“Connect” is about communication and opportunities, not limitations

“Connect” is about communication and opportunities, not limitations

Tamara Ghazaryan is known to many at RUDN University. She “races,” as she herself says, around the university, participates in a dozen student events and can get to almost every location herself. Only a few locations need the help of her friends or team. But it was not always so.

Two years ago, when first-year student Toma was just starting to get acquainted with the university, she decided to take part in an event. But when she got there, she realized that she couldn’t get to all the other participants in a wheelchair on her own. Then came the thought, should such barriers stand in the way of students with disabilities and special needs when they want to join some activities? On this day, the idea of “Connect” was born.

The inclusive department of Connect is the first student department in Russia that is engaged in inclusive activism. There are 60 people in the team, half of whom are disabled.

Connect’s mission is to create a platform where inclusion and equality of opportunity are key factors of interaction. The students strive to remove barriers in communication between people.

Connect has several areas of work:

 

The Ambassador Sector represents the department in various academic departments and outside the university.

 

The public relations department is responsible for ensuring that information about Connect’s work reaches the audience. Here they write texts, create designs, film interviews and educational videos.

 

In the events sector, students organize various activities. They look for sites, write scripts and gather participants.

 

The cooperation sector is responsible for communication with the university administration, other universities and non-profit organizations.

 

In the student assistance sector, activists monitor buildings on the territory of RUDN University for accessibility for people with disabilities and special needs, process complaints and suggestions, and help find solutions in difficult situations. They do everything to make life more comfortable and the environment more accessible.

 

How does Connect help?

Students come to Connect for various reasons: problems with disabled parking, inconvenient schedules, conflict situations, non-working elevators or lifts, lack of access to any locations. The department team helps resolve all issues. If you also need help, write to the “Connect” group on VKontakte or the head of the Help Sector.

The Connect Ambassador School starts on December 3. If you want to improve your communication skills with people with disabilities and special needs, or become part of a team, register.

Being on Connect is easier than you think!

News
All news
About RUDN
21 Dec 2023
RUDN confirms high quality of educational activities conditions and receives a certificate of the Independent Quality Assessment

In 2023, the Public Council of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science conducted an independent assessment of the quality of conditions for educational activities. More than 300 universities and branches provided information on the quality of education.

About RUDN
16 Aug 2023
RUDN University, PSB, Rosfinmonitoring and the Russian Academy of Sciences are developing the Sodruzhestvo telecommunications platform

Promsvyazbank (PSB) continues to support the industrial development and telecommunications of the international social and educational digital platform “Sodruzhestvo (Commonwealth)”. The corresponding memorandum at the “Army-2023 International Military-Technical Forum” was signed on August 15, by:

About RUDN
04 Aug 2023
Projects on agronomy, ecology, landscape architecture, organization of park spaces… RUDN University and Gorky Park develop cooperation

RUDN University Rector Oleg Yastrebov and Gorky Park Director Elena Lupina signed a cooperation agreement. They discussed the exchange of resources, educational activities and innovative and educational projects in the field of agroecology.