Visibility on disabilities is vital to normalize people’s situations and bring equality, that’s one of the Universitat de València’s purposes for decades , providing specialised services like UVdisability, tending to more than 1000 students, and UVjob, for job and social inclusion of people with disabilities among the university community.
United Nations declared 3 December as the International Day for People with Disabilities a yearly celebration to promote the rights and wellbeing of people dealing with some kind of disability around the globe, to bring visibility and an inclusive future that nourishes society through culture, education, economy, innovation, research and knowledge transfer.
It is crucial for the Spanish universities to work on true inclusion of people with disabilities within their community: professors, researchers, administration and service personnel and students.
Universitat de València is the Spanish university with the largest number of students with disabilities enrolled -over 1000- and has lead inclusion and equality policies for decades with the UVdisability service, from which specific programs for tending to disabilities solve the needs of each member of the university community.
This line of work has made Universitat de València the higher education institution that is leading this matter, as the sole public university in València providing a specific employment service dedicated to promoting employability of students with disabilities.
“We are betting on equality for our students, showcasing the talents of students with disabilities for the job market and promoting projects for inclusion that will nourish the Valencian business and social fabric”, said by the Vice-Principal for Lifelong Learning, Educational Transformation and Employment Ángeles Solanes.
UVjob includes this service which provides professional orientation and advice customized for UV students and graduates. Numbers alone speak for themselves: 81 people used this service (63 in 2023), 199 interviews have taken place (119 in 2023), and 323 consultations have been solved online. On professiona orientation matters alone, this specific sections supporting inclusion of students with disabilities has performed 522 actions.
In the job section, UVjob has published 1026 job offers, 105 of which were for people with disabilities, around a 10.2%. The employability index is over the 40%.
From the UVjob disability section want to state how important days like 3 December is, since “it is needed to bring visibility and normality to disability to get to true equality”. Adding: “George Steiner said that whatever isn’t spoken about does not exist, and so mentioning it is making it visible. We’re working so that the disabled university talents are showcased to the world, disability does not mean unqualified. That is the importance of the specific efforts to tend to people with disabilities”.
Remarked employability programmes
UVjob brought this specific section to develop programmes that improve the employability of university community to gain skills, tools and resources that grant them a suitable job for their education level and job experience. It also promotes professional integration thanks to job advice pathways, education actions and networking with companies and entities.
It is remarkable the results obtained by the experimental program that doubled the job integration in one year thanks to the guidance to the candidates through the job to ensure their success. All thanks to the Welcoming Guide to Disability in Companies by UVjob, “a fundamental tool for the correct reception and full professional development of the personnel with disabilities”.
Universitat de València won the Social Action category CERMI-CV Award for its “contribution to social inclusion of people with disabilities”. The Valencian Community Committee of Representative Entities of People with Disabilities (CERMI-CV) aknowledged that “the direction and work for job integration without barries n which UVjob plays a major role helps the university students with disabilities contact companies and eases their path to a professional development”.
