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17 June 2021 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa | Photo Supplied
CUADS: Recognised for its efforts in human reconciliation within higher education spaces by creating and providing opportunities for students with disabilities to thrive academically.

In commemoration of Youth Month 2021, the South African government zooms in to uncover opportunities available to the South African youth, drawing more young people into the economy, and initiating various youth development and empowerment initiatives to support young people.

In line with this, the University of the Free State (UFS) Centre for Universal Access and Disability Support (CUADS) has established and implemented a number of technological and academic support measures to humanise the experiences of students with disabilities at the UFS, encouraging universal access and academic success for all students.  The ultimate aim is to have young people with disabilities employed in order to participate in the economy of South Africa.

CUADS continues the mission established when the department first opened: to become a higher-education institution support service recognised for its efforts in human reconciliation by creating and providing opportunities for students with disabilities to ultimately achieve academically, and to have an institutional culture of embracing and welcoming persons with disabilities on all three campuses of the UFS.

According to Martie Miranda, Assistant Director of CUADS and chair of the Higher and Further Education Disability Services Association, CUADS is monumental in its ability to accommodate the specific needs of students with sensory, physical, and learning disabilities, and has inspired other South African universities to enhance the qualities of their services by adapting their strategic visions to that of CUADS, which aims to operationalise and cater for the core needs of students through the UFS Integrated Transformation Plan (ITP), founded on the Strategic Policy Framework on Disability for the post-education and training sector. 

The UFS ITP assists in addressing physical barriers (accessibility to and within buildings, e.g., ramps, doorways, services, and information), attitudinal barriers (communication access, awareness and advocacy, integrated programmes to mix and learn between peers), and structural barriers (policies, flexible service delivery, and employment practices).

CUADS, in line with the UFS Division of Student Affairs (DSA), prioritises student success and plans to maintain continuous engagement with students (on an individual basis, but also per disability category) to continue the support needed to ensure student success.


News Archive

Water Awareness Day on campus
2013-03-19

 

The UFS is hosting a Water Awareness Day at the Bloemfontein Campus to observe National Water Week.
Photo: Renè-Jean van der Berg
19 March 2013

With water being considered as a threatened resource in the world, the Health and Wellness Centre and the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS), in collaboration with Provincial Government and private stakeholders, hosted a Water Extravaganza at the Bloemfontein Campus.

The UFS has a Strategic Academic Cluster: Water management in water-scarce areas, which has a number of participating academics and postgraduate students who are all looking to combat the problems associated with water, the threatened resource, in South Africa.

Prof Maitland Seaman, Director of the cluster for Water management in water-scarce areas, says South Africans should remember that, when and where there is water, you only have temporary use of it.

He also warns that water needs to work, otherwise it will become useless.

“If water is to work, we must conserve the natural ecosystems that purify it and make it available for further use; we must use it judiciously and optimally (for agriculture, industry and domestic use); and we should not pollute our water sources.”

Prof Seaman will deliver a presentation on the Modder River as the life blood of Bloemfontein at the Water Extravaganza. Other presentations will be on fracking, water-related disasters and the water situation in Mangaung. 

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