Presenter: Lecturer Dr. Carmen Costea (Special Education Department, Babeș-Bolyai University)
Where and when: Office for Students with Disabilities, Dormitory III (ground floor, rear entrance), Hasdeu Student Complex, Wednesday, 19 November 2014, 18:00. Admission is free
Participants: BBU students with and without disabilities, BBU alumni, OSD staff and volunteers and other interested people.
Carmen Costea The BBU Office for Students with Disabilities operates within the BBU Rector’s office, with the objectives of facilitating and supporting the inclusion of students with diverse learning needs in university life, as well as informing teachers and students about accessibility and disability. In this direction, OSD offers a series of educational events on accessibility (physical and social), some of them with the participation of foundations, associations, and institutions (national and international) actively involved in ensuring a barrier-free life for people with disabilities.
During this workshop, students with disabilities and OSD volunteers will have the opportunity to get to know and learn more about the Social Model of Disability (SMD) and its applications in everyday life. MSD was developed in the 1970s and 1980s in the context of the struggle for affirmation and rights of people with disabilities, as a reaction to the bio-medical model approach to disability. From the MSD perspective, disability arises from the individual’s interaction with the society in which they live, i.e., their exposure to cultural, educational, economic or political barriers, marginalization, isolation and segregation.
Within the MSD model, disability is not seen as characteristic of a minority group of people, but pervasive in its various forms, mostly acquired, transcending specific race, class, nationality or other demographic factors.
Communication with and about people with disabilities is carried out with respect and courtesy, through realistic characterizations, putting the person first (“people-first language”), using affirmative language that does not imply making unfavorable comparisons between people with and without disabilities.
We look forward to welcoming you with tea, coffee, and other goodies at the OSD office (Dorm III, ground floor, Hasdeu Student Complex).