The Disability Services Unit at the Centre for Psychological Services and Career Development (PsyCaD) at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) received a Fuchs Golden Years flagship grant to establish the Fuchs Regional Disability Resource Centre on the UJ Soweto Campus. The grant will run from 2016 to 2019.
The Fuchs grant will:
- enable appropriate, adapted career counselling for learners with disabilities at schools;
- provide adapted assessments with the aim of recommending concessions (these are any adaptations that are made at tests or exams for learners with disabilities);
- help teachers at special schools to provide concessional support and accommodation;
- upskill and train staff that work with students and learners with disabilities at TVET colleges and schools; and
- provide assistance with and provision of operational tasks such as formatting, software training and brailling documents.
Fuchs’s support will allow for better access to tertiary education for the disabled and where tertiary study is not possible, the grant allows for adequate support for this group.
The premise behind the Fuchs Centre is a response to the call from government to consolidate and share educational resources to address disablity issues. This aims to redress inequalities of the past and to provide standardised best practices across educational institutions.
In Gauteng, there are vast differences between institutions when it comes to disability support, particularly when it comes to levels of support and staffing. This ranges from no support at all to well-established and resourced disability units.
Due to the generosity of the Fuchs Foundation in the past UJ as been able to provide support to all students with disabilities on all three campuses. Staff rotate to each site to provide essential services.
The Fuchs Centre serves as the central point where students with disabilities can register to ensure that they are supported and accommodated while completing their tertiary education.
The Centre will advocate for holistic disability support and address any barriers that may confront students with disabilities so that effective learning and development can be provided and sustained.
