Introduction – A word from Ségolène Binet, Disability Officer
I. Disability at Edhec
II. What is disability?
III. Disability categories
IV. Disability acronyms: understand everything
V. My studies at EDHEC
VI. Campus accessibility
VII. External financial assistance
VIII. Useful contacts
IX.Further information
to explain your rights and the forms of support available to you. It includes all the internal and external information useful for your daily life and your studies, and also
and invalidating health conditions. & disabled
, I will accompany you throughout your time at EDHEC and will be your prime point
I can meet you in full confidentiality as soon as you wish and can serve as a link between your programme and other departments and teams.
Here’s wishing you every success with us at EDHEC!
Your Disability OfficerSégolène Binet
segolene.binet@edhec.edu
+33 (0)3.20.15.44.41
Thanks:
The Student Life team wishes to thank the BDA student arts club warmly for its contribution to this welcome guide and particularly to congratulate Alexia Ye for her superb illustrations featured on these pages. To follow them: bda_edhec
Handicap at EDHEC
-As a member of the conference of prestigious grandes écoles, EDHEC is a
signatory to two Disability Charters Here is an extract from the second one:
“The Charter’s objectives are to:
Improve the Secondary Studies/Higher Studies/Career continuum
Promote student life as a major vector of inclusivity
Ensure access to sport for all disabled students […] Support international mobility for disabled students.”
- The annual Handi Day mobilises all EDHEC students and staff in conjunction with the companies that come to the event to showcase their disability policies and their tools for supporting people with disabilities
-Lastly, the Leadership & Diversity Chair works on the full spectrum of diversity subjects and conducts research and implements actions related to disability. Students are also invited to take part in competitions, such as the Tremplin Handicap These initiatives provide superb opportunities to talk about disability in a manner free of taboos, and to change attitudes towards the subject. At Edhec, we know that difference does not rule out ability.
I. What is disability?
Disability is not a rude word and, in practice, one person in two will be confronted with disability during their lifetime. Consequently, it’s important to ensure we know what we’re talking about! Here are two definitions to help you:
1. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO): “a disabled person is any person whose physical or mental integrity is temporarily or permanently impaired, either congenitally or as a result of age or accident, so that his or her autonomy, ability to attend school or hold a job are compromised”.
WHO definition of disability (3 aspects)
a. Impairment = Loss or alteration of a psychological, physiological or anatomical function or structure
b. Incapacity = Reduced ability to perform an activity normally
c. Social disadvantage = Prejudice resulting from an impairment or incapacity that limits or prohibits the performance of a role considered normal, taking into account age, gender and socio-cultural factors.
2. According to the French law of 11 February 2005 concerning equal rights and opportunities for disabled people, and their participation and citizenship: “For the purposes of the present law, a disability is any limitation of activity or restriction of participation in society experienced by a person in his or her environment, due to a substantial, lasting or definitive impairment of one or more physical, sensory, mental, cognitive or psychological functions, a multiple disability or a disabling health disorder.”
Consequently, not all disabilities are visible. They may be sensorial or cognitive. The invalidity caused by the disability in question must be recognised, whatever the cause, so as to best support the person in question. Recognition of the status of disabled worker must be obtained from the CDAPH committee, on which further details will be provided later on.
II. Disability categories: know everything
As already seen, disability is not necessarily visible and there are several categories of disability.
Let’s see how the categories are defined:
However, there are also temporary disabilities, such as broken wrists, sprains/twists, or rehabilitation after surgery. And then there are also invalidating illnesses like diabetes or asthma, and also multiple sclerosis or rheumatism, for example. All these illnesses may be accompanied by compensatory measures.
Lastly, the treatments employed to deal with these illnesses can entail side effects such as tiredness, depression, anxiety, weight loss or gain, pain, digestive or memory problems. Here again, measures to help you on a daily basis can be examined.
III. Disability acronyms: understand everything
If you suffer from a disability, certain official recognitions exist in France to help you, particularly in respect of your future hunt for an internship, a work-study programme or obviously a job.
MDPH (Maisons Départementales des Personnes Handicapées): These structures exist in each département to welcome, inform, support and advise disabled people and their families and to assign them rights. More generally, they raise public awareness of disability.
CDAPH (Commission des Droits et de l’Autonomie de la Personne Handicapée): These committees operate within the MDPHs and are responsible for granting the status of disabled person. Foreign students can apply for disabled status once they have been present in France for three months.
RQTH (Reconnaissance de la Qualité de Travailleur Handicapé): This administrative decision issued by the MDPH is highly important for your rights as an employee or intern! It grants people with disabilities a status that enables them to receive specific assistance, particularly in relation to their professional situation. Special arrangements can be made concerning their duties within their companies. Do you need a particular type of chair? Writing assistance software? Adjusted hours. All these aspects are possible under the RQTH status. The disability officer can help you make your declaration. Be sure to make contact with her well in advance!
But there are plenty of other acronyms:
• PPS (Projet Personnalisé de Scolarisation): concerns learners with disabilities who require specific accommodation measures.
• AAH (Allocation aux Adultes Handicapés): this is a form of financial assistance that provides additional funds for the over-20s.
• AEEH (Allocation d’Education de l’Enfant Handicapé): this allowance concerns children under 20 and is paid to parents of learners with disabilities.
• ALD (Affection de Longue Durée): this long-term allowance is granted by France’s social security body following submission of an ‘AMELI’ declaration. It concerns chronic illnesses.
And how do I prepare my application?
You can contact a social assistant or simply speak to your disability officer who will explain how and why to apply for RQTH recognition. A social assistant is available at the Catholic University of Lille (La Catho), the institution on which EDHEC depends. In Nice and Paris, you should ask your disability officer for contacts.
For further details: https://www.monparcourshandicap.gouv.fr/
Your contacts in La Catho and your MDPH in Lille, Nice or Paris can be found at the end of this guide.
IV. My studies at EDHEC
1. What is the disability officer’s role?
The disability officer supports you from the start of your time at EDHEC, right through to your graduation.
To do this, she acts as a link between the different teams that follow students
on a day-to-day basis, i.e. programmes, academic affairs, the Career Centre, professors, the IT & technical team and management
Does the university in Seoul have a lift? Can extra time arrangements be put in place in Madrid? For answers to these questions, don’t hesitate to contact the Career Centre or your disability officer directly (contacts at the end of the guide).
Offers made by our partners concerning profiles of students with disabilities are also sent to you regularly. They can also be seen on your Jobteaser platform. Make sure you check whether the company requires RQTH recognition.*
And since it’s not just about classes, the disability officer also ensures your inclusion in the School, i.e. association life, social life and personnel fulfilment.
Lastly, she helps to put special arrangements into place, by advising the teams on how to implement the recommendations made by your doctor.
All this reflects the attention to your needs and the follow-up provided by the disability officer.
2. Admissions/Enrolments: do I need to disclose my disability?
Yes, we recommend that you do so. You’re not obliged to of course, but we can assist you better if you notify us of your situation.
If you want to receive assistance, you must come forward as soon as possible and no later than the start of the semester. As soon as you have enrolled or re-enrolled, you can notify your situation to the Admissions team. In all cases, the disability officer will be aware of it and can thus make contact with you at the start of the year. The disability officer will offer you an appointment to assess your needs, to get to know you and to guide you in your request for special arrangements These special arrangements will then need to be recommended by a doctor. This last step depends on your campus.
In Lille (+Paris): EDHEC belongs to the Catholic University of Lille (La Catho), a set of schools and faculties in the centre of Lille. La Catho has a health centre, the CPSU. You need to go there to see Doctor Cécile Masset. She is the only person across the whole of La Catho authorised to recommend special arrangements for you. Don’t worry, appointments are generally given pretty quickly. You’ll need to go with all the documents you have that testify to your disability, e.g. medical certificate, prescriptions, assessments, MDPH file, etc.
To do this, you must register on the following platform beforehand: https://mah.univ-catholille.fr/
Create an account, then simply request an appointment on +33 (0)3.28.04.02.40. You don’t have to do anything more on your side. The disability officer will receive your request directly from the doctor. Lastly, we organise committee meetings attended by Heads of Programmes and the Academic Affairs team. We will then notify you of the special arrangements that are approved.
In Nice: You need to contact the Hub. They will send you a form that you need to have completed with the special arrangements recommended by a doctor. These special arrangements should preferably be recommended by an authorised disability doctor, bearing in mind that not all general practitioners are authorized doctors: there is a specific list. This list can also be obtained from the Hub or the disability officer
For all campuses, you need to renew this request every year, in order for your needs to be reassessed All the details of your case and disability will remain fully confidential.
If you want to lift this confidentiality, you can tell your disability officer. Your professors can then be informed of your needs so as to best support you!
3. In my hunt for internships/contracts or my international mobility
As for all students, and in relation with the Career Centre and the International Relations (IR) team, students with disabilities can be assisted in their hunt for internships or jobs, but also in their hunt for partner universities.
With your consent, the Career Centre and the IR team can be notified of your disability.
Why it’s important:
In a company or in a foreign university, your needs will be the same, but if you don’t declare your disability, how can you be helped?
You could meet someone in your company who doesn’t understand a need you might have, or be in a university that could help you, but is not aware of your situation.
Declaring your situation will allow your needs to be taken into account and you to receive the best help in your hunt for a work-study contact, a job or an internship, but also with preparation for your period at a partner school or a period of international mobility.
IMPORTANT:
You can find your Career Centre contacts trained in disability at the end of this guide.
And you can find all the disability information on partner schools around the world on My Edhec: Academic Life -> Study Abroad!
4. In practice, what forms of assistance/special arrangements can EDHEC offer?
Like all schools, EDHEC must put all the necessary special arrangements into place. But as stated in France’s law of 2005, requests for such arrangements must be reasonable. So what does that mean in practice?
It means that subject to EDHEC’s human and technical capacities, the School is required to put special arrangements into place, provided that they can be implemented with the agreed and available resources or via tools available to EDHEC.
Here are some examples of special arrangements put into place by EDHEC:
Accessibility to the campus for people with reduced mobility (PRM), residence on campus with a room on the ground floor and adapted for PRMs, adaptation of classes to the
necessary format, extra-time arrangements, possible tutoring, writing assistance software or leniency with writing, computer loans, provision of a fridge to store insulin, etc.
Certain requests are handled on a case-by-case basis. We can therefore examine requests even though they do not appear to be commonplace.
EDHEC +:
Classes in a click: If you’re absent, if you want to round out your note-taking or if you need to revise before exams, most lectures are posted on the Blackboard platform
V. Campus accessibility
EDHEC’s campuses are accessible to all students with disabilities, and new special arrangements are implemented each year.
You’ll therefore find adapted IT facilities, a catering offer accessible to PRMs, a library with an access ramp, lifts, etc. Professors are disability-aware and often use adapted classes.
For more visibility, we recommend you look at the campus plans at the end of the guide.
• Lockers are available for students with reduced mobility or who cannot carry their books. Ask the disability officer at the beginning of the academic year.
• Lift cards are available to you, as well as adapted IT equipment.
• An accessible cafeteria is provided with microwaves installed at a suitable height.
• A computer reserved for PRMs and equipped with Antidote software is available from reception.
• A tracing system is available to guide visually-impaired and blind students around campus.
VI. External financial assistance
Disability can engender additional costs in your studies and day-to-day life. To ensure you have access to financial assistance, here are the various facilities that might be granted to you:
-Bursary on social criteria (Crous bursary): there is no age limit for requesting a bursary on social criteria when you find yourself in a situation of permanent disability.
- Other bursaries may be offered to you throughout the year, so make sure you keep a regular eye out for your e-mails and our My Edhec posts!
Requests for the following forms of financial assistance are to be submitted to your MDPH:
-If you’re under 20: the AEEH allowance (Allocation d’Education de l’Enfant Handicapé)is an allowance for the education of disabled children and is designed to offset expenses linked to your disability. It is paid to parents. In certain cases, it can be rounded out with other allowances. It is a form of monthly assistance worth €130 on average and is paid up to the age of 20, subject to re-assessments every two years at most. It can be combined with PCH (Prestation de Compensation du Handicap) disability compensation benefit.
-If you’re 20 or over: Contact your home MDPH (which depends on the location of your family household) and request PCH benefit. This assistance is paid monthly and is open to all without any cap on income. It is awarded depending on conditions of loss of autonomy, age, income (to determine the amount awarded) and residence.
Lastly, of course EDHEC can also provide help according to your needs.
VII. Useful contacts
-CPSU health centre, part of La Catho
67 Boulevard Vauban, 59000 Lille. +33 (0)3.28.04.02.40
- Unisanté health centre: 24 avenue des Diables Bleus - 06300 NICE (Saint Jean d'Angély campus) - +33 (0)4 89 15 14 61
-MDPH 59 (Lille): 1 Rue de la Toison d'Or, 59650 Villeneuve-d'Ascq – +33 (0)3 59 73 73 73
-MDPH 75 (Paris): 69 Rue de la Victoire, 75009 Paris - +33 (0)1 53 32 39 39
-MDPH 06 (Nice): 27 Boulevard Paul Montel, 06200 Nice - +33 (0) 805 56 05 80
-Lille security: +33 (0)3 20 15 44 22 - Office S2-136
-Nice security: +33 (0)4 93 18 68 69 - Hall 400
-Assembly points:
Lille: on La Plaine
Nice: at the 2 exits: Promenade des Anglais and Boulevard Cassin
YOUR EDHEC DISABILITY CONTACTS:
Disability Officer: Ségolène Binet – +33 (0)3.20.15.44.41
Career Centre:
Maréva Gardin: BBA Lille and Nice
Bérangère Deregnaucourt: MASTER BM - Chloé Lévy: MASTER FE
International relations: Caroline Darrigues, Andrea Butterweck
Hub: Claire Lesnik
VIII. Further information
A: Tools and advice
-The site (in French) to find all answers to disability questions relating to higher education: Mon parcours Handicap
-A website (in French) providing practical information: étudiants.gouv.fr
- "Webaim.org” , available free of charge online: gives the contrast ratio between 2 colours
-Microsoft tools: by theme and disability, Microsoft invites you to discover all the tools available to facilitate your learning: magnifier, text reader, focus assist, etc. Plenty of solutions to discover!
B: Annexes to consult (in French)
-French law of 11 February 2005 for equal rights and opportunities and the participation and citizenship of people with disabilities (the law introduced changes to the education code)
-Decree n° 2005-1587 of 19 December 2005 concerning the MDPH and amending the code pertaining to social action and families.
-Decree n° 2005-1617 of 21 December 2005 concerning examinations and competitive admission procedures in higher education.
Plans of the Lille campuses: following page
