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About ESVI-AL

It is estimated that about 10% of the world population has a disability, most part living in developing countries. In the case of Latin America (LA), according to the rates in 2005 of the World Organization of People with Disability (OMPD, acronym in Spanish), the total population with disability is estimated to be 60 million habitants, just in LA. Access of people with disability to higher education is directly related, mainly, with the availability of material, economic and cultural resources. As disability is basically poor (according to the declaration of the OMPD from Lima, 2010, 80% of people with disability in the world, live in poverty conditions), the number of people that get to a higher education is a little portion compared to the number of people who suffer from it. As an example, we can take a look at the case of Paraguay (One of the countries participating in this project), where, with a disability rate between 12 and 20% of the total population, and an illiteracy rate of 43%, of 57% of people with disability, which have gotten into school, only 2% has received a higher education; and this lack of education leads up to a severe problem later on for labor market integration. Similar cases can be found in the rest of LA countries, as for example, Uruguay, with a 1,5% of people with disability as university students (Data from 2005, from the International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2005).

According to the Organization of American States (OAS), on 2009, 11,4% of the population in the continent has a disability. According to the OAS, Peru is the country with the highest percent of people with disability, 18,5%; followed by United states with a 15% and then Ecuador with a 12,8%. The countries with a lower percent are El Salvador (1,5%), Bahamas (2,3%) and Surinam and Jamaica with a 2,8%, according to the OAS. The OAS states, furthermore, that in the world, from 500 to 600 million people suffers from a disability, of which 85% does not have access to rehabilitation services and 95% does not go to school and therefore, receive a higher education, which reduces the possibilities of labor market integration in the future. In the case of other participant countries in the project, Ecuador, the CONADIS (Acronym in Spanish for National Council for People with Disability from Ecuador) estimates that from the total population of Ecuador, on 2010, the 13,2% are people with some type of disability.

It is accurate to assume that the challenge of advancing towards an inclusive higher education is going through a progressive and substantial increase of the alternative education practices based on information and Communications Technologies (ICT), which would enable aside from an effective democratization of the system, an amplification and modernization of the labor markets. The progressive establishment of modalities of accessible long distance virtual education would revert the current situation in a relatively brief period. The same aforementioned study establishes that, by proceeding systematically in this sense, in a period of ten years, the amount of enrolled students with disability could triplicate in the space of higher education in LA areas, and in twenty years it could quadruplicate.

Additionally, given the reduced number of people with disability that receives a higher education, as well as those who could but, for reasons of a socioeconomic nature, cannot access to it, the implementation of virtual systems of support, follow-up and lectures (based on from a computer to mobile telephony), which considerably reduces the need of moving from one place to another, especially from isolated rural areas; as well as the use of sophisticated and accessible materials that would permit to get a fast increase in this population, giving them improvement possibilities that, at least, make their disability situations relative. It is about applying the technology to decrease any type of obstacle for inclusion, so that disability and university unite in this project, reducing the digital divide and making words like educational, social and labor integration a reality; in favor of the fulfillment of human rights of all people. Moreover, the project will facilitate the accomplishment of the legislation in effect in the countries, which establishes the legally binding condition of the inclusion of people with disability in public institutions, but for a lack of accessible higher education, is not possible.

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