Forming a positive atmosphere in relation to persons with disabilities in the educational space of the university

Abstract

The article covers the topic of constructing an inclusive reality as an understanding of the development of the potential forces of students with disabilities in the university educational space. A factor of this process is the creation of a positive internal atmosphere from the administration, faculty, and students. The goal is to analyze existing ideas in universities regarding inclusion and actions for its implementation based on opinion polls. The main problem of society is the transition from the medical model of disability, according to which a person with a disability is regarded as helpless, in need of support from other people, to a social model, the basis of which is the conclusion about the support of people with disabilities in the development of their abilities and potential. Creation of personal meanings of teachers and students in this direction means a turn in the personal and corporate culture, a new level of social development of society. The basis of these changes is the traditional values of people's mental consciousness: collectivism, mutual aid, and partnership. In the literature, this issue received coverage and development in the works of Gerasimov A.V., Inderbaum E.L., Pozdnyakova I.O., Aleksandrova E.V. It shows that the indicators of involvement of persons with disabilities in the higher education system remain low, in the practice of educational institutions the distance from such students is not eliminated, and there is an urgent need to develop a model of interaction with them in university communities. The results of a sociological survey among students of TUSUR and TSU (234 respondents) suggest that the attitude towards persons with disabilities is more positively demonstrated in those academic groups where they do not exist, which indirectly confirms the existence of exclusion. Regardless of whether people with disabilities study in groups or not, it can be argued that half of the respondents in both groups adhere to the accepting position and this characterizes the atmosphere in universities as positive. However, in their content, these views are based on the traditional values of national identity (collectivism and mutual assistance), but do not go beyond the medical model, the excluding attitude (potential discrimination) remains high. The desire to provide assistance to such students in order to level their capabilities was demonstrated by the overwhelming majority of teachers, including on the basis of their own positions in determining the nature of assistance. More than half of the faculty members are positive about the content of inclusion and the need to develop the potential of such students. At the same time, about a third of respondents from the community of teachers and the student community are ready to the inclusion as an ideology of learning and a navigator of self-development of a person with a disability.