Inclusive Education Of People With Special Abilities: Students With Intellectual Diversity At The University Of Vigo

For some years now, efforts have been made to integrate people with disabilities at all levels of education. The university has not been oblivious to this process and there are already experiences that make it possible to offer adapted training in higher education. The aim of this article is to describe what it has meant for university lecturers to teach a subject focused on entrepreneurship in tourism companies to people with intellectual diversity. This exercise has been possible within the University Programme for Employment and Autonomous Life of the University of Vigo during the academic year 2022-23. University teaching and research staff usually lack or have not developed the necessary skills to teach this type of students, so this exercise requires a very important effort and the continued support of professionals who facilitate this work in the university classrooms. The aim of this analysis is to highlight the value of this type of teaching within the university framework, as well as to point out a set of good practices for successfully overcoming the challenge that this training entails for students and teaching staff. In general terms and considering the good results obtained, both from the direct impressions of the students and the support staff who shared this experience with us, and from the survey we gave to the participants at the end of the teaching activity, it is clear that this type of activity generates important benefits for the students themselves, in academic and non-academic terms, as well as for the teaching staff.