The Industrial University of Santander is making progress in building a more inclusive and supportive academic community through the “UIS Somos Todos” program, an initiative that promotes integration, respect, and active participation of the entire university community, with special attention to students with diverse functional abilities and groups prioritized by inclusive education policy.
Adriana Castillo Pico, director of Health Research, highlighted that the program responds to a reality that is increasingly present in classrooms: “We are receiving more and more students who have particular conditions that require more detailed attention and different types of programs. It is important that teachers know what steps to take when they observe a student who may have learning difficulties, in their mobility, or in their hearing conditions, we know which structures and groups within the university work to try to place the student first with that focus group and then, based on that, be able to extrapolate to their work in the classroom and all the benefits that the university can offer them so that the condition can be remedied.”
The program not only focuses on caring for people with disabilities or on the autism spectrum, but also encompasses indigenous, black, Raizal, and gypsy communities, victims of conflict, and demobilized persons, among other population sectors.
Carol Sánchez, a support professional from the Student Welfare Department, explained that “the Somos Todos program is our inclusion program, which is specifically aimed at the priority groups identified in the inclusive education policy. These groups include people with disabilities, indigenous people, black people, Raizal people, Roma people, victims of conflict, demobilized people, among others. The objective of the program is to provide support, accompany students in their dealings with other academic and administrative units, and, above all, document these processes with the aim of creating a historical record of everything that the Industrial University of Santander is doing in terms of inclusion, reasonable adjustments, and affirmative action, in order to guarantee that education is a fundamental right.”
In this joint effort, the university coordinates actions between Student Welfare, the Academic Vice-Rector’s Office, the Academic Council, and other departments, with the aim of training teachers and building increasingly inclusive classrooms. Sánchez emphasized that “we support teachers in training, in inclusion, in the construction of universal learning design, and the goal is for the university to increasingly guarantee those inclusive classrooms where education is a reality for everyone, that we as an institution increasingly eliminate the barriers that have been built socially and culturally, and that ultimately the goal of the university and all the professionals who are part of it is to eliminate those barriers to guarantee the university and education as a right.”
With integration activities, volunteering, commemorations, and coordination with educational institutions in the region, ‘UIS Somos Todos’ has established itself as a program that not only promotes inclusion but also strengthens the sense of community on and off campus.
