Peer counselling for the transition to university for pupils and students with disabilities

► Funded by. ERASMUS+
► In cooperation with: Johannes Keppler University - Institute for Integrated Studies Linz (AT), Polytechnic University of Milan (ITA), Regional School Centre for Hearing and Vision Education Linz (AT), St. Raphael Bolzano Centre for the Blind (ITA)
► Project duration: 01/2026 - 08/2028
► Project team members: Jacob Habermann, Xiaolong Yue, Leonie Priebe

Visually impaired and blind pupils and students can face multifactorial challenges in the transition from school to university or college and also in everyday student life. Examples of possible challenges include non-accessible learning materials and/or digital learning platforms, stigmatisation and difficulty finding their way around the campus or between university buildings. At the same time, there are few specific support services for visually impaired and blind students or the information about these and about specific contact persons at, for example, counselling centres is not known.

The Bridge2Uni project was developed to address this multitude of challenges and to enable visually impaired and blind students to enter university. As part of this project, a comprehensively designed training programme with accessible training materials for peer mentors is to be created to accompany and support visually impaired and blind students with their individual challenges in everyday university life. Through the transnational cooperation of several different institutions, a digital platform for exchange and support and thus a sustainable network across national borders can be established with the help of extensive expertise. This cooperation also means that the mentoring programme can be offered at more than just one location, allowing as many visually impaired and blind students as possible to benefit from it.