The CEU Support for Students with Disabilities
Program was created to promote the integration of these students in CEU
Universities and to help them with their university studies and subsequent
employment. Within the framework of this program CEU San Pablo University has
organised a meeting with Javier García Pajares, the first deaf-blind Erasmus
student in Europe, who told his story sharing personal and professional
achievements.
This Program is based on a principle of
normalisation, whereby people have equal opportunities, with access to the same places, environments,
goods and services that are at everyone’s disposal, as well as equal access to
all the resources the University offers.
García Pajares is a specialist in Data Protection in
the Legal Department at ILUNION. He cannot see or hear, but thanks to the
facilities provided by ILUNION he has fulfilled his dream of working
independently. “At ILUNION they saw an
opportunity to make this a challenge and an example to everyone. I wanted to
work independently in the future and thanks to them and working with a braille
computer, I have achieved it. Doors shouldn’t be closed because of a
disability”, he stated.
At the age of 15, he had to face up to the loss of
his hearing and vision and from then on his life has been a journey of
self-improvement, making him the person he is today. As a teenager he suffered
social isolation and bullying which plunged him into depression, so he
contacted ONCE. He discovered rock-climbing and it motivated him to rethink his
future: “I learnt that in life I could
get as far as I wanted to. Anything can be achieved if you put in the effort.
We have to follow our passion.”
This young man communicates through sign language and
braille. This is thanks to the same tenacity and effort that led him to study a
double degree in Law and Business Administration and Management at the
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and to overcome sports challenges in climbing.
Work
and sport go hand in hand
García Pajares currently combines his work at ILUNION
and several social projects with sport. He is the first deaf-blind person to
reach the top of the Mulhacén mountain and has reached the Almanzor and the
seven summits of the Alps above 4000 metres, alongside his partners for the
project ‘A world with meaning’. “The
mountain is a way of life, it sets you a goal, and you enjoy the entire journey
and experience. I experienced my colleagues’ emotions as they described the
surroundings to me”, he explained.
Throughout his personal and professional career, he
has achieved several accomplishments and received numerous awards. As a result
of his activism, the European Commission adopted a code of conduct against the
discrimination of disabled passengers on flights.
The managing director of ILUNION, Alejandro Oñoro
Medrano also participated in this encounter and shared ILUNION’s mission. This
was born 8 years ago as a new socially and economically stable model, which
helped transform the group’s brands. During his speech he stressed that “our objective is to build a better world in
which everyone is included. Transforming yourself is not an option, it is an
obligation in which excellence must be the path towards a more sustainable
world, better than the one we live in now”.
He also expressed that people are at the centre of
what they do, “We are a group of people
for people”. ILUNION currently employs 15.000 people with disabilities. He
stated that “Our leadership is based on
respect, empathy, humility and professionalism; we want to build a different
way of doing business, creating quality employment for these people”.
To conclude, Oñoro highlighted that they want to be
an example to other businesses and to become the best place for people to work.
“We want to create employment for people
who are at risk of exclusion, immigrants, victims of gender-based violence,
etc. We want to be a positive point of reference in the business world with strategic
alliances such as the one we have with CEU: to value the ability of those with
disabilities”.
The Vice-Rector for Students and University Life,
Ángel Bartolomé, opened the event and emphasised CEU's involvement with all
students, so that they can study and experience university life according to
their needs, helping those who need it most. "We put up our own barriers and we have to overcome them," he
stated.
The event was closed by the advisor to the managing
director for Employability and Businesses, Rodrigo Martín Velayos. He
underlined the University's responsibility towards and awareness of these
issues and concluded: "We are not
responsible for the cards we are given, but we are responsible for how we play
with them".
Agreement
with ILUNION
This event is part of the recent agreement signed
between CEU Universities and the ILUNION Group, which comprises a general
framework of collaboration to promote equal opportunities so that people with
disabilities have access to education and comprehensive training, in addition
to improving professional inclusion, accessibility and socially responsible
purchasing.