Abstract:

We know that the amount of students with disabilities is increasing in higher education, as a consequence of several legislative shifts in Europe. Despite this increasing trend, there is one specific group of students that still struggles to gain access to higher education, more specifically the group of students with intellectual disabilities (ID). This current explorative study aims to get insight in this topic in the higher education in Flanders. More specifically, we want to get a better look at the current situation in higher education with regard to students with ID and more importantly, we want to get a better look on the training needs of university teachers if they would have to teach to students with ID. To this aim, a questionnaire was designed in order to gain a first insight in how teachers in higher education feel about the inclusion of students with intellectual disabilities. The questionnaire consisted out of demographic questions, questions about their experience with people with ID and questions about possible training topics about students with ID. A descriptive analysis revealed that a small minority of teachers have already taught to students with ID in higher education, while the majority indicated that they have never received any kind of training related to teaching to students with intellectual disabilities in higher education. Although the majority of respondents is convinced that students with intellectual disabilities can participate in higher education, if they receive adequate support, less than half of the respondents also consider it useful to create a more accessible higher education environment for students with ID. Thus, if we want to create a more inclusive higher education environment, also for students with intellectual disabilities, it is highly recommended to start providing university teachers with adequate information and training to ensure that they can also fulfil the needs of students with ID.

Keywords:

Higher education, inclusion, intellectual disabilities.