The University of Valencia has won the award for Best Public Sector Organisation within the framework of the 2012 edition of the Telefónica Ability Awards.
These awards recognise Spanish companies and institutions, public and private, for their commitment and social promotion of attention to disability as an added value within organisations.
The University, now recognised as an Ability entity, has received one of the three overall awards for developing a sustainable model that integrates disability into their value chain.
The academic institution has been the only one from the public sphere that has taken part and passed the six main categories, through the Unitat per a la Integració de Persones amb Discapacitat (Unit for the Integration of People with Disabilities), managed by the University of Valencia General Foundation.
The candidacy for these awards is part of the Sustainable Campus programme and was led by the Office of the Vice-Principal for Teaching Staff and Academic Planning.
These categories are: Commitment of Executive Management and leadership of employees, Recruiting and selection, Accessibility, Customer counseling, Professional progress and training, and Prevention and retention, along with three overall categories: Best large private company, Best small or medium private company, and Best public sector organisation.
To qualify as a finalist, the University of Valencia has had to pass a series of filters and an independent audit.
The tests concluded that the University favours the inclusion of disabled people (both staff and students), and promotes equality and diversity, quality employment of people with disabilities and an accessible, safe and healthy work environment, that it develops an open and inclusive culture within the institution and that it contributes to social development, among other values.
In the Telefónica Ability Awards 2012, there were 414 candidacies from more than 230 organisations, 50 of which qualified as finalists on 17 October, 2012. The University of Valencia received the award for the “Best public sector organisation”.
You can read the news about the award on this link: Web Ability Awards
