States News Service
April 30, 2014 Wednesday

OSCE OFFICE IN YEREVAN SUPPORTS ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION FOR DISABLED PEOPLE

YEREVAN

The following information was released by the Organization for
Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE):

Opportunities, problems and challenges of higher education for people
with disabilities was the focus of an OSCE-supported roundtable
discussion today in Yerevan.

The event is organized by the OSCE Office in Yerevan, the Bridge of
Hope NGO and the National Tempus Office in Armenia (funded by the EU),
with the aim of creating a forum to exchange information and ideas to
better serve the needs of disabled people.

“The OSCE promotes inclusion as a tenet of democracy across its 57
participating States. Access to education is particularly important
especially for people with disabilities,” said Oliver McCoy,
Democratization Programme Officer at the OSCE Office in Yerevan. “I am
pleased to participate in today’s discussions and feel that this is
the type of dialogue that needs to occur for Armenia’s academic
institutions to develop further.”

Today’s discussion brings together representatives from various
educational institutions of Armenia, as well as NGOs and ministries,
to highlight the importance of ensuring access to inclusive education,
social integration and the non-discrimination treatment of people with
disabilities.

Lana Karlova, Co-ordinator of the National Tempus Office in Armenia,
added: “Tempus ASPIRE project promotes and develops educational
opportunities for people with special needs. Through professional
attitude at educational institutions a level of acceptance of those
people will be increased in the society. The rights of people with
individual needs should be ensured.”

The event is held to coincide with Armenia’s national day on raising
awareness on the right to education of people with disabilities, as
part of the project on Access to Society for People with Individual
Requirements (ASPIRE). The project has conducted various
awareness-raising events in Armenian higher education institutions,
co-ordinated by Eurasia International University.

The OSCE Office in Yerevan supports activities aimed at increasing the
capacity of youth to contribute to the development of representative
and inclusive democracy in Armenia.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress