Inclusive Approach to Students With Disabilities in Academic Setting: The Case of the IncEdu Project

Abstract

The educational programme "Inclusive Approach to Students with Disabilities in Academic Setting" for teaching and non-teaching staff was developed under the project Developing Inclusive Education for Students with Disabilities in Sri Lankan Universities, IncEdu (supported by the EU Cooperation for Innovation and the exchange of good practices - Capacity Building in the field of Higher Education, 2019-2023). The objective of the education was to improve the competencies of teaching and non-teaching staff to teach or interact with students with disabilities, and in this way contribute to the overall goal of the project - to develop a system of support to promote equal opportunities for students with disabilities in Sri Lankan universities. The educational programme was implemented in late 2022 for 48 teaching and 27 non-teaching staff from four universities in Sri Lanka. The evaluation was conducted using an online survey (self-assessment). The evaluation questions were related to the quality of programmeme implementation and the learning outcomes achieved. The evaluation involved 43 participants from the teaching staff group (89% of all participants) and 25 participants from the non-teaching staff group (92% of all participants) were involved. Data were analysed using descriptive statistical methods. Evaluation results showed that learning outcomes were largely achieved, and participants were highly satisfied with the education. The educational programme has great potential to be disseminated in all universities in Sri Lanka, contributing to the development of staff competencies to improve the process of inclusion of people with disabilities in higher education.