One week Global Village festival: Saxion 'celebrates' diversity, inclusion and internationalization
In front of around 20 people, Anka Mulder (president of the Saxion board) kicked off the Global Village festival on Monday late afternoon. For a week the focus will be on diversity, inclusion and internationalization. She introduced speaker Rick Brink, who has a visible physical disability, and advocates for people with disabilities. "It's not just about how you deal with people with disabilities inside the school, but especially outside," he said.
Brink, who is bound to a wheelchair and has ‘brittle bones’ that prevent him from growing normally, was elected "Minister of Disability Affairs" in a 2019 KRO-NCRV program. He made a case for inclusiveness. He drew on his own experience: his parents organized for him to attend normal primary school, and in doing so, not only did he himself get confirmation that he is more than his disability, but also the other children around him soon saw him as 'normal'.
The Global Village festival
Saxion 'celebrates' diversity, inclusion and internationalization for a week, with a range of workshops and lectures in Deventer and Enschede. The festival is the successor to International Week, says project leader Justin Schoot. It is being held in this form for the first time, and students provided input into the festival's design. On Monday, there were 170 applications, about half of which were from students. "Some more could be added to that," Schoot said. "But it is the first time we are organising this." Part of the festival is the program on 25 years of cooperation with Vietnam, which starts at 2pm this afternoon.
Brink is not his disability, but he has a disability, is his contention. And society, he argues, must take people with disabilities into account. He made that tangible by referring to the corona measures, when public transport used stickers to indicate where you could sit. Brink e-mailed the NS boss: how are you supposed to do that if you are blind? Well, that was not considered, says Brink. A solution was immediately worked on.
When asked what Saxion can do concretely for people with (physical) disabilities, Brink was clear: of course you have to ensure good accessibility, for example. "But inclusiveness is more than that," he said. "When I was at Windesheim, I really enjoyed learning and classes. But after that, fellow students went into town, to café het Paard. At those times, I went home alone." True inclusiveness, that goes beyond within the walls of the institution, he argued.
For that, he said, two things are needed: talk to each other, and not just about other people. "Involve different groups. And then make an action programme, with clear small goals. "At Saxion, for example, this can be done with a student council, he said. Make those responsible, so that the topic stays on the agenda.
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