Thinking about students with disabilities in the pandemic
Ayse sounded very happy on the phone. “Now my friends are getting online education like me! Now I’m also a class member...” Ayse had a genetic disorder called
epidermolysis bullosa, a rare and serious skin disorder. Getting the right environment for her to do a two-year computer programming course was a challenge.
The director of her vocational school and the rector of the university had to work on bureaucratic issues to solve the addition of an online individual to a formal class. Once she was the only one to get distance or hybrid education in her class. Now at a time of pandemic, everybody has been in the same position. And she’s happy, perhaps because she is at an advantage having had experience before and also because the stigma of being the only one learning in this way doesn’t exist any more…