A report on the accessibility conditions at national centers of excellence reveals the necessity of taking reasonable measures to eliminate the physical or technical obstacles faced by students with disabilities in the given institutions. Out of seven centers of excellence, only one turned out to be accessible. Two of the centers are partially accessible, while four are fully inaccessible. The report on the technical examination of the centers of excellence managed by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research was compiled by the Alliance of Organizations for Persons with Disabilities of the Republic of Moldova, IPN reports.
The accessibility of student dorms and blocks of study of 11 centers of excellence was assessed during June 13 – October 15, 2018. Four of the 11 centers examined were being renovated. In the examination process, there were assessed the access up to buildings, existence or absence of ramps and their compliance with the standards, width of entrance doors of buildings and inside them, elements of accessibility and warning for persons with visual impairments, accessibility conditions inside buildings, toilets, accommodation rooms, shower rooms.
The report authors established that the access up to the blocks of study is hampered by sags. The routes are not marked with contrasting and tactile colors and there are no orientation signs for persons with different types of disabilities. There are also no informative panels with schemes of the access ways to buildings located on the territory of centers of excellence.
No center of excellence has reserved parking places close to the entrance to the block of study. All the centers do not have elements of accessibility and warning for persons with visual impairments.
Even if the width of entrance doors and inside doors of buildings are accessible at most of the institutions, the doors at sanitary facilities are narrow. Measures should be taken to adjust the lecture rooms and laboratories to the needs of persons with special needs. The upper floors of the institutions are not accessible to persons with disabilities, as the accommodation rooms, toilets and shower rooms are not.
According to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research, about 1,000 students with severe, accentuated or average disabilities studied at technical vocational education institutions in the 2017-2018 academic year. This is 2.14% of all the students.
