RESPOND-HER – Responding to Poverty and Disability through Higher Education and Research
(Laufzeit: 01.10.2011 – 31.12.2014)
Function: Project Coordinator
Financed by the Austrian Development Cooperation within the APPEAR-programme for academic partnership
The project “Responding to Poverty and Disability through Higher Education and
Research” (RESPOND-HER), which is based on academic cooperation between the
Department of Special Needs Education of Addis Ababa University (AAU) and the
Department of Education of the University of Vienna (UV), focuses on the
educational and employment situation of persons with disabilities. As one
of the most marginalized and disadvantaged groups within Ethiopian society,
persons with disabilities face considerably higher risk of poverty. In particular
their rights to education and employment are not sufficiently realized due to
institutional barriers.
The RESPOND-HER project targets two different, but
complementary main objectives:
First, by establishing high quality research
on disability and by fostering the teaching skills of academic staff from AAU,
the project aims to develop sustainable professional capacities at university
level. In the long run, this process will also facilitate the establishment of
training for professionals at non-university institutions.
Second, the
project will facilitate students with disabilities’ access to higher education
and to the labour market by targeting institutional barriers in cooperation
with stakeholders from all regions of the country. The latter will be
complemented by enhancing services and technical equipment for disabled
students at AAU in combination with establishing a nation-wide development plan.