Compensation for disadvantages and tips for blind/visually impaired students

The university offers various counselling centres for disabled students.
Unlike the specialised universities such as Marburg, there is no separate service centre for blind students. However, the counselling centres are free of charge and you can get a counselling appointment at short notice. Counselling can take place by telephone, video chat, email or in person.

Blind students can also apply for funding to explore the university with a mobility coach. Information on this is available from the Association for the Blind in Oldenburg.
Unfortunately, there is no guidance system for the blind at the university except in the area of the bus stops.

The university library offers special equipment for blind and visually impaired users. This includes a suitably equipped library computer with Braille display and speech output software as well as a reading and book scanner that can also save the scanned pages as a speech file.

Detailed information can be found on the following pages:

• Information from the Studierendenwerk
• Barrier-free working in the BIS

In addition to the normal guided tours for library users, it is certainly also possible for the library to organise a personal tour with regard to visual impairment. Books can be borrowed in various forms via interlibrary loan, e.g. also so-called picked-up works and audio books if these are not available in the local library. The library will advise you on this.

As the University of Oldenburg is not a university specialising in the subject of visual impairment and only a few blind and visually impaired people study here, lobbying is often necessary on the part of those affected. It is also not possible to apply to the university for compensation for disadvantages in the sense that all content must be passed on in a form that can be read by blind people. It is therefore necessary to contact the individual lecturers and specify your own requirements. Most lecturers are prepared to make the lecture notes and PowerPoint presentation available and have no objection to you photographing projected content with a special camera, for example. Teachers often have more difficulties if you want to record the lecture itself.

In any case, it is advisable for students to apply for assistance. This could then, for example, take notes for them in the lecture, allowing the students to concentrate fully on what they are hearing.

When dealing with graphics etc. in presentations, it will be necessary to ask the individual lecturers directly to describe verbally everything they show in their presentations. It is quite possible that they will have to be reminded of this at first, which requires a certain amount of self-confidence.

After all, this is a good way for students to learn to actively and confidently advocate for their needs.

If lecturers refuse to provide support, students can also seek help from the counselling centres and in particular from the university's disability officer. This person can then speak to the lecturers concerned on an equal footing.

If students require technical aids or a great deal of personal support, they should obtain personal assistance or study assistants and apply for the technical aids. Good information on this can be found at Deutsches Studierendenwerk.