Adapt studies and examinations individuallyUniversity Support for Students with Disabilities

25 September 2023, by Marie Schlicht

Photo: University of Hamburg / Feuerböther

According to current surveys, 16 percent of students in Germany have a disability or health complication that can make studying difficult. Reasonable accommodations can be made for coursework and examinations on an individual basis. The University of Hamburg offers advice on this.

In 2022, around 800 people received advice from Dr Maike Gattermann-Kasper and Dr Susanne Peschke in the Office for Students with Disabilities at the University of Hamburg, whether in person, by phone, or having arranged an individual appointment. “Most of them have psychological difficulties such as depressive and anxiety disorders. But students with chronic diseases, motor impairments, or seeing, hearing, and speech impairments also often come to us,” Gattermann-Kasper and Peschke explain.

Students often wish to adjust examination conditions. The specific accommodation is both a question of the impairment and of the examination format. “All examination regulations include reasonable accommodations, but the accommodations themselves vary. For example in the teacher training programs, oral examination performances can be altered only partially, since speaking in front of groups is one of the formal requirements for the area,” Peschke says. It is important, she continued, to find accommodations suitable for ensuring equal opportunity in examinations without risking accusations that the accommodations have made the examinations easier.

There are a myriad of accommodations

Gattermann-Kasper and Peschke help students, including during periods of illness, when withdrawing from studies or returning after absences, and they give tips on communicating with teaching staff and classmates. If an advising session requires a sign language interpreter or interpreter, the office assumes the costs. Additionally, the office temporarily lends assistive devices such as electronic stethoscopes for students of medicine.

“In some cases, students should plan ahead, “says Peschke. “For example, whoever needs a sign language interpreter or interpreter should take care of things immediately after being admitted to the University due to the processing time.”

Another offer for students is a separate computer room (Betty-Hirsch-Raum) in the State and University Library Carl von Ossietzky, which can be reserved for individual use. Moreover, upon the request of students with disabilities, there is a pilot project currently being conducted with the State and University Library Carl von Ossietzky to digitalize the literature in the Campus Catalogue, which will soon make this accessible to all.

Anonymous advice, no recording of personal data

Despite the various advising offers, there are many students who do not seek help, perhaps because they fear stigmatization. “At the University, however, no data on students with disabilities are kept and in the documents that we issue, for example, so students receive preference for admission to courses, nothing is provided regarding their specific disability,” says Gattermann-Kasper. She wishes to encourage students to always seek out advice. In short, students do not need to worry that third parties will find out about their disabilities or impairments without their explicit consent. “Together, we find a good solution for almost every problem.”