More and more students are turning to the URV’s Diversity Support Office, which seeks to ensure equal opportunities by offering support and improving accessibility in all areas.

Almost 2% of URV students have a certified degree of disability, although only a small proportion ask for assistance in the form of adaptations. However, there is also a significant number of students with uncertified diagnoses. The restructuring of the Diversity area for the 2024-25 academic year and the fact that more and more students are aware of it explain why the number of people it serves rose from 70 in 2023-24 to 99 in 2024-25 and to 151 from September to April of the current 2025-26 academic year, representing a 50% increase in less than a year.

Belén Roda, head of this area at the Office for Equality and Social Engagement, explains that the change is attributable precisely to the reorganisation of the service and the awareness-raising actions it carries out to reach the entire community, such as the programme they have prepared for May, the European Month of Diversities, with activities on different campuses and which can be consulted in the events calendar.

Fittingly, the Diversity Support Service attends a wide range of people with very different profiles, although the majority have neurodevelopmental conditions (23.84% dyslexia; 20.53% attention deficit disorder; and 15.23% autism spectrum disorder). However, in recent years, and especially this academic year, it has supported an increasing percentage of people with mental health issues (up from 10.10% in 2024-25 to 17.88% in 2025-26).

Needs can also be diverse and, when they require adaptations, may require changes to facilities and infrastructure, a reduction in the minimum number of credits a student must register for, or reasonable adjustments to aspects of degree course, such as its teaching methodologies or forms of assessment.

The restructuring of the Diversity area therefore marks a step up in the provision of support for students with diverse needs. In addition to ensuring their rights, the area helps to build a more humane university that recognises the plurality of its members.

This cross-cutting approach also needs to permeate all university policies, as stipulated in the Organic Law of the University System (LOSU), which requires all universities to have specific services to support students with disabilities and to implement active inclusion and anti-discrimination policies, from the design of degree programmes to academic, psychological and professional support services.

Curricular adjustments

The practical application of the measures varies according to need, from offering extra time for exams and allowing oral assessments, to adapting deadlines or providing support for organising tasks.

Eva Morcelle, a third-year Medicine student who hopes to become a paediatrician, has been diagnosed with ADHD. She scored a 13 in the selectivity exams, a testament to her effort and perseverance. “I’m very hyperactive and my mind is racing. I find it hard to concentrate. The medication makes me feel fine, but it’s not enough to enable me to get on with my studies,” she explains. She finds it difficult to read and so prepares her own adapted notes.

“In terms of adaptations, I get an extra 25 minutes in exams and texts should be presented to me in a larger font and with greater line spacing, although the lecturers don’t always remember the latter.” Eva believes that one measure that would help a great deal would be for the teaching staff to share the notes they use in class in PDF format or as presentations. She also highlights that although the professors have known about her needs since the start of the term, she feels that more people need to be aware.

And this is the work the Diversity area is focusing on. In fact, rather than focusing efforts on making individualised adjustments based on a student’s diagnosis, universities like the URV use the principles of Universal Design for Learning. In other words, the idea is to design a curriculum that is accessible to all students, without learning barriers, so that subsequent individual adaptations are not necessary.

For this reason, this academic year, the Diversity Area and the Institute of Educational Sciences at URV have begun working together to train teaching staff and will soon launch a virtual self-study course on Universal Design for Learning and Inclusivity in the classroom.

In fact, at URV there is already a team of professors who are specialists in inclusive education, such as Núria Voltas, Paula Morales and Tània Molero, who, with the support of the Digital Accessibility area of the Educational Resources Service, deliver specific training about students with dyslexia, ADHD and ASD to the teaching staff of the Faculty of Education and Psychology.

The mediation of technology

For education to be accessible to everyone, access to technology is sometimes required, as is the case for Jade Campos, who has profound bilateral hearing loss (recognised as a 46% disability) and is studying for a degree in Nursing. Thanks to cochlear implants, she can follow lectures, as the lecturers wear a microphone and the implants synchronise via Bluetooth.

However, when she reached her second year, she faced a major barrier to participating in practical classes when she realised she could not use the stethoscope, a fundamental tool for auscultation and an essential part of day-to-day nursing.

“I was stunned. I didn’t expect it, I hadn’t anticipated it. It wasn’t working and I couldn’t hear anything,” she explains. She spoke to the degree coordinator and they referred the matter to the Digital Accessibility Unit of the Educational Resources Service, which, in coordination with the Diversity Support Office, provided her with a digital stethoscope.

This device converts sounds into electronic signals that can be analysed and shared via a mobile app, which the student can listen to directly through her implants. “Trying the stethoscope for the first time was exciting. I was able to catch up and get to the same level as my classmates,” she said.

No physical barriers

The URV is working to eliminate access barriers to its facilities. Among the students who have such barriers is Verónica Gutiérrez, a student on the Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work who is completely blind and who clearly recalls what it was like when she started at the University: “On the first day I was very frightened. I had been to the URV’s Catalunya Campus with someone several times before to familiarise myself with the space, but it’s very large and I lacked landmarks to find my way around. The issue went on for the first year.” But thanks to meetings with the degree coordinator and support from the Diversity Office, tactile paving strips were installed on campus to help with orientation.

“It’s an important step forward; the Diversity department does good work, they’re very attentive. But from my perspective, things are moving slowly, too slowly,” she explains.

Improvements are being made gradually: wheelchair access on all campuses, the installation of ramps in facilities such as the I-Center, new opening systems, and the acquisition of equipment such as several height-adjustable tables, which are particularly useful for people with reduced mobility.

One of the users is Hanane Riyani, a psychologist and student on the Master’s Degree in General Health Psychology: “having this table isn’t just a matter of convenience, it’s a real issue of accessibility because it allows me to study independently, adapt the space to my needs and, above all, be on an equal footing with the other students. Because if the environment is adapted, disability ceases to be a barrier, and this not only improves my academic performance, but also my feeling of belonging in this space.”

The Research and Learning Services Centre (CRAI) was the first service at the University to implement improvements that would facilitate access to knowledge for everyone, regardless of whether they had specific needs. Montse Olivé, Head of the User Services Management section, explains that up to 2018 they used to deal with user requests as they came in, but they realised this was not enough and so they created a working group to provide a consistent and unified response across the eight campus CRAIs.

“At first, we focused mainly on ensuring physical access to the CRAI, but it was necessary for everyone to be able to access all of our documentary resources and the services.” Another turning point came when a group of students from the Inserlab programme worked at the CRAI and realised that a further step was needed regarding cognitive accessibility. To this end, they replaced signage and changed the documents describing procedures and instructions to be more visual, among other measures. All the resources are collected in the guide to the inclusive CRAI and, as set out in the CRAI’s 2024-27 Strategic Plan, they take into account the principles of equality, inclusion and respect for diversity in everything they do.

No digital barriers

However, accessibility is not complete if the documentation and digital services are not accessible too. “We use digital resources all the time”, points out Tàrek Lutfi, Head of Digital Accessibility at the Educational Resources Service, “so, just as it doesn’t seem strange to facilitate access to a building with a ramp, neither should it seems strange to facilitate digital access with other means.”

Specifically, these means refer to the whole set of design and development practices that make websites, applications and digital content usable and understandable for everyone; for example, using structured headings, legible typography with a sufficiently large font size, and good contrast or subtitles on audiovisual material.

Verónica Gutiérrez is one of the people who uses immersive reading tools, which is why the software must be compatible. For example, the registration programme is highlighted as an area for improvement: “Registration is only open for a limited time, but the online programme is not adapted to the applications used by blind people”. There is also a need for teaching staff to create accessible digital activities and resources on the Virtual Campus, an environment that is becoming increasingly accessible.

Therefore, little by little, the actions needed to reverse discrimination are gradually being implemented, and the Digital Accessibility department serves as a point of reference and support not only for students but also for teaching staff and management personnel. Thus, for teachers and managers, it offers training and improvements in virtual classroom resources, whereas for students, it offers support in the use of digital tools, awareness-raising sessions, also in specific subjects, and the acquisition of assistive technologies and products. This is the case with the stethoscope used by Jade Campos, and the ergonomic mouses and computers with software for people with diverse needs.

“There is always work to be done and you are never completely inclusive,” points out Montse Olivé. And that is because “an inclusive university is one that thinks about diversity from the outset, not one that adapts to it afterwards”, says Hanane Riyani, “because inclusion is not an add-on, but the foundation for all people to be part of the university community.”