The event analyzed the situation of students with disabilities in Latin America and shared various strategies to preserve the educational quality of all students, in the context of the global health crisis.

In order to share the different strategies to preserve the quality of education during the global health crisis, the Coordinator of the Network of Chilean State Universities for the Inclusion of Students with Disabilities and an academic from the University of La Serena, Dr. Georgina García, represented the State Universities of Chile, participated in an international meeting for the inclusion of university students with disabilities.

The virtual meeting was convened by the Latin American and Caribbean Interuniversity Network on Disability and Human Rights, led by the academic from the University of La Plata, Mg. Sandra Katz.

The meeting was attended by the Minister of Disability of Paraguay, César Martínez, along with representatives of state and private universities from Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Guatemala, Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile, in where it was agreed to systematize the experiences of different countries in order to promote collaboration between higher education institutions.

Previous meeting with Chilean universities

Prior to the Latin American meeting, Dr. García organized a virtual meeting where representatives of the Ministry of Education, the Department of Evaluation, Measurement and Educational Registration (DEMRE) University of Chile and the different national universities participated, in order to analyze the educational quality that students with disabilities are receiving, in the context of distance classes due to the health crisis.

At this meeting, the different universities in the country announced the advances they have implemented in terms of educational and social inclusion of people with disabilities.

During the meeting, representatives of the University of La Serena, Arturo Prat University, Playa Ancha University, University of Chile, University of Santiago de Chile, Metropolitan University of Educational Sciences, University of O”Higgins, University of Talca, University of Bio-Bio, Universidad de La Frontera, Universidad de Los Lagos and Universidad de Magallanes expressed their concern about maintaining these advances and guaranteeing accessibility in curricular designs, educational materials and work platforms, which allow preserving quality and pedagogical equity. for all students.

Finally, it was agreed to inform the authorities of this situation and systematize inclusive educational experiences, at this level of education, in addition to conducting online training for professionals from the support units for students with disabilities of the 18 CUECH universities. in order to improve the quality of curricular adjustments, in the context of distance classes.