratization of knowledge for everyone. This democratization best summarizes our objectives; However, how to do it is the complex part, and for this there are instances like these, which come to reaffirm the work we are already doing, share experiences and with them build better university guidelines.”

In addition to the 13 institutions that participated in the technical work tables, the Regional Director of SENADIS, Jorge Juárez, was present, who made a presentation regarding the advances, challenges and guarantees that the State provides to people with disabilities and to the accessibility in different university courses. “We want to end welfare because it hinders processes that are important for progress and what real inclusion means,” he mentioned.cuech8 network

In the development of the activity, the technical table worked on the supports and adjustments that must be made within the higher education institution, specifically in the field of teaching. “The Network meets 3 times a year, and on the occasion that we did at the University of Chile, we developed the special entry route, a proposal that will be delivered to the Ministry of Education and that at this table will be sanctioned to go to other topics,” said the coordinator of the inclusion project at the University of La Serena, Dr. Georgina García.

Likewise, the representative of the rectors of the 7 state CFTs that exist at the national level, the Rector of the CFT of the Coquimbo Region, Manuel Farías, was emphatic in pointing out that one of the principles they have as centers is to have an inclusive and “Being so does not only have to do with physical spaces, but rather eliminating other types of barriers and having curricular openness. We work in a model called training by competencies, where learning objectives are rigorously sought and these can be achieved in different ways. In our case, we do it before each semester of work, where our professionals and academics learn about these components. of inclusion.”

The collaborative work included the participation of the Executive Director of CUECH, Marcela Letelier, who said that “for us as a Consortium, which sees many areas, we must see the specificities established by Law 21.094, where it recognizes the mission and duty of the state universities on this topic. "We have to have much greater knowledge, evaluate the work of the Network and project it into the future."

Finally, the organizers of the meeting thanked everyone who was able to participate and called for continued collaboration online.

Written by Patricia Castro, Dircom