VŠE CDS helps more Students and Graduates

The University of Economics, Prague has offered adapted rooms, conditions for entrance exams and job opportunities to disabled students since 2007. This year, the Center for Disabled Students (CDS) at VŠE is supporting 32 students with special education needs. Thank to CDS, all students with visual, auditory, physical and other disabilities can effectively navigate the university system. Support for disabled students is an integral part of the CSR activities of the University of Economics, Prague.

The support of disabled students starts during the entrance procedure. At the beginning of the year, CDS employees focus on centers and institutions (special secondary schools, centers for support of disabled persons etc.) where young people with a possible interest to study at the university are and they inform them about the possibilities of study at VŠE.  Then, the CDS cooperates with the study departments of the various faculties on the preparation of entrance examinations. This year, there were 11 applicants and four of them were accepted.  The failure rate of applicants among the disabled is often due to insufficient knowledge of mathematics. That´s why CDS would like to propose a special preparatory course focused on mathematics next year. This course would be led by a visually impaired student of VŠE with the help of CDS assistive devices.

In 2014, CDS has supported visually impaired students, hearing-impaired students, physically disabled students, students with learning disabilities and students with chronic illnesses. A special classroom, NB35B, has a very important role in the education of disabled students. There, students can use assistive devices, they write test in the informatics system or they can spend their leisure time there as well.

CDS also helps disabled students to gain their first work experience and habits through systematic work for CDS, which simulates regular part-time work (for example preparation of study materials for visually impaired students or hearing-impaired students etc.). In the future, CDS would also like to focus on graduates because they still have to overcome big obstacles when entering the labor market. Now, the university helps them by organizing a job fair for disabled persons. The university would offer new graduates the possibility to use the barrier-free accommodations in the VŠE dormitories for at least one year because disabled graduates need a longer time before they find satisfactory employment and “sheltered housing” would give them the time they need to find a suitable job.