Studentu vajadzību izvērtējums iekļaujošas augstākās izglītības nodrošināšanai

Abstract

Global, European, and Latvian inclusion and education policy documents set out the conditions and recommendations for ensuring inclusive education at all levels. The increase in the number of students with disabilities in higher education and the challenges they face in the educational process highlights the need for inclusive higher education and identification of students' individual needs and the type of support and adaptation required for the implementation of inclusive higher education. The results of the theoretical analysis show that in international policy documents, European and Latvian legislation, as well as in scientific literature, the terms disability, and special educational needs are often used in a similar context. At the same time, different countries in the European Union have different concepts and understandings of disability, and special needs are defined differently in legislation of different countries. For to identify students' special needs/ requirements for inclusive higher education, an evaluation tool was developed in the first phase of the partnership project, which included questions on each of the key elements of an inclusive environment – accessible information environment, accessible physical environment, adapted learning process and inclusive emotional environment. In the evaluation tool development process, based on a universal design for research approach, four principles were taken into account: clear and comprehensible survey instructions, transparent, easy-to-understand framework and simple wording, mainly closed questions, survey completion time (up to 10 minutes), and clear and understandable answer menus. The evaluation tool can be used for collecting research data in the second phase of the partnership project and can be used in higher education and secondary schools to identify the needs of students for providing inclusive education.