Abstract:

Objectives / Justification of the Proposal:
This communication aims to introduce the concept of accessibility within the sustainable curriculum proposed by the Universidad Europea.

Our students as members of society cannot be unaware that according to the Survey of Disability, Personal Autonomy and Dependency Situations (INE, 2008), population ages and the amount of people with disabilities also increases.

As individuals and professionals they cannot ignore that there are 500 million people in the world with a disability, and the figure reaches 50 million in Europe and 4 million (10% of the population) in Spain.

Experience Description:
Sustainable curriculum is a growing research field concerning the development of new curricula in higher education.

The paper reflects the relevance of incorporating a transversal subject on Accessibility to all the degrees of the Universidad Europea, just like others as Communication Skills or Ethics.

Accessibility contents influence so many fields and such a percentage of the population that can be specifically applied to the contents of each degree:
- Disabled people care relating to Health Sciences.
- Disabled people’s issues as business opportunities for Management, Entrepreneurship or Tourism students.
- Sign languages for Translation and Interpreting students.
- Physical and IT solutions developable by engineers.
- Distance learning trough new technologies as an opportunity to educators.

This paper proposes standardized contents for a transversal subject aimed to belong to the sustainable curriculum pillar of the Universidad Europea (under the supervision of the appropriate academic organism).

In the near future, many of our graduates will be socially responsible agents and thus will have the chance to implement sustainable policies in their professional fields.

Main Results:
Inclusive education of our students is essential if we are to train significant adults. This paper represents a pilot project focusing on accessibility.

The authors go through literature review, analyzing the feasibility of implementing accessibility contents and present two alternatives to bring this innovation easily into the classroom.

Finally, the conclusions reinforce the relevance of including accessibility as a transversal concept with the aim of training professionals concerned about the needs of disabled people in terms of access, use and enjoyment of any product, service and environment.

This proposal will serve as an integrator model to standardize contents and exportable internationally to other universities.

Keywords:

Accesibility, Competences, Integration, Transversal.