Student with practical experience

What is the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities?

This treaty, also known as the UN Convention on Disability, is an international human rights treaty based on inclusion so that everyone has equal opportunities, including in education. The Netherlands signed this treaty in 2016. The government must therefore ensure an inclusive education system. The aim is that people with disabilities should be able to develop their personality, talents and creativity to the fullest extent possible. Educational institutions are therefore obliged to work towards reasonable adjustments for equal access to education at all levels for students with disabilities or support needs.

Aspects of equal treatment

1. Non-discrimination: no one should be discriminated against on the basis of their disability. This includes access to education and participation in educational activities.
2. Reasonable adjustments: educational institutions should take measures to ensure that students have equal opportunities, such as adjusting physical infrastructure, teaching materials and so on.
3. Accessibility: educational institutions must be accessible to all students. This applies both to the physical accessibility of buildings, but also to the accessibility of teaching materials, technologies and information services.
4. Inclusive education: the Convention promotes the concept of inclusive education, placing students with and without disabilities together in the same classrooms and educational environments. This contributes to a more inclusive society and promotes understanding and respect.

Principles of the United Nations Convention on Disability

1. Equality: the UN Convention on Disability is based on the principle of equality. The principle of equality is about equal treatment and equal opportunity. The basis of this principle is that everyone should be treated equally in equal cases, regardless of differences between people. Sometimes this means giving unequal treatment to create equal opportunities.
2. Autonomy: autonomy (independence and self-direction) is an important fundamental principle of the Convention. For example, the convention states that people with disabilities have the right to attend school independently.
3. Accessibility: in order to participate in society and the educational system, it must be accessible. This means taking measures that make educational buildings, study areas and digital learning environments accessible to all.
4. Effective: The Convention states that accommodations for students with disabilities must be effective, but they must not place a disproportionate burden on the educational institution or others. What is disproportionate is difficult to say. There is no clear guideline or definition. Therefore, the benefits and burdens of an adaptation must be weighed on a situation-by-situation basis. An educational institution should never say in advance that an adjustment is not feasible, but should always research the possibilities first.
5. Involving experts by experience: the UN Convention on Disability cannot be implemented without experts by experience. After all, they know best what and how things can be done better. Therefore, the convention requires the government and educational institutions to involve experts by experience: nothing about us, without us.
6. Thinking from the social model: you can look at people with disabilities from different perspectives. For example, that disability is a medical problem of an individual. The UN convention starts from the social model. This model assumes that society limits a person by being inaccessible. Because society is designed according to the needs of the majority of people, a part of society is excluded from participation. Therefore, the social model places the responsibility on society to remove obstacles for persons with disabilities.

Who play an important role?

The government

The government makes laws, implements policies, and ensures that others also comply with treaty obligations.

The Human Rights Board

The college monitors the convention in the Netherlands and investigates individual complaints about admission, adjustments and also, for example, a discrimination complaint

The educational institution

Educational institutions are obliged to promote equal opportunities in education. (UN Convention, Article 24) This means they must provide adaptations for general accessibility of buildings and information systems and educational materials.

Students with disabilities or support needs

As an expert by experience, to realize inclusive education, it is important to have a voice in the creation and implementation of education policy: ‘nothing about us, without us’

Tips on how to handle this

1. Tell about yourself

Share your personal experiences of studying with a disability with fellow students. What have you encountered? How did you deal with this? The online community for students by experience facilitates this.

2. Share your experience

• Together with fellow students, let your voice be heard. What opportunities do you see within your program to make education more accessible?
• Share an experience story to help other students as well. It also helps education professionals. Your experiences give them a better idea of what is going on and how they can best support students during their studies, internships and, for example, when transitioning to work.

3. Make yourself visible

Engage with the board of your educational institution about possible improvements. This can be done, for example, through the participation council or through a student platform. On onbelemmerdstuderen.nl you can read more about this.

4. Give your opinion

Use the moments when you can (un)ask your opinion, for example in the National Student Survey. This is how you contribute to the monitoring of education.

5. Let your voice be heard

• Participate, when your energy and health permit, in activities, for example from the student union, that contribute to national policy and (international) legislation on studying with a disability.
• ECIO, together with advocacy groups such as JongPit, Ieder(in), JOBmbo, LSVb and ISO, also regularly organizes brainstorming sessions especially for students with support needs. We bring the input we receive from students to the attention of schools and the national government. Calls for participation in these think-aloud sessions can be found our social media channels and the online community for students by experience.
• Are you experiencing discrimination complaints? Then have a conversation at your educational institution about what you are entitled to. Can’t work it out? Then contact the Human Rights Board (mensenrechten.nl). On their website you can also read judgments of previous complaints.

6. Learn more

Read more about the UN Convention in the brochure by Every(in): UN Convention on Disability What it says and what’s in it for us?

Take a look at onbelemmerdstuderen.nl here you will find all the information about (financial) schemes and facilities that will help you study unimpeded.