How Do Student Associations Step into Action Regarding Disability in Business Schools? | The Example of HEC Paris

by Christine | 05 Feb, 2021

How Do Student Associations Step into Action Regarding Disability in Business Schools? | The Example of HEC Paris

In our last article, we saw all that prestigious business school HEC Paris implemented in order to welcome students with disabilities. Its goal being to support students with disabilities all along their academic journey and even beyond. Raising awareness on disability among all students and faculty staff remains essential since it enhances the inclusion of students with disabilities.

But this inclusion doesn’t just depend on the disability referents. The HEC Paris Handicap association, a student association, works closely with the school’s Disability Program for Learners to meet the needs of students with disabilities, whether it concerns their curriculum or their social life on campus.

Soline Toussaint, President of the association, brings to light all the actions of this committed association!

Hello Soline, can you introduce yourself in a few words?

My name is Soline, I’m 24 years old and I’m currently doing a Master’s degree at HEC Paris. I’m the President of the HEC Paris Handicap association. It was co-founded last September.

Can you tell us more about how this association works regarding disability?

We created the HEC Paris Handicap association having in mind two goals: raising awareness on disability and assisting students with disabilities.

We want to assist learners with disabilities during their academic and professional courses serving as the connection between learners, Alumni, disability referents and companies that seek to be involved in favor of inclusion.

We also want to raise awareness among the whole HEC Paris community and its partners regarding disability by organizing events on campus that are linked to school’s associations and companies.

Why was this association created?

Several students got involved alongside the school’s administration to set up a Disability Program for Learners at HEC Paris. It became obvious for us to continue being involved by founding an association that’s by and for students. It’s often easier to reach young people when the initiative comes from a student association rather than the administration.

For the moment, due to COVID-19, business schools like HEC Paris can’t organize physical events. Have you planned any actions and activities once we’ll all have better days?

We have a lot of ideas and we hope that we’ll soon be able to implement them.

We’d like first to set up round-table discussions with personalities from different walks of life to provide a meeting of minds on disability: paralympic athletes, managers/HR/CEOs, employees with disabilities, association presidents… We’d also like to organize parasports workshops, film screenings and awareness days to change people’s minds on disability.

In order to reach a large audience, including the notion of inclusion in some of our speeches is part of our goals. This will be the case from April with a module on diversity and inclusion that will be part of the LVMH Chair. We’d also like to define a strong communication plan in order to use social media to communicate key numbers, certain public debates, awareness videos and make certain diseases and the proper attitudes to adopt known.

Lastly, we’d like for people with disabilities to easily enter into working life organizing resume, cover letter and mentorship workshops with partner companies. We’d also like to incite students with disabilities to apply to HEC Paris and join us!

All of these actions are made possible thanks to the development of strong relationships with other associations (inside and outside HEC) and partner companies of HEC Paris. Our main concern is to raise awareness among the greatest number of people and not just the ones that are directly affected by disability. We are convinced that we’ll be able to change how disability is viewed at work and in everyday life by making future managers and decision makers grow.

HEC Paris has implemented a whole politics towards disability inclusion, do you work hand in hand with disability referents? Teaching staff? If so, can you explain how?

HEC Paris created a Disability Program for Learners to best assist people with disabilities, whether they are learners or employees. It’s crucial that all parties involved are represented and that they work together in order to fully collaborate. Therefore, career and administration offices, teachers, disability referents and students stand together and can count on the support of HEC Paris legal and communication offices.

For our part, we are committed to convey the voice of learners, regardless of their program (the Grande Ecole program, Specialized Masters and MSc, PhD, MBA, EMBA…) in this ecosystem by regularly participating in discussions. We’re in close contact with the disability referents dedicated to students. Some of them are teachers or are still members of the administration.

HEC Paris has more than a hundred associations, do you create connections with some of them?

Indeed, HEC Paris has more than 160 student clubs! In order to reach the largest number of people, including those who don’t feel concerned about disability, it’s essential to develop strong relationships with other student clubs. This enables our actions to gain more impact and bring us visibility on campus.

Last November, we were supposed to organize the screening of the movie The Specials in partnership with movies association Making Of but this was postponed due to the present sanitary situation. We’re going to organize a round-discussion table with the HEC Débats association. Student media KIP also published an article on disability. We’d like to include sports associations to organize parasports workshops during MBAT for example which is a large European sports meeting organized by MBA students from HEC Paris on the campus.

What do you wish for 2021 and the following years?

This being my last year at HEC Paris, I’ll graduate next June. I hope that other students will get involved so that the association remains. I wish the sanitary crisis improved so that we could go back to normal. Lastly, I wish for disability not to be seen as scary but for what it is: a strength and a richness for people with disabilities but also for everybody who interacts with them.

Find out more information on accessibility in business schools and colleges in our articles:

How Do Business Schools Include Students with Disabilities? | The Example of HEC Paris

The Trailblazers of College Accessibility in the United States

Cover photo credits: Jean-Marc Biais

media

A workshop mixing different profiles of students

It became obvious for us to continue being involved by founding an association that’s by and for students. It’s often easier to reach young people when the initiative comes from a student association rather than the administration.

writer

Christine Pestel

Communications Manager

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How Do Business Schools Welcome and Include Students with Disabilities? | The Example of HEC Paris

by Christine | 29 Jan, 2021

Students training to be tomorrow's managers and entrepreneurs

How Do Business Schools Welcome and Include Students with Disabilities? | The Example of HEC Paris

Being ranked as one of the best business schools in the world, HEC Paris in France is committed to highlighting the diversity of its students, including students with disabilities. Thanks to Cécile Marty’s insight, disability referent at HEC Paris, we can have a look at all the actions put in place by this business school all along the academic careers of students and faculty staff. These actions aim at meeting the identified needs of students with disabilities and at the same time at training tomorrow’s leaders to favor diversity and inclusion in our society.

HEC Paris is a prestigious and world famous business school. Can you tell us about its politics towards students with disabilities?

The Disability Program for Learners for students with disabilities was officially launched in 2019. But a lot of initiatives were already in place on campus which means that we’ve mostly worked in coherence with students, candidates and graduates with disabilities concerning our actions.

Therefore, we decided to characterize this program according to students with disabilities’ classic academic careers, regardless of the chosen curriculum: before, during and after studying at our business school. (You can find more details on the Disability Program for Learners.)

Simultaneously, this issue being connected to medical secrecy, we’ve undertaken a necessary GDPR compliance (General Data Protection Regulation) launching an external communication campaign, a dedicated and intern web page and an Intranet page.

The strong point of our actions focuses on raising disability awareness in our campus community. In order to succeed, we work closely with the disability referent dedicated to HEC Paris’ faculty staff and the student association on disability. We decided to concentrate on microawareness among our administrative body which deals with students, whether it concerns our admissions or academic affairs offices. The implicit idea is to enable students or candidates to feel comfortable enough to open a dialogue with the faculty member of their choosing. This whole network enables me, with the students’ consent, to start a constructive dialogue on the necessary pedagogical or extracurricular on-campus accommodations. Our medical center also plays a huge part in our program thanks to our doctors and nurses. They do a great job in conveying downward information to students in a difficult situation and upward information to the disability referents in order to make the adequate support easier.

More wide-ranging awareness actions also took place and will continue to do so in a near future in order to alert our students, tomorrow’s managers, on disability and inclusion. The goal is to provide them with the keys of comprehension and integration regarding disability.

Let’s say I have a disability, what would my course look like before and after my admission at HEC Paris?

The dedicated web page on our disability program enables any potential candidate to find practical information on the type of support we provide plus a phone number or an email address to start a personal and confidential dialogue with us. This way, we regularly receive candidates to talk about their application and lift the psychological barriers regarding their disability. We also decided not to ask questions on the potential situations of disabilities on our application platforms. Besides, information on disability profiles gathered by our BCE (Banque Commune d’Épreuves) remains confidential. Every candidate can have an open dialogue about the different disability profiles either on the platforms open to students on which we published practical and operational information or via the intermediary of our admissions offices.

Would I benefit from any personalized support according to my disability profile?

We cannot speak in terms of personalized support. However, we provide each student with disabilities with the opportunity to confidentially and individually meet with a disability referent at the beginning of the academic year. This first meeting permits to establish a constructive dialogue. Different measures can be implemented (more time for exams, adapted pedagogical documents, a sign language interpreter, scholarships…) and new appointments can take place during the year depending on everybody’s needs and wishes. Throughout the year, we receive propositions regarding disabilities from our partners. All these propositions are systematically communicated to the students who declare to have a disability.

HEC Paris has an international branch. Is the course for students with disabilities the same wherever they study?

Indeed, HEC Paris has a branch in Doha, Qatar. The disability program also applies to students with disabilities who attend there. We can provide remote support.

What barriers do you encounter regarding disability on campus?

Whatever the context may be, it’s still difficult to talk about disability. We encounter the usual barriers. I still hear (although it’s less frequent) “But there aren’t any students with disabilities on campus.” The educational dimension is more important than never and I constantly remind people that only 2% of people with disabilities use wheelchairs and that 80% of the declared disabilities are not visible. We also encounter psychological barriers from potential candidates who fear that their disability will prevent them from being admitted to our business school. I keep reminding them that discrimination towards people with disabilities is punished by law and that all the energy they spend in counterbalancing the difficulties they meet regarding their disability actually represents a major asset for their application.

What’s your wish for 2021 and the following years to come?

I wish for this program to grow and lift all barriers. I wish an honest and open dialogue was put in place to make the academic careers of students with disabilities, both at HEC Paris and at all academic institutions, easier. I also wish for disability awareness on campuses to improve so that all students can turn into socially responsible managers and for students with disabilities to be more easily included in the professional world.

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About HEC Paris

Specializing in education and research in management sciences, HEC Paris offers a complete and unique range of academic programs for the leaders of tomorrow: the Grande Ecole program, Specialized Masters and MSc, Summer School programs, the MBA, Executive MBA and TRIUM Global Executive MBA programs, the Ph.D. program and a wide range of programs for executives and managers.

Founded in 1881 by the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry, HEC Paris has a full-time faculty of 140 professors, 4,500 students and 8,000 managers in executive education programs every year.

Read our article The Trailblazers of College Accessibility in the United States for more examples of solutions on including students with disabilities.

Photo credits: © Aurélia Blanc