SOCIAL SUPPORT FOR DISABLED STUDENTS IN A TECHNICAL INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION AS A THEME FOR GROUP PROJECT EDUCATION

Today the issue of overcoming social isolation of the disabled and including them into everyday life of the community is gaining greater significance. One of the main factors in solving this problem is accessibility of education, and specifically higher professional education. Many Western countries successfully realize the UN program "Education for everyone", with the main directions being inclusive education, access on the basis of equal opportunity to high quality education and full development of human potential. This approach expands the possibilities to adapt the disabled to everyday life of the community from childhood to their employment. The latest works of Russian scientists also pay great attention to the idea of inclusive education, the way to implement it and challenges to overcome in Russian conditions. This issue is related to the growth of spiritual development level of the whole society, which depends on the socially useful activity of the population, institutions and social initiatives. Particularly, in the university environment, social adaptation of the disabled students is highly facilitated by the activity of the students in academic groups. The article reviews such kind of experience at a technical university. In 2006, within the innovative educational program under the national project "Education" and in connection with the introduction of the group project learning technique as students scientific and research activity, the Department of History and Social Work in TUCSR started a project "Social adaptation support for the handicapped students in the institution of higher education". The aim of the project is to develop social support measures for this category of students. The project was planned for two years. Four third - year students of the Humanitarian faculty participated in the project. The participation in the project was their deliberate decision. During the project the students studied logical-structural projecting technique. The target group of the project was 27 handicapped students from different faculties of TUSUR. During the project the survey was held which showed that erant attitude towards the handicapped and readiness to accept them in the community is still a burning issue among the students. The participants of the project published their articles in the large-circulation newspaper "Radioelectronic", took part in the competition of social advertisement, held theme exhibitions and did a course on the original program by a psychologist M.P. Shulmin "7 skills for highly effective people". The students also organized psychological and pedagogical trainings, both with target groups of the handicapped and their academic groups. The activity under project facilitated the development of professional competence of the future social workers, communication and teamwork skills.