Description

The Inclusion and Special Needs Support Center at Qatar University (QU) receives students with motor, visual, and hearing disabilities, brain and nerve injuries, learning difficulties, speech disorders, mental disorders, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, chronic diseases, and temporary injuries. The Center currently supports about 500 male and female students.

The Center’s Services

• Academic Support Services: The Academic Support Project works on providing daily support to students with special needs, by issuing a letter of recommendations based on the medical reports and detailed interview, following up on their implementation with faculty members, and tracking services with the Transportation and Security Department to issue traffic and parking permits. This project includes the provision of escorts for writing and reading during lectures, as well as setting special arrangements for exams (extra time, escorts for reading and writing the exam, separate halls), depending on the case.

• Assistive Technology Services: The Center provides assistive technology solutions that suit different disabilities and offers appropriate training on each device. The Center also works on building a comprehensive design model for learning at QU by integrating assistive technology in libraries, colleges, and e-books, as well as conducting assistive technology assessment for all students with special needs.

• Physical and Digital Accessibility Services: The project ensures that all facilities and buildings in the University and all websites are accessible to all students with special needs. This project also works on converting curriculum texts into accessible formats.

• Inclusion Services: Through this project, the Center works on monitoring the success of students with special needs, ensuring that they are enrolled in disciplines suitable for their disabilities, and selecting the appropriate academic subjects that do not pose a threat to their public safety. This project works on student retention and success, as well as enhancing the access of students with disabilities to student programs and activities provided by QU, in order to ensure their involvement in student life, enrich their university experience, and refine their personalities.

• Student Lifecycle Services: Through this project, the Center develops and implements an integrated plan to cover the student’s lifecycle from recruitment to employment, by visiting secondary schools, meeting with students with special needs, along with their parents, and preparing them to move to the University, as well as following up on them. The Center also works in coordination with the Professional Services Center to prepare students with special needs for the labor market and assist in their appropriate employment through the Center’s community partnerships.

• Community Outreach Services: The community outreach project coordinates with institutions working in the field of supporting persons with disabilities in the State of Qatar, in order to exchange experiences and benefit from the integration of services in supporting students with special needs at QU and abroad.

• Services of Comprehensive Design for Learning: This project raises awareness on the QU’s community and the Qatari society regarding the issues and rights of students with special needs, as well as the roles and services of the Inclusion Center. The project also entails updating the Center's website with a distinguished set of digitally validated scientific materials, translations, and videos.

• "Yes I Can" Initiative: It is a student initiative that focuses on students with special needs and their friends at QU. The initiative won "Akhlaquna" award, sponsored by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, may God protect her. This initiative seeks to highlight the active and vital role of people with special needs in building the nation and serving the community, and to correct the prevailing social view and misconceptions that undermine the capabilities of people with special needs in the social responsibility. The initiative works with the rest of the Qatari society to promote the concepts of empowerment, inclusion, social solidarity, and joint teamwork for the sake of the nation's development and prosperity.