Able to study? Reasonable accommodation at flemish universities
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/13582291231162214 |
| Author | Lotte Lammens,Marie Spinoy,Kurt Willems |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
International Journal of
Discrimination and the Law
2023, Vol. 23(1-2) 60–79
© The Author(s) 2023
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DOI: 10.1177/13582291231162214
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Able to study? Reasonable
accommodation at flemish
universities
Lotte Lammens
1
, Marie Spinoy
2
and Kurt Willems
2
Abstract
Across Flemish universities, students with disabilities continue to make up a minority of the
student population. Yet Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with
nation on the basis of disability in the implementation of this right. These rights indubitably also
apply in a setting of postsecondary education, as is made unequivocally clear by the Article’s
requirement of an inclusive education system ‘at all levels’and its paragraph 5. Equal access to
higher education for persons with disabilities is crucial given its role as a portal to the
enjoyment of other human rights. In our contribution we consider how one crucial aspect of
this right is implemented, i.e. the right to reasonable accommodations. Based on university
regulations and interviews with a number of people involved in the practical implementation
of reasonable accommodations, we assess whether the law and practice at Flemish uni-
versities are in conformity with the CRPD standards. While we found that considerable
attention is paid to the role of the environment and the context of individual students, we also
identified a number of ‘disability pitfalls’in the current Flemish practice that might also be
present in other jurisdictions.
Keywords
special issue 2023, disability, reasonable accommodations, inclusive education, UN
1
KU Leuven Institute for Social Law, Leuven, Belgium
2
Leuven Centre for Public Law, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Corresponding author:
Marie Spinoy, Leuven Centre for Public Law, Tiensestraat 41, KU Leuven, Leuven 3000, Belgium.
Email: marie.spinoy@kuleuven.be
Across Flemish universities, students with disabilities continue to make up a minority of
the student population.
1
Yet Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons
discrimination on the basis of disability in the implementation of this right. These rights
indubitably also apply in a setting of postsecondary education, as is made unequivocally
clear by the Article’s requirement of an inclusive education system ‘at all levels’and its
paragraph 5. Equal access to higher education for persons with disabilities is crucial given
its role as a portal to the enjoyment of other human rights. Degrees obtained in higher
education generally increase access to the labour market and can open the path to a
number of specific careers.
2
Access to higher education is therefore essential in combating
poverty amongst and increasing social participation for people with disabilities.
3
As is the
case with compulsory education, the right to (inclusive and non-discriminatory) higher
education can work as a ‘multiplier right’, facilitating and increasing the access to other
human rights and empowering people’s development and participation within a society.
4
Its explicit inclusion in Article 24 is thus not surprising.
Flemish case law and legal scholarship on inclusive education primarily focus on
(compulsory) primary and secondary education.
5
With two notable exceptions,
6
the legal
discussion concerns compulsory education, by and large neglecting the same questions in
the postsecondary landscape.
7
Our aim is to contribute to remedying this knowledge gap,
honing in on a specific yet indispensable aspect of the right to higher education without
disability-based discrimination, i.e. the right to reasonable accommodation for students
with disabilities. We consider the relevant Flemish legal framework and its im-
plementation in practice and assess their conformity with the inter- and supranational
requirements. Our analysis concerns Flanders rather than Belgium as education is a
competence for the Communities in the federal Belgian state and the legislative and
regulatory framework thus differs outside the Flemish Community.
8
For reasons of
feasibility, we consider a specific type of institution for higher education, i.e. the uni-
versity. Spanning the Flemish universities allows us to draw conclusions that hold across
our jurisdiction and, given the international nature of the right concerned, will likely be of
relevance to other jurisdictions facing similar issues.
9
Our first section concisely reiterates the standards for inclusive higher education that
can be derived from the CRPD. These are all ratified by Belgium and therefore binding on
Flanders.
10
Accordingly, they will constitute the yardsticks for the analysis of reasonable
accommodation in the Flemish legislation and the universities’procedure in our second
section. For this analysis, we first provide an overview of the relevant Flemish legal
framework. Next we consider the procedures in place for reasonable accommodation at
the University of Antwerp, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Ghent University, the Hasselt
University and KU Leuven.
11
Our research started from the application procedures for
accommodation, as found in the institutions’regulations. We complement this by a ‘law-
in-action’approach, adding information obtained from interviews with staff mem bers
implementing these policies in the aforementioned universities, with a staff member from
the Belgian Equality body Unia (responsible for monitoring the implementation of the
CRPD in Belgium) and from the Support Centre for Inclusive Higher Education
(‘Steunpunt Inclusief Hoger Onderwijs’/‘SIHO’). We discuss our findings for each step in
Lammens et al. 61
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