One week Global Village festival: Saxion 'celebrates' diversity, inclusion and internationalization

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'.

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.