Access to Education under equal conditions for persons with disabilities is an international right recognised through the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities under section 24.
Therefore, and aware that education is the main instrument to guarantee equal opportunities and full social inclusion of persons with disabilities, Fundación ONCE drives programs that promote access of persons with disabilities under equality conditions to quality higher education, actively cooperating with the Spanish university system to eliminate barriers and make higher education institutions become truly inclusive.
At present, within the European university context, the mobility programs are an important part of the strategic plans of the universities; however, the involvement of students with disabilities in these programs continues to be extremely low; for example, according to 2010/2011 course data, only 0.12% of students that took part in the ERASMUS program, 12 persons in total, declared some disability.
In this sense, Fundación ONCE made a commitment to drive access of university students with disabilities to transnational mobility programs that guarantee more complete training and offers better employability opportunities, priority objective of Fundación ONCE. Several actions have been carried out, including:
Inclusion as part of its 'Oportunidad al Talento' grants program, of a specific line for transnational mobility of students with disabilities, supporting them financially so they can cover the stay abroad in a safe manner. During the 2014/2015 academic year, 20 transnational mobility grants of 6,000 Euros each have been granted.
In addition, it promoted the study "Transnational mobility of students with disability: Status review and future challenges", designed to identify the current situation of mobility programs both on a national and international level with regards to university students with disabilities, as well as detect examples of good practices on this matter.
You can review this study in the following link:
http://www.fundaciononce.es/es/publicacion/la-movilidad-transnacional-de...
Finally, we must highlight the cooperation initiated during the 2013/2014 course with the Erasmus Student Network Association in the actions initiated by this association to guarantee the inclusion of university students with disabilities accessing the mobility programs.