Developing an Inclusive University trough Student Activities and Roles

Similar to some other developing countries, there are two major points in the disability issues in Indonesia. Firstly, disability is not listed among very popular issues in this country, even the terminology of “difabel” or “disabilitas are not well-known among the society. Secondly, disabled people are often disregarded as marginal citizens.These two conditions occurdue to lack of comprehension about disability issues among the citizens. Consequently, disabled people are sometimes judged by their limitations and difficulties rather than their efforts to be acknowledged as common citizens of the country.

Students in universitiesthat are in the highest position among any other students havesuch a significant power to determine future policies of a country. Therefore, what is endeavoured by college students today could be the projection of what will really happen in Indonesia in the next twenty to thirty years.

Students and Disabled People: for Whom?

According to Faqih (1999) in his article “Access for equality, laying the foundation of social justice for disabled people”, there is one important responsibility for intellectuals, whether they are government officers, academics or NGOs practitioners, that is to encourage social changes by criticizing the regulations and social relations to be more fundamental, to utilize new approach as well as to promote equality[1]. Since students belong to intellectual communities, they have the same responsibility to create equal and balanced social construction, like what has been claimed by moral and humanity values.

Challenges faced by students are various, especially under the condition that the priority of education lies on the quantity rather than quality, which eventually leads to dehumanization, that is contradictive with wishes of society. Students in universities are identical in the vertical position at the highest level of education in the socio-cultural construction of society. Both theoretically and practically, they play a very significant role in determining the change of regulation in society, not only in the realm of thoughts but also in social activities. Consequently, as potential successors to the country’s next leaderships, students must have adequate social sensitivities. The social sensitivity becomes the main capital to see how the students metamorphose to be the country’s agent of changes.

Hence, students in universities can influence this country’s policies, particularly in the disability issues. The disabled people in the country are in serious condition. Department (now Ministry) of Social Republic of Indonesia stated that in 2007, the quantity of people with special needs in this country reaches 3,063,663 people. The House of Representatives when delivering the memorandum of Act Number 4 of 1997 uttered that there were 5% (and WHO claimed 7-10% ) of the population with special needs tend to increase due to the complexity of the causes of disability[2].

Gadjah Mada University and Student Activity Unit of “Disability Care”

Student roles in disability issues are very crucial if we relate with the long-term orientation. Student Activity Unit of “Disability Care” (here in after refereed as Disability Care) in Gadjah Mada University, as the only student activity unit in Indonesia focussing on disability issues, has created such a significant impact in developing an inclusive university. This student activity unit was the embryo to develop an inclusive society.

Disability Care was founded two years ago, precisely on June 7, 2013. Nonetheless, the process for developing an inclusive university has been executed since the formation of Disabled Students and Partner Forum (FMDP) in December 2011. However, FMDP was vacuum because I have no partner to run the activities within the organization. In April 2012 and in December 2012,we held the first national seminar with the theme “Critics to The Roles of Students for the issue of Education for the Disabled Person”.

Until now, there are several impacts created by Disability Care to develop GadjahMada University as an inclusive university by means of the roles of students as main actors. The impacts are as follows:

First, services and facilities in the university began to be accessible for the disabled people. It can be seen clearly from how the main building or the rector building that is now in the process of construction will be equipped with lifts and ramps for promoting accessibility for the disabled people. Since the 1990s, the construction of lifts and ramps have been voiced but the realization is just this year.

Second, the students started to pay attention to students with disabilities since the Disability Care was found. Disabled students in Gadjah Mada University before the founding of Disability Care had no place to accommodate their needs and aspirations through student activity. Galuh SukmaraSujanto, an alumnus of Faculty of Psychology who graduated in 2010 and had spent ten years in this university, said that there were many discriminations here for disabled students.

Since facilities for disabled students are different, Disability Care and Directorate of Student Affairs Gadjah Mada University joined in their developments, for instance, a different form for students with disabilities in Academic Information System. This special form contains several items that are necessary for disabled students during the lectures to support their activities for the students’ achievements in academic and non-academic fields.

In addition to the above two impacts, Disability Care is very active in advocacy issues related to disability, especially in campus level. For example, advocacy in a case of discrimination in the admission process that became a trending topic in 2014. This case occurred because there were conditions that did not make any sense in the admission process. In the Faculty of Philosophy, Psychology, Cultural Studies and others, all disabled people, whether they are deaf, speech impaired, physically disabled, blind or so forth were not qualified to admission.

Thus, Disability Care initiated a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) where by the Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs invited all Deans from all faculties in Gadjah Mada University. Even though our endeavour has not yet fully succeeded since some faculties does not change this regulation, but our effort has given a significant contribution for disabled students by providing opportunities to study in Gadjah Mada University, especially in socio-humanities majors.

Civilizing Disability Perspectives

Disability Care is also active in providing personal assistance to students with disabilities. For instance, there was a deaf student in Faculty of Animal Science that we, along with Student Council of Faculty of Animal Science, bring to the Chairman of undergraduate program and Vice Dean due to disability problems. The results of the meeting were to adjust the facilities with the student’s needs that facilitate him during the lecturing process. He is the first deaf student in the Faculty of Animal Science.

Disability Care does not only support students with disabilities but also creates and develops a constructive mindset changes, especially for non-disabled students as the majority group. The mind set change must occur because in order to build an inclusive culture, the non-disabled students also play significant roles. By considering the long-term period, where they will take over the leaderships in the next 20-30 years, the involvement of the students becomes very urgent.

Since Disability Care concerns in disability issues, one of the activities is that to conduct a campaign to promote the rights of students with disabilities as one important part of civilizing cultural perspectives both directly and indirectly. The change of atmosphere can be felt, as many students started to up hold disability as a theme of their activities, by either individually or collectively, even some students are willing to work with students with disabilities. For instance, Student Council of Faculty of Geography, Faculty of Medicine, Vocational School, Faculty of Psychology, Faculty of Law, and so forth are working with Disability Care Nevertheless, even though some student organizations does not join Disability Care to supportthe disability issues, they do it independently and in some parts, they coordinate with Disability Care.

As stated by Kartini Kartono (1990), students have three influential factors at oncenamely, social force, moral force, and political force[3]. Such factors can be witnessed in student activities in Gadjah Mada University today. Since as per the assessment of the Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education, student activities in Gadjah Mada University have practiced very highvalues that hopefully will bethe future projections of this nation. Therefore, Disability Care, with its student activities and roles, shows several significant impacts to develop an inclusive university to support an inclusive society in Indonesia by means of civilizing disability perspectives for long-term orientation. (Mukhanif Yasin Yusuf)