Accessibility

Whether they have been in post for a long time or have only just started, representatives, counsellors and teaching staff alike face many shared challenges. Issues relating to disadvantage compensation, advising students with disabilities and chronic illnesses, or ensuring accessible teaching and examinations are part of everyday working life. Often, the best solutions emerge where experiences are shared and knowledge is developed collaboratively. It is precisely this exchange of expertise that can make a decisive difference.

The Accessibility Services (ZAB) are addressing precisely this issue with the "InkluBuddy – Network for Inclusive Counselling and Teaching" project and aim to strengthen uniform quality standards within the North Rhine-Westphalia State Working Group on Studies and Disability (LAG SB NRW) using a variety of methods. The project is being funded with 225,000 euros by the Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education under the "Focus on Networks 2026" funding programme, running from October 2026 to September 2029.

The project centres on the development of a structured buddy programme in which participants support one another on relevant issues through various forms of exchange. The cross-university exchange of experiences amongst colleagues is intended to strengthen skills in the areas of inclusion and accessibility, make it easier to manage the diverse range of tasks, and provide a space for peer-to-peer consultation. Together, participants can reflect on experiences relating to topics such as disadvantage compensation, case work, accessible teaching and examinations, as well as collaboration with teaching staff and examination offices, and further develop approaches. The aim is to highlight best practices and share them across higher education institutions.

InkluBuddy sees itself not merely as a mentoring programme, but as a network for the exchange of expertise. Through collaboration between participants, the aim is to establish comparable quality standards for counselling, disadvantage compensation, and ensuring the accessibility of study programmes, teaching and examinations. In this way, the project contributes to the professionalisation of counselling and support structures at higher education institutions in North Rhine-Westphalia. To ensure that best practices and expertise can lead to shared quality standards in the long term, a modular Moodle self-study course is to be developed based on these very standards. This course will consolidate the collective knowledge on the various topics. In addition, the Moodle self-study course will provide a platform that universities can use in future for professional development programmes and certificate programmes in higher education pedagogy. In this way, the insights gained from the Buddy Programme will remain usable even beyond the project’s duration.

Are you interested in networking or taking part in InkluBuddy? Please feel free to contact us at zab@uni-bielefeld.de. The project thrives on the active participation of coordinators and advisers who wish to share their knowledge, as well as (new) colleagues and interested teaching staff who wish to develop their skills in the field of inclusion and accessibility. By sharing knowledge, exchanging experiences and tackling challenges together, we can create an inclusive university. InkluBuddy aims to establish a sustainable network to this end, one that strengthens collaboration and further develops the quality of counselling and teaching at universities in the long term.

The project is one of two funded projects by the Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education Teaching at Bielefeld University. More information on the funding is available here.