Ingresso e permanência de alunos com deficiência em universidades Públicas Brasileiras

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify actions and initiatives of Brazilian public universities regarding the admission and permanence of students with disabilities in higher education, in order to verify the barriers and facilitators faced by these students in daily life at this education level. The research method was field research. The participants were 12 Support Service Coordinators and 30 students with disabilities in 13 public universities. There were four sources for collecting evidence: semistructured interviews, documents, direct informal observation and physical artifacts. Some differential service features were encountered: Specialized Educational Services carried out at UNISUL; the structure and organization of support services at UERN and UFPR; the USP Acessível Guide; UNESC policies; the Student Candidate Manual at UFRJ, UDESC, UERN, UNESC, UNISUL, FURB and UnB. The major challenges these universities face regarding access for students with disabilities are: breaking still existing barriers, mainly of attitudinal nature; anticipation and provision of accessible conditions (physical, communicational and pedagogical) and; creation of alternatives, on the part of teachers, to avoid practices that exclude. Thus, adequate materials, professional qualification, architectural adjustments, but mainly investments in actions to combat inadequate and discriminatory attitudes are required, in order to ensure that higher education will be concerned with all students.