5th Russian Congress for Persons with Disabilities hosted by university

The event took up 3 to 5 November.

During the opening ceremony on 3 November, the participants were addressed by Thomas Kraus, the originator of such congresses, the first of which was held in Berlin in 1998. He noted, “The objective of this congress, taglined Acceptance, is to show the uniqueness and value of every person, to clarify how important it is to accept oneself and the society as it is.”

The congress in Kazan was visited by over 80 contributros from Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.

Liya Ivanova, Director of the Berdam Inclusive Treatment Center, said that she had met Kraus in 2022 and was captivated by the idea of organizing such a conference in Kazan. She thanked Kazan Federal University for the hosting effort.

Chair of the Department of Applied and Experimental Linguistics Yelena Gorobets shared that KFU has long been working with disabled individuals for various purposes, “There is a bachelor’s degree in Russian sign language. Our students take an active part in all events of the Tatarstan Republican Branch of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf. The students are mentored by native speakers of Russian sign language. This program is for normative-hearing students, as they will have to be interpreters. We are interested in training as many people as possible, as now there are seven times fewer Russian sign language interpreters than are needed.”

KFU’s University Clinic and Clinical Research Center are also active in disability research and treatment.

“Our Center for Spech Pathology works with speech impairments of various genesis in people of all ages. There are persons with brain trauma, neurodegenerative diseases, and there are also kids with developmental problems. The University has an in-house kindergarten for children with autism spectrum disorders, We Are Together,” concluded the scientist.