UNO TRAC Delivers Conference in Innsbruck
The University of New Orleans Training, Resource and Assistive-technology Center (TRAC) and the University of Innsbruck partnered last month to deliver an overseas international conference on higher education and disability.
UNO TRAC provides quality services to persons with disabilities, rehabilitation professionals, educators and employers and has built a solid reputation for its innovative training programs and community outreach efforts. The Center is recognized as a valuable resource statewide, nationally and internationally on disability issues. The TRAC building at UNO is a training, evaluation, conference, administrative and short-term residential facility often used as a benchmark site visit for universities and organizations around the world.
Approximately 130 participants from 23 countries attended the 8th International Conference on Higher Education and Disability, which was held July 22-25 in Innsbruck, Austria. UNO TRAC and the University of Innsbruck collaborate to coordinate this international conference every three years.
"The mission of the conference is to increase an international awareness of the needs of students with disabilities in higher education and to remove barriers to an education that allows everyone the opportunity to become independent and productive citizens," said TRAC Director Ken Zangla.
"Coordinators for students with disabilities services from around the world attend the conference to learn, exchange ideas and build supportive networks."
Topics at this year's conference ranged from accommodating specific disabilities, accrediting of disability service professionals, enhancing international exchange opportunities and gaining support of institutional administration to influencing legislation and legal challenges.
The conference -- which was started in 1992 by disability leaders from the UNO-TRAC, the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, the University of Central Lancaster, UK, and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany -- is continued by Zangla, Naomi Moore, assistant director of UNO TRAC, and partners at the University of Innsbruck.
For more detailed information contact TRAC at (504) 280-5700 or visit their website.
