The OPD – for whom?

The Office for Persons with Disabilities is for you, if:

• You experience an influence of disability and/or chronic health problems (you do not have to have a formal disability status! But you do have medical documents);
• You experience temporary health problems. Their effects make the standard regulations of the study process, ie the limit of admissible absence, handwritten quotations and/or the session date become a barrier for you;
• Your health problems have a significant impact on the effectiveness of learning or on the various activities that are important for your smooth functioning;
• By your right to protect sensitive information, you would like to submit detailed medical documentation to the OPD and obtain a written summary of the key conclusions it contains for other university endeavors, than adjusting the OPD-mediated study process (ie for scholarship);
• You are ready to make changes in your strategies for learning and solving your problems;
• You want to take advantage of individual solutions designed to equalize your chances on studies;
• You are ready to cooperate to get the effective support, such as the need to report changes in your health condition and special needs as a result of such changes, commitment and patience (ie, it may take time to make the arrangements between the University units);
• You are ready to face with the possibility of experiencing frustration in confrontation with the limitations of possible support or, in some cases, with its refusal;
• You agree that the inseparable aspect of protecting the student’s rights is respecting his right to a standard level of substantive requirements and an adequate assessment of his/her skills (we stick to the principle that the proposed support cannot lead to a reduction in academic requirements);
• You are willing to accept that, regardless of health conditions explaining certain constraints or inability to act in a certain way, it is necessary, in addition to individual techniques and time, to achieve the specific knowledge and skills specified by the course leader in the syllabus or by the authorities of the unit in the so-called ‘Silhouette of a graduate’ of a given faculty/direction;
• Your sense of being a student is at least as strong as the feeling of being a person experiencing certain health consequences, or you are motivated to make changes in that direction (we care to support you in that the identity of the sick person, the disabled or the identity of the patient does not dominate the identity which you have a chance to enjoy as a student);
• You are ready to accept the principle of rationality of adaptations, which is the principle of reaching economical, effective and sufficient solutions to equate your study chances with your reference group, without imposing a disproportionate or excessive burden on the University (this is in accordance with the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities);
• You accept that we respect the student’s autonomy and that we always work on a formal application of changing the form of study or other supportive solutions.