January 2012


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ASDLU marks the International Day of Persons with Disabilities

Through its services the Academic Support/Disabilities Liaison Unit (ASDLU) has been able to successfully become the first and most important stop for high quality academic support for the diverse populations of students throughout the University including mainstream students – full-time, part-time and evening, international students and especially students with disabilities.

The functions/operations of ASDLU are twofold:

  1. Providing of Academic Support to students of the UWI, St. Augustine at all levels of their academic career.
  2. Providing and ensuring equal access (infrastructure/academic) to all students who enter the University system with a disability.

Since the establishment of ASDLU in 2006 the provision of accommodations such as aids and devices and classroom and examinations accommodations have grown in keeping with the increasing demand of the population of students with disabilities. In the academic year 2011/2012 the number of registered students with disabilities stands at ninety-five (95).

For the first time in celebration of its student population with disabilities, the Academic Support/Disabilities Liaison Unit (ASDLU), in collaboration with the School of Education’s Masters in Education Programme, commemorated the United Nations’ International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2011 with an informational booth at the Faculty of Humanities and Education Undercroft on December 2, 2011.

The booth highlighted information on the different types of disabilities which have been identified among our students, while enlightening our visitors about the achievements of some of our students with disabilities. Other features included a board highlighting famous persons with disabilities and their achievements, a display of some of the aids and devices used by physically disabled persons (on loan from the National Centre for Persons with Disabilities) together with activities and games which were geared towards sensitisation and awareness of the issue of disability in our present day society.

The celebration ended with an exhibition, themed ‘Disability and Postsecondary Education,’ with a focus on disabilities experienced at our Campus was also set up at the Alma Jordan Library from December 5-9.

Despite being organised during the end of semester examination period there was a great turnout of visitors to the booth. Hopefully, this will become an annual event.