For Our Students with Special Needs

The Faculty of Mass Communication, Cairo University receives studentswith different disabilities who join it after passing the ability test, as thefaculty has 6 students with visual disabilities in the academic year 2019/2020,and the number increased to 8 students in the following year 2020/2021. In thecurrent year 2021/2022, there are 19 students with different disabilities indifferent academic years.

The Faculty of Mass Communication allocates one of the faculty’sprofessors as a coordinator for the affairs of students with special needs;Prof. Dr. Saber Asran, who communicates with them personally to help them solveany problems they face. The faculty also provides scientific content of variouscourses for students with special needs on CDs, in addition to the electroniccontent available on the Blackboard platform. The faculty also distributedtablets to students with visual disabilities in different academic years in theArabic program and the English program. In addition, some courses’ professorshave activated Whats App as a means of communicating with special needsstudents and broadcast audio recordings of lectures so that students can followwhat is being taught.

Logistics equipment:

-         Providing an appropriate environment for students with special needs inthe places where exams are held such as providing a corridor for going up anddown as an alternative to stairs in cases of motor disabilities, providingcolored or appropriately sized banners for people with mild visual impairments,appropriate lighting that suits students’ needs, providing special places totake their exams, (tables suitable for people with motor disabilities, pencilswith handles or large pencils.

-         It is allowed to hold special committees for students with differentdisabilities with the approval of the Faculty Council.

-         If the tests are conducted for students with special needs in specialcommittees, the places for the committees are selected on the ground floor orthe possibility of using the elevator for them, choosing places with goodventilation and lighting, and providing places for rest and waiting for them.

-         Provide training for those who participate in the exams of students withspecial needs, whether from the teaching staff, teaching assistants or from theadministrators.

-         Providing the necessary medical care to face any emergency during theexams with regard to special cases.

-         Providing psychological care for students with disabilities during theirexams by reassuring them, whether by a faculty member or administrators trainedin this, or by a member specialized in psychological counseling, or through thepresence of the subject professor - if possible - to reassure the students.

-         Providing the necessary equipment for exams for students with specialneeds; left-handed chairs, electronic devices required to perform their exams,devices that convert the oral answer into a written answer.

-         The course professor - who put the exam – should take into account thetype and degree of the student's disability, to manage the number and contentof questions, by preparing a previous database through student affairs.

-         Providing frequent breaks in the case of tests with a long period oftime.

-         Providing the opportunity for students with special needs and variousdisorders to train for exams by providing the opportunity for training onassistive devices (such as computers dedicated to writing in Braille…), and anopportunity to train on the exam format and how to deal with it by conducting atrial exam for them.

Written exams:

There are some facilities available to them, such as:

-         Extra time.

-         A reader for the questions.

-         A writer for the answers.

-         Electronic, Braille, or Oral Exam.

-         Exemption from parts of the questions provided that it does not includedin the final result.

Oral exams:

-         Granting the student the right to make the entire subject’s grade on thewritten exam without the course work grades if necessary, according to thedegree and type of disability or disorder and after submitting an applicationto the faculty administration.

-         In the event that the student can take the oral test, the test may betaken for him in a special committee, without the presence of his colleagueswith him at the same time according to the type of disability or disorder hesuffers from.

Assignments within lectures and sessions:

-         Granting the student the right to make the entire subject’s grade on thewritten exam without the course work if necessary, according to the degree andtype of disability or disorder and after submitting an application to thefaculty administration.

-         Accounting the student for the amount of effort he made in preparing theassignments required of him in a way that suits his capabilities and the typeof his disability, and in a way that also helps him to develop his abilities.

-         Motivating the student with special needs to participate in groups withhis colleagues to achieve a culture of interaction with students according tothe student desires to do so.

Graduation Project:

-         Student with special needs is allowed to submit an individual graduationproject in the case of group projects and in the case of submitting anapplication in this regard.

-         In the case of submitting an individual work: Allow students with visualimpairments to use Braille to submit their graduation project, while providinga reader for it to evaluate the work submitted by the student.

-         In the case of group work, the student will be held accountable for hiscontribution within the limits of his capabilities.